The Age of Ice (comic story)
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Summary
Returning to Earth, the Doctor is shocked to discover his old enemies the Skith are planning their second invasion of Earth. Can even the Doctor defeat the powerful Skith leader?
Plot
Part 1 (The Age of Ice)
As a passenger aircraft approaches Sydney airport, it suddenly hits a patch of bright blue lightning. The plane is ripped apart and oxygen masks deploy as it attacks the plane.
Later, the TARDIS lands in Sydney, near the Opera House. Majenta heckles the Doctor about the fact that they're not on Panacea, but the Doctor's gaze shifts towards a landing helicopter. UNIT soldiers emerge from the helicopter, and one of them introduces herself as Captain Kath Braxton. The Doctor is taken to UNIT's underwater base.
As the Doctor and Majenta are taken down UNIT's corridors by armed soldiers, a takes them into a UNIT soldier named Colonel Tom McCay takes them into a hospital ward in their base. They are greeted by Corporal Manning, who is taken aback when he sees Majenta. The Doctor investigates the patients there, and is surprised to see that they are hundreds of years old. Tom reveals that they have aged while travelling in the passenger aircraft after it was hit by a Chronal Wave. He then reveals that prehistoric creatures have been rampaging across the city.
The Doctor then sees a small column of ice in display. Tom explains that the ice was found in the wreckage of the plane. He tells the Doctor that it doesn't melt, and is giving off electrochemical signals. Tom organises a helicopter for the Doctor so that he can see the Chronal Wave himself. They then realise that Majenta has gone.
Meanwhile, Corporal Manning has escaped, and is entering the bestiary. Majenta follows him down, and finds a room full of (mostly alien) tech - Cybermen carcasses, Autons, War Machines and others. Corporal Manning is communicating with a sentient life form, when Majenta apears in front of him. Corporal Manning holds Majenta at gunpoint, only for Majenta to explain that she can tell that he is using a cloaking device. Corporal Manning turns off the device...
As the helicopter approaches the origin of the Chronal Wave, the piece of ice begins talking to the Doctor, a message from a life form who have met the Doctor before. UNIT soldier Sergeant Talbot notes that another Chronal Wave is approaching, as hundreds of prehistoric creatures appear near the bridge.
Back in the bestiary, Corporal Manning is revealed to be an alien, of the same species as Majenta, an old friend of Majenta called Fanson. He tells Majenta how much he's missed her, but Majenta pushes him away, and asks him to explain everything. Fanson reveals he can't, as suddenly Majenta is blasted away by a pulse of energy, as a sentient chrystalline life form called the 'Skith Leader' appears...
Part 2 (Secrets and Lies)
UNIT's helicopter flies past the bridge, as the Doctor begins to communicate with an 'old friend' via the strip of ice. Suddenly, the helicopter interior is ruptured by a flash of bright blue lightning - an energy spike - which destroys the chopper's engines and kills Sergeant Talbot. In an attempt to get Colonel McCay and the Doctor to safety, The Doctor hits the eject button on his seat, and he and McCay are ejected from their seats, just as the chopper explodes in flames behind them. Their parachutes deploy, and they land safely near the city.
Back in the UNIT Underbase, Majenta begins to recover. Fanson begs the Skith Leader to save her live, and the Skith leader agrees, but warns Majenta not to interfere with their plans. Fanson explains that after the incidents with the Hotel Historia, they were both teleported, presumably to Thinktwice. Fanson, however, was intercepted, and brought down to a butcher's shop in Australia, where he found the remains of the Skith leader. Fanson made a deal with the leader, so that both of their lives would be saved. He then masked himself under the body of Corporal Manning, in order to carry out the tasks of the Skith. Suddenly, two UNIT soldiers burst in, and Fanson commands the Skith leader to attack the soldiers. The two soldiers are transformed into Skith, and commanded to spread through the underbase.
