1 part (DWM Summer Special 1993) Summer 1993
Writer: Warwick Gray, Artist: Martin Geraghty, Editor: Gary Russell
Victoria Waterfield writes a memoir of the horrible shattering of a brief moment of tranquility in her travels with the Doctor and Jamie...
...as they encounter a patrol of Daleks conducting repairs to a damaged spaceship and building a beacon with which to summon reinforcements.
As Victoria watches from hiding, the Doctor and Jamie distract the Daleks and board the beacon, and the Daleks are unable to fire upon them for fear of damaging their communications equipment.
The Doctor taunts the Daleks until they reveal the fate of the humanised Daleks on Skaro; all were destroyed and the Emperor reigns supreme.
The Daleks realize too late that they are facing the Doctor, "Ka Faraq Gatri", but before they can open fire the Doctor activates the beacon, redirecting the electromagnetic pulse to destroy the Daleks' casings.
The living creatures inside perish in agony, and Victoria, appalled, sees both the Daleks - and the Doctor - in a new light.
Soon, she will leave his company...
Whilst the usually excellent Martin Geraghty gives us a note perfect Troughton and a serviceable Jamie, it's a shame his Victoria is so wide of the mark considering it's a tale from her point of view.
His Daleks also suffer from oddly large irises (as they do in Fire and Brimstone) but such quibbles feel churlish when considering the overall quality and especially his forest setting and Dalek technology, which are wonderfully rendered.
Meatier than the usual lighthearted throwaway fare of these seasonal specials, this is a real gem in the writing, and a memorable a dark fable of the menace behind the eyes of the cosmic hobo...
8.5/10
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Up Above the Gods!
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