The Sky Warrior (comic story)
The Sky Warrior was a comic published in the Mighty TV Comic Holiday Special in 1977. It featured the Fourth Doctor.
Summary
The Doctor sets the time co-ordinates for twentieth-century England. Suddenly, a meteorite shower knocks the TARDIS off course 'a few hundred years too early'. The Doctor emerges in front of a large Mesoamerican/ South American style temple.
Tatrac, High Priest of the Mandrans, greets the Doctor as a Sky Warrior sent by the gods to save their people from 'the Invaders of Than Shine' who bring slavery and death.
Venturing outside the Mandran village with a guide, Kaiki, the Doctor hides as the 'shining invaders' — armoured and armed Spanish conquistadors — approach on horses. The Captain tells his conquistadors that they will attack the village at dawn.
The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and constructs an electronic device. then, outside the Mandran temple, dresses as a large bird of prey. The conquistadors arrive, declaring their intent to raid the temple for gold, then burn the village.
From atop the temple, Tatrac warns the shining invaders that the gods have sent a Sky Warrior to destroy them. As the conquistadors prepare to attack regardless, the Doctor activates his device — a super-powerful magnet — which snatches the Spaniards' swords and pikes from their hands. The Captain orders his men to fire a cannon, but the weapon is destroyed by the Doctor's magnet opeerating in reverse.
Disarmed and believing themselves bewitched by devilry, the conquistadors beg for mercy. The Doctor, as the Sky Warrior, declares they must leave and never return. Tatrac offers the bird mask and robe to the Doctor as gifts to take back to the gods. As the TARDIS departs, the Doctor considers taking the artefacts to a museum.
Characters
- Fourth Doctor
- Tatrac
- Captain
- Kaiki
References
Notes
- Relatively few stories published in TV Comic had specified titles. This story is titled on the page as: Dr Who in 'The Sky Warrior'.
- The story was published in the Mighty TV Comic Holiday Special 1977, which was the only TV Comic Holiday Special to bear the Mighty label.
- The exact location of the story is not specified - the temple and the Mandran clothing appear to be based on Mesoamerican or South American designs.
- The name 'Mandran' is associated in North American history with Indigenous American people of the Great Plains.
Continuity
- The first caption box refers to the Doctor as Doctor Who.
- The Doctor, dressed in the clothing worn in the Hinchcliffe era, is not travelling with a companion.
- Nearing an intended destination of twentieth-century England, the Doctor thinks, 'There's Earth at last! Can't say I'll be sorry to get home again!'
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