Treasure Trail (comic story): Difference between revisions

'''''Treasure Trail''''' was a 1976 ''[[TV Comic]]'' story that was published a couple of weeks after the conclusion of the debut of ''[[The Seeds of Doom (TV story)|The Seeds of Doom]]'' on [[television]].

Like several other ''[[Doctor Who]]'' stories, it was set in [[World War II]]. Unusually, however, it took place late in the war, about a month after the [[Battle of Monte Cassino]], in a [[Borosini|northern Italian village]] whose inhabitants were [[partisan]]s. Of the many glimpses of World War II provided by ''Doctor Who'', ''Treasure Trail'' may be the only one set amongst the Italian resistance.

The [[Time Lord]]s send the [[Fourth Doctor]] and [[Sarah Jane Smith|Sarah-Jane]] on another mission without clear instructions. They find themselves under [[Nazi]] aircraft fire almost immediately upon disembarking [[the TARDIS]]. The Doctor's people have dumped them near the northern [[Italy|Italian]] town of [[Borosini]] in [[1944]].

Suspected by the local villagers of being Nazi spies, they are brought before the town's [[priest]], [[Father (title)|Father]] [[Antonio (Treasure Trail)|Antonio]]. The Doctor convinces the priest they are [[English]], using the writing on the TARDIS' [[police box]] exterior as proof. Any doubt about the pair's identity, however, is far less significant than that [[Hermann Goering|Goering]]'s Nazis are entering the village. It seems they are after whatever artistic treasures they can find.

They storm into the church, and Antonio shows them the [[Raphael (painter)|Raphael]] hanging in the knave. Impressed, [[Lieutenant]] [[Schuler (Treasure Trail)|Schuler]] spreads word of the painting up the Nazi chain of command. Meanwhile, the villagers fear that the Nazis will just steal their art as they've already done elsewhere in [[Europe]].

[[Giovanni (Treasure Trail)|Giovanni]], a local [[partisan]] who has given the Doctor and Sarah a hard time, confirms that there's a massive shipment of stolen art soon to pass through by [[train|rail]]. The Doctor proposes to blow the line. They do this, retrieve all the stolen art via a [[mule]] trail, and bring it all back to the TARDIS. The Time Lords send the TARDIS to [[1948]], where the Doctor offloads the art. To the Italian press, it seems as though the art has magically reappeared. One priest in [[Borosini]] knows it's ''not'' magic, but it's a secret he vows to take to his grave.

* [[Major]] [[Linz]]

* This story makes no significant references to other [[DWU]] fiction.