Terror from the Swamp

This short Doctor Who Adventures comic sees the trio dining at the mansion of Mr and Mrs Johnson in Louisiana in 1929.

These comic strips are always short and to the point, often with little in the way of depth or, I’m sorry to say, originality. There have been a few exceptions during my marathon – but this isn’t one of them.

At dinner, Mr Johnson tells the Doctor about a monster in the nearby swamp and so after dinner he takes Amy and Rory to investigate. In the swamp they are attacked by an enormous green monster and taken back to a cave where they discover a group of other people who have recently been going missing. The monster leaves and the Doctor manages to free everyone with a wave of his sonic screwdriver. When the people take up flaming torches and pitchforks to take revenge on the monster for kidnapping them, the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves trapped.

It then transpires that the monster is an orphaned child and that he has only been trying to protect the locals from some vicious alligators. The Doctor sorts it out and then takes the alien back to its home planet to live happily ever after.

It’s a very common trope in the DWA comic strips for the monster to turn out to be misunderstood. It’s also quite common for the setting to be pretty cursory to the story being told. This could have been a story set in any swamp on any planet at any time as there is no story reason for this to be set in Louisiana in 1929. Mr and Mrs Johnson are merely there to tell the Doctor about the monster and the kidnapped locals don’t do anything except be rescued and then chase the monster.