The Friendly Place was the second story of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor comic strip series published in 2014.
Summary
When the Doctor last visited Rokhandi, it was a planet of such stunning natural beauty that an entire solar system had sworn to preserve it. What better place to take new companion Alice Obiefune on her first off-world adventure?
And it would have been a magical vacation... if the TARDIS hadn't overshot by fifty years. Now the austerity-hit pleasure planet has become a "theme safari" corporate hell, overrun by eerie, giant-headed mascots and a trillion tramping tourist feet!
But there's something more sinister at play than rampant commercialism and ecological devastation... and the Doctor and Alice need to uncover all of Rokhandi's long-buried secrets if they're to escape with their lives!
Plot
The Doctor takes Alice to her first new planet with visions of showing her the most untouched beauty in the universe, but instead finds himself faced with a theme park created by SERVEYOUinc. Livid at what has been done to Rokhandi, the Doctor takes out his frustrations on the theme park employees. Meanwhile, Alice plays the Rokhandi World shooting gallery game and wins the Doctor a pig plushie, but when she returns to give it to him she finds him still sulking about the state of the planet. Alice calls out the Doctor's behaviour and he apologises for his rudeness, only to notice that he is the only one at the theme park who is acting out. He devises a plan to see what would happen if he continued to cause a scene by playing Target Happy and shooting the prizes instead of the targets. The Doctor's antics attract the attention of a theme park employee, who politely offers the Doctor a complimentary "Rokhandi Floss." The Doctor argues with the employee, asking what else they have, and eventually the employee asks the Doctor to follow him. Sensing trouble, Alice takes a gun from the shooting gallery and follows the Doctor.
After being led into a dark room, it occurs to the Doctor that the employee that's "helping" him is a man he saw earlier that day, vandalising bathrooms in the park. Two other employees descend on the Doctor and reveal a caged Entity. They're about to feed the Doctor to the creature when Alice runs in and shoots one man in the bum and threatens another shot to his crotch if they don't release the Doctor. At first the Doctor is thrilled, but warns her against shooting people in the future. However, before Alice and the Doctor can get away, August Hart arrives with a security squad. Although he recognises the Doctor and Alice and blames them for his demotion, they have no idea who August Hart is. He detains them with the intent to feed them to the Entity, but the Doctor surprises everyone by willingly submitting himself to the creature. The Entity feeds off the Doctor and explodes, giving its victims back their memories, and August Hart is chased from the room, vowing vengeance as he leaves.
The Doctor tells Alice that he was able to defeat the Entity by overloading it with a desire for 248 different 43-dimensional superimposed supersolids, a lesson he was forced to learn in the Academy. He jokes that he made the Entity throw up and Alice states that Rokhandi World wouldn't be a proper theme park without vomit. The Doctor and Alice return to the TARDIS and Alice says that the moral of the story is that the Doctor needs to watch where he's landing.
Sometime later a man is on the phone in his office, discussing the political unrest on Rokhandi. He asks "Professor Dutta" for good news, but on the other end of the line, Alice explains that by destroying a piece of the Entity on Rokhandi, something bad has happened to the remainder of the Entity.
Characters
References
- The unspoilt beauty of Rokhandi has been turned into Rokhandi World by SERVEYOUinc. The Doctor previously saved its system from the Amstrons of the Great Wheel.
- The pig mascot that the Doctor interrogates offers to give him a free roll of Rokhandi Floss.
- The Doctor refers to the graffiti artist as "Banksy junior".
- The Doctor has a higher dimensional physics degree from "Time Lord University".
Notes
- The Next Time page of both the US comic and the UK comic reveals "a new companion awaits" for issue #3.
- The epilogue to this story is reprised in The Rise and Fall
Original print details
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor repeatedly refers to Alice as a "clever librarian" and Alice continues tell him that she's a "library assistant." (COMIC: After Life)
- Alice asks if anyone has ever tried to throttle the Doctor with his bowtie, to which he replies that someone has, and that's why he's wearing a clip-on bowtie. He later wears a different coloured clip-on bowtie after meeting Clara Oswald. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
- Alice says her mother would have loved Rokhandi World. (COMIC: After Life)
- The Doctor is initially enthused to see Alice arrive with a gun, though he chastises her for shooting someone in the bum. He has similar approval of River Song toting a gun around despite his usual resistance to the weapons. (TV: Day of the Moon)
- The Doctor has saved Rokhandi's system from the Amstrons twice. He and Alice would later encounter the Amstrons. (COMIC: The Eternal Dogfight / The Infinite Astronaut)
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