The Eternal Present (comic story)

The Eternal Present
Doctor:	Third Doctor
Companion(s):	Theo
Main enemy:	Mar-Kom
Main setting:	England, 1971 New Britain, 3550
Key crew
Publisher:	Polystyle
Writer:	Dennis Hooper
Artist:	Harry Lindfield and Gerry Haylock
Release details
Number of parts:	7
Printed in:	TV Action 40-46
Release date:	20 November 1971 - 1 January 1972
Reprinted in:	DWCC 4, DWCC 5
Format:	Comic
TVA comic stories
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The Eternal Present was a Third Doctor comic story published in TV Action.

Summary

The Third Doctor has been pursued through time and captured for the "crime" of time travel. Taken to New Britain in 3550, the Doctor is sentenced to trial by combat by Mar-Kom, the ruler of New Britain. The Time Lord allies himself with Theophilus Tolliver, the inventor of Earth's first time machine, to uncover the truth about Mar-Kom.

Characters

• Third Doctor
• Theophilus Tolliver
• Andron
• Mar-Kom
• Technician
• PC Ernest Whitehouse

Worldbuilding

• The TARDIS travels the edges of Galaxy 884.
• The time police can track the Doctor's TARDIS to the end of time.
• The Doctor is referred to as an ex-Time Lord.
• The Doctor uses Jupiter as an intensive.
• Theo invented his time machine in 1897.
• Theo is a friend of H. G. Wells.
• St. Paul's Cathedral still stands in New London.

Notes

• In a rather unusual bit of intertextuality, Theophilus Tolliver is implied to be the unnamed traveller from H.G. Wells's The Time Machine.
• The Doctor breaks the fourth wall in the closing frame of the last instalment, saying to the readers: "But, of course — he [Theo] will get home safely! And tell his story to his friend... H.G. Wells!"

Original print details

(Publication with page count and closing captions)

• TVA 40 (2 pages) CONTINUED NEXT WEEK!
• TVA 41 (2 pages) More Next Week!
• TVA 42 (2 pages) [No closing caption]
• TVA 43 (2 pages) More next week!
• TVA 44 (2 pages) More next week!
• TVA 45 (2 pages) MORE NEXT WEEK!
• TVA 46 (2 pages) GREAT NEW STORY NEXT WEEK!

Continuity

• The Doctor has been placed on trial before for his actions involving time travel, with his second incarnation's trial on Gallifrey for violating the non-interference policy being the reason he was an exile on Earth in the first place. (TV: The War Games)

External links

• The Eternal Present at the Doctor Who Reference Guide