City of the Damned

From TARDIS Index File, the free Doctor Who reference.


City of the Damned
Series:	Doctor Who - Fourth Doctor comic strip stories
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companions:
Enemy:	Moderator General
Setting:	Zombus, planet Zom
Author:	Pat Mills John Wagner
Editor:	Dez Skinn
Artist:	Dave Gibbons
Colourist:
Lettering:
Published In:	Doctor Who Weekly 9-16
Publication:	12 December 1979 - 30 January 1980
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Format:	Comic - 8 parts (34 pages)
Previous Story:	The Iron Legion
Following Story:	Timeslip

[edit] Summary

The Doctor arrives in the city of Zombus on the planet Zom. A ruling council, the Brains Trust, who wear eyeless masks which look like brains, have identified emotions the cause of all crime and outlawed it. With the Moderator General and the Moderators, the people are controlled and forbidden emotional experiences. They use Harmonisers to remove emotions from the citizens. There is resistance from the Zom Emotional People's Organisation, each of whom carry out and live by one emotion alone so as to preserve it until the arrival of the Great Emoter. The Doctor is seen as the Great Emoter and is helped to escape the city. But ZEPO’s Big Hate has a plan to destroy the Moderators using his savage Barabara (giant blood bugs). The Barabara are released into the city but start to eat everyone, not just the Moderators. The Barabara however are defenceless against adrenalin. The Doctor appeals to the Brains Trust who agree to reinstall emotions to save what they have but the Moderator General is opposed to the plan and kills the others. The Doctor overpowers the Moderator General and order the people into the Harmonisers where they regain their emotions. The Barabara quickly die and the city begins a new life with a full set of emotions that the Doctor leaves behind. The people feel so grateful to the Doctor that they try to dress like him and adopt his mannerisms.

[edit] Characters

[edit] References

Jelly babies apparently they stop the ears popping during transmat travel.

[edit] Notes

Pat Mills and John Wagner, although jointly credited took turns to write the scripts (the first person credited was the actual writer of the script, the second merely typed it). The Iron Legion was written by Pat Mills.
City of the Damned was submitted as a television story but rejected.
For the USA reprints the title of this strip was renamed City of the Cursed.

[edit] Publication and Reprints

[edit] Original Print Details

(Publication with page count and closing captions)

DWM Issue 9 (5 pages) Next Week: Mind-Wipe!
DWM Issue 10 (4 pages) Next Week: Gauntlet of Death!
DWM Issue 11 (4 pages) Next Week: The Big Hate!
DWM Issue 12 (4 pages) Next Issue: Night of the Barabara!
DWM Issue 13 (5 pages) Next Week: Bitter Harvest!
DWM Issue 14 (4 pages) Next Week: Streets of Blood!
DWM Issue 15 (4 pages) Next Week: The Last Hours!
DWM Issue 16 (4 pages) Next Issue: Join the Doctor and K-9 in Time-Trap!

[edit] Reprints

Marvel Premiere Issues 59-60 Reprinted in colour.
The Iron Legion the launch title of a new series of graphic novels (published in 2004), reprinting cleaned up comic strips covering strips from Doctor Who Weekly issue 1 through to 38. Reprinted as original, in black and white, with closing captions.
Doctor Who Classics Issue 1 and Issue 2 recoloured

[edit] Continuity

to be added

[edit] Timeline

This story occurs after: DWM: The Iron Legion
This story occurs before: DWM: K-9's Finest Hour

[edit] External Links