The first Doctorless Doctor Who-related comic strips appeared in the Dalek Book 1965 (which was actually released in 1964), an annual-style publication that featured an enviable six strips featuring Skaro’s finest.

This book tells the story of the Daleks’ attempted invasion of the Solar System, and fits well with continuity later established in the TV Century 21 strip. Many of the stories also fit with ideas later mentioned in the Curse of the Daleks stage play, making its stories a valuable addition to alternative Dalek continuity.

SCRIPT: David Whitaker/Terry Nation
ART: Richard Jennings, John Wood, A.B. Cornwell

If anyone can identify the individual credits for each story, please contact us at the usual address.

ART: Richard Jennings

Skaro enters the solar system and the Daleks attack the moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars before turning their attention to the large Earth colony on Venus. Scientists Jeff and Mary Stone are taken prisoner, but their brother Andy swears to rescue them and free Venus of the invaders.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Featuring some spectacular panels of Dalek-engineered destruction, and taking in Earth, Skaro, Venus, Mars, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, and a space station, Invasion of the Daleks gets the story off to an epic and ambitious start. This strip also features the first ever appearance of a Dalek variant, in this case the impressively domed Emperor Dalek.

Intent on rescuing Mary, Jeff and Andy attack a Dalek oil installation, unaware that Mary, having devised a work rota that will speed up production but also save human lives, has been taken to other installations by the Daleks. Reflecting the sun’s rays onto the oil well using a lens from a pair of binoculars, Andy and Jeff cause an explosion, allowing the slaves to revolt. With the slaves freed, Andy and Jeff continue their search for their sister and the liberation of Venus.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The cheap red spot colour definitely doesn’t help this strip, but then nor do some horribly misshapen Daleks. The story shows a certain amount of ingenuity and works fairly well, though I do wonder how many children became pyromaniacs as a result of this strip...

ART: Richard Jennings

Jeff Stone infiltrates the Dalek city on Skaro and takes back to Earth a secret document detailing the anatomy of a Dalek.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
This strip is interesting as it isn’t really a comic strip in the traditional sense of the word at all, more a pictorial guided tour of the Dalek city with a cutaway of a Dalek halfway through strung together with the aid of an exceptionally loose narrative. It’s a shame really they didn’t save this strip for later in the publication, as Jeff suddenly being on Skaro rather undermines the continuing narrative.

Looking for Daleks on Mars using a spectroscanner to detect Dalekenium, Mary, Jeff and Andy are deceived by artificial humans created by the Daleks who they take aboard their spaceship. Andy and Jeff overpower the humanoids and fight off the approaching army of Daleks, clearing the planet of the enemy.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The Dalek idea to infiltrate with duplicates would later find currency in the series itself - first through Nation’s own The Chase, then through his The Android Invasion and finally through Resurrection of the Daleks. Not that we’re going to pretend that Terry Nation invented this hoary old sci-fi cliché. It is used reasonably well here to add some intrigue to a fairly simple tale. The spot colour is again unpleasant, but at least we’re on Mars so it seems appropriate.

Dragged down onto the inhospitable world of Gurnian by the Daleks’ magnetrap, Andy and Mary must survive the savage two-headed Horrorkon monsters for the amusement of the Daleks, but the Horrorkons prove unusual allies more interested in destroying anything made of metal... including the Daleks.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
This story features the wonderfully bizarre Marsh Dalek, seen above on its long, stilt-like legs, only the second Dalek variant ever to have been seen. Presumably these were developed before the idea of hoverbouts occurred to the Dalek planners. The two-headed and ferocious Horrorkons are clearly the ancestors of the Terrorkons who would later terrorise the pages of the TV21 Dalek strip. This strip features extremely out of character sadistic Daleks, doesn’t tie in to the story arc and is definitely one of the weakest strips.

ART: Richard Jennings

Whilst the Emperor Dalek sues for peace on Earth, Andy, Jeff and Mary head for the moon, sure the Dalek’s black fleet has landed there. Sure enough, they are under attack from Dalek hoverbouts and forced down onto the moon’s surface. There they discover that the Daleks plan to explode the old nuclear weapons that Earth dumped on the moon’s surface. The cloud of dust created will be channelled down a sunray and will poison the Earth’s atmosphere. However, Mary sets the bombs to explode prematurely. The intrepid threesome escape as the Daleks are blown to pieces,

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Can you honestly imagine the Daleks suing for peace, even if it is just a dirty ruse to poison the Earth’s atmosphere? Anyway, this is a fun and fairly exciting conclusion to the epic tale of the Dalek invasion of the Solar System. And I do like the fact that it is Mary who ultimately saves the day.

On 23 January 1965, the Daleks made their first appearance in their own full colour comic strip on the back page of the lavish new children's weekly comic TV Century 21. Written by David Whitaker (with the assistance of Alan Fennell on the first story), who was Doctor Who’s original script editor, and illustrated by such legendary comic strip artists as Richard Jennings, Ron Turner and Eric Eden, this popular one-page strip ran for sixteen stories over one hundred and four instalments, and finally concluded on the brink of the Daleks' planned attack on the inhabitants of Earth, which ties in very nicely with the continuity established in The Dalek Book (see above).

Please note that, on their original publication, the sixteen stories that comprise the Daleks strip did not have individual titles and are presented here in this format purely for ease of reference.

ART: Richard Jennings
ISSUES: 1-3
COVER DATES: 23 January 1965 - 6 February 1965
ON TV: The Romans (Season 2)
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Weekly, Issue 33 (black & white), Doctor Who Monthly, Issues 180-182, 50 Years Doctor Who The Daleks The Essential Guide to the Doctor’s Greatest Enemy, May 2013.

The war between the Dals and the Thals has raged for generations. War Minister Zolfian and Chief Scientist Yarvelling have devised a way to finally bring the conflict to an end using neutron bombs and killing machines. But when their plans go disastrously awry, it looks like the end of all life on Skaro. Could anything survive?

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
A good but not outstanding start to the strip. Jennings has yet to perfect his Daleks, which are very oddly proportioned, but the rest of the art is glorious.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Plenty of double-dealing and some pleasingly ruthless Daleks make up for the slightly insipid Sala and Astolith. However, the strip’s greatest moment is when the Daleks learn the secret of space flight, thus taking them one step closer to their dreams of universal domination.

ART: Richard Jennings
ISSUES: 11-17
COVER DATES: 3 April 1965 - 15 May 1965
ON TV: The Crusade - The Space Museum (Season 2)
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Holiday Special 1973 (black &  white, with title given as Dalek Duel), Doctor Who Weekly, Issues 35-36 (black & white), Doctor Who Monthly, Issues 189-193

When his casing becomes strengthened following a freak accident, Dalek worker Zeg challenges the Emperor’s authority.

But which will triumph, the Emperor’s cunning and intelligence or Zeg’s great strength?

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
And suddenly the strip is firing on all cylinders with one of the best and most popular stories in the entire run. Zeg is a great character and his battle with the Emperor is imaginative, tense and exciting which makes for some great cliffhanger endings. The Black Dalek makes his first appearance here too.

ART: Richard Jennings
ISSUES: 18-24
COVER DATES: 22 May 1965 - 3 July 1965
ON TV: The Chase - The Time Meddler (Season 2)
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Weekly, Issues 36-37 (black & white abridged), Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issues 1 & 2

The Daleks make it into space in their now-familiar saucers. Their first target for conquest is the planet Alvega, closest of all worlds to Skaro. However, the unusual inhabitants of Alvega have other ideas.

Soon it is a fight to the death between the Daleks and a life form different to them in every way.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
You might expect the Daleks’ first foray into conquest to be a fairly standard affair, but this is far from it. The Amarylls and the controlling Root are memorable and beautifully depicted. The final showdown with a lone Dalek is masterfully done and we’re rooting for the Daleks all the way!

