Gangland (comic story)

The Doctor recounts how, in the aftermath of the Hyperion War, the Alliance of Races systematically purged alien forces that posed a threat to universal harmony. When locked in a stalemate against the tyrant Count D’if, Rassillon challenged D’if to a game of Rassilon’s Roulette. The game was similar to Russian roulette, except it was played using the Time-Gun of Rassilon, which was loaded with a time-bomb which would extinguish the entire timeline of its victim. Di’f lost, and Rassilon laughed. The Doctor says this is the first time Gallifreyans had cause to fear their president.

In a flash-forward, the Doctor and Clara are in a casino surrounded by shadowy figures. The Doctor proposes a game of Rassilon’s Roulette to an unknown person, and wagers planet Earth.

In the Nevada Desert in 1963, Joe and Lou are making Mikey Nero dig his own grave. Mikey pleads for his life but the gangsters don’t relent. Mikey has stolen money that belongs to Johnny Dragotta and must pay the price. Before the gangsters can shoot him they hear a loud bang nearby, and turn to see a spaceship hurtling towards them. It crashes into the ground, and an agent of the Cybock Imperium steps out. He disintegrates Joe and Lou before turning to face Mikey.

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara arrive in Las Vegas with tickets to see Frankie Seneca and the Wolf Pack at The Sands Hotel. To kill time before the show they head to the hotel’s casino, where the Doctor wins eight hundred thousand dollars worth of chips on a craps table. This attracts the attention of Mr. Dragotta, watching on CCTV, who has the Doctor brought to him by his bodyguard Sonny Lawson. Clara recognises Sonny, and says he will go on to become a champion boxer.

After the Doctor and Johnny exchange pleasantries, Johnny tells the Doctor to reveal how he cheated before Sonny uses him as a punching bag. The Doctor explains at length how he used probability to minimise his risk of losing, convincing Sonny of his innocence and boring Nick. A Dragotta gangster then bursts in and tells Johnny he’s seen Mikey Nero on the hotel's CCTV. Johnny tells the gangster to go and get him.

Clara is exploring the Sands, looking for the Doctor, and makes her way into a private party where she meets the Wolf Pack. They introduce themselves as Frankie Seneca, Dino Martinelli and Solly Dancer.

Mikey is brought into Johnny Dragotta’s office to explain how he’s still alive. Mikey tells Johnny he has a new employer now, the Kronos Family. Mikey tells Johnny to hand over the Sands Hotel and all of his rackets to the Kronos Family or face being wiped from existence. The Doctor, realising something isn’t right, scans Mikey with his sonic screwdriver and discovers that he’s not human. Mikey’s hologram disguise is then removed, revealing him to really be an agent of the Cybock Imperium.

Artie pulls Clara away from the Wolf Pack, saying they’ve got a show to do. Frankie tells Clara to watch the show from backstage, and says they’ll help her find the Doctor afterwards. Suddenly all the windows in the room are broken. Flying saucers have surrounded the Sands. Clara and the Wolf Pack begin to flee, before getting cornered by a Cybock agent.

In Johnny’s office, the Cybock vaporises Johnny’s bodyguards. The Doctor and Sonny flee. The Doctor disengages the Cybock's exoskeleton and the Cybock falls to the ground. It then drags itself over to the Doctor, and wraps its tentacles around him.

Part two[[edit]]

On the vault-world of Janizzar, an agent of the Cybock Imperium steals the Time-Gun of Rassilon from within the containment facility's vaults. The Judoon attempt to stop the thief, but when the agent turns the Time-Gun on them their existences are wiped from history.

In Johnny’s office, the Cybock is choking the Doctor. Sonny sends it flying with a right-hook before throwing it through the top floor window. Nick retrieves a gun, vowing to retaliate against Kronos. The Doctor asks what they know about the Kronos family. Sonny tells him they appeared a year before and have been steadily taking over more and more of the Dragotta’s casinos and criminal enterprises. He suspects they are based in the Cosmos Casino.

At the Cosmos, Clara, Artie and the Wolf Pack are being held captive. A Cybock tells them they work for the Cosmos Casino now. When Artie attempts to negotiate a pay-rise pay for the singers the Cybock vaporises him.

When they arrive at the Cosmos, the Doctor asks Sonny why he’s stooping to work with the Dragottas. Sonny explains his life story. The pair then find an anti-gravity tube, which takes them to a warehouse in which the Cybock saucers are being stored.

Clara taunts the Cybock holding her and the Wolf Pack prisoner, and it tells her the Cybocks are seeking revenge on the Time Lords. Their plan is to infiltrate the criminal underworld of planets across the universe, starting with Earth, since crime infiltrates and can control almost any aspect of every known society. It then threatens to shoot Clara with the Time-Gun of Rassilon, but at that moment the Doctor and Sonny fly into the room on the Cybock saucer. While it’s distracted, Clara swings forward in her shackles and kicks the Cybock in the head. The Wolf Pack and Clara get into the saucer, and Clara then hands the Time-Gun to the Doctor. Sonny steers the saucer away, firing at the wall to create a hole through which they can escape.

