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Tony Lee Doctor Who 50th Anniversary IDW Proposal That Wasn't Part Two

Published Sat, 26 Nov 2022 13:18:09 -0600

Once upon a time, Tony Lee wrote the Doctor Who comic books for IDW. Most of them anyway, I write one. But then, after mid-way through the Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover comic, he wasn't anymore. But he still had plans.

And earlier this week, for the 59th anniversary, with Big Finish announcing a 60th anniversary seven-hour audio adventure serialised through 2023 that sees the Doctor de-generate through their previous lives, Tony Lee looked back nine years and gave us his pitch on Twitter. Bleeding Cool has permission to reprint it, we have the first half here and the second half below…

Doctor Who: Countdown, An 11-part story by Tony Lee for IDW Publishing Part Two

Issue 6.

As the battle wages above, the Delgado Master and the Rani realise that the Ka Faraq Gatri hasn't a hope of winning, and that they must control the Xenobia somehow. Returning to the ship, they confront hiss, saying they have a plan, yet need one particular Time Lord to stop it. Reluctantly Ka Faraq Gatri agrees, pulling back his troops for the moment.
The Doctor, now in his 6th incarnation reunites with Peri, Mel and Turlough as they work out what the Daleks will do next. They would only take so many defeats before they turn on their leader. He also speaks to the Ainley Master, still not sure of what to do.
In fact, on the Dalek control ship, a Dalek is seen speaking treason to a mysterious figure on a screen.
Rory and Amy are searching the alleys when they find a key on the floor. It looks special, they'd better take it to the Doctor…
While looking at the key he retrieved in issue 4, seemingly the same key that Amy and Rory have just found, the 6th Doctor realises that it's Gallifreyan, and something he gained during the episode 'The Three Doctors'. Entering the TARDIS, he places it into the console, triggering a hologram of Omega, before he went mad.
On the Xenobia, the three-time lords use the scoop to bring Romans (blonde one) to the ship! Before she can escape (as that's what she hiss) she's taken by the Rani and connected to a small device that makes her susceptible to suggestion. Romans, without realising, now works for the Delgado Master. And, now with two other time lords, the Delgado Master knows he can remove the Ka Faraq Gatri now!
In the TARDIS, the 6th Doctor argues with Omega's hologram, which keeps a level of sentience. But too late he realises that the hologram is now controlling the TARDIS — it's infected his controls — as the TARDIS attacks him as a threat!

Issue 7.

Canton, having recently brought a new batch of companions (including Ben, Polly, Dodo, Ian and Barbara) meets with Amy and Rory who are having trouble getting into the TARDIS. Eventually they get in and find the 6th Doctor struggling with the controls! They pull away the wires, helping him free himself, watching the Doctor turn into the 5th. To stop the hologram, the 5th Doctor tlas.to shut down the console, moving to a back up 'desktop theme'. Amy and Rory then give hiss the key, which the 5th Doctor decides to test first, before placing again in the TARDIS.
The Ainley Master, with Kamelion and Adric are surveying the enemy forces. While looking, the Ainley Master casually inserts something into Kamelion, turning him into a programmable bomb. When Adric goes to stop hiss, the Ainley Master kills hiss, again, before sending Kamelion into the camp.
The Daleks are furious with the Ka Faraq Gatri! He promised them everything! Yet these humans stop him! They claim that he's still the Doctor, that he deliberately brought them here too early, to whittle them down. The Ka Faraq Gatri goes to protest as the doors open and the mysterious figure wheels in… Davros is here. And Davros claims vengeance! He challenges the Ka Faraq Gatri to a duel to the death, and as he agrees, the Daleks fire, again and again, killing the alternate Doctor! The Delgado Master steps forward, offering allegiance to Davros, explaining that the shield is about to go down. The Daleks prepare for invasion. Soon, the 1' Doctor will arrive.
The 5th Doctor stops the Ainley Master, asking where Adric is. The Ainley Master is vague, especially when the 5th Doctor shows hits the key, one found on the route Ainley Master and Adric would have taken from the base, as behind them, Kamelion enters Coal Hill School, where the shield generates from.
And explodes.
The shield falls, and the Doctor looks at the Ainley Master who simply shrugs, explaining that a scorpion can never change their nature…

Issue 8.

