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The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 204

Rich's Notes: The consciousnesses of the first 9 Doctors approaches and challenges the conditioning. The 10th Doctor’s mind tries to reach back, but the conditioning is strong.

The Doctors' wills sync up and become one! The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 205

Rich's Notes: The 10 Doctors merge their consciousnesses, experiencing each others' memories, past and future. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 206

Rich's Notes: Then, combined into one mighty Doctor, they face off against the Dalek conditioning.

Y’know, written down, that sounds stupid. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 207

Rich's Notes: Meanwhile, Commander Maxil, with a little help from the Brigadier and Captain Jack, has been overseeing the cleanup and reconstruction of . Glitz approaches Drax with some kind of proposal and thanks Grace for her help. Susan asks the 2-and-a-halfth-Doctor how her grandfather is doing and he tells them all that they are not to disturb the Doctors for ANY reason. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 208

Rich's Notes: confronts the Dalek conditioning, but starts to lose coordination between the various personae in his psyche. The Dalek tells him that by accepting the conditioning it can help the Doctors become more disciplined. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 209

Rich's Notes: The Dalek reminds the Doctor of times in his early life when his impulsiveness and lack of discipline got him into serious trouble.

The Doctor informs the Dalek that his goals and achievements outweigh his foibles. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 210

Rich's Notes: The companions and friends wait impatiently for the Doctors to sort themselves out. Susan can’t take it anymore and Sarah Jane give her words of comfort. The door opens and there stands a partially dressed 10th Doctor, who announces that he is in the clear.

They all share a celebratory hug. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 211

Rich's Notes: The companions gravitate towards their various Doctors (and we need not go into lengthy discussion as to why some chose which), and ask what happened in there. Not surprisingly, they all tell their own version of the story, which sounds remarkably similar to each other Doctor’s version in some ways.

–Don’t worry, it’s not quite the end yet!– The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 212

Rich's Notes: Coming to the conclusion that they’ve done all the damage they can on Gallifrey, and really ought to try not to do anymore, the Doctors decide it’s time to leave and regroup on the Eye of Orion to figure out what the next step should be. All, that is, except the 10th ’s reluctant to leave the home he misses so dearly. Even if he did originally run away from its staunch dullness. The 9th Doctor’s words leave him feeling somewhat crushed, which turns to indignant anger when he spots Maxil. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 213

Rich's Notes: The 10th Doctor confronts Maxil, but knowing that they’ve already interfered in the time line already, is unable to interfere more. Besides, he figures, Maxil will ultimately be wiped out on Gallifrey with all the others when Great happens.

Or will he? The 6th Doctor has a little chat of his own with Maxil who informs him that he’s feeling some remorse and once he’s relocated and her family, he plans to steal a TARDIS and do some soul searching. The 6th Doctor approves.

When Peri inquires about Maxil’s resemblance to the 6th Doctor, the Doctor is indignant and has no idea what she’s going on about. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 214

Rich's Notes: The various Doctors begin to head back to their TARDISes with their entourages of companions. The 3rd and 5th Doctors plot a trip to visit with the federation before heading to the Eye of Orion to meet with the others.

The 9th Doctor takes a final sad look at his beloved homeworld.

The Rani decides to take a ride with Drax and Glitz to get off the planet and the 1st Doctor takes Susan to ride with the 8th Doctor and Grace to keep an eye on things.

Leaving the 10th Doctor to travel alone. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 215

Rich's Notes: The 10th Doctor watches the last of his previous selves leave Gallifrey.

He is alone.

He goes back to the TARDIS. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 216

Rich's Notes: The 10th Doctor pops onto the surface of Gallifrey for one last sniff of the ole’ familiar air. But he is suddenly treated to the unexpected sight of the Capital blowing up. More explosions rock the planet’s surface and suddenly the Doctor is caught up in the shockwave!

BOOOM! The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 217

Rich's Notes: The surface of Gallifrey is blasted. The air twists with the mists and dust of churned up soil and shattered structures. The ground is littered with debris from the cities. Out of this steps the 10th Doctor. Somehow alive. This isn’t how Gallifrey was destroyed and certainly not when. The Doctor protests to another figure in the mist, but when he investigates, it’s a statue from a memorial to that survived the destruction. In the depths of despair, the Doctor sinks to his knees…

…but he’s not alone here. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 218

Rich's Notes: The Doctor is confronted by two young women in black and white Gallifreyan robes. He correctly concludes that they are the Black and White Guardians of Time. They inform him that their appearances are selected to suit the needs of their intended contacts. In the previous instance in the Doctor’s 4th incarnation, the Doctor was still going through some authority figure issues. Now in his 10th incarnation and after the destruction of his home planet, the Doctor is excessively lonely and lacks true companionship. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 219

