City of the Damned (comic story)

City of the Damned
Doctor:	[[doctor::Fourth Doctor]]
Main enemy:	Moderator General
Main setting:	Zombus, planet Zom
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Marvel Comics]]
Editor:	Dez Skinn
Writer:	Pat Mills John Wagner
Artist:	Dave Gibbons
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who Weekly 9-16
Release date:	12 December 1979 - 30 January 1980
Format:	Comic - 8 parts (34 pages)
DWM comic stories
← Previous	Doctor Who and the Iron Legion
Next →	Timeslip

City of the Damned was a Doctor Who Weekly comic story featuring the Fourth Doctor.

Summary

The Doctor arrives in the city of Zombus on the planet Zom. A ruling council, the Brains Trust, whose members wear eyeless masks which look like brains, have identified emotions as the cause of all crime and outlawed them. With the Moderator General and the Moderators, the people are controlled and forbidden emotional experiences. They use Harmonisers to remove emotions from the citizens. There is resistance from the Zom Emotional People's Organisation, each of whom carries out and lives by one emotion alone to preserve it until the arrival of the Great Emoter.

The Doctor is seen as the Great Emoter and is helped to escape the city. However, ZEPO’s Big Hate has a plan to destroy the Moderators using his savage Barabara (giant blood bugs). The Barabara are released into the city but start to eat everyone, not just the Moderators. The Barabara, however, are defenceless against adrenalin. The Doctor appeals to the Brains Trust who agree to reinstall emotions to save what they have, but the Moderator General is opposed to the plan and kills the others.

The Doctor overpowers the Moderator General and orders the people into the Harmonisers, where they regain their emotions. The Barabara quickly die. The city begins a new life with a full set of emotions. The people feel so grateful to the Doctor that they try to dress like him and adopt his mannerisms.

Characters

• Fourth Doctor
• Moderator General
• Brains Trust
• Barabara
• Daft
• Humble
• Mornful
• Need-to-Know
• Nervous
• Silly
• Slightly Angry
• Very Angry
• Will-to-Live

References

• Jelly babies apparently stop ears popping during transmat travel.

Notes

• Pat Mills and John Wagner, although jointly credited, took turns in writing the scripts (the first person credited was the actual writer of the script, the second merely typed it). The Iron Legion was written by Pat Mills.
• City of the Damned was submitted as a television story, but rejected.
• For the USA reprints, the title of this story was renamed City of the Cursed due to censorship laws in the United States.

Publication and reprints

Original print details

(Publication with page count and closing captions)

1. DWM 9 (5 pages) Next Week: Mind-Wipe!
2. DWM 10 (4 pages) Next Week: Gauntlet of Death!
3. DWM 11 (4 pages) Next Week: The Big Hate!
4. DWM 12 (4 pages) Next Issue: Night of the Barabara!
5. DWM 13 (5 pages) Next Week: Bitter Harvest!
6. DWM 14 (4 pages) Next Week: Streets of Blood!
7. DWM 15 (4 pages) Next Week: The Last Hours!
8. DWM 16 (4 pages) Next Issue: Join the Doctor and K9 in Time-Trap!

Reprints

1. Marvel Premiere Issues 59-60 Reprinted in colour.
2. The Iron Legion the launch title of a new series of graphic novels (published in 2004), reprinting cleaned up comic strips covering strips from Doctor Who Weekly issue 1 through to 38. Reprinted as original, in black and white, with closing captions.
3. DWC Issue 1 and Issue 2 recoloured
4. Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1

Continuity

to be added

Timeline

• City of the Damned occurs after DWM: The Iron Legion.
• City of the Damned occurs before DWM: K9's Finest Hour.