Dr Who and the Turgids was a comic story featured in several early issues of Doctor Who Magazine. An ad as well as a comic story, it advertised the real-life TARDIS Tuner, a Doctor Who-themed radio, by featuring the Fourth Doctor making use of an identical gadget, though the comic story gives it different origins and capabilities than the Earthly radio which existed in the real world, depicting it as a piece of Time Lord technology. It was previously printed at least as early as Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly #55 on March 7th 1979 (cover date March 14th) over six months prior to Doctor Who Weekly's launch.
It also features one of the first appearances of Romana outside of a television medium, although she closely resembles neither Mary Tamm nor Lalla Ward and the Doctor speaks to her as if she is not a Time Lord.
Summary[]
The Doctor and Romana are trapped in the solid steel dungeons of the Turgids, completely surrounded by the enemies. Romana believes that they are finally in a position where they can not escape, but the Doctor says that he still has a few tricks up his sleeves as he pulls out a TARDIS tuner, an exclusive piece of Time Lord technology. The device is able to knock out their guard and send their coordinates to the TARDIS, and they are soon off the planet. Romana asks the Doctor where he wants to go now, to which the Doctor replies, "Anywhere Romana! As long as we have the TARDIS Tuner!"
Characters[]
Worldbuilding[]
- The TARDIS tuner is a radio.