Rich's Notes: Bypassing the whole ‘reason for their appearance’ discussion, the 10th Doctor instead snatches up a couple of the pieces on their playing board and demands to know what they’re up to. He informs the White Guardian that he is in no mood to play her ‘champion of time’, but when she tells him that he isn’t, he deduces that, in fact, is the White Guardian’s champion, since the taking over the universe would be the ultimate ordered structure. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 220

Rich's Notes: The Doctor learns that he has been acting as the champion of the Black Guardian. When he demands an explanation, the two Guardians begin a description of the story so far, starting with the beginning of the universe. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 221

Rich's Notes: The Guardians continue their story from the beginnings of time. How the Black Guardian concluded that the unverse could not survive in an unstable balance between order and chaos. That perfect equalibrium was impossible and so began her campaign for universal perfect chaos.

Cited are such things as “The ” from the episode of the same title. The origins of Rassilon and , Morbius (””) Saliyavin (””), The Land of MakeBelieve (”The Mind Robber”) and the (Image represents “”) The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 222

Rich's Notes: Continuing their summary of their involvement in the Doctor’s life and the state of the universe, the Guardians cite “Genesis of ”, “Day of the Daleks”, “Genesis” again, “The Ribos Operation” and “”. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 223

Rich's Notes: The Guardians carry on with their summarization of the history of the universe. The Doctor learns that his involvement in the Last Great Time War set all the Guardians’ efforts back to square one.

They used all their resources to bend reality, roll back time, and manipulate the most powerful beings to bring the Doctor to a point where it is his decision whether the universe collapses into chaos or settles into perfect order. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 224

Rich's Notes: The 3rd Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough visit with the Federation leaders who inform them that the have scattered, though not eliminated. In the meantime they have saved the (and the universe) and garnered a whole bunch more treaties with other races. They set the date as a holiday in memory of those who died in the battle.

Meanwhile the 5th Doctor returns from Earth with the Brigadier, Sarah Jane and Jo who have been visiting with UNIT and Brigadier Bambara. They learned that UNIT has cleaned up the whole / menace and all is well again. They have also picked up a few old friends to come and visit. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 225

Rich's Notes: The Doctor confronts the Guardians, informing them that the options they gave him aren’t acceptable. The 9th Doctor shows up out of nowhere to support him. They briefly discuss the nature of beings who insist that they exist until the universe no longer needs them.

At which point the 9th Doctor hints that he knows a way around that… and a second 9th Doctor shows up! The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 226

Rich's Notes: More and more 9th Doctors show up on the scene, causing the reapers to appear! The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 227

Rich's Notes: The 9th Doctor points out the Guardians that once they are devoured the Time Lords will be able to rid themselves of the Reapers before they can do any damage to Gallifrey. Seeing how confused the 10th Doctor is, one of the 9th Doctors points out that Gallifrey wasn’t destroyed, but the Guardians tricked him into flying the TARDIS into the Death Zone just as acting President Flavia destroyed the Time Scoop equipment after the events of “” (on the 5th Doctor’s orders, in fact).

Another 9th Doctor points out that they’d better get out of there before the special protection that allowed the out-of-time Doctors to even be there in the first place drops and traps them in the Death Zone of the past.

We get a parting victory shot of the NewWho Doctors, 9th and 10th incarnations. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 228

Rich's Notes: As the 9th and 10th Doctors run back to their TARDISes, the 10th asks the 9th how he knew where to find him and what was going on. The 9th takes him down in Drax’s TARDIS and shows him the rebuilt, modified Time/Space Visualizer that the Doctor had abandoned long ago (in a non-televised adventure. The bit about the Daleks tracking it is not from “”, I made that up. Might follow it up with a story of my own some day.) Apparently Drax found it broken in a scrapyard on Thoros Beta. With it, the 9th Doctor, Drax and have been looking ahead and intervening around the time lines to set things back on course. They boot the 10th Doctor out to keep their nick-of-timing schedule.

As a result of this, the 9th Doctor is experiencing this whole story out of order to the rest of them. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 229

Rich's Notes: The 10th Doctor arrives on The Eye of Orion and is greeted by Rose who has some poignant questions for him about her future with the Doctor. He can give her no useful answers, but does tell her that he misses her greatly. The Ten Doctors: A Graphic Novel by Rich Morris Chapter 9 230

Rich's Notes: They head down to the waterside where Susan is watching her various grandfathers having a ball with the various companions.