By Rob McCow

Invaders From Gantac!

The Collector

The Invaders from Gantac! invaded issues #148-150 of Doctor Who Magazine. The invasion lasted from May to July of 1989.

The World Shapers

Script – Alan Grant

Art – Martin Griffiths and Cam Smith

Lettering – Gordon Robson

Editor – Richard Starkings!

Fellow Travellers

Some decidedly hairy helpers for the Doctor this time out. The first is a savage beast called an Ohmodom. This starts off as a cute little rabbit-like creature in it's child phase although as an adult it's a large, slavering beast. It has the sensibilities of a rottweiler, which means that although it makes a vicious guard it can also be quite affectionate to it's owner. The big thing to watch out for with your pet Ohmodom is electricity. One jolt and they'll grow into an adult in a matter of seconds. I'd recommend putting stiff insulation around any wires, in case it tries nibbling through them.

Leapy is a flea-bitten, bearded tramp with very few of his own teeth left. Although his lack of personal hygiene is a major problem in this story, we see in a flashback that he used to be quite smart and respectable. It may be that the invasion has resulted in his down and out status, but none of the other people we see in this story are nearly as destitute as Leapy, even those rounded up for interrogation in Hyde Park. The big thing to watch out for with your pet tramp is fleas. Get too close, or spend too much time with one and you'll find yourself getting bitten. I'd recommend bathing for the tramp and burning for his clothes.

Mary Tamm makes a surprise reappearance in the comic strip

The Deal

The Earth of the near future (the near future of 1992) has been invaded. A tramp named Leapy hides in the London Underground, but is flushed out by the alien patrols. The aliens are tall, lean and humanoid, each with a bone through their nose. They are about to take Leapy for interrogation when the TARDIS materialises. The Doctor bursts out with a birthday present for Bonjaxx. The aliens zap the Doctor with their electric batons and the Doctor drops his present, which opens to reveal a cute, rabbit-like creature called an Ohmodom. The aliens zap the Ohmodom, causing it to suddenly enter it's adult phase where it becomes a large, fanged beast. The Ohmodom chases away the aliens.

An Ohmodom is not just for Christmas

Leapy introduces himself and explains how he got his name – because of his fleas. He tells the Doctor about the invasion. The aliens destroyed Earth's air forces and rounded up the people for interrogation. It was really that simple.

As the Doctor and Leapy try to find somewhere to hide, the aliens return in tanks. They stun the Doctor and take him prisoner, though Leapy escapes. The Doctor is interrogated in Hyde Park, where the alien Captain asks him about the Fabled Treasure of Zantar Wrouth. When the Doctor hears that this is what they are after, he laughs. Leapy sneaks in to Hyde Park to see if he can rescue the Doctor.

The action cuts to the planet Gantac. The Great Yaga, who is a giant Jabba-the-Hutt-style creature, accepts a call from Earth. The alien Captain tells Yaga what the Doctor said – that they have landed on the wrong planet. The Great Yaga replies that he does not make mistakes and orders both the Captain and the Doctor executed. The Doctor uses a hypnotic phrase to freeze the guard that is about to execute him. Leapy bursts in to carry out a rescue but the Doctor is already free. The Doctor explains how he escaped and repeats the hypnotic phrase, but this sends Leapy into a trance too.

Yaga makes an entrance

The Doctor drags the unconscious Leapy through the crowd as the guards search for them. The Doctor overhears the aliens talking about the communications centre and formulates a plan.

At the communications centre, the Great Yaga arrives to take charge. The Doctor bursts in and tells Yaga that he can prove that they've landed on the wrong planet. Yaga permits the Doctor to show his proof before he is executed.

The Doctor dials up an old friend of his called Captain Nekro, who explains that the Fabled Treasure of Zantar Wrouth is a planet-sized diamond protected by war-asteroids equipped with hi-tech nuclear nova-bursters and trans-dimensional missiles.

Yaga scoffs at the defences and says he will easily overcome them. He picks up the Doctor and is about to eat him when Leapy breaks free from the guards and desperately attacks Yaga. As he does so, his fleas desert him in droves as they are drawn away by the Great Yaga's pure blood. Bitten by millions of fleas, Yaga is wracked with pain and is convinced that he is being attacked by invisible enemies. He orders his guards to shoot at him, which they do, blasting four big holes in Yaga's belly. Without Yaga, the aliens keel over and die too.