ART: Richard Jennings
ISSUES: 25-32
COVER DATES: 10 July 1965 - 28 August 1965
ON TV: The Time Meddler (Season 2)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in the 1977 Dalek Annual under the title The Envoys of Evil, Doctor Who Weekly, Issues 37-39 (black & white), Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issues 2 & 3.

Daleks land on the planet Solturis declaring peace. It's an unlikely claim, but the locals have no reason to disbelieve - apart from old Lurr, who has seen a vision of the future, showing destruction and slavery beneath the Daleks. But who will listen to his claims?

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Solid. Here we’re rooting for the humans. What an odd and schizophrenic strip The Daleks is...

ART: Richard Jennings
ISSUES: 33-39

COVER DATES: 4 September 1965 - 16 October 1965
ON TV: Galaxy Four - The Myth Makers (Season 3)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who Weekly, Issues 39-40 (black & white), Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issues 4 & 5.

The Emperor’s plans for universal conquest are disrupted when he receives an urgent call from Skaro - a new and deadly threat faces the Daleks, one that could spell the end of the Dalek race!

ART: Richard Jennings
ISSUES: 40-46
COVER DATES: 23 October 1965 - 4 December 1965
ON TV: The Myth Makers - The Daleks’ Master Plan (Season 3)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in the 1977 Dalek Annual, then in Doctor Who Weekly, Issues 40-42 (black & white), Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issues 4 & 5.

An alien vessel lands on Skaro and, with the Daleks in disarray, the cruel Monstron invaders and their Engibrain robots are soon able to shatter the Daleks’ supremacy.

With the Dalek city destroyed and the Emperor lost, what hope remains for the survival of the Dalek race?

As with most annuals, the actual year of publication was the year before the cover date.

ART: Richard Jennings, John Wood, A.B. Cornwell, Wiggins.

If anyone can identify the individual credits for each story, please contact us at the usual address.

ART: Richard Jennings

Threatened by a mechanical planet, the Daleks appeal to the Earthmen to rearm them.

The Earthmen, unable to combat the menace themselves, reluctantly agree. The Daleks save the solar system by destroying the mechanical world, but then vow to once more conquer Earth.

Which is no more than you would expect of them, really.

Three light years from Pluto, Brit’s spaceship ‘Daring’ leaves Satellite Airport with two stowaways named Borg and Zemmer hidden aboard. The stowaways concuss Brit with nerve gas and reprogramme the ship to land on Skaro where they plan to steal the treasure of the Daleks.

Freezing the automated gun systems, they gain access to the Daleks’ treasure house, but the Daleks are alerted by the systems inactivity and send hoverbout patrols. While Borg and Zemmer fight off the Daleks’ pet Dredly monster (no, really), Brit makes her escape. Borg and Zimmer chase after her, but the automated guns have defrosted in half the time because of Skaro’s twin suns and they are both shot down. When the Daleks arrive, they find two dead pirates but no ship. Brit is safely away... with one million pound diamond with which she cut herself loose.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
This strip is real throwaway stuff, with a lazy and unimaginative plot and artwork that does nothing to improve matters. Borg is a very Terry Nation-type name (similar to Bors and Borkar from The Daleks’ Master Plan). Can you really imagine the Daleks hording treasure?

ART: Richard Jennings

A Dalek compressed water factory is attacked and destroyed by invisible invaders. The Daleks suspect sabotage from their slave workers, but a further attack on the landing field convinces them otherwise. The Daleks extinguish the fires with fire fighting chemicals, which reveals one of the invisible invaders who is taken prisoner. This act encourages the main force to attack - their assault on the Daleks will be good practice for their planned invasion of Earth. However, the battle between  Daleks and their invisible enemy, leaves the Daleks victorious, lamenting only that the secret of invisibility died with their aggressors.

Mechanus is attacked by the Daleks, but the Mechanoids have cunningly created a Dalek duplicate which gives them the upper hand. However, the Black Dalek fights back, using an atom divider to smash the legs of the Mechanoid city and sending it crashing into the jungle below. As the Daleks leave Mechanus triumphant, a surviving Mechanoid swears that it will rebuild and avenge...

Forced down onto an oceanic planet by faulty rocket motors, Unispace agent Meric discovers an underwater city. Diving to investigate, he discovers rocket ships ready for blast off aboard which are humanoid copies of the five presidents of Earth along with a copy of himself as pilot. The Daleks took the duplication information from Brit, who they have captured, but Meric impersonates his own double to turn the tables on the Daleks, then blasts out of the city, flooding it and ending the Dalek plan.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Excellent artwork and beautiful colour work well with a simple but effective story. The Daleks’ suggestion that nobody knows all five of the world’s leaders better than Brit makes you wonder exactly what she does, and her appearances throughout this annual are kind of strange, but it’s nice to see the writers trying to develop stronger roles for females.

ART: Richard Jennings & Ron Turner
ISSUES: 47-51
COVER DATES: 11 December 1965 - 8 January 1966
ON TV: The Daleks’ Master Plan (Season 3)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in The Amazing World of Doctor Who,1976, a promotion from Ty-Phoo tea, under the title A Fresh Start, then in Doctor Who Monthly, Issues 53-54 (black & white), Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issue 6.

When a Dalek working on the construction of a new space station comes under attack from an hypnotic cloud, the Daleks soon realise they are up against a deadly new opponent.

However, when the Daleks launch a counterattack, battle lines are soon drawn between them and the Mechanoids and galactic war looms ever closer.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
By this stage the Dalek strip really is riding at its creative and artistic peak, and introducing the Mechanoids as a recurring enemy for the Daleks is a stroke of genius. The two enemies sizing each other up in this strip works very well and the artwork is amongst Jenning’s best, especially the opening panel of the space station in orbit. Of course, it would also prove to be his last.

ART: Eric Eden
ISSUES: 52-58

COVER DATES: 15 January 1966 - 26 February 1966
ON TV: The Daleks’ Master Plan - The Massacre (Season 3)
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Monthly, Issues 54-55 (black & white), Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issue 6

Intent on finding weapons to defeat the Mechanoids, the Daleks discover a planet concealed behind an invisible barrier. Little do they know that the planet is Phryne, and

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
And suddenly it becomes clear that the Dalek-Mechanoid war is an exercise in delay, motivating the action but never being the action. Still, the ending of this impressively illustrated strip, with Skardal on a collision course for Mechanus, seems to promise that the war is finally hotting up...

ART: Ron Turner
ISSUES: 63-69

COVER DATES: 2 April 1966 - 14 May 1966
ON TV: The Celestial Toymaker - The Gunfighters (Season 3)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in the 1978 Dalek Annual, then Doctor Who Monthly, Issues 61-66, 68, Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issue 12.

Daleks and Mechanoids are poised on the brink of war, but the Zerovians fear the victors will sweep aside all other species in the galaxy. Their answer is to dispatch robot agent

ART: Ron Turner
ISSUES: 70-75

COVER DATES: 21 May 1966 - 25 June 1966
ON TV: The Gunfighters - The War Machines (Season 3)
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issue 14, 50 Years Doctor Who The Daleks, May 2013.

The Terrorkons, savage and insatiable carnivores that inhabit the Lake of Mutations. A natural defence for the Dalek city. But the Lake also houses the Daleks’ missile defence system.

When one of those missiles falls into the claws of a Terrorkon, the Daleks face the total devastation of their city

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The longest story from The Daleks is also one of the best, with a surprise reappearance of the humanoid Daleks and even a mention of Yarvelling. The contrast between what the Daleks once were and what they have become is nicely done, as is the sudden mention of planet Earth, which effectively moves the strip into its final phase as the Daleks begin to increasingly turn their attentions towards the planet and its location.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
An interesting premise is given one of the strangest treatments resulting in one of the oddest strips from the sequence. I think this is probably the poorest strip of the run, the whole idea of the Daleks being threatened from within having been done to death and, most successfully, with Duel of the Daleks.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Okay, so not Doctorless, but it ain’t the TV Doctor. The artwork is generally good and the storyline is abridged intelligently. The colour is generally sympathetic, though why the TARDIS is a strange shade of green throughout is anyone’s guess...

