The Forgotten (comic story)

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The Forgotten is a comic book mini-series produced by the American company IDW Publishing in the fall of 2008, following on from its initial Doctor Who title (Agent Provocateur).

The miniseries was collected as a trade paperback in April 2009.

It is the first officially sanctioned spin-off to feature all ten of the Doctor's incarnations, built around a storyline in which the Tenth Doctor discovers a museum dedicated to his lives and has to remember events from his previous incarnations in order to restore his fading memories.

Summary

Issue 1: Amputation

The Doctor wakes up in a strange room without the TARDIS or the sonic screwdriver. He finds Martha Jones. and together they explore the building. They soon learn that it is a museum dedicated to the Doctor.

The different displays consist of things such as a Dalek gun, the Seal of Rassilon, and a Voord helmet. They then enter a large room where the Doctor's clothes from his previous nine incarnations are along with some thing he used during that incarnation (jelly babies, a staff, a recorder, psychic paper, etc.). The Doctor mentions how he'd be lost without his previous incarnations.

A strange man in a darkly lit room decides to test that theory. The Doctor suddenly becomes very weak and realizes that he can't remember anything from before his encounter with the Sycorax on Christmas Day a couple of years ago.

Martha brings him his staff from his first incarnation and he tells her a story about (when Susan, Barbara, and Ian were traveling with him) how he saved a pharaoh's life with that staff. He then tells how and when he dropped Ian, Barbara, and Susan off. Martha asks if he thinks that Susan is dead and he replies in the affirmative, and mentions that, as far as he know, he is the last; Although the Doctor mentions he left Susan on a future earth with a freedom fighter she fell in love with. The strange man chuckles and says, "If only that were true". He then reveals (whilst talking to himself) how he will force the Doctor to regenerate so that he can steal the Doctor's remaining incarnations. The Doctor collapses and tells Martha that one of his hearts has stopped; he then collapses into unconsciousness.

Issue 2:

Issue 3:

Issue 4:

Issue 5:

Issue 6:

Continuity

  • In the final issue, it is revealed that it is the TARDIS Matrix that is taking the form of Martha throughout the story; subsequently the Matrix proceeds to take on the forms of Harry Sullivan, Leela, Mel, Steven Taylor, Sarah Jane Smith, Adric, Nyssa, Kamelion, and, finally, Susan Foreman (as she appeared in The Five Doctors). Although he isn't impersonated, Sabalom Glitz is also mentioned (muddying the waters a bit as to whether Glitz is considered a companion or not).
  • During the First Doctor's vignette (which is presented in monochrome as a reference to the original series being aired as such), reference is made to the Doctor hoping they don't end up in an Aztec temple, placing the Egyptian adventure after The Aztecs.
  • The Doctor indicates that "no one alive" knows about all nine of his past incarnations. The implication in this statement is that Martha Jones is either the first companion to become aware of all 10 incarnations, or that the Doctor believes that anyone else (companion or Time Lord) who is aware of it is now dead (The Brigadier has met the first eight Doctors, but he never encountered the Ninth and has to date only met the Tenth in another comic).
  • Among the artifacts of the Doctor's past visible: the Seal of Rassilon; a Voord helmet; and items association with each incarnation: a walking stick (First); recorder (Second); Bessie's car keys (Third); a bag of jelly babies (Fourth); a cricket ball (Fifth); a cat brooch (Sixth); an umbrella (Seventh); a cravat (Eighth); and the psychic paper (Ninth).
  • The First Doctor was given his walking stick by Kublai Khan in the TV story Marco Polo. However the Tenth Doctor at first claims he obtained it in an unchronicled adventure involving Oscar Wilde and "midget assassins," though he later admits it was a ruse to trick "Martha."
  • The First Doctor mentions that the Egyptian gods Sutekh and Horus were aliens. This foreshadowing of Pyramids of Mars may be a continuity error, unless the Fourth Doctor later forgot their origins.
  • Ian states that he hopes the Doctor gets turned into a mummy "so the bandages cover his mouth". This also foreshadows Pyramids of Mars in which exactly this happens.
  • The Tenth Doctor recalls Susan's departure in The Dalek Invasion of Earth and the return of Ian and Barbara to more-or-less their original time in The Chase. The Doctor says he doesn't reckon that Susan is still alive, but adds that, though he "can't prove it", he believes all the Time Lords are gone. This follows up from his earlier discussion of the Time War with Martha in Gridlock and the return and death of The Master in Utopia and Last of the Time Lords.
  • The mysterious man at the controls in Issue 1 sports a beard similar to that sported by the Anthony Ainley version of The Master. Later, the character's identity is revealed to be an insectoid creature impersonating the Valeyard, a future, evil incarnation of the Doctor.
  • The Tenth Doctor has experienced heart stoppage on prior occasions, beginning in The Christmas Invasion.
  • During the Eighth Doctor flashback, the Doctor claims he created the fiction of being half-human using a chameleon arch in order to deceive an enemy; this refers to the longstanding and controversial statement made in the 1996 TV movie about the Doctor being half human.
  • During the Eighth Doctor flashback, the Doctor is held prisoner on an unknown planet at some point during the Last Great Time War, he manages to escape and steal The Great Key. The Doctor intends to use this key to create a De-mat Gun that will seal the Medusa Cascade and somehow end the war.
  • The Tenth Doctor when asked about what happened to his Eighth incarnation answered "What happened to me? That's simple. The Time War happened."
  • The final issue establishes that the events of The Forgotten occur immediately following the final scene of DW: Journey's End (and does not take into account the deleted cliffhanger from that story).
  • In the Ninth Doctor tale, Captain Jack Harkness is mentioned.

Myths and rumours

  • The final panel of Issue 5 led to rumours that the villain was the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor. Ultimately this ended up not being the case, although the fact the villain takes the form similar to that of the Tenth Doctor, and the Doctor actually refers to this entity as the Valeyard, has added credence to the rumour that the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor could be destined to become the Valeyard.

Timeline

For the First Doctor:

  • This story occurs after DW: The Aztecs
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For the Second Doctor:

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For the Third Doctor:

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For the Fourth Doctor:

For the Fifth Doctor:

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For the Sixth Doctor:

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For the Eighth Doctor:

For the Ninth Doctor:

For the Tenth Doctor:

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