Revolutions of Terror (comic story)
Revolutions of Terror was the three-part premiere story of Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor comic strip series published in 2014. It introduced the Tenth Doctor's new companion, Gabriella "Gabby" Gonzalez.
Summary
Gabriella Gonzalez is stuck in a dead-end job in her family's New York Laundromat, dreaming of college and bigger, better and brighter things.
So when a strange man with an even stranger big blue box barges into her life on the eve of the Day of the Dead celebrations - talking about an infestation of psychic aliens - she seizes her chance for adventure with both hands.
After Donna's tragic exit, the Doctor thought he was done with new companions. But Gabby Gonzalez is going to prove him wrong... if she survives the night!
Plot
Part one
The day before Halloween, and the annual Day of the Dead celebration by Mexicans, Gabby is working at her father's laundromat together with her friend, Cindy, when the tumble dryers go haywire. Gabby sees a sort of monster-like shadow coming out of the machines, but they evaporate before her eyes.
Later that day, while Gabby is having an argument with her parents in the kitchen of their restaurant, "The Castillo Mexicano", the Doctor orders some food from her sister. Before he can eat it, he dashes out of the restaurant after receiving a signal on a device of his. Shortly afterwards, Gabby's grandmother claims to have seen her deceased husband's soul writing in agony in a photograph of him. Her future brother-in-law, Hector, also sees a monster.
In the city, while following the signal, the Doctor sees a baby change into a horrific creature, before abruptly reverting to normal when the Doctor's device registers a signal coming from it.
When taking the subway back from accounting class the same evening, a monstrous creature overtakes the subway, and Gabby runs into the Doctor, who takes her hand and pulls out his sonic screwdriver.
Part two
The sonic has no effect on the monster (a horrific manifestation of Gabby), and as the train approaches the platform they run and leap off onto the station. It uses a psychic field to create the illusion of no escape, however by not looking at the monster and reflecting its face onto itself, she shortens out the psychic field. Gabby is intrigued by who the Doctor is, however he leaves for his TARDIS, telling her to forget about him.
On Halloween, Gabby avoids her work shift and goes exploring, knocks on the TARDIS in the park but backs out. She finds the laundromat is unlocked, and raises a baseball bat. The Doctor emerges from the backroom wearing a headset, as she whacks him on the head. Gabby asks more questions, and he says that he is the Doctor. In the park, he passes Gabby the headset to see the Pragnavores, a non-corporeal alien that exists in a interdimensional psychosphere surrounding the earth at various faults and feeds off human empathy. The Cerebravores attack the Pragnavores, and the Doctor takes back the headset and grabs a microphone to confront the Pragnavores, telling them the planet is protected under the Shadow Proclamation.
The Pragnavores manifest themselves within a group of city workers, turning them into their worst fears. Gabby theorises that they came through the washing machines, so they head to the laundromat. Suddenly, a Cerebravore attacks Gabby's mind, and she and the Doctor flee from monsters into the laudromat. The Doctor realises that the kinetic movement of the washing machine creates a bridge into their world, and if they increased their power, they would be able to invade the earth from multiple points. The Doctor travels through the portal, only to find murdered Fleshkind hosts of the Cerebravores. Whilst Gabby barricades herself from a possessed version of her friend Cindy, a Cerebravore wraps its tongue around the Doctor.
Part three
The Cerebravore searches through the Doctor's memories, however he is able to defeat the Cerebravore using his sonic screwdriver, freeing a Fleshkind. She was forced to weaponise the Cerebravore, removing their benignity and hive mind and turning them into telepathic hunters - who in turn destroyed her own world.
On Earth, Gabby's family is wondering where she is; she is faced by telepathic projections in the laundromat. Singing, she enters her wallet into the washing machine to extend the portal. The Doctor falls through the portal, narrowly avoiding a Cerebravore. Passing the headset to the Doctor, they run from the laundromat roof back to the TARDIS. In the TARDIS, Gabby asks the Doctor if he is an alien. The Doctor makes adjustments to the headset to use it as an Empathetic Field Amplifier. Trinity Wells warns New York residents to avoid the Brooklyn area, particularly Sunset Park, with public transport and communications shut-off. The Doctor tells Gabby she needs to keep singing.
