End of the Line (comic story): Difference between revisions

{{Infobox Story

|companions=[[Angel (End of the Line)|Angel]]

|enemy= [[Cannibal (End of the Line)|Cannibals]]

|writer= [[Steve Parkhouse]]

|editor=[[Alan McKenzie]]

|publication= ''[[Doctor Who Monthly]]'' [[DWM 54|54]]-[[DWM 55|55]]

|release date= [[July (releases)|July]] - [[August (releases)|August]] [[1981 (releases)|1981]]

|format= Comic - 2 parts

|next= The Free-Fall Warriors (comic story)

The Doctor lands on what appears to be a [[subway]] platform. Soon, he finds himself chased by [[zombie]]-like creatures. As the creatures appear to gain the upper hand, a masked figure suddenly rushes the zombies. They are quickly dispatched, and the Doctor's shadowy saviour removes her mask. She introduces herself as "[[Angel (End of the Line)|Angel]]", one of the [[Guardian Angel]]s who patrol the under-city. She explains that the zombies were in fact called "[[Cannibal]]s", in deference to their eating habits.

Angel suggests that the Doctor should come with her back to Guardian Angel HQ. Once there, she introduces the Doctor to her fellow Guardian Angel, [[Sonny (End of the Line)|Sonny]], and their scientific advisor, [[the Engineer]]. The goal of the Angels, it turns out, is to try to do something to reverse or escape the crushing levels of [[pollution]] in the city, as this has been traced directly to the creation of the Cannibal underclass. The Angels, in fact, believe that there is some place beyond the city, somewhere at "the end of the line", called "[[countryside]]". If they can just figure out how to manipulate the subway system, perhaps they can break free and find it.

Just as he's about to leave the [[planet]], though, he reasons that he didn't ''actually'' see Angel and Sonny and the Engineer make it to their new life in the countryside. So he materialises the TARDIS to the end of the subway line. There, he finds it's not a paradise, but really just as polluted as the city proper. Nevertheless, he waits for his new friends to arrive. After a considerable length of time, a [[radioactive]] [[rain]] storm phases the Doctor's determination to wait for his friends to arrive. He goes back to the TARDIS, saddened that his friends didn't make it, but also grateful that their unrealistically hopeful dreams of the countryside were likely still intact.

 

* [[Guardian Angel|The Guardian Angels]]

** [[Angel (End of the Line)|Angel]]

** [[Sonny (End of the Line)|Sonny]]

** [[The Engineer]]

* [[Cannibal (End of the Line)|Cannibals]]

== References ==

* [[DW84 11]]

* [[DW84 12]]

* [[Dragon's Claw (graphic novel)]]

* ''[[Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1]]''

* In part 1, the Fourth Doctor bolsters his own confidence in a bad situation by quoting the [[Third Doctor]]'s dying sentiment, "Where there's life there's hope". ([[TV]]: ''[[Planet of the Spiders]]'')