The Mark of Mandragora (comic story)

The Mark of Mandragora
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace
Main enemy:	Mandragora Helix
Main setting:	London, 1999
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Editor:	John Freeman
Writer:	Dan Abnett
Artist:	Lee Sullivan and Mark Farmer
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who Magazine 169-172
Release date:	27 December 1990 - 14 March 1991
Cover date:	23 January - 17 April 1991
Reprinted in:	The Mark of Mandragora
Format:	Comic - 4 parts
DWM comic stories
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You may be looking for the graphic novel collection of the same name.

The Mark of Mandragora was a Seventh Doctor comic strip published in Doctor Who Magazine.

Summary

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Plot

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Characters

• Seventh Doctor
• Ace
• Captain Muriel Frost
• Beanie
• Stranks
• Sergeant Jasper Bean
• Lynodd
• Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart

References

• Throughout the story, a number of epigraphs are contrasted against the events within the panels. These are from: Francis Bacon, Essay on Death; William Shakespeare, Othello and Antony and Cleopatra; John Donne, Song and Alfonso, King of Castile.
• The Brigadier is absent for much of the story as he is at a Geneva summit.
• UNIT are trying to negotiate greater powers with the UN.
• By the late 1990s, London had become known as 'swinging London' again, having not held the name for thirty years.
• The Doctor says that he has been redecorating the TARDIS.
• When the lightning falls and the Doctor takes out his umbrella, he sings the lyrics to Singin' in the Rain.

Notes

• Ace's earrings are the Starfleet insignia from Star Trek.
• Nicholas Courtney gave permission for the use of his likeness in this and the prelude story Darkness, Falling, on the condition that the Brigadier only appeared for a few frames.
• The story was presented colourised in the graphic novel The Mark of Mandragora.

Continuity

• The Doctor and Ace return to the secondary console room. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora et al.)
• The TARDIS features a library of bookcases embedded in its walls. (TV: Deep Breath et al.)
• Ace briefly encounters Magog, last of the Malvelius, still trapped in the Doctor's TARDIS and pleading for release. (COMIC: The Iron Legion)
• M, or Mandrake, is a popular drug amongst teenagers and young adults that first appeared in 1997, and is the most important teenage problem in some European countries, but carries a more malevolent, alien purpose with the Mandragora. The Seventh Doctor later encountered cocaine, or SMILE, in 1987, that had become infused with the N-Forms. (PROSE: Damaged Goods, AUDIO: Damaged Goods)
• The Doctor states that the Mandragora Helix aligns with Earth every five centuries. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora) Repercussions of the alignment would be felt in 2009. (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos)
• Frost states that following the Gantic invasion (COMIC: Invaders from Gantac!) and the Availlon fiasco, (TV: Battlefield) UNIT have been operating under a greater degree of public transparency, with aliens now a public fact. However, by 2005, public knowledge had diminished. (TV: Aliens of London)
• Due to UNIT's new public and global position, Frost sows the seeds for the later organisation Foreign Hazard Duty, to operate in a secret position. (COMIC: Echoes of the Mogor!) It is implied that their name originates from the fact Mandrake is classified as a foreign hazard.
• Frost says that the Brigadier suggested the Doctor could become part of FHD's core team, likely alluding to his previous role of scientific advisor. (TV: Spearhead from Space et al.)

External links

• The Mark of Mandragora at the Doctor Who Reference Guide