Johnny Dragotta is on the street with a gang of men, all armed with .45s, baseball bats and knuckle dusters. The saucer carrying Sonny, the Doctor, Clara and the Wolf Pack comes crashing down next to them. They all see that the Cybocks have begun an all-out war on the strip, attacking innocent bystanders and destroying buildings. The gang war has begun.

A Cybock fires at Solly Dancer, who dances around the shots before Frankie and Dino take down the creature with baseball bats. Once it’s defeated, the Wolf Pack all howl together. Meanwhile the Doctor, Clara and Sonny run back into the burning Sands Hotel.

A Cybock tells Commander Kronos that the city is theirs. Just then Clara calls to Kronos from the door to the hotel, luring it inside. When it arrives, it finds the Doctor sat in the bar, with the Time-Gun of Rassilon on a table in front of him. The Doctor tells Kronos he is a Time Lord, and challenges it to a game of Rassilon’s Roulette. Clara pleads with the Doctor to reconsider, saying the potential consequences of his timeline being fully erased make the stakes too high.

The Doctor takes his turn anyway and survives. Kronos then picks up the Time-Gun and turns it on the Doctor. Kronos says it will not gamble with the future of the Cybock Imperium, and attempts to shoot the Doctor. However, the shot rebounds and erases Kronos. With Kronos having never existed there was nobody to lead the Cybock to Earth, and so the rest of the Kronos Family disappear too. The Doctor then reveals that when Rassilon built the gun he programmed it to never fire on Time Lords, which is why he never lost a game of Rassilon’s Roulette.

Johnny Dragotta then pulls a pistol on the Doctor, saying he can’t let him live now that he knows so much about the Dragotta Family. Before he can shoot Sonny punches Johnny, knocking him out. Sonny then reveals that he has been working undercover for the FBI, who are now on their way to arrest the Dragottas.

While performing on stage, the Wolf Pack dedicate a song to their new pal Clara. Clara asks the Doctor how he knew the Time-Gun wouldn’t work on Time Lords, and the Doctor doesn’t reveal whether he tried to programme it that way himself or whether he took a gamble.

Characters[[edit]]

Worldbuilding[[edit]]

Clara Oswald[[edit]]

Clara says her dad is a big fan of boxing, especially Sonny Lawson.
Solly says Clara sounds like the Queen.

The Doctor[[edit]]

The Doctor quotes both Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra.
He wears a Trilby hat to blend in with the locals.

Rassilon[[edit]]

Rassilon's Alliance of Races includes Zygons, Judoon, Hath, Vigil, Sontarans, Silurians and Ice Warriors.
The Time-Gun of Rassilon is contained on Janizzar.
Rassilon's roulette is not as commonly known as Russian roulette.
The Doctor says the incident between Rassilon and Count D'if with the Time-Gun was the first time the Time Lords feared Rassilon, but not the last.

Sonny Lawson[[edit]]

The Doctor thinks Sonny could make a major difference to the civil rights movement.
Johnny calls Sonny his 'tame panther'.

References to the real world[[edit]]

Lou remembers seeing giant ants in the film Them! as a kid, and makes reference to the reported Roswell crash.
Joe mistakes a Cybock ship for a Russian one, making reference to president Kennedy and the Space Race.
Sonny mentions Frank Sinatra.
The Doctor refers to Bugsy Siegel.
A cinema is screening the b-movies Mars Needs Women and The Thing from Another World.

Notes[[edit]]

The Wolf Pack act as an analogy to the real-world Rat Pack.

Original print details[[edit]]

to be added

Continuity[[edit]]

Rassilon formed the Alliance of Races following the Hyperion War. (COMIC: Terrorformer)
Clara describes the 60s as the era of flower power, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and love and peace. The Eleventh Doctor described it in a similar way. (AUDIO: Hunters of Earth)
The Doctor quotes from The Godfather before realising that at this point in time the film hadn't yet been made.
The Doctor refers to the gamblers as "pudding-heads". (TV: Deep Breath et al.)
Clara recalls that the Doctor has encountered the Daleks, Cybermen, the Fractures and Hyperions before. (TV: Into the Dalek, Nightmare in Silver, COMIC: The Fractures, Terrorformer) She also remembers meeting the Ice Warriors. (TV: Cold War)
Clara says the Doctor has gambled with her life many times. (TV: Face the Raven)
Sonny suspects the Doctor is Scottish. (TV: Deep Breath et al.)
Clara uses the psychic paper. (TV: The End of the World et al.)
One of the agents talks about the Roswell crash, and suspects the government locked up aliens. (TV: Dreamland)
The Eleventh Doctor once tried to take Clara to Las Vegas. (TV: Cold War)