The Doctor and Colonel McCay enter a gift shop. After speaking the keyword, he and the Doctor enter a secret UNIT safehouse behind the shop. Using the computers and technology available, the Doctor reveals the 'invisible object' - a huge crystal ship hanging over Sydney. The Doctor explains that the Skith's motivation is to 'rebuild the world in their own image'. Colonel McCay sends a command to the underbase control room to attack the bridge. Suddenly, the two UNIT soldiers converted by the Skith enter the control room...
McCay and the Doctor head back to the Underbase, where the Doctor complains of an ice cream headache. Thinking nothing of it, he spots Majenta, who stops, and reaches for a taser, and electrocutes the Doctor with it. Colonel McCay commands Corporal Manning to stop her, but Manning refuses, pointing out that he is no longer in charge, as numerous newly converted Skith soldiers take UNIT captive. The Doctor is dragged away by the converted soldiers...
As the Doctor begins to wake up, he notices that he is with the Skith leader, Majenta, and Fanson, whom he fails to recognise. The Skith leader tells the Doctor that he is needed by the Skith to access the Skith's crystal ship, as it is phased out of time. The Doctor, Fanson and Majenta are taken to 'The Starling', a flying base used by UNIT. In the control room, the Doctor asks the leader what plan the Skith have. The leader explains that, as the Doctor is time sensitive, the Skith leader plans to open the door and throw him at the ship. Suddenly, another Skith approaches the leader, and warns the leader not to take such drastic action. He then informs the Doctor that 'everthing is going according to plan', as hundreds of Skith fighters swarm out of the ship towards the UNIT base...
Part 3 (The Master of the Skith)
In Sydney dinosaurs still ravage the streets and chase humans. The Doctor, Majenta, Fanson and Tom are being marched down an Ice Corridor by the Skith. The Doctor says that they have a huge army. The Doctor is taken away by the Skith, he tells Majenta to take care of herself.
The Skith General and the Skith Leader meet. The Skith leader is annoyed at The Skith General. They quarrel the General betrays them and pushes him down a passage way to the ground.
Meanwhile at the UNIT base Captasin Branxton and Lowrie and UNIT soldiers are being trapped.
Majenta, Fanson and Tom are on operationg tables. The Skith scan Majenta and find out who she is. When they go to do other business she and Fanson talk, he is in pain, he can't reveal much about her past. Tom escapes from the Skith he shoots them down.
The Doctor is confronts the Skith General, the general explains that the Mindcore needs the Skith Homeworld but it has been destroyed. It has information on the Hand but cannot figure it out. He finds out that they are working on Time Travel.
Tom has freed Majenta and Fanson, they come up with a way to defeat the Skith.
At the UNIT base the Skith want to know what the Leaviathan is. It emits a psychic wave. This knocks out all of the Skith in the base. Branxton then heads the ship up to the surface.
The Skith General takes the doctor to there homemade SKARDIS. They gained knowledge of the TARDIS when they probed the Doctor's mind in 1915. They want control over Time and Space not revenge. The Mindcore tells the Doctor that this is a trap. Tom, Fanson and Majenta race in, but the Skith General shots ice shards at Tom, hitting him. He then turns Majenta into a Skith into the Queen of the Skith. The Skith then chant "Obey her".
Part 4 (Ruins and Snow)
The Doctor pleads with Majenta now known as Queen Skith. She orders the Skith General to throw the Doctor, Fanson and Tom into the Fusion Core just like what the general did with the Skith Leader. The Skith Queen has a blip of Majenta's mind before it got wiped she sees four darkened figures.
The Skith soldiers take The Doctor, Fanson and Tom to the core. Suddenly there is a big boom. The Doctor says its Majenta trying her new Time Tech.
In the Underbase Branxton and Lowrie observe as the Skith freeze all of Sydney, this freezes the dinosaurs though.
The Doctor confronts the Mindcore, the Mindcore says it is going to watch as the Doctor falls and burns. It is interupted when the Skith are hit by beams of energy shattering them. The Skith Leader rises out of the Mindcore, the reason why he survived was he held on he tells Fanson he must save the Skith. He then falls into shards dying. Tom contacts Branxton she tells them the Skith have frozen Sydney.