Evading Cerebravores, they are able to locate her family celebrating the Day of the Dead ceremony in the cemetery. She introduces the Doctor to her family, but the festivities are soon interrupted by the approaching Cerebravores. Creating an orchestra of song, the Cerebravores are contained within the cemetery and by punching the button on the Empathetic Field Amplifier, it amplifies the song, destroying the laundromat and removing the spirits of the Cerebravores across the city. Gabby is scared to face up to her father, however he is proud of her and tells her to follow her dreams. The Doctor speculates that the Pragnavores may have made him kinder. Having accepted a meal with the family, Gabby has worked out that the TARDIS can travel through space and wants to travel with him, seeing him as a better teacher than any college. However, the Doctor is wary as "friends of mine have been hurt" recently and they agree to part ways, telling her to have a "brilliant life" and to "keep singing". However, when she says a saying of her grandmother's, "no song should end too soon", resembling Carmen's prophecy (TV: Planet of the Dead), he agrees to one trip.
Characters
- Tenth Doctor
- Gabby Gonzalez
- Miguel Gonzalez
- Maria Gonzalez
- Blanca Gonzalez
- Hector
- Fernanda Gonzalez
- Ricardo Mendoza
- Cindy
References
- Sunset Park is a public park in Brooklyn.
- Gabby says she was teased about "cartoon mice with the same surname as me" in school.
- Gabby describes the TARDIS as a "wildest, bluest yonder".
Notes
- Gabby Gonzalez is the Doctor's first companion of Mexican descent.
Original print details
to be added
Continuity
- This series takes place in the period between TV: Planet of the Dead and TV: The End of Time.[1] The Doctor is reflective on Donna Noble, whose memories he was forced to wipe in that episode. The Doctor is hesitant to travel with Gabby, alluding to the fact that "recently... friends of mine have been hurt." The Doctor had a number of companions during this period, including Heather McCrimmon, Majenta Pryce, Emily Winter and Matthew Finnegan.
- The Doctor mentions he wants a device that goes "ding". (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
- The Doctor told Gabby that his "dear friend" Cameca was from Mexico and that he went back to visit her now and then. (TV: The Aztecs)
- The Doctor said he visited Frida and Diego after the incident on the Day of the Dead in 1941. (COMIC: The Way of All Flesh)
- The Doctor compares the Cerebravore on the subway to Zuul and himself to Peter Venkman, both characters from Ghostbusters. He previously expressed interest in the film to Rose Tyler. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
- The Doctor cites convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
- In his mind battle with the Cerebravore, the Doctor experiences visions of the Master (TV: The End of Time), a Time Lord, The Beast (TV: The Satan Pit), Sutekh (TV: Pyramids of Mars), a Cyberman (TV: Rise of the Cybermen, et al), and Rassilon pointing his gauntlet. (TV: The End of Time).
- The Doctor gives a worried glance at an angelic statue covering its eyes while running through a park. (TV: Blink)
- The Doctor tells Gabby to "go home" and "pretend you never met me." (TV: Rose)
- Gabby's sister Cindy suspects her and the Doctor are dating. Similarly, Jackie Tyler suspected Rose and the Ninth Doctor had a physical relationship in TV: Aliens of London.
- The Doctor says there is an "oncoming storm", alluding to the epithet to describe the Doctor used by the Draconians and the Daleks (PROSE: Love and War, TV: The Parting of the Ways).
- Gabby says to the Doctor a phrase her grandmother taught her: "No song should end too soon." Carmen gave a similar prophecy (TV: Planet of the Dead), and it was later referenced in TV: The Waters of Mars.
- The Doctor accepts a meal with Gabby's family in return for saving the Earth. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
- ↑ http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=58226 Andrew James "He's just rejected Christina De Souza as a potential companion -- so what makes Gabriella Gonzalez from Brooklyn any different?"
