The Birthday Boy (comic story)
The Birthday Boy was an exclusive comic story included in a special Blu-ray giftset to celebrate Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary in 2013, produced by the team behind the then-current Doctor Who comic book series by IDW Publishing. It was later reprinted in 2016 by Titan Publishing Group in The Eleventh Doctor Archives: Volume 3, part of a series of reprints of the IDW stories and renamed 50th Anniversary DVD Special.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Clara Oswald wakes a groggy Eleventh Doctor with breakfast in bed, telling him that it's his birthday, but things aren't right. He and Clara live in an ordinary house, he has an office, and Clara is preparing well-cooked food for his birthday party. In the Doctor's office, however, is something resembling the TARDIS, which the Doctor vaguely remembers; the opening it, he discovers many thousand year diaries, but is bemused to find they are all completely empty.
Out shopping for items, he meets people who are strangely familiar to him — Sarah Jane Smith and the Brigadier, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet, and starts to realise that things are not right. The shops themselves are stocked with curious items such as Adipose and Cybermen, and then the Doctor encounters a band of old adversaries who all ask him for help. Back "home", when he arrives, the Doctor's friends celebrate his birthday. They present him with presents — his fob watch, the TARDIS key, psychic paper and the sonic screwdriver. These items allow him to break free of the mental projection caused by a Trylonian Brain Drain machine. The Trylonians want to drain the Doctor's mind of knowledge of the alien species he's encountered to advance their plans of conquest. Recalling all his previous incarnations, the Doctor overloads the Trylonian battle computer. Surrounded, the Doctor and Clara prepare to fight the monsters, protect their friends and save the planet — just what they always do, in fact.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor's mind[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Peri Brown
- Susan Foreman
- Ian Chesterton
- Barbara Wright
- Romana I
- Romana II
- Jamie McCrimmon
- Zoe Herriot
- Ace
- Turlough
- Sarah Jane Smith
- Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
- Tegan Jovanka
- Nyssa
- Adric
- Steven Taylor
- Dodo Chaplet
- Katarina
- Vicki Pallister
- Melanie Bush
- Liz Shaw
- Sara Kingdom
- Victoria Waterfield
- Ben Jackson
- Polly Wright
- Mike Yates
- John Benton
- River Song
- Clara Oswald
- Amy Pond
- Rory Williams
- Donna Noble
- Jack Harkness
- Martha Jones
- Mickey Smith
- Rose Tyler
- Prisoner Zero
- Ice Warrior
- The Master
- Silent
- Wirrn
- Celestial Toymaker
- Silurian
- Zygon
- Slitheen
- Axon
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This is the first time that River Song appears in a comic story in her third incarnation. Her first comic appearance was in her second incarnation, in Imaginary Enemies.
- For reasons unknown, the opening page which resembles a birthday party invitation identifies Clara as "Clara Oswin", even though The Bells of Saint John confirms the original Clara's name does not include Oswin.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- In the mental projection, several objects from the Doctor's life appears, including: dolls resembling Adipose, (TV: Partners in Crime) Cybermen, (TV: The Tenth Planet) Cybermats, (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) Autons and proper troll dolls, (TV: Terror of the Autons) a flower shop with Wolfweeds, (TV: The Creature from the Pit) a Krynoid, (TV: The Seeds of Doom) a Vervoid, (TV: Terror of the Vervoids) Excalibur, (TV: Battlefield) the time cabinet, (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) The Master's TARDIS, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) Rosanna Calvierri's throne, (TV: The Vampires of Venice) and a Macra claw. (TV: The Macra Terror) The Doctor's presents include his biodata module fob watch, (TV: Human Nature) a TARDIS key[additional sources needed], psychic paper (TV: The End of the World et al.) and his sonic screwdriver[which?][additional sources needed].
- River once again refers to the Doctor as "my love". (TV: The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang, AUDIO: A Requiem for the Doctor)
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