At the SKARDIS the Skith General asks if the machine is ready, which it is. He suggests they go and strike "The Hand". The Skith Queen has other ideas she suggests they go to Panacea to restore her memory. The Doctor stops the Skith Queen from going to Panacea. The Doctor says every time they use the SKARDIS a Chronal Wave moves across the city leaving Devistation. After the doctor stops Majenta turns a dial on the SKARDIS.
Branxton fires at the Skith base destroying it.
The Skith base begins to fall down around everyone in the SKARDIS. The Doctor says the only way the Skith are to survive as if they leave the Mindcore. The General gets angry he shots an ice spike at Majenta, Fanson dives in front of her and is hit. Fanson in his dying words tells Majenta he had to wipe parts of her mind so she never knew a thing. She had gotten herself mixed up in a terrible secret. Fanson dies, the Doctor pulls an angry Majenta away from him and they head to a helicopter.
On the helicopter the doctor says the effects of the Chronal Wave should clear up in a few days. They agree to stay together as the helicopter flies them to the TARDIS.
Characters
- The Doctor reminces when UNIT used to operate 'out of a draughty old house in the Home Counties' (in the 1970s)
- Majenta Pryce
- Colonel Tom McKay
- Fanson
- Captain Kath Braxton
- Skith Leader
- survived from his previous encounter with the Doctor, but was wounded
References
- The previous year Corporal Manning dealt with an advance party of Ice Warriors.
- Inside the UNIT Underbase 1 there is a section call 'The Bestiary' which contains: a Sontaran scout ship, a War Machine, a Robot Yeti, a Cyberman, half of a Dalek, an Osirian service robot, thirteen copies of the Mona Lisa, a Sea Devil oufit, an Auton and a Dæmon's skull.
- The Multiverse is mentioned for the second time in this arc.
Notes
- There is a brown sofa that appears in 'The Bestiary' in Part One of this comic, the sign appears to say 'No Sitting', it could be a reference to the Nestene chair that appears in DW: Terror of the Autons, however the sofa that appeared in that story was black.
- This was voted in the Dr Who Magazine 2009 survey as the most popular comic strip of that year.
Continuity
- Fanson, who was last seen in DWM: Hotel Historia.
- The Skith, who were last seen in DWM: The First.
- The 'grey haired fella' and the 'bloke with the recorder' are references to the Second Doctor and either the First Doctor or the Third Doctor.
- The Sontaran scout ship is of the same design as those that appeared in DW: The Time Warrior, DW: The Sontaran Experiment and DW: The Two Doctors. One of their Mezon guns from DW: The Two Doctors
- The War Machine from DW: The War Machines.
- The multiple copies of the Mona Lisa were last seen in DW: City of Death.
- The Cyberman is a 1980s era Cyberman and could be from either DW: Attack of the Cybermen or DW: Silver Nemesis.
- The Dalek casing (given it is the lower half and black) could be the Renegade Dalek DW: Remembrance of the Daleks.
- An Ogri makes an apearance, they debuted in DW: The Stones of Blood.
- The Osiran service robot first appeared in DW: Pyramids of Mars and MA: The Sands of Time.
- UNIT first encountered the Robot Yeti in DW: The Web of Fear and RP: Downtime.
- UNIT has encountered the Autons on several occasions (and the Auton could be from any of these): DW: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, BBV: Auton, Auton 2: Sentinel, Auton 3: Awakening.
- There is a black plastic armchair with a "NO SITTING" sign on it, possibly the Auton armchair from DW: Terror of the Autons.
- The Sea Devil is from the Royal Navy's encounter with th in DW: The Sea Devils.
- A box with a picture of a cat is seen, a reference to the Kitlings who appeared in DW: Survival.
- A jar contains what appears to be the weed creature from DW: Fury from the Deep
- The head of a Cyberman from DW: The Invasion
- A UNIT officer refers to the Doctor saving everyone from the Daleks in DW: Journey's End
- The Skith have created their own version of the TARDIS, termed a SKARDIS.
Timeline
- The Age of Ice occurs after: DWM: Mortal Beloved
- The Age of Ice occurs before: DWM: The Deep Hereafter
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