SCRIPT: Terry Nation.
ART: Dick Giordano and Sal Trapani

REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 9, 21 July 1993.

Landing on Skaro, Doctor Who helps the Thals to defeat their old enemy, the Daleks. Hell, you know the storyline to this one!

To tie in with the launch of the first Amicus film Doctor Who and the Daleks in 1965, Dell Comics released a 31-page comic strip adaptation of the film in 1966 under the banner Movie Classic. ‘Everywhere! Watching and waiting... The incredible robots, the Daleks!!’ announced the cover. Well, indeed.

ART: Ron Turner
ISSUES: 90-95

COVER DATES: 8 October 1966 - 12 November 1966
ON TV: The Tenth Planet - The Power of the Daleks (Season 4)
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issue 18

The emissaries of Jevo must stop the deadly flowers of Arides from pollinating. To get there in time, they must cross the Unknown Regions. But that is where Skaro lies, and the Daleks have no interest in preserving life. When the emissaries are captured by the Daleks, only a dangerous trick offers a chance of freedom... but will it work long enough to save the universe?

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Although it would seem to be nobody’s favourite, Emissaries of Jevo isn’t bad at all, just a little pedestrian. The concept of deadly plants had, of course, been used before and with greater success with the Amarylls, but the idea of the Jevons tricking the Daleks and the Daleks then taking their revenge is neat, and the contrast between the two species is well characterised, even if the Jevons are rather lacking in characterisation and the threat posed by the plants never feels particularly real or pressing.

ART: Ron Turner
ISSUES: 96-104

COVER DATES: 19 November 1966 - 14 January 1967
ON TV: The Power of the Daleks - The Underwater Menace (Season 4)
REPRINTS: Doctor Who Classic Comics, Issue 19

When a passenger ship from Earth is forced down onto Skaro there is more than the lives of the crew at stake, as the Daleks look set to finally learn the location of Earth...

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Two children do not make the most engaging  heroes, the strip is perhaps overextended by at least a couple of issues and the story is essentially the same as Power Play, which robs it of any sense of  freshness, but this is solid and fairly dramatic and sees out The Daleks comic strip on a high with some beautiful artwork.

All sixteen strips were reprinted by Marvel, in full colour, in their 1994 release The Dalek Chronicles, with an additional article and a full colour wraparound cover produced by Ron Turner.

Again, actually released in 1966 in time for Christmas that year, the Dalek Outer Space Book is most notable for seeing the appearance of Sara Kingdom, who featured in Doctor Who’s The Daleks’ Master Plan. She has the strength of ten men. Apparently.

SCRIPT: Terry Nation.
ART: Richard Jennings, John Wood, Leslie Waller, Art Sanson.

If anyone can identify the individual credits for each story, please contact us at the usual address.

After several Dalek attacks on Earth vessels, Space Pilot Commander Don Morais comes up with a plan to counterattack. The mission is successful, with the Daleks taking heavy casualties, but when, after the battle, Don and co-pilot Zec go to investigate an Earth craft believed vanished three hundred years before, they fall into a Dalek trap. The Daleks take them to Skaro where they are sent on a quest beneath the surface of Skaro for a mineral known as Doranium, which will allow the Daleks to propel their missiles to even the furthest planets. After overcoming several natural hazards, Don and Zec discover a Dalek space station waiting for Doranium power to launch a universal attack. Don discharges the electrical power of the Doranium with a metal water container, destroying the space station and giving them a chance to escape back to their ship.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The artwork is very nice with some excellent colour work, but the story is just a mess that always seems in search of a decent plot and then, when it thinks it has found one, it wraps it up all too quickly. How a Dalek space station comes to be underground is also rather confusing.

Sara Kingdom is sent to the planet Vara to rescue a top scientist from a Dalek slave colony. However, the thin atmosphere on Vara makes humans fall under Dalek control, turning them into Humanoids, so Sara must take oxygen sweets every four hours. When she accidentally overdoses, she recovers to find herself a prisoner of the Humanoids. She escapes using a combination of ingenuity and Dakaro, a form of karate, and locates the top scientist, who has so far been forced with truth drugs to give them most of the formula for a non-corrosive alloy that would allow the Daleks to take over Vara properly rather than controlling it from Skaro. Free from the drugs, the scientist adjusts the formula so that when the alloy is mixed it causes an explosion. The world is free from Dalek invasion for a while longer.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Although it’s fairly basic action adventure stuff, there is a certain amount of ingenuity at work in this strip, especially once Sara has gained access to the Dalek base. There is also a fair degree of absurdity. For instance, just how did the Daleks set up a base on Vara if they are completely unable to go there?

Diving for dyno-molecular mineral ores, Jeff Stone (last encountered in The Dalek Book here) discovers the wreck of a prototype Dalek submarine that vanished over a thousand years before. Making the craft watertight, Jeff and his crew set off on a test run, but encounter Dalek forces who open fire. However, the dyno-molecular mineral ores covering the exterior of the ship have bonded with the hull to create a super alloy impregnable to Dalek fire. They return fire, destroying all bar three of the Dalek ships. Jeff declares that they will use the sub not as a weapon of destruction but as a deterrent to stop destruction.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
This is an extremely brief strip with a very simple plot and an odd pro-peace message tagged on the end. Of course, Daleks can travel underwater without harm anyway (as shown in The Dalek Invasion of Earth), so the likelihood of them wasting resources developing a submarine is about as likely as sparrows developing an aeroplane.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
This is bonkers. The Emperor up against knights is surreal, but the sight of him being bombarded with rocks by cavemen is equally bizarre. This is the first Dalek strip to acknowledge the Daleks’ ability to travel in time, but seems more intent on giving the Emperor a static casing which we would see on television the following year.

After a Dalek questions his authority, the Emperor wonders if he is perfect. His conclusion, after weeks of thought, is that he is not and must be rebuilt.

He pours his knowledge into the Brain Machine while Dalek scientists rebuild him.

They start by examining his memory cells. There they find a record of a failed invasion of Earth in the year 2415. However, the Emperor’s time machine was faulty and deposited him in 1415 at the Battle of Agincourt. He escaped but became lost in time. Meanwhile, the leaderless Dalek forces in 2415 were soundly beaten by the humans.

The scientists discover that the Emperor’s sonic guard is cracked, the result of a foiled attack on Uranus where the humans fought the Daleks off using super sonic waves.

The Emperor is rebuilt in a larger, static casing, now infallible.

When top secret Earth defence installations are destroyed by Dalek attack, the only four scientists who knew of all the locations call in Sara Kingdom of the S.S.S. The discovery of the Emperor’s ship in orbit above Earth and equipped with a strange new antennae leads Sara to conclude that the Daleks are reading the scientists’ thoughts. She secures them in a radio-wave proof room where one of them designs a weapon to defeat the Daleks, but as he prepares to test the device, Sara realises the Emperor has changed his poition to better read their minds. On a reconnaissance flight, she sees the Dalek ships closing on Earth. The only solution is to attack them first, so she heads up into space with the four scientists. The Emperor is so busy concentrating on the thoughts of the four scientists that the Daleks fail to see other Earth ships. Only five Dalek ships escape destruction.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Although quite nicely illustrated and coloured, this is fairly confused and somewhat undramatic in terms of plot. As with many of the strips in this annual, the threat posed by the Daleks doesn’t feel particularly direct (indeed, a few distant Dalek hoverbouts aside, we never see a Dalek up close). It all ends in a space battle, but the artwork lacks drama, so it’s a bit of a sad way to end the Dalek annuals of the 1960s...

Doubtless encouraged by a Dalek story on television every year between 1972 and 1975, World Distributors’ resurrected the Dalek annual in 1975, with another three volumes to follow. Just as the television Daleks went quiet for four years. Sometimes you’ve just got to feel sorry for World...