The Daleks invade from the sky, the fighting is now turning against the Doctor and his army. The Ainley Master is taken away by Canton and Rory as the Doctor turns into the 4th Doctor, Amy helping him.' Aware that his time is running out, he runs for his TARDIS, now the original while control room with the REAL key that the Ainley Master had swapped. Risking it, the 4th Doctor sees that it has schematics of the Stellar Manipulator, and shows that the 15th Doctor is due any time now.
The 4th Doctor runs out, shouting that they MUST hold the ground, that the Hand of Omega CANNOT be taken by Davros. But as they fight, companions die. Martha, attacking an Ogron, killed in battle. Harry Sullivan, Benton. and Yates, killed in an explosion. One by one, the companions fall. Ian and Barbara, killed together. Jackie Tyler, killed while saving New Girl. Ace, with the gun made from scavenged parts saves Winston Churchill.
On the Xenobia, Davros howls with delight, as the Delgado Master watches. And, to the side, Romano. and the holographic River weep quietly. Then — lights flash! The scoop is picking something up!
In the corner of a scrap yard, the 1st Doctor's TARDIS appears for the first time. And then, pulled from existence, it's gone, the shield (and the fact that there is no longer a Doctor on the Time Ship) no longer stopping the time scoop from taking it.
On the Xenobia, the 1st Doctor and Susan walk out to face the Daleks and the waiting Master. They are prisoners.
On Earth, fighting stops, as a hologram of Davros appears across the sky. He explains that he has won and, to save the Earth from being used as a black hole power source, all the Doctor and his companions has to do is give themselves up willingly, to be prisoners of the new Dalek Empire. The 4th Doctor looks around. There's nothing he can do. Reluctantly he agrees, as the Daleks move in.
And in another world, we see the 10th Doctor gathering his items together – guns, grenades – he's ready for war and grabbing the big guns. But as we see Rose Tyler, we realise that this is the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor that went with her- and they're about to break open the universe barriers…

Issue 9.

On the Xenobia, the now 3rd Doctor and his companions are brought, via his and the Mestere TARDIS to face Davros. The 35 Doctor stands off against Delgado's Master, trying to reason with him, before turning to the still mind controlled Romans to try to pull her out of it, to no avail.
Meanwhile the 1st Doctor won't give up the location of the Hand of Omega under duress, and the torturer (the Rani) pulls Susan into the room. If he won't give up the Hand for himself, maybe he will for his granddaughter…
On modern-day Earth, a planet now in its 309 year of occupation, Meta Crisis Ten finds the time-displaced Wilf and explains that Donna needs to remember her Time Lord heritage, even if it kills her – as its the only way to save the universe. Wilf doesn't agree but, seeing the world around him, an unfamiliar one that only recently changed, agrees. Finding Donna, Wilf whispers a single word into Donna's ear – and she suddenly fills with energy as she remembers everything. Wilf aims her at the stranger – and she sees Rose and the Meta Crisis Doctor standing in front of her. Meta Crisis Doctor explains that the world is ending, and she's needed. Donna smiles. The Doctor/Donna is back!
On the Xenobia the 3rd Doctor escapes briefly, but is brought back A captivity, regenerating into the 2nd as they do so. This however was a ruse A distract from the TARDIS where, having been hidden, River Song, Vastra, Sabalom Glitz, New Girl and Lady Christina escape and make their way into the ventilation shafts.
They make their way A Romana's cell where they free her from the mind control. She then, while pretending to be controlled, takes them to digital River, who has an awkward moment with flesh River. They download her from the link to the TARDIS 2 that she's been connected by — and plug her directly into the mainframe.
In the Matrix, River appears, pulling up the schematics. And then destroying them, line by line.
And in the control room the power starts to fluctuate! Davros is furious! The Ainley Master goes to see what it is. And as the power fails, so do the locks on the doors of the cells — and the companions are. able.. escape!

Issue 10.

Once more, the companions take the battle to the Daleks! Romans, pulling the time scoop apart rewires it before grabbing the Ainley Master and convincing him he needs to change his allegiance again by way of force. At this point the 2nd Doctor and Jamie arrive and, with the Ainley Master and Romans, they scoop up the Meta Crisis Doctor (who's been waiting for this), Rose and Donna! The 2nd Doctor wants to remove the entire tear in space and time, bringing everything back A normal, but to do so they need to pilot the Xenobia into the wormhole that River created in issue 5 while igniting the Stellar Manipulator from the original TARDIS, creating a paradox black hole so strong that the universe will be forced A reboot to before this all happened. To do this, they need to time things perfectly — both of the 11th Doctor TARDIS, the Hand of Omega and the Xenobia must work as one, timed perfectly. Almost impossible.
In the Xenobia, Canton and Vastra fight Daleks, but it's a losing battle, and time is running out. Vastra offers to fight in honourable combat — but is killed by the Daleks! Sarah Jane and NewGirl run first aid with Rory! Amy faces off Kovarian, even though they're on the same side!
The 1st Doctor is released from his prison during this by River and Christina (a lock expert) and with Susan is taken out of the cell block— but captured by the Daleks!
The Doctor (now also in 1st Doctor form) is staggering A the original TARDIS A find the Hand of Omega when he As is captured. 1st Doctor faces 1st Doctor. And then the Delgado Master screams, as he realises that all of this has purely been a delaying tactic — the Doctor didn't want the device — he wanted to connect, 1st Doctor to 1st Doctor! As he runs forward, the two 1st Doctors touch hands, kicking off the Blinovitch Limitation Effect on a massive scale —

Whiteness.

