John and Gillian (Doctor Who)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Doctor Who character | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| John and Gillian | |
| Affiliated with | First Doctor Second Doctor |
| Race | Time Lord? |
| Home planet | Earth |
| Home era | 20th century |
| First appearance | The Klepton Parasites |
| Last appearance | Invasion of the Quarks |
| Portrayed by | None |
John and Gillian (last names not given) are fictional characters who appeared in the TV Comic comic strip based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The comic strip was pitched towards young children, and the stories more whimsical than those of the television series. The tales featuring John and Gillian were drawn first by Neville Main, then by Bill Mevin and finally by John Canning.
A pre-teen brother and sister pair, John and Gillian were companions of the First and Second Doctors. The canonicity of the comic strips, like other Doctor Who spin-off media, is unclear.
John and Gillian first appeared in the story The Klepton Parasites (TVC #674-#683). They began by looking for their grandfather, Doctor Who, in a junkyard. This paralleled the events of the television series' first episode "An Unearthly Child", although in the strip, the junkyard was at No. 16 instead of No. 76.
In the TV Comic strips, John and Gillian are the Doctor's grandchildren. Since they predated the introduction of the Time Lords into the television series (in the last Second Doctor serial, The War Games), whether they are also Gallifreyan like the Doctor's television granddaughter Susan Foreman is uncertain. All in all, they appeared to be typical human children of their era.
The Doctor did not appear to have met them prior to their first appearance, but they were aware of him, and he recognized them as soon as they entered the TARDIS by saying, "You must be John and Gillian," implying that he was expecting them. During their visit, John accidentally pressed a control button which transported them to the 30th century, where they met and defeated the alien Kleptons.
John and Gillian travelled with the Doctor for many adventures and fought against many enemies, including the ant-like Zarbi (from the televised story The Web Planet), the space pirate Captain Anastas Thrax, the spherical Gyros robots and even the Pied Piper in what amounted to a sequel to Robert Browning's famous poem. A later story introduced the Trods, cone-shaped robotic creatures that ran on static electricity, created for the strip by artist John Canning as the Daleks could not initially be used for contractual reasons. These were solved by the time the Second Doctor entered the strip, and the Daleks began making appearances beginning with The Trodos Ambush (TVC #788-#791), in which they massacred the Trods.
The siblings' parting of ways with the First Doctor was never shown. They returned to the TARDIS with him at the conclusion of The Experimenters (TVC #780-#783) and were seen awaiting the Second Doctor's return to the TARDIS in The Extortioner (#784-#787). No explanation was given for the Doctor's change of appearance and the two never commented on it. However, some time seemed to have elapsed, since they now appeared to be in their mid-teens. Although in The Extortioner the Second Doctor once again reiterated that John and Gillian were his grandchildren, for most of their remaining time with the Second Doctor he referred to them as his "companions" and they called him "The Doctor".
John and Gillian remained with the Second Doctor for many more comic strip adventures until the first part of Invasion of the Quarks (TVC #872-#876), when the Doctor enrolled them in the university on the planet Zebadee. This was their last appearance in the TV Comic comic strip.
[edit] Other appearances
Several attempts have been made to reconcile or incorporate John and Gillian into the various "adult" Doctor Who continuities. In the Past Doctor Adventures novel Heart of TARDIS by Dave Stone, the Second Doctor commented that he had friends and family living in late twentieth century London.
In the Virgin New Adventures novel Conundrum by Steve Lyons, which took place in the Land of Fiction previously encountered by the Second Doctor in The Mind Robber, the new Master of the Land of Fiction prepared for his confrontation with the Seventh Doctor by creating and pitting himself against a fictional character named "Dr. Who" and his grandchildren John and Gillian, implying that the TV Comic strips were all part of such simulations. When the Doctor met the two children, they called him "grandfather", but he replied that he had never met them before.
John and Gillian — or rather John Brent and Gillian Roberts — appeared in the novella Time and Relative by Kim Newman, featuring the First Doctor and Susan, and taking place in 1963, some six months before the events of "An Unearthly Child". This John and Gillian were friends of Susan's, attending the Coal Hill School with her. Aside from the coincidence in names (an obvious homage), there is no resemblance between them and the John and Gillian of the TV Comic strips.
The original John and Gillian appeared in the Eighth Doctor comic strip story The Land of Happy Endings (Doctor Who Magazine #337). In the story, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the television series and drawn mostly in the style of the TV Comic strips, the Eighth Doctor and his grandchildren shared a light-hearted adventure on the planet Darbodia. At the story's end, the Eighth Doctor woke up in his TARDIS, suggesting that not just the preceding adventure, but all his adventures with John and Gillian, were merely dreams.
