Prisoners of Time

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Prisoners of Time was the story made by IDW to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary.

Publisher's summary

Issue 1

November 23, 1963: A day that changed the world forever. That day saw the broadcast debut of Doctor Who, which was to become the longest-running science-fiction series on television. And now 50 years later, we pay tribute to one of the greatest pop-culture heroes of all time with this special series, which tells an epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the intrepid traveller through time and space known simply as... the Doctor.

Issue 2

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary continues! Oh my giddy aunt! It’s time to break out the recorders, as the Second Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor!

Issue 3

Mar 20, 2013 Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! "Now listen to me!" It's time to fire up Bessie, as the Third Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor!

Issue 4

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! Put on your scarves and munch on some jelly babies, as the fan-favourite Fourth Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor!

Issue 5

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary continues! Brave heart, Whovians, for the Fifth Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor!

Issue 6

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! Mmm, I wonder... aha! It is the Sixth Doctor who takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor! As Peri and Frobisher attempt to free the Doctor from an asylum, not one, but two villains are revealed!

Issue 7

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! The Seventh Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor! In a 19th-century Scottish castle, a live-in nurse's concerns about the elderly couple in her care are allayed by a visiting doctor and his curiously modern female companion.

Issue 8

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary continues! The Eighth Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor! After helping him defeat the Master, the Doctor attempts to convince Grace Holloway to join him on his travels, in this untold tale!

Issue 9

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! The Ninth Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor, with fan-favorite companion Rose Tyler in tow! Plus: Who has been kidnapping the Doctor's companions? The Doctor's mysterious enemy revealed!

Plot

Issue 1

A cloaked figure studies images of the Doctor in solitude. He reflects on the legacy of the Doctor, as well as what he is capable of. He then notes that the Doctor has always had friends, and that he will have to change that...

The TARDIS arrives at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, England in the year 1868. The First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki step out. The group has arrived to meet Thomas Huxley, a friend of the Doctor's and evolution supporter. After attending his lecture, they meet with Thomas. Huxley is happy to see the group, but is soon called away. Thomas explains that he and some of his pupils must go searching the London Underground for a group of missing students. The Doctor convinces him to let them come along.

The group encounters the Zarbi.

Some time later, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki arrive at the entrance to the London Undergrounds to help look for the students. They fins a fresh trail of footprints leading to a mysterious passage, covered in webs. Vicki begins suffering from headaches, something which last happened to her on Vortis. Barbara reminds her that they are far away from Vortis and that there can't be a connection. Suddenly, the group finds themselves surrounded by Zarbi.

The group tries to fight them off, but the Doctor suggests against it, saying that going with them is the only way to find the missing students. Ian, Huxley, and the Doctor are split away from the rest of the group, who are given gold mind-control bracelets to wear. At the Doctor's suggestion, Ian and Huxley fight off the Zarbi and the trio escape.

After searching the tunnels, the Doctor finds the Animus, who has reformed itself on Earth to get revenge on the Doctor. The Animus plans to take over Earth with an army of Zarbi drones, but before he can enact his plan he is hit by a train piloted by Ian.

The Animus is hit by a train.

The Doctor uses a portal to send the Zarbi home. After some debate, the Doctor convinces Huxley to keep quiet about what he has seen. Huxley leaves, noting that he hates leaving the Doctor alone. The Doctor notes that the Animus could not have reformed on its own, and that the portal used to bring it here was beyond its technological abilities. The Doctor suggests further investigation to his companions, but is shocked to find them missing.

Issue 2

The Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot land the TARDIS in a shop filled with hundreds of police boxes. They learn from a salesman that they are in a Police Box section of the universal mega-mall, the Frenko Bazaar, where one could buy "just about anything."

the White Robots

There, Jamie is captured by a group of Voraxx traders, who are working with White Robots, who want to sell him on the black market as a slave. Using a T-Mat, the Doctor and Zoe teleport onto the slave ship and rescue Jamie, as well as free all of the prisoners including the Ice Warrior Araxus. As the trio teleported back to the shop, the Doctor is shocked to find his companions missing, having been captured by The Cloaked figure, via the T-Mat.

Issue 3

Liz Shaw recalls the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith back to Earth, explaining that the Brigadier has been acting strange; he is sending UNIT men all around the world in random positions and acting surprisingly violent. The Doctor has soldiers hold him down, and under close inspection discovers he has been taken over by a Remoraxian. He builds a ray that frees the Brigadier from the creature's control and the Brigadier explains what happened.

He explains that he was infected at a UNIT Nautical Research Facility on the coast, and explains that the Remoraxians have taken it over. Not only have the creatures begun taking over people, they have also began to change the weather.

The Doctor uses a device to eject the Ramoraxian parasite. He travels in Bessie and later the Whomobile to reach the UNIT sea base. The Ramoraxian Prime wants to flood the world to make it suitable for his species. Richard Nixon sends bombers to destroy England and the Ramoraxians. The Brigadier and the Doctor convince the Ramoraxians that the people from Earth are cray and they head off in their ship. The hooded figure appears and uses a Vortex manipulator to steal away Sarah Jane, Liz, and the Brigadier.

Issue 4

The story starts with Leela, wearing the Doctor’s hat and working over a math problem presented by K9. The Doctor promises to take Leela a banquet on the farmworld Agratis. He also mentions the Jewel of Fawton that has brought tourism to the world. They exit the Tardis to find the world covered by armoured vehicles and rockets. The Doctor rushes them back to the Tardis, gets his long scarf caught, and slams the Tardis door before the Judoon close on them.

