Written by Scott Gray, pencils by Martin Geraghty, and inks by David A. Roach.
This story features the return of Annabel Lake and the city of Cornucopia, introduced in previous DWM strips. But it is most notable for the surprise re-appearance of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, companions of the very First Doctor introduced back in the original series premiere, and shows them having an adventure with the Eleventh Doctor.
Tropes:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The invasion of the Hunters on both Cornucopia and Earth.
- Arc Words: Answers the question "What is buried in man?" The image of the TARDIS, representing humanity's memories of the Doctor.
- Author Tract: the behind-the-scenes in the graphic novel goes into depth about how the author hates Skyfall and tried to make this story as different as possible.
- Bigger on the Inside:
- The TARDIS elicits this reaction from Ian and Barbara (again). Though in their defense, it wasn't nearly as big the last time they traveled inside.
- The Bus Came Back/Long Bus Trip: This issue marks the return of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright since they departed from the Doctor's company in "The Chase".
- Catchphrase: The Doctor offhandedly mentions several of his past regenerations' catchphrases, before realizing that Ian and Barbara wouldn't know them, having left him before his first regeneration.
- Continuity Cavalcade: The Doctor actually tries to invoke this several times. First to get an amnesiac Ian and Barbara free of their psychic prison, the second to allow them to recognize him as The Doctor.
- Continuity Nod: Several throughout the story.
- Ian recounts Marinus, Vortis, the Sense Sphere, the Daleks, Thals and Skaro.
- Barbara remembers Susan, Vicki, Saladin, Napoléon, and Kublai Khan.
- While attempting to jog Ian and Barbara's memory, the Doctor mentions brains in jars.
- The Doctor also mentions Jelly Babies.
- Hugo brings up the Doctor's attempts to erase himself from the universe's records during Series 7.
- Ian and the Doctor find themselves inside Patrick's memories of the aftermath of Eighth Doctor strip "The Flood". Annabel's armour is converted Cyber-armour from the future Cybermen of that story.
- The Doctor first visited Cornucopia in Eleventh Doctor strip "The Cornucopia Caper", where he met Horatio Lynk.
- The Doctor mentions some of the other psychic metal artifacts he's encountered - the Belief Engine (in 11th strip "The Chains of Olympus"), the gauntlet (in 11th strip "Sticks & Stones"), and the ziggurat ("The Cornucopia Caper").
- The Doctor remembers Annabel's doll from his first meeting with the Lakes in "The Broken Man".
- Ian and Barbara were confirmed as being married in The Sarah Jane Adventures story "Death of the Doctor"; this story features the actual wedding.
- Cool Ship: Annabel Lake's ship.
- Enemy Civil War: Near the end of the story, the Prometheans and the Tribe of Gum start warring amongst each other due to Ian and Barbara.
- Evil Overlooker: The Prometheans sit Indian-style while floating mid-air.
- Flashback: The Doctor has several when the Prometheans use their psychic powers to trap him and Ian inside a recreation of his memories, from the Last Great Time War to the first adventure the Doctor and Ian went on.
- Gibbering Genius: The Eleventh Doctor, one of the reasons Ian is initially convinced he is an imposter trying to deceive him.
- Happily Married: Ian and Barbara, by the end of the story.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: After the Prometheans have used the psychic metal to take control of humanity using the image of the sun, the Doctor uses the same psychic metal to present the human race with a new image designed to encourage them to stand on their own and call for help.
- I Hate Past Me: At one point the Eleventh Doctor mentions having nothing but contempt for the First Doctor, going so far as to glare at a psychic projection of his past self several times and describing him as selfish. When Ian tries to point out all the good things he did in his first incarnation, Eleven counters that it was he and Barbara that kept him doing the right thing.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When the Doctor demands to know why Patrick Lake turned his daughter into a weapon, Patrick simply tells him that he took the Doctor's own advice and "made the leap".
- Oh, Crap!: While it's difficult to tell, this seems to be the Doctor's initial reaction upon meeting Ian and Barbara inside the glowing psychic metal cube.
- The Power of Love: Ian and Barbara give a speech to the Za and Tribe of Gum to look beyond their own primitive desires and embrace compassion, kindness and love. Za and the tribe are so moved that they turn on the Prometheans.
- The Reveal: The Eleventh Doctor was the one who originally broke the TARDIS's chameleon circuit offscreen during the very first TV story, so it would become a continuous presence in humanity's collective memory.
- Stable Time Loop: It's suggested that the TARDIS itself is this; after the image of the blue box became encoded on humanity's race memory as a symbol of protection, the Doctor speculates that it eventually inspired the human race to create such an image for themselves, suggesting that they designed the police box based on a subconscious racial memory of the TARDIS.
- Story Arc: Wraps up the psychic metal story, and continues the story of the Lakes and MI6.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Za and the Tribe of Gum are swayed into a Heel–Face Turn by Ian and Barbara. They fight with the Prometheans until both sides are wiped out.
- What Have I Become?: Averted. Both Patrick and Annabel believe their harsh methods are necessary to defend the Earth from alien threats.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The Doctor has this reaction to Patrick Lake regarding turning his daughter into a highly-trained soldier.The Doctor: WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?!
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: Thanks to the Tribe of Gum warping space in their search for the psychic metal, time contracted such that only a few years passed for them since their original appearance.
