These are the adventures of the fourth Dr, played by Tom Baker, from Tv Comic to Doctor Who Monthly, including specials and annuals.
Obviously comics of the fourth Dr have been produced in more recent eras but I will just be looking at his adventures in comic format during his time.
THE DR WHO COMIC STRIPS PART 4:TOM BAKER
Re: THE DR WHO COMIC STRIPS PART 4:TOM BAKER
STORY 1: DEATH FLOWER!
TV COMIC 1204 - 1214
WRITER:UNKNOWN
ART:GERRY HAYLOCK
DATES:11/01/75 - 22/3/75
The Doctor and Sarah are pitted against Professor Sarric, the head of agricultural research development company Vegpro.
Reading this story again today, while the obvious connection, with humans mutating into plants, is the Tv story "The Seeds of Doom" (which wouldn't be on TV until the climax of Toms' second series, the following year, there are also echoes of "Robot" (on TV at the time this was published) and future TV series stories, "Pyramids of Mars" and "The Android Invasion" .
This is a truly brilliant story and one of my all time favourite Tom Baker comic strips.
Also of note is the way that TV comic handle the regeneration from Jon Pertwee into Tom Baker.
When the first Dr regenerated into the 2nd Dr, the comic strip made no mention of this and just continued the following week with the 2nd Doctor (TV comic issues 783 - 784).
With the 2nd Drs' regeneration into the 3rd, readers of TV comic were treated to an actual series of events beginning with the Dr in exile in Earth (Tv comic 936) and culminating with the Timelords capturing him to regenerate him (Tv comic 936).
There is then a 7 week gap until Jon Pertwee begins his TV comic run in Tv Comic 944.
With the 3rd Drs' regeneration into the 4th, his last story seems to prefigure the regeneration with Pertwees' Dr believing that he may have come to the end of his travels (TV Comic 1203) "This must be the end...".
With the introduction of the 4th Dr, the story starts with paragraphs of text that explain recent events in the tv series and the altered appearance of the Dr.
My point to all of this is that I remember Dr Who Magazine being very rude about the handling of regeneration of Drs during the strips TV Comic tenure (its actual main home for the majority of the original classic tv series) and this was completely unfounded and inaccurate.
In reality it was never handled better and remains a fine testament to the comic.
TV COMIC 1204 - 1214
WRITER:UNKNOWN
ART:GERRY HAYLOCK
DATES:11/01/75 - 22/3/75
The Doctor and Sarah are pitted against Professor Sarric, the head of agricultural research development company Vegpro.
Reading this story again today, while the obvious connection, with humans mutating into plants, is the Tv story "The Seeds of Doom" (which wouldn't be on TV until the climax of Toms' second series, the following year, there are also echoes of "Robot" (on TV at the time this was published) and future TV series stories, "Pyramids of Mars" and "The Android Invasion" .
This is a truly brilliant story and one of my all time favourite Tom Baker comic strips.
Also of note is the way that TV comic handle the regeneration from Jon Pertwee into Tom Baker.
When the first Dr regenerated into the 2nd Dr, the comic strip made no mention of this and just continued the following week with the 2nd Doctor (TV comic issues 783 - 784).
With the 2nd Drs' regeneration into the 3rd, readers of TV comic were treated to an actual series of events beginning with the Dr in exile in Earth (Tv comic 936) and culminating with the Timelords capturing him to regenerate him (Tv comic 936).
There is then a 7 week gap until Jon Pertwee begins his TV comic run in Tv Comic 944.
With the 3rd Drs' regeneration into the 4th, his last story seems to prefigure the regeneration with Pertwees' Dr believing that he may have come to the end of his travels (TV Comic 1203) "This must be the end...".
With the introduction of the 4th Dr, the story starts with paragraphs of text that explain recent events in the tv series and the altered appearance of the Dr.
My point to all of this is that I remember Dr Who Magazine being very rude about the handling of regeneration of Drs during the strips TV Comic tenure (its actual main home for the majority of the original classic tv series) and this was completely unfounded and inaccurate.
In reality it was never handled better and remains a fine testament to the comic.