K9 reports that he has found transmissions that indicate that the Judoon were called in because the Jewel of Fawton was stolen. The Doctor travels back to the planet to see his friend Mason Vox and his daughter Celia. They all travel to the museum where they see Curator Frez, a bald alien whose face looks like the Twilight Zone episode where the masks distort the faces of their wearers. Celia reveals to her father that her boyfriend, Roget, had stolen the jewel. The Judoon will rip apart the planet, but the Doctor hopes to find Roget, the jewel, and restore it to its proper place. The Doctor sends Leela and K-9 to distract the Judoon while the others go after the jewel. They travel to wind carved caves that resemble something out of 127 Hours’ Canyonlands National Park. Mason Vox and Curator Frez explain that the world was harsh until they found the jewel and terraformed the planet. They enter some crystalline caverns and Mason falls. Switch to topside at the city, where Leela leaps to the top of one of the armoured vehicles. She pops into the hatch and the next moment, the Judoon is seen hurtling out of the door.

Leela picks up two explosive bandoliers and has K-9 pilot the vehicle as she kicks down a Judoon riding a hover bike. Then, she passes under the legs of a Judoon scout walker and uses the explosives to destroy its legs. Back in the cave, the Doctor uses his long scarf so Mason can pull himself up. They find the young Roget, he is busy placing the jewel back where it was found, with Curator Frez not wanting him to activate it Total Recall style. Crystalline insect-like creatures start to move. Roget explains that when their crystal was removed, they went into a hibernation state. The Doctor explains that now that the jewel is returned to its rightful rulers that the Judoon will withdraw. Leela is sitting at a banquet table with three Judoon. The Doctor offers them a jelly baby.

The hooded figure watches the Doctor through binoculars and uses the Vortex Manipulator to appear at the banquet. He takes away K-9 and Leela before the Doctor’s startled eyes.

Characters

Issue 1

Issue 2

Issue 3

Issue 4

Issue 5

Issue 6

References

Thomas Huxley is a famous professor and supported the evolution theory created by Charles Darwin.
The Second Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie arrive at Frenko Bazaar, a famous place where one can buy and sell "just about anything".
The Frenko Bazaar has a section dedicated entirely to Police boxes, where the TARDIS lands.
The hat store in the Frenko Bazaar has multiple hats in the front, including a Fez and a Stetson.
Agratis is a planet famous for its rich bounties.

Notes

Issue one is 26 pages total.
Although issue one was scheduled to be released on 30 January 2013, it was released a day in advance by iTunes.

Continuity

The cloaked figure closely resembles the decaying version of the Master. He wears a black cloak with a hood, his hands are brown and swollen, and wears what appears to be a sash, all characteristics of the Master, specifically in TV: The Deadly Assassin.
The cloaked figure studies images of the Doctor and his companions, including images of Rose Tyler, Leela, Romana I, the Brigadier, Jo Grant (including the infamous nude of Katy Manning with a Dalek), Martha Jones, Donna Noble, K9, Sarah Jane Smith, Vicki Pallister, Captain Jack Harkness, Romana II, Charley Pollard, Adric, Ace, Dodo Chaplet, Rory Williams, Amy Williams, Mickey Smith, Liz Shaw, Frobisher, Adam Mitchell, and Ian Chesterton, among others.
The cloaked figure studies an image of the Seventh Doctor in a hospital whilst discussing the Doctor's ability to regenerate. (TV: Doctor Who)
The cloaked figure studies images of the Fourth Doctor with Sarah Jane Smith driving away from the TARDIS while in Hollywood; the Roman stone carving of the Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble, and the TARDIS from TV: The Fires of Pompeii; and the TARDIS parked in Cardiff.
The cloaked figure describes the First Doctor as "a teacher," the Ninth Doctor as "a soldier," the Sixth Doctor as "a madman," and the Tenth Doctor as "the Oncoming Storm." (TV: Parting of the Ways, et. al)
Issue one served as a sequel to TV: The Web Planet, with the reintroduction of the Zarbi and the Animus.
Jamie takes note of the size of an item, in this case one of the police boxes on Frenko Bazaar. (TV: The Seeds of Death, The Two Doctors)
The White Robots appear outside of the Land of Fiction. (TV: The Mind Robber)
Jamie can very easily manoeuvre through ventilation. (TV: The Two Doctors)
Zoe mentions T-Mat. (TV: The Seeds of Death)
In issue two, Jamie and Zoe wear the same outfits they wore in TV: The Krotons and COMIC: Land of the Blind, the latter of which was also drawn by Lee Sullivan.
Several of the aliens seen at the Frenko Bazaar are from other stories.
- In a crowd shot, a Voord (TV: The Keys of Marinus), two Raxacoricofallapatorians (TV: Aliens of London/World War Three) and a Sontaran (TV: The Time Warrior)
- In one panel, a Fishman from Kandalinga, (PROSE: The Fishmen of Kandalinga) an Atlantean (PROSE: The Lost Ones), two Korad and a Mechanistrian (PROSE: Peril in Mechanistria) are all seen shopping. All were introduced in the Doctor Who Annual 1966.
- An Alpha Centauran could be seen. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
The Third Doctor drives the "Whomobile". (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders)
The cloaked figure resides in a fortress in a place between places and uses a memory distorsion to keep the incarnations of the Doctor from remembering him. With every attack it grows weaker though and finally fails when the Fifth Doctor remembers him after he takes Tegan, Nyssa and Adric.
The abducted companions are held separately and in stasis in containers in the cloaked figure's fortress.