The Enemy Within.

And so on to page 2.

I wanted to start with a little joke and having the Doctor and Martha playing a game seemed to fit nicely. The reveal that, after the tense beginning to page 1's "what are they doing? Why are they so nervous" intro, was that they were in the middle of a round of 'Kerplunk', seemed a nice payoff.

Why Martha though? Well, it started life with Rose and I have some finished pages that include her. But then she went and left the series so I had to re-jig it with Martha. Then she went and left and I briefly considered using Donna, but as she has now left, I decided to stick with Martha. In fact I've put in a line on page 3 to explain why she is travelling with the Doctor again. I've thought of a nifty way to re-use the Rose bits though - so they won't go to waste.

I'm having lots of fun with paint shop pro, particularly in the final frame. I think it shows the buffeting the occupants of the TARDIS receive quite effectively. Each picture is made up of several layers, with it's own lighting effects and the background is blurred to give a kind of artificial depth of field.

The Enemy Within: Part One.

This is my 45th anniversary strip. I wanted to do a multi-Doctor story, but as if it was a real, proper broadcast-on-telly sort of thing. So, I had to find a way to incorporate the first three Doctors without resorting to recasting or using really unconvincing models! I also needed a way to bring the other Doctors together without going over the same ground as before. I then had a brainwave; why not set the story in the Doctor's head? Then you could have all of the Doctor's in their own little 'universe' where the current Doctor and his companion could encounter them as and when the story dictated. But how to get into the Doctor's head?

So I sat down and watched some old episodes to see if I could nick - erm, be inspired by - anything that went before. And inspiration struck from a very unexpected source.

I was watching Invisible Enemy and at the end I wondered what had happened to the rest of the swarm. Now I know that the nucleus was destroyed along with its newly created 'macro' virus - blown to bits on Titan - but what had happened to the original micro virus? the one that had infected the shuttle and the Tardis? The last we saw, it was floating around in space.

I thought about what my GP had said the last time I went to him feeling a bit bleurgh. He said it was a virus and there was nothing he could give me as antibiotics are no use against a virus.
So there was my story. The virus had survived and had waited until the opportunity arose for it to re-infect the Tardis and subsequently the Doctor. To save his life, his companion would have to telepathically enter his mind in order to track down the new nucleus. She would encounter the Doctor's previous selves who would help (and hinder) her progress through his psyche.

The first three Doctors would appear after a fashion - but as I'm quite pleased with my solution, I won't tell you here 'cos it would spoil it.

So here is the first installment of "The Enemy Within" - which most fans know was an unused title for several stories including the TV movie and the Invisible Enemy...

Just click on the image for a larger version.