The Tiger Who Came To Tea: Planet of the Dead

2 parts (DWM 141 & 142) October & November 1988

Writer: John Freeman, Artist: Lee Sullivan, Editor: Richard Starkings

We join the 7th Doctor on the barren-looking planet of Adeki, where he is failing to find a spot of fishing as relaxing as he did in his previous incarnation.

He's very pleased, therefore, to stumble across a concealed entrance that leads to subterranean city, although it appears as desolate and deserted as the planet's surface.

Here he finds a dead body, the victim of some sort of attack.

All is not as it seems, as he finds himself face to face with his former - and indeed, late - companion, Adric!

A host of other companions soon join him...

...and they begin to squabble amongst themselves.

All of them seem rather too eager for him to let them into the TARDIS...

The Doctor knows something is wrong when it seems that Peri believed herself to be dead too.

They are in fact the shapeshifting Gwanzulum!

The Doctor is rescued from their clutches by none other than his own 4th self...

All his other previous incarnations are nearby too.

He soon realizes, though, that they too are Gwanzulum, trying to gain access to the TARDIS.

The Doctor tricks his way inside without them...

...and makes his escape.

Planet of the Dead (not to be confused with the 2009 "Special" starring David Tennant's 10th Doctor) celebrates Doctor Who's 25th Anniversary with the now well-worn device of multiple Doctors and companions putting in an appearance.

Cleverly, though, in order not to overburden its slight 2-part duration, it sidesteps any convoluted plot by utilising the simple concept of shapeshifting aliens.

As such it's light and fun, though in truth little more than a crowd-pleasing parade of familiar faces. Where it compensates for its (by necessity) perfunctory plot is in the superb artwork of Lee Sullivan.

Most of the companions and Doctors come off very well indeed on that score, though even Sullivan seems (as most artists at the time did) to struggle a little with Sylvester McCoy's likeness, which is a shade more cartoonish in places.

The true form of the shapeshifting Gwanzulum is also a bit of a let down sadly, though in fairness they could perhaps have been realized on TV thanks to their simplistic design, like shorter versions of the Gorgs of Fraggle Rock or the Muppets' own Sweetums.

If anything the first part with its' ostensible resurrection of the Doctor's dead companions, which comes across very creepy indeed, particularly in the erstwhile Katarina's chastening of the Doctor.

The second part, arriving in the November issue, is of course the trad anniversary special Multi-Doctor shindig, with each Doctor getting a good innings, their foibles and quirks beautifully observed by John Freeman.

A satisfying nostalgia trip that served the 25th Anniversary well, but perhaps the last time that this sort of story could be done without the need to suspend disbelief overwhelming it.

Later DWM efforts, such as Happy Deathday and Death to the Doctor! wisely make a comic virtue of knowingly silly plots that bring the Doctors together to one degree or another, though more recent efforts, from IDW's Prisoners of Time to Titan's The Four Doctors sadly seem to have taken a step backwards to continuity-laden bafflegab with (generally) good artwork but variable characterisation, and in the case of the latter, a poorly-conceived and frankly vain attempt to top The Day of the Doctor by way of The World Shapers and to a lesser extent Rob Shearman's The Cruel Sea.