As with most annuals, the cover date is a year in advance of the actual year of release.

SCRIPT/ART: Edgar Hodges

Caught in a meteorite storm, Reb Shavron crash lands on Terroth, one of the most dangerous planets in the universe. Sending out a distress call, she sets out to investigate her surroundings, but is soon overpowered by horrifying swamp creatures who want to sacrifice her in their temple for trespassing on their world. Her distress call is picked up by the Daleks, who land intent on exterminating an ADF (that’s Anti Dalek Force) agent, but Reb’s troubles have already increased as huge serpents emerge into the temple to eat the proffered sacrifice. The arrival of the Daleks saves her as the serpents turn on Skaro’s finest allowing Reb to escape, but she is pursued by swamp creatures. This time it is Earth forces who save her, but they are soon surrounded by Daleks - and then saved again by another attack by  giant serpents who pull the Dalek ship under the swamp leaving Reb and the Earth forces to escape.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Six parts Death to the Daleks (sacrifice in subterranean caverns by a primitive people who resemble their terrain, and Daleks coming under attack from giant snake-type creatures) to one part Mission to the Unknown (most dangerous planet in the universe, crashed Earth vessel), Planet of Serpents doesn’t have an original idea to its name, but it holds together reasonably well and tells a fairly exciting story, even if it could never be accused or originality.

SCRIPT/ART: Edgar Hodges.

The ADF return to Earth to discover global-wide flooding. Reporting to Emergency Headquarters in Melbourne, they learn that the South Pole is buried in fog and the water temperature is rising. Transported to the South Pole by nuclear submarine, the team comes under attack and only survives by sheltering under the rapidly melting ice, but they are taking on too much water to stay submerged and have to blast through the ice with their torpedoes. One of the team, Mark Seven, is captured, but Joel Shaw and Reb Shavron follow his trail to a futuristic installation controlled by Daleks. It is a neutronic power unit that could submerge half of the world’s land surface. Getting inside to rescue Mark, Joel and Reb are detected, but in the confusion Mark is able to escape, meeting the other two in the power unit. As Daleks attempt to cut through the door, they retract one of the giant legs holding the installation upright then make their escape as the neutronic power unit crashes and explodes.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
This is good, solid action adventure, even if the Dalek plan to flood the world seems a trifle tame and even if the three heroes remain entirely underdeveloped (and completely unnamed for the first two-and-a-half pages). Perhaps we should be reading this as an extremely far-sighted comment on global warming... or perhaps not as it appears to have not one brain cell in its head.

photo of him and Jon Pertwee larking about on the set of The Daemons. This book parodies various popular shows of the time such as The New Avengers, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, Batman and Tarzan, but the Doctor Who parody feels remarkably unfunny and witless even against the pretty low standards of its bedfellows. Six years later, Stewpot did his radio show from Longleat during the Doctor Who Twentieth Anniversary event that was held there.

With both the 1977 and 1978 Annuals making up their comic strip quota with reprints of the Dalek Chronicles strips from TV21, it was left to the final 1979 annual to provide some original    material...

SCRIPT/ART: Walter Howarth.

Using their deadly new Geiga bombs, the Daleks attack an Earth colony on Castar. The deadly radiation kills every living thing but leaves the buildings intact. But this is just a test run for the real target: Earth! The Anti Dalek Force call an emergency meeting. It seems the g-radiation spreads through the population like a virus. The ADF labs have created a serum that confines the radiation to the bloodstream, but if the victim gets blown apart, he will explode with the full force of a Giega bomb. A secret squad of volunteers on Armeria receive the serum and ambush the Dalek fleet en route to Earth, destroying all ships apart from one which slips by undetected. The only man on Earth to have received inoculation is Clive Simons. Simons engages with the Dalek ship and destroys it, but sustains damage. Unable to land in anywhere with a major population due to the g-radiation in his system, he crash lands on a remote Pacific island. But the island is home to cannibals...

SCRIPT/ART: Walter Howarth.

Hideously mutated by the Daleks on their secret island base, Karl Martin escapes from his captors. Four days later, his body is caught in the nets of a Japanese fishing trawler. On his body they find a crude map and a picture of a Dalek which is sent to ADF HQ. Major Joel Shaw and Mark Seven analyse the map and discover an artificial island in the Pacific. The two go to the island by submarine, leaving orders with the sub’s captain to bomb the island if they are not back within twelve hours. On the island they encounter a mutated beast that used to be Professor Nedwell, a scientist who vanished two months before. Nedwell leads them to the Dalek encampment, but it is a Dalek ambush and they are captured. The Daleks reveal that they are attempting to mutate Earth’s finest brains into savage psychopaths, but just as they prepare to do the same to Joel and Mark, the submarine captain begins his bombing. Breaking free and fighting their way to the beach, Joel and Mark escape as the island explodes, destroying the Daleks and the mutated monsters they have created.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Horrible artwork is paired with a horrible story with a weak resolution. Surely Walter Howarth was drawing these Daleks from memory because only that can explain the inaccuracies.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Paul Neary & David Lloyd

ISSUES: 1 - 4
COVER DATES: 17 October 1979 - 7 November 1979
ON TV: City of Death - The Creature from the Pit (Season 17)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in colour in the US Marvel publication Doctor Who, in colour, Issue 1, October 1984, Doctor Who Classic Comics, in colour, Issues 23 & 24, August - September 1994.

On the planet Anhaut, Glax, owner of the Galactic Glax Picture Corporation, decides to make a film about the Dalek invasion of Anhaut eight hundred years before. With his partner Rakh, he goes to the museum to explore the archives, and discovers that the Daleks were mysteriously defeated by General Nor-Din in the Desert of Vaksh. Sure he is on to a winner, Glax sets about pre-publicising his latest epic, but a Dalek agent named Kuay uses the film set to hide real Daleks. Actor Hok Nepo, playing Nor-Din, walks off set, disgusted at the poor performances of the studio Daleks, and straight into the real deal.

Hok Nepo escapes extermination and he, Glax and Rakh flee the studio as Kuay releases more Daleks. They go to the police who send in a squad, but the Daleks wipe them out. The military are called in, but even they cannot contain the menace. Glax decides to travel out with Hok on winged reptiles to the Desert of Vaksh and discover how Nor-Din defeated the Daleks, but he is overheard by Kuay. In the desert, they venture too close to a sandstorm and are trapped by a strange force and pulled down.

Glax and Hok realise they have found the site of the final battle between Nor-Din and the Daleks, but Kuay is close behind and has summoned the Daleks who are fighting their way closer. Glax and Hok discover a man-made pyramid topped with a huge sphere. Inside they watch a recording of Nor-Din who is about to tell them the means by which he defeated the Daleks when Kuay destroys the screen. The Daleks are angry with her - they needed to know how Nor-Din defeated them to prepare a counter-defence - and punish her through the metal plate in her scalp. When she collapses, Hok lifts her onto a strange couch, but doing this severs the Daleks’ mental connection. However, the Daleks are now outside and ready to exterminate all three of them.

The Daleks are delayed by an air attack by the military, giving Glax, Hok and Kuay time to work out what Nor-Din’s weapon was. Knowing they could not defeat the Daleks’ body-armour, they attacked the Daleks’ minds through a telepathic booster helmet. As the Daleks start to break in, Kuay puts on the helmet and destroys the Daleks, but the power ages her to death. Hok never wants to see another Dalek, but Glax is already thinking of a new film.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The Dalek Annuals aside, this strip was the first time the Daleks had appeared in a comic strip without the Doctor since the days of TV Century 21 in 1966. And it’s a cracking little story that holds together extremely well with strong characterisation and plenty of action supported by excellent artwork. There’s a lovely joke in the first part where Hok Nepo says he thought there were only three Daleks on set...

