Operation Proteus

3 parts (DWM 231 - 233)  25th October to 20th December 1995
Writer: Gareth Roberts, Art: Martin Geraghty, Editor: Gary Gillatt

London, 1963: Fascinated by the youth culture of the world and time in which she finds herself, Susan Foreman visits a 'milk bar' in Soho, only to witnesses an ailing man undergo an horrific transformation. 

He cries out, warning of "the project", "the cross" and finally "the deeps" before dying before her very eyes. 

Susan returns to Totters Lane... 

...where, inside their time and space craft the TARDIS, she tells her grandfather what she has witnessed. 

Putting together the pieces of the puzzle, the old Doctor resolves to investigate. 

Elsewhere, in "Project Room 1", a group of young people discuss their missing fellow student, Dick. 

The Doctor and Susan have arrived at King’s Cross station, and, in the tunnels, they find their way into an underground base. 

The Doctor goes ahead but is detected... 

...followed - and, after discovering a file labelled "Operation Proteus" - captured. 

He is led to the mastermind behind the mutations - who is, of course, a monstrous-looking alien... in a suit. 

The alien introduces himself as Raldonn, and he already knows of the Doctor, having detected his arrival in London some 4 months ago, and surveilled him, learningh of his intelligence and alien origins. 

After a mysterious encounter... 

...Susan too is captured, and escorted to Project Room 1 where she meets the group of students, and is introduced to Laura and Clive. 

They explain that they are taking part in an experimental drug trial that will net them £500 each, but it's immediately obvious to Susan that they have been lied to when she recognises a picture of their missing comrade, Dick. 

Raldonn explains to the Doctor that his aim is to genetically accelerate a human to create another member of his own species, as he needs a second to have enough mental energy to pilot his repaired ship and escape from Earth. 

Raldonn has realised that only one in a million humans will successfully transform, so has weaponised a viral agent to infect the whole of humanity.

The Doctor urges him to rethink but Raldonn explains his distaste for the destructiveness of the human race as his rationale for sacrificing people in such huge numbers. 

In any case they are too late - Raldonn has already released the first test subject into the world above. 

People across London begin to mutate... 

...including Laura, who mutates right in front of Susan and Clive. 

As his plans appear to be about to bear fruit, however, Raldonn is attacked by one of his mutations... 

...and the pair kill each other. 

The Doctor races to discover a cure for the virus... 

...and is able to save the day, bringing Operation Proteus to a final end before sending Susan off to her day at Coal Hill School.  

He's blissfully unaware of her strange encounter the night before... 

THE END?

Another strong entry for this mid-nineties run, this time from now TV scribe (and probably the best season 17 writer there never was) Gareth Roberts, this is a taut piece that will likely surprise those less familiar with the writer's less jovial works. 

I'm usually a bit averse to lifting the veil on pre-An Unearthly Child adventures for the Doctor and Susan, and by necessity this is not quite the "Dr. Who" we might expect. 

The setting blends influences from Bond, The Ipcress File, The Quatermass Experiment, and even briefly The Thing to great effect... 

...and that makes for a well-developed setting, albeit not one we might have really expected the Doctor of An Unearthly Child to want to go within a million miles of. In that respects it's something of a side-step; not quite in the Cushing mould but unavoidably a bit... "else". 

That said, we do see in the likes of The War Machines that despite his on-screen objections to Susan's attendance at Coal Hill School (slightly contradicted here), he has moved in the kind of governmental circles within which Operation Proteus' conspiracy moves. 

Raldonn is a decent villain of the week type, with the tale of his assimilation into top secret and morally questionable experimentation by the British Government providing a satisfying backbone to the tale. 

It's perhaps a bit surprising to see the First Doctor seemingly getting a bit physical with his threats at one point... 

...and being quite so bothered about the fate of a race he's quite prepared to nip in the bud with a quick rock to the bonce in just a couple of episodes time, but Roberts captures Hartnell quite well without resorting to too much cliche. 

Gergaghty's artwork is as top drawer as usual but there's several instances of rather well-worn publicity snaps being used for reference in some of the frames which can pull you out of this a bit if you find yourself accidentally keeping score on that front. 

Overall, though, a very enjoyable story that benefits from its Quatermass parallels, and one that neatly continues the mystery begun in The Curse of the Scarab in a way that's so "blink and you'll miss it" that it could even be a little too subtle!

8/10

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Black Destiny