Which Way Out? (short story)

Which Way Out? was a short story that appeared in TV Comic Holiday Special 1976. It was, in fact, one of the few examples of a non-comic story in the history of the TV Comic license. Even more peculiarly, it was illustrated by black-and-white photographs from Doctor Who — specifically from Planet of Evil and Genesis of the Daleks.

	Fourth Doctor
	Sarah
	Red Commander Dalek, Daleks
	the planet Sarto
	TV Comic Holiday Special 1976
	1976

Summary

The Time Lords send the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane to the supposedly uninhabited planet Sarto. The difficulty is that the two TARDIS travellers don't know precisely why the Time Lords have done this.

They tramp through the jungle terrain to discover a massive hydro-electric plant sitting on a huge, Niagara-like waterfall. As they go in for a closer look, the Doctor twigs. The architecture is unmistakably Dalek. The Daleks have built a massive installation here. This explains why the Time Lords were so concerned about Sarto.

Before long, the duo are predictably captured by the Daleks. They are brought before the local Dalek leader, known as the Red Commander. The crimson mutant instantly announces that he intends to kill the Doctor. He doesn't, however, instantly do it. Instead, he inexplicably gives a time frame of "Fifty Dalek minutes" until the execution.

In the intervening time, the Doctor and Sarah have enough time to escape, rig the Dalek base for detonation, and return to the TARDIS. As Sarah and the Doctor feel the rumblings of a massive, subterranean explosion, they slip back into the time vortex for another adventure.

Characters

• Fourth Doctor
• Sarah Jane Smith
• Red Commander Dalek
• Daleks

Worldbuilding

to be added

Notes

• As was the fairly consistent practice of TV Comic, Sarah's name is rendered as "Sarah-Jane".
• The basic structure of the story is reminiscent of Genesis of the Daleks.

Continuity

to be added