Star Death (comic story)

Star Death
Featuring:	Rassilon
Main enemy:	Fenris
Main setting:	Flagship Aeon, Qqaba orbit
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Editor:	Dez Skinn
Writer:	Alan Moore
Artist:	John Stokes
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Printed in:	Doctor Who Magazine Issue 47
Release date:	13 November 1980
Format:	B&W 1 part / 4 pages
DWM backup comic stories
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Star Death was a backup comic story published in Doctor Who Magazine in 1981. It featured the early days of the Time Lord civilisation and was set during the time of Rassilon and Omega.

It was notable as the first appearance of Rassilon in any medium, as it was released after he was first mentioned in TV: The Deadly Assassin, and before his first television appearance in TV: The Five Doctors. Furthermore, it was notable for depicting the circumstances leading to Omega's imprisonment in the Anti-matter universe as seen in TV: The Three Doctors.

Summary

On the order of Grand Master of the Prydonian Chapter, Rassilon, Lord Griffen and Lady Jodelex await the collapse of the dying star, Qqaba. Fenris, also known as the Hell-Bringer, a mercenary from the future, travels back in time to sabotage the experiment and change Time Lord history. He causes the ships' stasis haloes to fail, leaving Lord Omega doomed to fall into the black hole. However, Rassilon's intervention sees Fenris dispatched and the experiment a success. Fenris's discarded belt provides the much needed technology to use the new energy and will provide a form of directional control.

Characters

• Rassilon
• Lord Griffen
• Lady Jodelex
• Omega
• Fenris

Worldbuilding

Individuals

• Lord Griffen belongs to the Elders of Gallifrey.
• Rassilon can spring bolts of power arc from his fingertips, a power called electro-direction.

Technology

• Gallifreyans were provided with starbreaker ships. The flagship of the fleet was Aeon.
• Fenris uses a wave scrambler to sabotage the stasis haloes.
• Fenris is provided with a time-jumper. Rassilon gets inspiration from it to invent directional control of time travel.

Notes

• This back-up strip was introduced by the Fourth Doctor.

Merlyn, first introduced in A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair..., as he appears in the altered Star Death

• In the altered version reprinted in The Daredevils #5 the introduction is narrated instead by Merlyn, first seen in A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair....
• Jeremy Bentham advised Moore on the continuity of Rassilon and Omega for this story. (DWM 344)
  • Indeed, details about the genesis of Gallifreyan time travel and the disappearance of Omega (TV: The Three Doctors, The Deadly Assassin) are expanded.
• This story, along with the comics 4-D War and Black Sun Rising, takes place during the Black Sun War.
• In 2012, Lawrence Miles said, "Alan Moore's back-up strips were an obvious influence on both Marc Platt's view of ye olde Gallifrey and my view of its future."
• Rassilon claiming Fenris' directional controls roots Time Lord society in a bootstrap paradox. Interference - Book One would later assert the Order of the Black Sun was actually a creation of Faction Paradox.

Original print details

Publication with page count and closing captions

1. DWM 47 (4) The End

Reprints

• Reprinted by Marvel in The Daredevils #5

Continuity

to be added

External links

• Star Death at the Superfriends Wiki