TV Action! (comic story)

TV Action!
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Izzy
Featuring:	Tom
Main enemy:	Beep
Main setting:	BBC Television Centre, London, 12 October 1979, parallel universe
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Writer:	Alan Barnes
Artist:	Roger Langridge
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Printed in:	DWM 283
Release date:	23 September 1999
Cover date:	20 October 1999
Reprinted in:	The Glorious Dead
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
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Next →	The Company of Thieves

You may be looking for the real world periodical of the same name.

TV Action! is a Doctor Who Magazine comic story featuring the Eighth Doctor and Izzy Sinclair. The story was created to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Doctor Who Magazine.

Summary

The Eighth Doctor and Izzy have a brief meeting with an old enemy of the Doctor's known as Beep the Meep in a parallel universe, one where the adventures of the Doctor are nothing more than televised programmes and science fiction.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Eighth Doctor
• Izzy Sinclair
• Beep the Meep
• Tom Baker
• Krl Vrdrmn
• Peter Gilmore
• Howard Lang
• Todd Carty
• Larry Grayson
• Noel Edmonds
• Rod Hall
• John Cleese
• Prunella Scales
• Andrew Sachs
• Basil Brush

Worldbuilding

• Izzy jokes that being chased by zombies is more preferable to a job at Woolworths.
• Tom Baker was once mistaken for Shirley Williams and Gertrude Stein.

Notes

• TV Action! marked the twentieth anniversary of Doctor Who Magazine. The story is set on the very day Doctor Who Weekly first saw print and ends with a confused Doctor looking at the first issue.
• The strip's title is a nod to TV Action, which published the Doctor Who comic strip prior to the launch of Doctor Who Magazine.
• The alien reporter Krl Vrdrmn is a reference to Carol Vorderman.
• Tom Baker's rambling lines are taken from actual interviews with Baker:
  • "Would you like me to be someone else? I was mistaken for Shirley Williams once-- --or was it Gertrude Stein?" (paraphrased from Who on Earth is Tom Baker?)
  • "Here's a thing. I counted four hundred and thirty varicose veins on the way here today, four hundred and thirty, can you believe that? It says a lot about life, doesn't it, when you're reduced to counting varicose veins..." (DWM 179)
  • "So you're the monster, are you? I adored the Krynoid -- the giant walking vegetable and I also liked the Wirrrn [sic]. They were both fun. Then there was the giant rat -- I thought that looked rather good..." (DWM 92)
  • "...as you know naturalism's not my strong point -- I can't even come through a door convincingly! -- But perhaps one can come through a door interestingly, dare I say amusingl--" (DWM 179)
• Many references are made to 1979 BBC shows, with cameo appearances by actors who refer to themselves by their characters' names: the TARDIS lands in the Blue Peter garden, near the memorial statue to Petra the dog, the first people met are extras in Blake's 7 Federation soldier costumes, brainwashed servants of Meep include actors from The Onedin Line (1971-1980), Grange Hill (1978-2008), Are You Being Served? (1972, 1973-79, 1981-85) and Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979), as well as the puppet character Basil Brush, and BBC Outside Broadcast vans are used to transmit black star energy.

Continuity

• The Doctor notes that he has bested Beep twice before. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Star Beast, Star Beast II)