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS: Kroton would make several return appearances through the years, becoming one of the magazine’s most enduring characters, and he owes his success to this strip which wonderfully conveys his growing confusion and alienation, as he finds that he doesn’t fit into either the Cyberman or human worlds. This is probably one of my favourite comic strips of all  time, using the medium brilliantly to add a depth that would not be seen in the parent comic strip until the latter days of the Seventh Doctor, and which wouldn’t be seen in the TV series until 2005. Kroton’s story continues here.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Steve Dillon

ISSUES: 5 - 7
COVER DATES: 14 November 1979 - 28 November 1979.
ON TV: The Creature from the Pit - Nightmare of Eden (Season 17)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 2, November -1984 (but rather bizarrely without the concluding instalment), then as part of the Panini ‘graphic novel’’ The Glorious Dead, published November 2005.

The planet Mondaran has been conquered by the Cybermen, but there are still pockets of resistance, such as that led by Pendar and Marilka. Cyberleader Tork sends for reinforcements from Telos, which includes Junior Cyberleader Kroton, a Cyberman who is experiencing emotion, but struggling to understand the reactions of the resistance members. In their hideaway, Pendar and Marilka are suddenly confronted by a Cyberman.

The Cyberman is Kroton, who wants to talk, but fear and distrust make the humans flee. Kroton saves them from a patrol for breaking curfew. Back at HQ he meets with a human traitor called Zarach who gives information about Pendar and Marilka. Pendar is captured, but Kroton releases him. Confused by his own actions, Kroton sits defenceless as Pendar creeps up behind him, planning to cave in his head.

Pendar realises the attack would make him no better than the Cybermen. He collects Marilka and they return to the confused Kroton, but a Cyberman patrol arrives and orders their eradication. Kroton snaps and destroys the patrol, then plans with Pendar and Marilka to attack the spaceport. The attack gets them aboard a ship, but there is insufficient fuel to take them to an inhabitable world. They land instead in the Forest of Lorn on the far side of Mondaran. But Kroton does not belong here. The ship has just enough fuel to achieve escape velocity. He blasts off, then drifts aimlessly through space, lost and alone.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Paul Neary

ISSUE: 8
COVER DATE: 5 December 1979
ON TV: Nightmare of Eden (Season 17)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 3, December 1984, Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 24, September 1994.

Sontaran Katsu, searching for a weapon to make him invincible, lands on the peaceful world of Aleph-777. It is a peace ensured by the ultimate armament. Katsu wreaks havoc, but the inhabitants will not give him the armament, but do reveal that one of their number is already taking the weapon off-world to a safe place. Katsu pursues him to the planet Omega-666 and seizes the weapon - a sinple flask containing a putrid slime. But he has been tricked. The slime is Omegan Green Plague and Katsu is its victim.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The Sontarans make their debut comic strip appearance in this neat little tale with a twist. It has something of the feel of a 1950s strip, only featuring Sontarans, and the artwork in places reinforces this. Katsu is well characterised and true to his TV cousins Linx and Styre, though the idea that the Sontarans remove their armour and sleep under sheets in a bed, especially aboard their cramped spaceships, strains credibility just a little.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Although exciting, well-plotted and characterised and ingenious in its resolution, this strip really failed to ignite my interest as a child. At the time of publication, The Deadly Assassin and The Invasion of Time were still very much within memory, and the Gallifrey shown here - a Gallifrey without transduction barriers, and with muscled bare-armed Time Lords, and even more muscle-bound guards who look nothing like their TV counterparts - sadly bares no relation to either of them. It looks too much like a superhero strip. The strip interestingly defines the Shobogans as the working classes of Gallifrey, which is as valid an interpretation as it being another name for the Outlers..

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Paul Neary

ISSUES: 9-11
COVER DATES: 12 December 1979 - 26 December 1979
ON TV: Nightmare of Eden - The Horns of Nimon (Season 17)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 4, December 1984.

At the Time Lord Academy, young would-be Time Lord Plutar is failed by his tutor for his interventionist views and sent to work in TARDIS Maintenance. That night a spaceship lands undetected on Gallifrey. However, in the morning it goes to great lengths to attract attention, announcing itself to be the Space Circus of Sillarc the Sage, though this is all an hypnotic illusion allowing the real Sillarc access to the city. There he steals a TARDIS, but it is one that Plutar is repairing.

Because the TARDIS is faulty, Sillarc is unable to pilot it into the heart of his ship and instead lands millions of years in Gallifrey’s past. Plutar steals the differentiator from the TARDIS and heads outside with Sillarc hunting him. Two Gargantosaurs begin to fight and this provides the distraction Plutar needs to race back to the TARDIS, but he cannot lock the door and Sillarc has the key.

Plutar tries to dematerialise before Sillarc can gain entry, but - at the last moment - Sillarc gets inside and both are transported back right into the heart of the circus. Plutar escapes and orders guards to shoot Sillarc, but the alien dematerialises. With the ship only able to travel in time not space, he physically moves the TARDIS to where his ship will one day be situated so he can return to the present and escape. However, when he returns - landing a few minutes before he left - he finds guards waiting for him. Plutar took guards in a fully functioning TARDIS back to just after Sillarc’s circus arrived and has been waiting for him ever since. Redeemed, Plutar is asked to reapply to the Academy.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Paul Neary

ISSUE: 12
COVER DATE: 2 January 1980
ON TV: The Horns of Nimon (Season 17)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Marvel Premiere, Issue 58, February 1981, Doctor Who Summer Special 1985, then Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 25, October 1994.

A tractor beam is used to capture the pilot of the TARDIS, but instead of locking onto the Doctor, K-9 is kidnapped instead. Firandel and Rolgot are behind the botched kidnap (for the Sontarans). K-9 realises their intention was to kidnap and kill the Doctor because of the lack of air on his arrival. He overpowers his ‘hosts’ before the Doctor arrives safely by TARDIS to collect him.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Okay, so this isn’t really a Doctorless strip as the Doctor clearly features in four of the panels, but the real focus of attention is K9. It’s a slight story, perhaps rather more juvenile and comic in tone that some of the other back-up strips, but that perhaps was intended to appeal to K9’s core audience.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Steve Dillon

ISSUES: 13 - 14
COVER DATES: 9 January 1980 - 16 January 1980
ON TV: The Horns of Nimon (Season 17)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 5, February 1985, and Doctor Who Classic Comics Issue 26, November 1994.

Arriving on the Ogron home world, Dr. Linus Leofrix and Rostow capture Gnork, an Ogron. Their intention is to use their banned brain implant technology to increase Gnork's intelligence in order to raise an army of super-soldiers big enough to conquer half the Galaxy. However, the Ogrons led by Gwunn are surrounding the ship. Leofrix sends out Gnork to kill Gwunn and take control of the group.

Gnork overpowers Gwunn, but rather than kill him he makes an ally of him. Gnork  then uses his new intelligence to trap Leofrix and Rostow on the planet (along with Gwunn) while he escapes in their spacecraft to raise an army of his own.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: David Lloyd

ISSUES: 15 - 16.
COVER DATES: 23 January 1980 - 30 January 1980.
ON TV: Well, it would have been Shada, if they’d ever finished it...
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US) Issue 6, March 1985.

The Ice Warriors are on Yama-10 searching for supplies of trisilicate. However, after witnessing what appears to be a meteor shower and finding an infestation of strange silver creatures in their camp, they begin to suspect they are not alone. As they begin excavating the trisilicate, they are confronted by the Cybermen.

A battle begins, but, due to the heat, the Ice Warriors are forced to retreat to their ship. Commander Yinak orders the ship to relocate to the polar region of the planet. Here the battle recommences. The Ice Warriors catch the Cybermen in a flood as they melt the glacier, but when the surviving Cybermen retaliate, they cause an avalanche, burying both parties. However,  Yinak knows that Ice Warriors only need wait for the Spring thaw and they will return victorious.

