The Poison Planet (comic story)
The Poison Planet was a Doctor Who Adventures comic story featuring the Tenth Doctor.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Answering a mayday, the Doctor discovers the dead body of Dr Kaleb Loss on planetoid KX77 in the Bromid system, known as Death's Door owing to its toxic atmosphere. He concludes the researcher died from spacesuit rupture: noting that Dr Loss worked for the Institute for Exo-Contamination Treatment (InFECT), he takes the body several light years to Mustron V, where the Institute is based, curious as to Loss's reason for being on Death's Door. On Mustron V, the TARDIS is forced to land outside the Institute by a force field: taking the body in by foot, wearing a spacesuit, the Doctor finds no sign of the remaining four InFECT staff. He is attacked by a large blue biped, which he stuns by pulling an astrograph over on it; he discovers team member Rachel "Red" Barlow in hiding, who tells him the creature is one of two Vox, used as guard dogs: the other has been killed by the figure of a faceless spaceman, causing everyone to go into hiding.
InFECT is researching a cure for the Space Plague ravaging the Outer Worlds. The Doctor gathers the researchers — Red, Mick, Jennifer and Asif - and tells them of Dr Loss's death, but they discover his body is missing from the sick bay. While they search for the missing corpse in the airlock, Red explains to the Doctor that Loss was collecting samples of stryntium, vital for the cure's development, which the Doctor left in the airlock on his way in. Suddenly, they are ejected from the airlock by the faceless spaceman.
The Doctor tells Red to hold her breath, while he reopens the airlock with the sonic screwdriver, and they regain safety. He seizes the faceless spaceman, breaks the Acme "Magic" refraction Visor that was making its head invisible, and reveals Jennifer, who, obsessed by the loss of her brother to the Plague, has become convinced that the team were working too slowly and is determined to develop the antidote quickly herself. Keeping the others back at gunpoint, she accidentally infects herself with a sample of the Plague, but the Doctor goes into the decontamination area and treats her with her antidote — which works. The team agree to call the cure the Kaleb Loss vaccine and prepare to broadcast details of it to the galaxy as the Doctor leaves.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The DWA comic strip adventures were aimed at a younger audience and the artwork and colours were bold and bright, reflecting the tone of the magazine.
- Self contained, one part stories were the norm in the early issues, later being expanded to two-parters.
- The Doctor makes a reference to Scooby Doo.
- In the opening of part three, the Doctor tells Rachel Barlow to hold her breath when they're sucked out of an airlock onto the airless Mustron V. In real life holding your breath in a vacuum will cause your lungs to rupture from the pressure difference and kill you.
Original print details[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Publication with page count and closing captions
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