The Doctor says his goodbyes and packs the Ohmodom into the TARDIS. He thanks Leapy for his help. As the Doctor leaves he starts itching. He too has picked up Leapy's fleas!

TV Action

This story was published shortly after the end of Season 25.

There have been many attempted invasions of Earth in the TV series, but few have been successful. The Daleks had a good go in The Dalek Invasion of Earth set in 2156, while more recently the Toclafaine completely invaded the Earth of 2007, although after an incident with a machine gun and the TARDIS console, it turned out that they had never invaded Earth at all.

Popular flea-carriers seen in the TV show have included the cavemen from 100,000BC, Binro the Heretic from The Ribos Operation and Pigbin Josh from The Claws of Axos.

The naff seventies styling of the Gantacs' outfits would have been easy to recreate in any TV version of this story. The Great Yaga would have been far too large a working prop to be achieved in the eighties, though I'm sure they'd have tried. It would have been the biggest creature since the Myrka from Warriors of the Deep.

4-Dimensional Vistas

The artwork in this story is bold and cartoony with lots of motion, although there's very little depth and everything looks flat. It would have benefited hugely from being in full colour. The Gantac aliens are bizarre but derivative, with outfits that wouldn't look out of place in Barbarella or the video for I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper. They have human faces with Dan Dare jawlines and the Captain sports a little moustache. Their weapons are horribly phallic, being a long shaft with a bulbous tip that fires electricity. The overall effect is utterly naff.

The Great Yaga is very similar to Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars, although without the tail. I've always had a problem with creatures that are essentially just a head, particularly if they have large mouths and sharp teeth. There is no way that the Great Yaga can swallow or digest anything, which makes a nonsense of having its servants constantly pouring food into its mouth.

The opening of the story in the Underground is dark and grim, with some clever lighting effects. Unfortunately, the art gets increasingly sketchy and rushed as the story progresses, culminating in the last few pages being little more than outlines.

This time the artists have given up on drawing Sylvester McCoy and have chosen to draw Fred Harris as the Doctor instead.

"I'm buggered!" thought Doctor Who

End of The Line

Rare as it is for a male companion to join the Doctor for an adventure, it's even rarer for the Doctor to be assisted by a bearded man. I can think of only Steven in The Chase as another example, and he very soon shaves off his facial growth. In Doctor Who, beards are frequently a sign of villainy. They are especially favoured by the Doctor's arch nemesis, the Master.

Invaders from Gantac! is a comedy story and most of the laughs come from Leapy's bumbling character, as he falls about, makes rubbish but brave rescue attempts and gets hypnotised in the comedy cliffhanger to part two. The humour is quite childish however. This is Doctor Who as written for the same market as Marvel Comics' other publications such as The Real Ghostbusters and The Incredible Hulk Presents. It works to make the strip more accessible to younger readers, but the magazine has always been bought by readers of all ages.

Even so, this story might still have been enjoyable if it wasn't so painfully contrived. They run into the same problem as the New Series' season finales, in that if you have an army successfully invading the Earth, the ending is always going to feel like an enormous cop-out. Therefore the Gantac's civilisation is massively over-centralised and the Great Yaga, who should never leave the safety of his homeworld presents himself as vulnerable and stupid. That the invading forces landed on the wrong planet is silly enough, but that they all die in one fell swoop is worse. The Doctor even solves the situation by dialling up a never-before mentioned friend to give an enormous piece of exposition. It seems lazy and irritating, no matter how cool Captain Nekro looks.

Personally, I've always found Invaders from Gantac! to be a fun and endearing story, but I can't pretend that it's not awful.

Follow That TARDIS!

Jonathan Morris had special love for this story in the Comics section of the Seventh Doctor Special, a DWM Special Edition from 2005. 'That this drivel is the work of Judge Dredd luminary Alan Grant surely proves the adage that everyone can have an off-day.'

Alan Grant has written for 2000AD and Batman, producing many popular storylines for those comics.

Leapy’s real name is Alex Trench, apparently. This is the name of a character that Alan Grant used in 2000AD.

The hypnotic phrase used by the Doctor in this story is ‘Somnambo Kyreelia Fluzz!’, taught to him by the Lizard-Wizards of the Quasimodo System.

Given their proximity to Trafalgar, the most likely Underground Station for this story’s opening would be Leicester Square.

This is the first time that the Doctor mentions Bonjaxx, his friend who is having a birthday party on Maruthea. The Doctor is going to spend years trying to get to this party!