Of course the idea of pitting one race of Doctor Who monsters against another is irresistible, but this strip (if you exclude Daleks versus Trods) is the first time that it actually happens in any medium. The next time (allowing for the text story Heliotrope Bouquet in issues 181-182) would be Daleks versus Cybermen in the television series itself for Army of Ghosts/Doomsday some twenty-six years later. This is the Ice Warriors’ debut in the comic strip medium, and a solid and enjoyable tale it is too, with a conclusion that is nicely in character.

Read our exclusive interview with Abslom Daak creator Steve Moore here!

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Steve Dillon

ISSUES: 17 - 20
COVER DATES: 6 February 1980 - 27 February 1980
REPRINTS: This strip was reprinted in the 1983 Doctor Who Summer Special, as part of the Marvel US reprint title Doctor Who, Issues 6 - 8, Volume 1, March - May 1985, with colour by Andy Yanchus, and - also in 1985 - in Marvel’s Captain Britain title, Issues 1 - 4, January - April 1985. It has since been reprinted in the ‘graphic novel’ Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, released by Marvel in 1990, and then again in the Panini ‘graphic novel’ Nemesis of the

Daleks, April 2013.

Abslom Daak is sentenced to Exile: Dalek Killer for his crimes against humanity and is sent by dangerously unstable matter transmitter to the planet Mazam. Here he rescues Princess Taiyin from the Daleks that have invaded her royal court. However, the place is surrounded and Taiyin fears they will now massacre everyone in the palace.

Daak keeps the Daleks busy while Taiyin evacuates the palace, but she is forced to knock him out to stop him throwing his life away. He regains consciousness aboard a sky-sled pursued by Daleks. After sustaining damage, they crash land in the jungle. Angered by his attitude, Taiyin takes him where he wants to go: to the Dalek base-ship.

Despite continued assaults from the Daleks, and with a growing attraction between him and Princess Taiyin, Daak battles his way down to the entrance of the Dalek base-ship and breaks in with his trusty chain-sword.

Pursued by Daleks, Daak and Taiyin head deeper into the base-ship. Daak takes a Dalek hostage and forces it to direct them to the Command-Dalek. There Daak dumps every explosive he is carrying before he and Taiyin escape in an escape capsule. The ship explodes, taking most of the Dalek force with it. However, as Taiyin declares her love for Daak, a stray Dalek shoots and kills her. Distraught, Daak swears to kill every stinking Dalek in the galaxy...

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Elegantly scripted, tying in neatly with their first television appearance and rightly twisting its conclusion around the Silurians’ third eye (woefully overlooked ever since), this is just a perfectly balanced and wonderfully dark tale. The real stars are the ‘apes’ (ie. us) who never say anything remotely intelligible but who still manage to gain our sympathies in the early stages of the story and our support when they dish out Nagura’s just desserts. The artwork is crisp and finely detailed, though David Lloyd does like to draw the Silurians a little like superheroes which makes them resemble toned naked people wearing masks. The Silurians all have fantastic butts, just in case you’re interested.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: David Lloyd

ISSUES: 21 - 22.
COVER DATES: 5 March 1980 - 12 March 1980.
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US) Issue 18, March 1986.

At a Silurian zoological research station, Velk is unimpressed by Nagara and Guruz’s display of the captive apes attempts to force pre-Human apes to learn and display intelligence. He is more concerned about a call to all Silurians to take to the shelters to avoid the predicted collision between Earth and its planetary neighbour. The collision is confirmed for five days’ time.

Kin, leader of the apes, strangles Guruz as reprisal for another beating. As the Silurians prepare to take to their shelters, Nagura returns to set the apes free. Believing the apes to be thanking him for the discipline he has offered them, he accepts a woven head band like the one Kin wears. Only once the headband is in place does he realise that his third eye is blocked and that he is powerless. The apes then exact their revenge for their brutal captivity.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Steve Dillon

ISSUES: 23 - 24
COVER DATES: 19 March 1980 - 26 March 1980.
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 16, January 1986, then as part of the Panini ‘graphic novel’ The Glorious Dead, published November 2005.

Kroton the Cyberman’s drifting ship passes into a strange cloud and is picked up by a space-liner crewed by amusement-seeking passengers who, with no knowledge of the Cybermen, revive him. The passengers’ strange behaviour and the clocks always showing the time as 7:17 lead Kroton to doubt his senses, until Leonart explains that they are caught in a time warp and the liner is called the Flying Dutchman II.

Realising that the passengers have been stranded an incalculable length of time with no news of friends or family, Kroton feels a certain kinship and decides something must be done. Gaining entry to the flight cabin, Kroton speaks to the robot pilot. It explains that there was insufficient fuel to reach its destination so it deliberately steered the ship into the time warp to preserve the crew until rescue came. However, the time warp cloud has continued to move, meaning a habitable world is now only three days away. Kroton asks the passengers if they want to break the endless cycle of boredom. They agree, and Kroton orders the pilot to bring them out of the warp. However, too late, he realises the ship has been there for six hundred and twenty eight years. The passengers immediately age to death leaving Kroton alone once more with his regrets.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The first of many return appearances for Kroton, the Cyberman with emotions, and surely the strip that cemented his popularity. It is simple, elegant and poignant. There are many fine touches, such as the strange behaviour of those aboard, blind Leonart who has been there so long he can find his way around just as ably as a sighted person, and the passenger named Cassandra who has terrible premonitions that the other passengers ignore, but it is mainly for the grim conclusion that the story is best remembered. Kroton’s story continues here.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Steve Dillon, David Lloyd

ISSUES: 27 - 30
COVER DATES: 6 April 1980 - 7 May 1980
REPRINTS: This strip was reprinted in the Marvel title Captain Britain, Issues 5 - 8, May - August 1985, then in colour in Doctor Who (US), Issues 9 - 10, June - July 1985, then in the ‘graphic novel’ Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, released by Marvel in 1990, and then again in the Panini ‘graphic novel’ Nemesis of the Daleks, April 2013.

In the 26th century, Draconians watch undecided as to course of action, while three Dalek craft enter their space in pursuit of another ship. Prince Salander watches as the Dalek craft are destroyed by the stranger in the fourth craft. To shortcut bureaucratic complications, Salander welcomes and befriends the visitor without the permission of the Emperor, who is none other than Abslom Daak...

Daak is searching for a way to resurrect Taiyin from her cryogenic unit. Salander offers to help, but is accused of treason by fellow Draconian Axiron.

Daak and Salander are placed under house arrest, but when Salander learns of the Emperor’s refusal to engage in hostilities with the Daleks and his son’s complicity in this, he realises he must escape with Daak in a prototype space cruiser that Daak christens the Kill-Wagon. However, as Daak makes his way to the spaceport to collect Tiayin, he is confronted by the Emperor’s procession.

Daak fights his way through the Emperor’s forces and blasts off to rendezvous with Salander in space. However, Axiron has arranged for Salander’s own son to stop them and Salander is forced to shoot him down. Now, united in loss, Daak and Salander set about assembling a crew for the Kill-Wagon.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Star Tigers plays like a Jacobean tragedy, with the emphasis firmly off of the Daleks (who only put in a fleeting appearance in the first instalment) and firmly on the characters, who are really put through the mill, though here it is Salander rather than Daak who bears the brunt of the tragedy in this further study of what it means to lose someone. The artwork is top notch and perfectly suits the style of the story.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
With each part of the strip now only two pages long, it’s astounding how much plot Steve Moore and David Lloyd manage to cram into each instalment. More than any other of his back-up strips, Yonder... the Yeti is rather more a straightforward riffing on the themes, set pieces and ideas of the television story that inspired it, in this case The Abominable Snowmen, but it is no less exciting and detailed for that, and the idea of the Lama working with the real Yeti to defeat the imposters is a neat one. The artwork is fantastic, creating a rich and detailed atmosphere.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: David Lloyd

ISSUES: 31 - 34
COVER DATES: 14 May 1980 - 5 June 1980
REPRINTS: This strip was reprinted in colour in Doctor Who (US), Issue 13, October 1985.

