Doctor Who – Bringer of Darkness
Presented in: Doctor Who Magazine Summer Special 1993
Writer: Warwick Gray
Art: Martin Geraghty
Letters: Simon Weston
Editor: Gary Russell
Doctor: Second
Companions: Jamie and Victoria
Length: One instalment of seven pages
Summary:
The Doctor and his two young companions are taking a break from their travels. However, the rest doesn’t last long as Jamie hears mechanical sounds coming from the next valley. They go to investigate and discover a group of daleks building a distress beacon. The Doctor decides that the daleks have to be wiped out and once Victoria has set off a firework diversion, the Doctor and Jamie attack the beacon. The daleks discover them but are unable to fire on them as, with the Doctor and Jamie standing in front of it, it would mean damaging the beacon. However, the daleks discover that it is the Doctor and decide that his destruction must come ahead of the beacon’s safety. The Doctor activates the beacon and the daleks are destroyed. He explains that he retargeted the beacon so rather than sending its electromagnetic pulses into space it sent them out at ground level. Victoria is disgusted at the Doctor’s actions and realises that her time with the Doctor is soon coming to an end…
Episode Endings:
One – Victoria sits on a cliff edge, writing up the events of the story in her journal and hoping that, wherever he is, the Doctor has found peace.
Continuity:
The story takes place immediately after the events of “The Web of Fear” (Victoria’s narration at the start says that they had recently left the underground).
Presumably the fireworks come from the Doctor’s TARDIS. The TARDIS console room contains a high backed chair, the hat stand and something that appears to resemble an ornamental lamp.
The dalek craft has ion-drive thrusters. They can cannibalise parts of their ship to build a distress beacon. It would appear that they can carry things around using beams from a device plugged into the socket the sink plunger normally occupies. The daleks refer to the Doctor as the Ka Faraq-Gatri (a term first used in the novelization of Remembrance of the Daleks).
Comments:
The characterisation is wonderful (it’s so easy to hear the right voices saying the lines as you read the strip) and it gives extra background to Victoria’s decision to part company with the Doctor. The artwork for the three regulars occasionally leaves a little to be desired but the daleks and their technology looks splendid. The links with “Evil of the Daleks” seem a little out of place given how the existing footage shows the Emperor rather categorically blown up but this could be more to tie in with Davros’ apparent Emperorship in “Remembrance of the Daleks” than the Troughton story. Way above average for a one part story and a worthy addition to the second Doctor era.
Leave a Reply