Growing Terror (comic story)
Growing Terror was a comic story featured in issue one of Doctor Who: Battles in Time. It was written by Stephen Cole with art by John Ross.
This story was notable for being the first Battles in Time comic story, the series would continue until the final instalment The End was released in May 2009. It introduced an overarching plot which would span the first six issues, and brought back characters and concepts first seen in the television episode The End of the World.
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
The TARDIS, along with the Doctor and Rose, is brought to a rough landing in a Biogrove by Coffa and Lute, who greet them with a warning: the survivors of "that dreadful day" on Platform One are disappearing one by one.
While the Biogrove's protective shields are down to let the TARDIS through, a cyborg called Montodon Slemm, along with his robotic gardener SNIP-7, also arrive. As soon as their ship lands and starts scorching the forest, they begin to harvest the land for intelligent trees for Slemm's customers back home (where he owns the Cyborg Intergalactic Garden Centres). Taking Coffa and Lute to safety in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose are pursued by Slemm and SNIP-7. They lure them into a field of super-evolved space dandelions, which seed and grow in metal very quickly.
The robotic parts quickly become clogged. With his Garden Bot useless, Slemm, also affected by the seeds, leaves in a hurry. Returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose find no sign of Coffa and Lute. They decide to leave, wondering where the survivors of Platform One have gone and when they will be next...
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor mentions garden gnomes.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Supporting the series of collectible Doctor Who trading cards, the magazine carried a regular four page, individually titled comic strip of the Tenth Doctor's adventures.
- The artwork and colours were bold and bright, reflecting the tone of the magazine and, as did Doctor Who Adventures, reflected the appeal to readers younger than those catered to by Doctor Who Magazine.
- This first comic strip story deliberately relates to a familiar back story and characters to the Doctor and Rose's TV adventures (TV: The End of the World) with which the target audience is likely to be already familiar.
- The Battles in Time comic strip often sought to reinforce the association of its Doctor with the one seen on screen with "props" from the TV series: blue/brown suit, intelligent-looking glasses, sonic screwdriver and psychic paper. Apart from the brown suit, none appeared in this strip.
Original print details[[edit] | [edit source]]
- 1/6 DWBIT 1 (4 pages) TO BE CONTINUED!!!
- No reprints to date.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- References are made to the guests at Platform One, Rose's reaction to seeing so many aliens and the Doctor being unable to save Jabe, as well as featuring two familiar survivors, Coffa and Lute, which all occurred in TV: The End of the World.