Australian vets and part-time monster-hunters Bruce and Angela Healy meet Japanese Shiro Sugimoto in the Nepalese foothills. They journey on together to a monastery, the home of Lama Gampo, where Gampo’s initial welcome turns to a warning for Shiro when the Yeti are mentioned. Leaving the monastery and setting up camp, Shiro hears a noise and discovers a Yeti outside. It covers him in suffocating web.

Bruce and Angela awake and, fired by tales of Yeti, are led by Shiro to a valley where lies a hidden monastery, but Gampo appears warning them not to enter the valley and not to trust Shiro. They ignore the old man, but realise too late that Shiro is a corpse animated by the Great Intelligence who has led them into a trap. Taken into the monastery, Bruce is strapped into a machine that will suck information from his brain. The Intelligence wants to know if mankind suspects the true nature of the Yeti. If Bruce dies in the process, the Intelligence cares not.

Angela attempts to rescue Bruce, but both are saved by the arrival of Gampo, defending the Earth from the Intelligence just as hjs father’s uncle did in Tibet sixty years before. Outwitting the Yeti, the monk and the two travellers escape.

Outside the monastery, Gampo summons help in the form of real Yeti, who follow him into battle against their robot counterparts. Thwarting the Intelligence and laying Shiro to rest, Gampo finally wipes Bruce and Angela’s memories of events so that the Yeti remain a mystery.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The Deathsmiths of Goth are mentioned by Russell T. Davies in his feature about the Time War in the Doctor Who Annual 2005. He likes his comic strips does our Russell, and if he likes this particular one then he has extremely good taste. Although the Cybermen are busy emoting left, right and centre, so much so that you wonder why a different alien race wasn’t chosen to lead the story, the creepy atmosphere and slow realisation of what the stalking menace actually is are beautifully realised in Alan Moore’s debut Doctor Who comic strip.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: Steve Dillon, David Lloyd

ISSUES: 44 - 46
COVER DATES: September 1980 - November 1980
ON TV: The Leisure Hive - State of Decay (Season 18)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in the Marvel comic Captain Britain, Issues 9 - 11, September - November 1985, Doctor Who US, Issues 11 - 12, August - September 1985, then in the ‘graphic novel’ Abslom Daak Dalek Killer, released by Marvel in 1990, and then again in the Panini ‘graphic novel’ Nemesis of the Daleks, April 2013.

Having fled the Draconian Empire in a prototype ship, the Kill-Wagon, Abslom Daak and Prince Salander search for a crew. Harma is an Ice Warrior employed as a contract killer on the planet Paradise. Daak overpowers Harma, makes him break his contract and takes him aboard the Kill-Wagon.

Daak, Salander and Harma go in search of Vol Mercurius on the planet Dispater. where Mercurius plays out a game of parachess with Klikbrain while the Kill-Mechs/Daleks close in on his location. Reluctantly, Mercurius leaves with Daak - the man who stole his hand in return for once stealing away his girl, Selene.

Laying low from Dalek Space-Commando Units disguised as orbiting meteoroids, the Kill-Wagon crew launch a successful attack on a Dalek craft based inside a volcano on the planet.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The original set of Abslom Daak stories concludes here, but it always felt like Steve Moore had other plans for his psychopathic creation, as Daak’s promise in the first strip to return to Earth is never fulfilled and the whole issue of Taiyin, held in suspended animation, is never satisfactorily resolved, not to mention the ‘To Be Continued’ caption at the end of this strip. When Daak finally returns, these threads have been lost as he turns to some degree from character to knuckle-headed continuity reference. This continuation of Star Tigers is lighter and more episodic than the first part, but returns to the action and brings the Daleks back too (at least if you have the unedited reprint without the Kill-Mechs taking the Daleks’ place!)

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The back-up strip starts doing something rather different here, though it’s really only a continuation of what Star Tigers has begun, losing the ‘monster of the week’ approach. Here we catch our first glimpse of Rassilon, a character who would return to the strip with the adventures of the Fifth Doctor in The Tides of Time, and also the first suggestion in any medium that Rassilon and Omega were contemporaries, something that would later be confirmed on television in Remembrance of the Daleks. It’s just a shame the art doesn’t tie in with the established look of Gallifrey more closely to make it feel more authentic.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Mmh... this is probably the weakest back-up strip by some considerable margin, with a confused, difficult to follow and ultimately unrewarding storyline. Just why does K-9 offer counterfeit information to the robots when that information appears to be the same as the real information? The robots are given such difficult speech patterns that it is sometimes quite difficult to follow what they are saying. Which doesn’t help matters much.

SCRIPT: Paul Neary
ART: David Lloyd

ISSUE: 48
COVER DATE: January 1981
ON TV: Warriors’ Gate - The Keeper of Traken (Season 18)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 19, April 1986.

The Doctor and K-9 arrive on a small barnacled moon long after the planet Deneb-7 has ceased to exist. The Doctor goes to rest while the TARDIS and K-9 re-calibrate themselves following a magnetic storm. But an erratic K-9, wearing the Doctor’s scarf, goes off exploring. The scarf resembles the markings of one known as Pennant Bearer which automatically wakes robot minions beneath the surface, so that the `formalities` of colonisation of Deneb 7 can be completed. However, as they have destroyed the planet with a Z-Bomb, it will take some      4,000 million years for a new planet to reform. The robot minions return to below ground to wait. The Doctor awakes unaware of what K9 has been up to.

SCRIPT: Paul Neary
ART: David Lloyd (and additional dialogue)

ISSUE: 49
COVER DATE: February 1981
ON TV: The Keeper of Traken - Logopolis(Season 18)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 23, August 1986.

The Leviathan rocket leaves Dæmos on a voyage to the edge of the universe. Passing through a time disruption, they arrive in a void. Commander Azal leaves the ship to investigate but meets himself coming from the opposite direction. Touching, they join and become as one but unable to decide which reality and crew to ‘return’ to. Torn between the two directions and his divided loyalties, he is unable to act... like so many others before him, each trapped by their own indecision.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The biggest problem with this comic strip is that there is no reason whatsoever for it to feature the Daemons; the crew could just as easily be humans or Time Lords or space-travelling squirrels. That aside, and despite a strong feeling that this may be a script rehashed from the 1950s, it tells an interesting story of the mind-bending variety.

SCRIPT: Steve Moore
ART: John Stokes

ISSUE: 50
COVER DATE: March 1981
ON TV: Logopolis(Season 18)
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who (US), Issue 17, February 1986.

On Kaldor, Sylvos Orikon and Tran Korkolo investigate another sandminer where the Super-Voc has disappeared and the other robots have been destroyed. Aboard another sandminer, Orikon disguises himself as a Super-Voc and uncovers a plot by an Ultra Voc to overthrow their masters. Orikon manages to destoy the Ultra Voc but the Vocs, believing him to be a malfunctioning robot, dismember him.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Steve Moore’s final back-up strip is a good one. The artwork is gorgeously detailed and extremely accurate, supporting a story that riffs well on ideas from The Robots of Death. The twist at the end is a lovely, dark touch.

SCRIPT: Alan Moore
ART: David Lloyd

ISSUE: 51
COVER DATE: April 1981
REPRINTS: The Daredevils, Issue 6, June 1983

Twenty years after the loss of Omega, the Time Lords seek to retrieve Fenris from the Zone of No Return in order to learn the reason for his attempt to stop the Gallifreyan's control over time. Wardog and Rema-Du, the daugher of Lord Griffen and Lady Jodelex (see here), are successful in their attempt, but while the Council of Chronarchs await results from the brainfeelers, they are visited by the Order of the Black Sun, enemies from 30,000 years in the future who wipe out Fenris, the brainfeelers and several of the council before they disappear. In the chaos, Lord Griffen reflects on crimes yet to be committed.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The art is good but unspectacular, but the lack of any visual reference to the Gallifrey we know makes the whole thing feel unrelated to Doctor Who and thus more dispensable than it actually is. The story neatly builds on Star Death and sets up Black Sun Rising for the future.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Retelling certain elements of The Celestial Toymaker without actually presenting us with anything new or original, The Greatest Gamble ultimately feels rather tired, a feeling that starts to set in around this period in the back-up strip’s history making it feel less like the essential reading it once was. Mike McMahon’s striking artwork helps the strip immeasurably, but can’t save it from feeling like a rerun.

