The Neutron Knights (comic story)
The Neutron Knights was the final regular Fourth Doctor comic story released in Doctor Who Magazine.
Summary
Earth, in the far future: the fearsome Neutron Knights, led by the bloodthirsty warlord Catavolcus, descend on the inner sanctum of the fortress of a king and his few remaining defenders. The king's wizard summons the Doctor and his TARDIS via mental control. The wizard reveals to the Doctor the heart of the inner sanctum, a colossal fission reactor called the Dragon, which the Neutron Knights intend to possess. The wizard sets the Dragon to overload, hoping to consume the enemy in the ensuing explosion, while the king and his men escape in the TARDIS, but the Neutron Knights storm the sanctum.
As the wizard and the king's forces take refuge in the TARDIS, the king stays behind to face off against Catavolcus. The Doctor is stunned to discover that the king and wizard are Arthur and Merlin. Catavolcus slays King Arthur and the TARDIS dematerialises before the Dragon erupts, destroying the fortress, Catavolcus, and Neutron Knights.
The Doctor awakens outside the now unoccupied TARDIS in a wooded area, and muses at what he had experienced... perhaps a dream, or a time-loop when past and future merge? Back in the TARDIS, a shadowy image of Merlin appears and tells the Time Lord that they will meet again.
Characters
References
to be added
Notes
- This marked the final appearance of the Fourth Doctor in regular comic strip format. His final lines in his comic book tenure are: "So... for all my knowledge... for all the technology at my disposal, I still have no way of foreseeing that most unpredictable thing of all... my own future!" (During this speech, the Doctor appears to break the fourth wall and address the readers directly.)
- The appearance of Merlin the Wise here adds a curious new spin on the implications of TV: Battlefield. Namely, that the Doctor and Merlin are one and the same. The incarnation featured in Battlefield's novelisation and, later, the Virgin New Adventures novels of PROSE: Birthright, Transit, Happy Endings, and elsewhere, paint a very different image. An Afghan-coated figure with a ruddy face. It is possible, however, as Merlin has been adopted as a name by the Eighth Doctor (PROSE: One Fateful Knight), Tenth Doctor (PROSE: Legends of Camelot) and even the Master (PROSE: The Creation of Camelot), that a number of the Doctor's incarnations carried the mantle.
- If the Doctor and Merlin the Wise are one and the same, "the Dragon" used here by the magician -- in reality, a nuclear fission device -- could have been the means used to free a frozen Merlin from Breceliande in PROSE: Battlefield.
Original print details
- (Publication with page count and closing captions)
- DWM 60 (8 pages) No closing caption
Reprints
- DW84 14 (Doctor Who (1984) colourised reprint)
- DWCC 9 (Doctor Who Classic Comics colourised reprint)
- Dragon's Claw
- DWCS2 4 (IDW colourised reprint)
- Doctor Who Classics Volume 4 (IDW colourised reprint)
- Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 2 (IDW colourised reprint)
Continuity
- The wider implications of this story will be revealed to the Doctor's next incarnation. Merlin's promise of meeting the Doctor again "in some distant time, in some other form" will come true in a number of ways. In one instance, the Doctor will regenerate, but in another, their reunion will also be in the Matrix on Gallifrey. (COMIC: The Tides of Time)
- Unbeknownst to the Doctor, he has been caught up in a series of conflicts from the Millennium Wars. He will encounter Catavolcus's demonic master, Melanicus, in his fifth incarnation. (COMIC: The Deal, The Tides of Time)
- Merlin will briefly project himself as a ghostly figure again to farewell the Doctor in COMIC: The Tides of Time.
- The Seventh Doctor will discover the aftermath of a war with Merlin's adversary, Morgaine, in TV: Battlefield.
External links
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