Doctor Who and the Time Witch (comic story)

Doctor Who and the Time Witch
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companion(s):	K9 Mark II, Sharon
Main enemy:	Brimo
Main setting:	Blank dimension
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Editor:	Paul Neary
Writer:	Steve Moore
Artist:	Dave Gibbons
Release details
Number of parts:	4
Printed in:	DWM 35-38
Release date:	5 - 26 June 1980
Reprinted in:	The Iron Legion
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
← Previous	Doctor Who and the Dogs of Doom
Next →	Dragon's Claw

Doctor Who and the Time Witch — or simply The Time Witch — was a Fourth Doctor comic strip published in Doctor Who Weekly.

Summary

On the planet Nefrin, long before Earth was even formed, a woman named Brimo was sentenced to imprisonment in the Eternity Capsule for using her psychic powers to conspire to "pervert the course of destiny". Brimo was confined in the capsule for aeons until Nefrin's sun collapsed and became a black hole.

This created a split in the fabric of time that produced a blank dimension into which Brimo was sucked. Once there, Brimo found she only had to think of something and it would come into existence. Unfortunately, to create things in the blank dimension, energy had to be drawn from the normal universe, which would lead to the destruction of the universe if not stopped.

Luckily, the Fourth Doctor and Sharon are also sucked into the blank dimension. The Doctor tries to stop Brimo, but she resists, attacking him with her mind powers. As the Doctor fights back, he notices the items Brimo has created are beginning to disappear because the TARDIS prevents energy from entering the dimension.

The Doctor holds off Brimo until she only has enough power left for one last attack. The Doctor suggests that she use that last attack to create the most terrifying thing she can think of. Brimo does this, but realises too late that the one thing she finds more terrifying than anything else is her former prison, the Eternity Capsule, which forms around her and confines her again.

With Brimo confined forever, the Doctor and Sharon prepare to leave the blank dimension, which has grown to a size of four years across and passes through the chronocompensator of the TARDIS. Unwilling to wait four years to get to the normal universe, the Doctor activates the TARDIS. Their return is successful but because the chronocompensator is not working, the Doctor and Sharon find themselves four years older. Four years is not a significant change for the Doctor, but schoolgirl Sharon is now a young woman. The Doctor suggests she look on the bright side and be glad that she missed out on her teen years because he was "a spotty teenager for fifty years!"

Characters

• Fourth Doctor
• Sharon Davies
• K9 Mark II
• Brimo
• Meltron

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor mentions the planets Flogstrune and Mobeli-Four.
• The Retinal Implant Viddy Machine has files on CyberTelosians, Davros, Daleks, Kaldor androids, Kraals, the Master, and Zygons from The Galactic Crime-Fighter's Notebook.

Notes

Original print details

(Publication with page count and closing captions)

1. DWM 35 (5 pages) Next Week: Into the Abyss!
2. DWM 36 (4 pages) Next Week: Lady of the Lightning!
3. DWM 37 (4 pages) Next Week: Mind-Twist!
4. DWM 38 (4 pages) Next Issue: Join the Doctor, Sharon and K-9 in... Dragon's Claw!

Reprints

1. DW85 5 (Doctor Who (1984) colourised reprint)
2. The Iron Legion
3. DWC 7-8 (IDW colourised reprint)
4. Doctor Who Classics Volume 2 (IDW colourised reprint)
5. Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1 (IDW colourised reprint)

Continuity

• Brimo's fate of being pulled through a black hole into another dimension shaped by her will, but which drained energy from the universe, is the same as Omega. (TV: The Three Doctors)