SCRIPT: John Peel
ART: Mike McMahon

ISSUE: 56
COVER DATE: September 1981
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Fantasy Empire, Issue 8, November 1983, and then in Doctor Who (US), Issue 20, May 1986.

Professional gambler Gaylord Lefevie is playing cards at a table whilst sailing the Mississippi, when he accepts an invitation to play against the Celestial Toymaker. Going off to a separate room, Gaylord finds himself amongst the Toymaker’s toys in a different domain. Gaylord tries to cheat the Toymaker but loses, forfeiting the game and dooming himself to be another of the Toymaker’s toys. Eventually, bored, the Toymaker makes the same offer to another gambler, a Roman soldier...

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
As a conclusion to the Black Sun trilogy, this isn’t nearly as satisfying as it needs to be. In the first instance, it doesn’t explain why the Black Sun launch a time war on the Time Lords rather than a standard war. In the second, it isn’t made apparent whether the events of this story cancel out the events of the preceding two stories or if this is the catalyst. The artwork is good without ever being great, with rather too much plot to fit into the restricted space.

At the same time as the reprints of the Black Sun trilogy in The Daredevils, the Special Executive, featuring Wardog, Zeitgeist and Cobweb, were seeking Captain Britain’s help in a strip by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. They returned to meet Captain Britain again in 1985’s Alarms and Excursions.

SCRIPT: Alan Moore
ART: David Lloyd

ISSUE: 57
COVER DATE: October 1981
REPRINTS: The Daredevils, Issue 7, July 1983.

Delicate trade negotiations for uranium are taking place on Desrault with Lady Rema-Du of Gallifrey accompanied by her escorts Wardog, Cobweb, Millennium and Zeitgeist (the Special Executive), as well as the Order of the Black Sun and the Sontarans. Jealous of the relationship that develops between Lady Remadu and Lord Adamath (Black Sun representative for the Rigel sector), Brilox the Sontaran uses a psy-snare on Millennium which puts her under his control. Millennium attacks the Black Sun leader and ages him into a skeleton. Wardog kills Millennium, but as the Sontaran prepares to leave the other two sides as enemies, Wardog suddenly appears to return the psy-snare to him personally.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
This story was concluded in the Doctor Who Winter Special 1981, which is where I shall comment upon it.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
The first original comic strip in a Marvel Special has some lovely artwork and an interesting enough premise (which is, what if a Time Lord wasn’t as experienced at interfering as the Doctor, not the lame stuff about a power drain), but is otherwise unremarkable, with a final panel that asks more questions than it answers.

SCRIPT: Maxwell Stockbridge (Alan McKenzie)
ART: Mick Austin

REPRINTS: Reprinted in Doctor Who Magazine, Issue 85, February 1984, then Doctor Who (US), Issue 22, July 1986

Going in pursuit, they witness changing footprints in the snow, indicating that the creature can change shape. Wrongly shooting the real Campbell who is wandering around dazed, they drive the alien creature onto the ice with fire and send it sinking beneath the frozen waters.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Playing rather like Terror of the Zygons meets The Seeds of Doom, Skywatch-7 is a witless retread that even manages to muck up on the continuity (how does the Zygon maintain his human disguise when the real Campbell is wandering around/shot full of holes?). There are fewer ideas in these eight pages than in some strips half the length. Apart from the full-page reveal of the Zygon, the artwork is nice but unexceptional.

SCRIPT: John Peel
ART: David Lloyd

ISSUE: 59
COVER DATE: December 1981
ON TV: Logopolis (repeat as part of The Five Faces of Doctor Who), K9 and Company.
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Fantasy Empire, Issue 9, January 1984, Doctor Who Magazine, Issue 85, February 1984, then Doctor Who (US), Issues 21, June 1986

The hieroglyphics of an unopened pyramid tell the tale of Sontar, a God from the stars, arriving in Ancient Egypt. When Sontaran Field Major Styx first arrived he was revered as a god, but was overheard planning the planet's use and destruction in a war with the Rutans. Working to stop the Sontaran’s plan, the Pharaoh is misled to believe that Sontar has died (when in fact he was recharging), and accordingly, Sontar is given the burial of a Pharaoh and sealed inside a pyramid before he awakes. In 1926, still trapped but rested, Sontar is ready to exact revenge when the pyramid is reopened. As he emerges, a door stone falls, and the Sontaran is once again buried inside.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
It strains credulity somewhat to think that a Sontaran could survive for three thousand years, but this at least feels more like the back-up strips of old. Perhaps the Sontaran should have been replaced with a Dalek or Cyberman. The Rutans get their first ever comic strip mention here.

SCRIPT: John Peel
ART: John Stokes

ISSUE: 61
COVER DATE: February 1982
ON TV: Kinda - The Visitation (Season 19)
REPRINTS: Fantasy Empire, Issue 12, July 1984, and in colour in the US Doctor Who Volume 1 Issue 17, February 1986 rather oddly between two parts of The Tides of Time (see cover here).

A castaway, Diego de Columba of Cordoba, is picked up by Captain Velasque. He tells a tale of how he was rescued by a man-sized sea creature after being washed up on a beach following a pirate raid on his ship. The sea creature was a scientist who took him in, looked after him and became his friend. One day he returned to find that the pirates had anchored up and captured his friend. Not knowing what to do, Diego pressed a button on a small box the sea creature carried around that was forbidden to him . A giant sea monster arose from the sea destroying the ship. The rescuing crew disbelieve Diego, thinking him mad, but on his person they find a small box with a button...

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
With its sense of period and interesting use of the Sea Devils, this story is a rich little treasure at a time when the back-up strip had stopped feeling like essential reading. Its use of a large sea-creature predates and betters the Myrka that would show up on television a couple of years later. The leader of the pirates is called Korvo, which is Esperanto for raven. Interesting fact!

SCRIPT: John Peel
ART: John Stokes

ISSUE: 64
COVER DATE: May 1982
REPRINTS: Reprinted in Fantasy Empire, Issue 11, May 1984, Doctor Who (US), Issues 22, July 1986, Doctor Who Magazine, Issue 181, December 1991

On Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart’s orders, Major Whitaker and her UNIT team inspect underground caverns in Iceland with Dr Iskander in an attempt to find a reason for some sudden seismic activity. In the caverns, they find Dominator Haag and his Quarks on a quest to use the Earth’s core as a power source for the Dominators star fleet. Using the Dominators' own equipment, Dr Iskander and the

UNIT team ensures the space craft, Dominator and Quark are destroyed in another volcanic eruption.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
A tired rehash of The Dominators. Do the Dominators really do nothing more than go around blowing up planets for fuel? Do they never... you know... dominate? The artwork is pretty good, though again it feels like rehashing when the Dominator is clearly modelled on one of the television originals. This is the first appearance of the Quarks in the comic strip since the reprinted The Duellists back in 1978.

SCRIPT: Steve Parkhouse
ART: Steve Parkhouse and Geoff Senior

REPRINTS: None

At home in a small city on the tiny planet of Sigma, Dr Ivan Asimoff sits in his room writing one of his science fiction stories. Caught up in his 'adventures' he faints when he opens the door and is faced with a life size alien being, delivered as the new cover illustration for his book from his artist.

ALTERED VISTAS SAYS:
Featuring Doctor Ivan Asimoff, who appeared in the main Doctor Who comic strip the previous year in The Free-Fall Warriors and who would return during the Sixth Doctor’s comic strip era in Polly the Glot, The Fabulous Idiot is frothy, lightweight filler with only the barest connection to Doctor  Who. Definitely not Parkhouse at his finest.