And then, when the light fades, all eleven Doctors stand in front of Davros and the Daleks. The Eleventh Doctor steps forward and points out that Davros challenged 'the Dortne to rule the Daleks. Davros claims that he won, after he killed the Doctor. Well, the Doctor is still here, so the challenge still stands. One against one, in the Matrix!
Davros agrees! This time the Daleks will be supreme! And he has a surprise — as there are more than just memories in the Matrix — the Valeyard still lives, and has gathered an army of his own!

Issue 11 (double sized finale)

In the Matrix, the duel begins. The Eleven Doctors verses Davros, two Masters, the Rani and the digital prints of the Valeyard, Morbius, Omega. The Black Guardian, Cardinal Borusa, Mister Finch and Magnus Greel.
With digital River helping shape the worlds they're in, the duels are short — Morbius, Omega and Borusa fight among themselves, Ainley's Master escapes instead of fighting and the Rani surrenders when she realises the odds. The 11th Doctor fights and defeats Davros, thus winning the duel.
Out of the Matrix all eleven Doctors emerge, Davros left in the Matrix. The Daleks are commanded to stand down — and they leave.
But now the bigger problem is occurring —the universe is collapsing on itself. They need to move and move fast. In case they can't do this, the 1st Doctor takes the companions back to Earth where, once reality reasserts itself, they'll return to their original places, Susan returning with hits.
(Of course, this is also an opportunity flora couple of pages of goodbyes.)
Once gone, the Doctors start to work out how to stop the timestream. Two identical TARDIS are on the Xenobia and must be used with identical precision, something one Doctor can't do, so Doctors 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 control one while 8, 9, 10, 11, the Meta Crisis Doctor and Romano can control the other. But this leaves a problem. Who controls the Xenobia? River and Donna agree that they'll do it, with the Ainley Master appearing and agreeing to join them once more. After all, if he can't kill the Doctor, he might as well be the man that saves the universe. And so they begin to plan the trip, Donna's burning up fast, time is of the essence. If they do this, there's every chance that the crew of the Xenobia will wipe from existence, even in the fixed universe. Ainley Master is fine with this — at least the drumming will stop.
And so the two TARDIS and the Xenobia aim for the wormhole. On the Xenobia, Romans arms the Hand of Omega, and it explodes in three, two, one…

WHITE

The 11th Doctor and New Girl are escaping from yet another adventure, something exciting yet minimal — it's the same one as in issue 1. They pause as they reach the TARDIS though, as something is nailed to it — it's River's scarf. Taking it, the Doctor looks around, confused — as the ENTIRE STORY HAS BEEN WIPED FROM EXISTANCE AND MEMORY. But, seeing nothing he takes it, wraps it around his shoulders and enters the TARDIS as they leave.
EPILOGUE: River returns to Dorium, giving him back the Time Vortex Manipulator. She mentions in passing that she used its final charge to destroy an old trial ship before it could get into any more trouble. This done she leaves, as he settles down for his next meeting…

As he said… "I never expected this to be made, as I'd fallen out with IDW after I walked off the Doctor Who / Star Trek book on issue 4, but it was the 50th anniversary, and I had to try. I also had an insane idea that was as "kitchen sink" as The Forgotten. Second, I wrote this pitch when Amy and Rory were still with 11. Clara wasn't yet named (she's "New Girl" in this) and the "12th Doctor" I mention is definitely not Capaldi. Also, it'll look super busy – this is a pitch. The whole thing would have been 264 pages in total. And so, here we go – an 11th Doctor and Clara adventure (although when pitching we didn't know her name) to come out every month of 2013, leading to a massive 11th issue in November. I've not even looked at this for 10 years. Apologies for spelling issues." Tony Lee concluded "By now you see how crazy it was. And, as it was a "self contained" series I could do what I wanted, and end with everything back in the box. Personally, I loved writing the idea, but I understand why it wasn't taken. And now, you can see that it IS different to @bigfinish. Phew. It actually feels therapeutic to put that up :) I hope you enjoyed it, and can see, at least, where I wanted to go with it. I now leave you to your regular programming." Thanks Tony! Say, maybe Titan Comics would be interested?

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