Non-GA Spotlight: Doctor Who #1

Issue: Doctor Who #1

Title: "Doctor Who and the Star Beasts" (main) "Return of the Daleks" (back-up)

Credits: Mills and Wagner (scripts) Dave Gibbons (art)

Cover Date: October, 1984

Synopsis: This first issue finds the Doctor on his way to Spain for vacation. Unfortunately, the TARDIS is up to its usual tricks, and ends up putting him inside an alien space ship.

The aliens quickly subdue both the Doctor and K-9, moving the Doctor into an operating theater. We find out that they plan to implant a deadly bomb in his stomach. The Doctor is allowed to escape, but with a pair of alien spys on board the TARDIS.

Meanwhile, in England, two teenagers stumble across a truly adorable blue, fuzzy alien that they name Meep. They take it home and try to nurse it back to health, all the while passing it off as an exotic pet to the boy's mother.

The Doctor hears a news report about the crash of the Meep's UFO, and decides to investigate. He arrives just in time to help the two kids fight off an attack by the very same aliens that previously captured the Doctor. It turns out they they're hunting the Meep. They fear and hate it for reasons that remain unclear.

The Doctor quickly realizes that the attack was beaten off far too easily, and suddenly remembers the pain in his stomach. He suddenly figures out what the aliens have done to him, and warns the children to run... THE END!

The back-up feature is a fun little tale about an alien planet which films a movie about Daleks. The fantasy turns to reality when one of their less reputable citizens uses a mysterious crystal to make the Daleks real. Her plan turns against her after the Daleks, being Daleks, inevitably betray her. She teams up with the planet's military to use the crystal to return the Daleks to their fantasy world, eliminating the threat and leaving the movie studio with tons of absolutely amazing footage...

Thoughts: This issue was a ton of fun. The writers managed to capture what really makes the Doctor fun and translate it into comic book form. I thought the Dalek story (surprisingly) was the less compelling of the two stories. It just didn't click with me for some reason. The Star Beast story continues with the next issue, so I'll make sure to review that as well so you'll all know what happened...