Dr. Who & the "Yeti" (comic story)
Dr. Who & the "Yeti" was a fumetti comic strip in The Daleks Are Back!. Using photographs taken from Marco Polo, it told a brand new story that functioned as something of a sequel.
Supposedly published in 1964, it was actually a parody of the 'photocomic' stories of the era, original to a joke mock-up of the supposed "1 year anniversary issue" of DWM packaged with DWM 467 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. In reality, the magazine did not begin until 1979.
Summary
The TARDIS arrives in the Himalayas in the 13th Century AD. The Doctor comments that they have been here before, blaming this on his ship being "on the blink". Susan suddenly spies a giant's footprint on the ground. Ian dismisses this, but Susan insists that, unlike last time, this is real. Just then, the TARDIS's flux capacitor explodes, and the Doctor and co. are assailed by soldiers. The Doctor lies that Ian knows "the ancient art of barisu", tricking them into focusing their attention on Ian, then runs off and hides behind a rock. Fortunately, Marco Polo enters and calls them off. He explains that a Yeti is terrorising the region. As if to prove his point, it roars in the distance, and the TARDIS travellers resolve to investigate.
Characters
References
- If a TARDIS's flux capacitor explodes, it becomes unsafe to enter the ship for exactly ten minutes.
- Yeti are spoken of in the legends of the Hymalayas. They are, or are at least said to be, ten feet tall.
- Marco Polo refers to himself as "the brave, handsome explorer".
- According the Doctor's bluff, Ian is skilled enough in "the ancient art of baristu" to "knock your block off".
Notes
- This is a bizarre story for multiple reasons: it gives a false year of publication, every frame is a "telesnap", it functions as a sequel to a pure historical, it is a DWM comic published during the BBC Wales series' run which features a past Doctor and not the current one, has an abrupt ending followed by a preview of a non-existent story, has the Doctor act uncharacteristically cowardly even for this early in his life, even leaving Ian to die, and follows an intentionally extremely inane "plot". All of these are in device of its nature, as part of a parody of the 60s annuals.
- Fumetti was used in earnest as a comic format for the first time in the 1964 title The Message of Mystery, from The Dalek Book, the original Dalek annual.
- The actual writer of this story is unknown; their credit as "E. Travers", an obvious meta-joke referencing Edward Travers.
- Tele-snaps are credited to John Cura.
- The Doctor is referred to as "Doctor Who", and the TARDIS is Tardis, without capitalisation or a definite article, throughout.
- End caption: "Next time: The Terrors of Snow"
- This story’s plot is a deliberate cross between the televised Marco Polo (the setting, the appearance of Marco Polo himself, and the "giant's footprint"; although in this story the latter is formed by a Yeti and in the former it was a mere human footprint simply embiggened by melting snow) and The Abominable Snowmen (the appearance of a Yeti in the Himalayas, the above-mentioned writer credit to "E. Travers")
- Despite this story’s plot revolving around the concept that a malfunctioning TARDIS will revisit previous locations at random, even if its pilot is normally incapable of doing this purposefully, Ian and Barbara, who were desperate to go home in the era this was supposedly set (judging by the gag "publication date"), are not shown to wonder out loud if this could be their best hope.
- This story comedically uses some intentionally bizarre prose, such as "Ian sneered kindly".
- A flux capacitor, a device originating from the film Back to the Future, was previously mentioned as a TARDIS component in The Boy That Time Forgot.
