The Soul Garden was a comic published in Doctor Who Magazine in 2017. It was notably the first story in the magazine to feature Bill Potts as a travelling companion to the Twelfth Doctor, as well as Bill's overall first appearance in comic books, as the publication of part 1 predated her debut in the Doctor Who Adventures comic strip and Titan Comics Twelfth Doctor line. It was, furthermore, the first multi-part story to feature Bill.
Summary
Part one
The Twelfth Doctor and Bill land on Titan in a specific location at a specific time, which allows them to see a perfect view of Saturn, Bill's favourite planet. Using the moon's low-gravity to their advantage, the two swim through the air away from the TARDIS. Unexpectedly, the atmosphere is disrupted as a land-ship thrashes by, causing Bill and the Doctor to lose control.
Rescued by the ship, the ship's first mate Sandi Costello introduces the ship as the Beagle. The Doctor soon discovers the voyage's funder, Rudy Zoom, a figure that he had met on a previous adventure. Travelling to the bridge, the group meets the bickering leaders of the group: captain Bernard O'Neill and the psychic Lady Takashi.
Lady Takashi seeks to explore Titan because she had sensed an alien presence on the planet in a deep sleep. Shocked that an entire expedition has been funded because of a woman's dream, the Doctor joins the team. The Beagle begins sailing on the liquid methane river, and after several hours, they discover a hidden cavern.
Inside the cavern mouth, they discover a domed off area, and inside the dome they find a garden with proper atmosphere corrections as well as heat and gravity alterations. The Doctor heads to the centre of the garden, where he finds two dead trees -- the only dead things in the whole location.
The team are suddenly attacked by a robot called the Keeper which views them as foreign elements to be weeded out. The group scatters, and by the time that the Doctor has deactivated the robot with his sonic screwdriver, Bill has been knocked out by one of the plants. Suddenly grabbed by several tentacles, the group finds themselves face-to-face with a group of living plant-creatures, who intend to consume the humans.
Characters
References
- Saturn is Bill's favourite planet.
- Titan is a moon of Saturn, and is usually surrounded by methane clouds. Every few thousand years, if one is situated in the right spot, Saturn can barely be seen from the moon.
- Titan's atmosphere is 50% denser than Earth's, but its gravity is only 14% as strong. This allows people present on the planet to swim through the air.
- The Doctor and Bill's "swim" is disrupted by the passing of a ship known as the Beagle, and they are brought on-board. The ship is two weeks out of Shackleton Spaceport. The ship has been mapping the continent of Xanadu after Lady Takashi had a premonition in a dream of a friendly alien consciousness calling from the moon.
- The Beagle executes a Buoyancy Conversion, turning the land cruiser into a water vehicle. The rivers of Titan are filled not with water, but with pure liquid methane.
- Sandi Costello continuously curses in the name of Ra.
- Rudy designates the landmass which they discover the Zoomdome.
- The Doctor and Bill take off their atmospheric density jackets, as the Garden is too warm for them. Rudy suggests that they should have invested in a Zoomsuit, which can keep them "warmer than Mercury or cooler than Miles Davis.
- Upon investigating the Garden, the Doctor discovers that the only thing dead inside the dome is the two trees directly in its centre. These are actually the tree-shaped horns of Sythorr, the progenitor of the Haluu inside the dome.
Notes
Original print details
- (Publication with page count and closing captions)
Continuity
- Bill and the Doctor wear atmospheric density jackets, as the Doctor insists that they are more efficient and comfortable than any space suit. The First Doctor and Ian Chesterton had previously worn them on Vortis. (TV: The Web Planet)
- The Doctor claims that the jackets are built out of an atmospheric converter (TV: The Poison Sky) and a comfy suit.
- While gliding on the low-gravity Titan, Bill gleefully notes that travelling with the Doctor isn't always "sea monsters in the Thames and killer Emoji robots." (TV: Thin Ice, Smile)
- The Doctor calls the passing humans, whose ship has disrupted Titan's atmosphere, "pudding-brains". (TV: Deep Breath, Robot of Sherwood, Face the Raven, GAME: The Saviour of Time)
- Under her atmospheric density jacket, Bill wears the same shirt that she had previously on Gliese 581 D. (TV: Smile)