Final Sacrifice (comic story)
Final Sacrifice was the concluding story of the arc begun in Doctor Who (2009) #1. It was the last story of that publication and ended the Tenth Doctor's continuous run in IDW Publishing's comics. It also wrote out the IDW-only companions, Matthew Finnegan and Emily Winter, and served as a semi-sequel to an early one-shot story, The Time Machination.
Publisher's summary
Part one
On a war-ravaged alien world, the Doctor and Emily fight to save Matthew from the Advocate, while avoiding a planetwide civil war and a space-and-time misplaced Edwardian Torchwood, still hunting the Doctor since The Time Machination ! Everything leads to this point — but who will die?
Part two
Long live the Queen! As the war between the Soul Free and the Terror builds, the Doctor discovers who's really pulling the strings behind the scenes! And as "Mr Finch" faces off against Emily, Alexander Hugh and the Edwardian Torchwood agents choose their own sides in the coming war...
Part three
War! What is it good for?! The Doctor discovers the truth about Kol'Ne Wah and finds Matthew, while Emily and Hugh try to stop the world from rebooting! But what is the Advocate's terrible plan-and why are the fifth-dimensional Tef'Aree involved?
Part four
Tragic loss...
Final issue! Final appearance of the Tenth Doctor! Sad farewells. A song ends. People die.
What, you thought we'd end on a high note? It's called "Final Sacrifice", guys! Multiple Eagle Award-nominated writer Tony Lee and Matthew Dow Smith close the book on the tenth Doctor...
Plot
Oxford University, 1906, and Robert Lewis and his colleague Eliza Cooper of Torchwood visit Professor Alexander Hugh and his assistant Annabella Primavera to take part in a demonstration of a time machine built from cannibalised alien technology. However, their first trip takes them to a war-torn alien world, and straight to the Doctor and Emily. Their arrival attracts attention and soon the whole group is arrested by the Soul Free. They are observed by the Advocate who has completely brainwashed Matthew against the Time Lord. The planet has been fought over for thousands of years by the Soul Free and the Terror Farmers, who both claim it as their home. The proof lies in a sealed temple called Kol'Ne Wah. The Soul Free are led by Finch, now calling himself Lau'Tan, who claims he now opposes the Advocate, and who explains that the device that the Advocate took from the TARDIS was created by the Tef'Aree. Just then they are attacked by the Terror Farmers, Annabella killed, despite the Doctor’s insistence that she was supposed to live, and Lau'Tan wounded. However, he is fit enough to disguise himself as the Doctor and turn himself in with the now captured Emily. As Matthew begins to realise the true nature of the Advocate, she commands Emily and Lau'Tan to fight to the death.
Emily and Lau'Tan attempt escape but are overpowered and thrown in cells. The Doctor, meanwhile, leads his group to the Temple of Kol'Ne Wah. While Matthew realises he’s been duped and enlists Lau'Tan's help in putting things to rights, Emily receives a visit from the Tef'Aree who tell her that she must stop the Advocate’s device which "reboots" planets, but in order for the device to be stopped it must first be started. Matthew rescues her, but it soon transpires that this is Lau'Tan in disguise, sent by Matthew to get Emily to safety and give her Turlough's faked diary while he spies on the Advocate. At the temple, the Doctor’s party enters and quickly see that it is in fact a spaceship. The Time Lord is intrigued by the mix of technology and takes a harddrive from the ship. However, as they leave, they are ambushed by the Terror Farmers. While Robert Lewis is enlisted into the service of the Advocate, the Doctor and Professor Hugh make the safety of the TARDIS and listen to a heavily degraded message on the harddrive from Earth Colony One, a lost and misplaced expedition, who made contact with the Tef'Aree and were given a terraforming device with which they hoped to make the colony self-sufficient. But the Doctor realises that the Terror Farmers (Terra Firma) will defeat the Soul Free (Sol Three) and become the Terranites.
The Doctor realises that the Advocate plans to use Matthew's un-irradiated human DNA to reactivate the terraforming device which will wipe out the whole planet even as they head into war. In his cell, Matthew receives a visit from the Tef'Aree and suddenly understands everything: his and Emily’s sacrifice will save the planet. He and the Advocate teleport up to the orbiting terraforming device and the Doctor follows in the TARDIS, but not before he has put Professor Hugh down in the middle of the fighting to urge the two sides to get to safety aboard the colony ship. However, Lewis won’t listen. As the Advocate tries to get Matthew to activate the terraforming device, he finally reveals his true allegiance. She shoots him and uses his palm to activate the device. Squabbling on the ground between the Terror Farmers and the Soul Free is brought to an instant end as the device begins to erase anything that wasn't on the planet a few thousand years before. They all run for the temple. The Doctor confronts the Advocate, but she reveals that she has rigged the terraforming device such that only Matthew can switch if off, and if he does it will kill him. Robert Lewis destroys the colony ship's force field which protected it from the terraforming device then makes to shoot Eliza who sided against him with the Doctor. Emily jumps in the way and falls to the ground. Now the Advocate wants to know if the Doctor is prepared to sacrifice his other friend or the entire planet below.
Emily recovers, saved from the blast by Turlough's diary while Robert Lewis is destroyed by the terraforming beam. The force field around the colony ship cannot be repaired, but Lau'Tan realises it can be replaced. He transforms himself to replace the damaged component and restart the shields while Emily gets everyone safely inside. Matthew distracts the Doctor, grabs the Advocate and slams his hand onto the terraforming controls. He and the Advocate die instantly, but the device is deactivated. The Doctor takes Matthew's body to the surface of the planet where a Tef'Aree appears and tells him and Emily that it was once Matthew, transformed through sacrifice and the merging of energy with the Advocate into a fifth-dimensional being. He gave the Earth colonists the technology and created the Advocate so that his human self could one day be empowered and become the Tef'Aree. The Doctor is appalled by the level of manipulation, but the Tef'Aree is unmoved and vanishes. Eliza elects to remain on the planet and help to rebuild it. The Doctor takes Professor Hugh and Emily back to Oxford, 1906, in the TARDIS. Here he explains that Annabella Primavera, like Emily, was a fixed point in time and space, but while Emily was supposed to have died, Annabella was supposed to have lived. Emily must now take her place to mend the web of time. It was Annabella who discovered Archie Maplin and eventually set up United Actors in Hollywood. The Doctor heads off for an adventure on Mars...
Characters
References
- Eliza is willing to trust the Doctor in part because she has heard Captain Jack Harkness speak of him.
Notes
- Readers' letters pertaining to this issue were printed in Doctor Who (2011) #1.
Continuity
- The Doctor says he doesn't carry money with him and gives Emily a list of winning racing horses to bet on. He had previously given the Noble family a winning lottery ticket. (TV: The End of Time)
- The Doctor is wearing his space suit at the end of this story, and decides to take a trip to Mars. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
Cover gallery
Issue 13 (Cover A)
Issue 13 (Cover RI)
Issue 14 (Cover A)
Issue 15 (Cover A)
Issue 16 (Cover A)
Issue 16 (Cover RI)
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