The Arkwood Experiments (comic story)

The Arkwood Experiments
Doctor:	Third Doctor
Companion(s):	The Brigadier
Main enemy:	Cedric Mathews
Main setting:	England, the 1970s
Key crew
Publisher:	Polystyle
Writer:	Roger Noel Cook
Artist:	John Canning
Release details
Printed in:	TV Comic 944-949
Release date:	17 January - 21 February 1970
Reprinted in:	DWCC 4
Format:	Comic - 6 parts (12 pages)
TVC comic stories
← Previous	The Night Walkers
Next →	The Multi-Mobile

The Arkwood Experiments was the comic debut of the Third Doctor, UNIT and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. It followed the first major break in Doctor Who comic strip history — a nearly two month gap since the Second Doctor's swansong. The hiatus somewhat mirrored the unusually long seven month gap between season 6 and season 7 on television.

Summary

When normally peaceful animals at a zoo become violent, the Third Doctor and the Brigadier find that Cedric Mathews, a pupil at a nearby school, has created a drug which enhances aggression. Mathews infects all of the children at the school with the drug, and the Doctor and the Brigadier must stop the group of violent children before they reach a nearby village.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Third Doctor
• Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
• Cedric Mathews
• Keeper
• Headmaster
• Thompson
• Swithers

Worldbuilding

• Among the zoo animals affected by Cedric's drug are parrots, penguins, a gazelle, a panther, and a lion.
• The Doctor remembers an event in a far-off galaxy where a herd of rampaging creatures came out of a volcano.
• The Doctor's TARDIS has a lab.

Notes

• The first word spoken by the Third Doctor in his comic book tenure is; "What?" It is said in response to the Brigadier asking him to meet him at the zoo.

Original print details

(Publication with page count and closing captions)

• TVC 944 (2 pages) Can Dr. Who and the Brigadier escape the frenzied parrots ? See next week !
• TVC 945 (2 pages) Next week the takeover of the ten-year-olds begins !
• TVC 946 (2 pages) Next week: Wild ten-year-olds on the rampage !
• TVC 947 (2 pages) [No closing caption]
• TVC 948 (2 pages) Next week the savage ten-year-olds attack the village !
• TVC 949 (2 pages) A new all-action adventure with Dr. Who starts next week : The Multi-Mobile !

Continuity

• The Doctor has attached himself to UNIT after being forced into a new body (TV: Spearhead from Space ^[+]Loading...["Spearhead from Space (TV story)"]) by animated scarecrows, (COMIC: The Night Walkers ^[+]Loading...["The Night Walkers (comic story)"]) in accordance with the Time Lords' verdict on him breaching their non-interference policy. (TV: The War Games ^[+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)","The War Games"])