Name:
The Stolen TARDIS
Main character(s):
Plutar
Main enemy:
Sillarc
Main setting:
Gallifrey
Key crew
Publisher:
Marvel Comics
Editor:
Dez Skinn
Writer:
Steve Moore
Artist:
Steve Dillon
Letterer:
uncredited
Release details
Printed in:
Doctor Who Weekly Issues 9, 10 and 11
Release Date:
12 December-28 December 1979
Reprinted in:
DW84 4
Format:
B&W 3 parts/12 pages
The Stolen TARDIS was a backup comic story published in Doctor Who Magazine in 1979. It was set on Gallifrey and featured Plutar as the main character.
This back up strip is introduced by the Fourth Doctor and is also tailed by him for the conclusion, where it is revealed that The Doctor has been watching the story on a video screen. The reader never finds out if Plutar becomes a Time Lord, as according to The Doctor, the rest of Plutar’s life story is on another tape, which can’t seem to be found at the moment…!
On Gallifrey, because of his support for interference in other worlds to defeat evil, Plutar is failed at the time Lord Academy and sent to reconsider his views whilst working as a TARDIS technician. While working away in one of the TARDISes, an alien, Sillarc, arrives under cover. He uses a hypnotic image of a circus to set about stealing a TARDIS – the one Plutar is repairing.
Together they travel back in time (but not in space) and Sillarc tries retrieving a spare relativity differentiator from Plutar. Both of them make it back into the TARDIS, with Sillarc narrowly breaking through the doors, but upon returning to Gallifrey, Sillarc escapes alone in the TARDIS. He is shocked when the TARDIS reappears and he finds Plutar waiting for him with armed guards (having made use of another TARDIS). Sillarc’s memories are wiped and he is exiled. In recognition of his great initiative, it is suggested that Plutar reapply to the Academy.