The Land of Happy Endings (comic story)

The Land of Happy Endings was Doctor Who Magazines celebration of 40 years of Doctor Who comics, since The Klepton Parasites had been released on 9 November 1964.
The story illustrated an early-TV Comic style adventure for the Eighth Doctor, and featured John and Gillian. The end revealed that the entire strip had been a dream, the Doctor wishing for a more simple life. Many have used this to interpret that all of the TV Comic run were all dreams within the Doctor's mind. While it's easy to claim, the intention of the authors was merely to play homage to the early comics, and not necessarily to decanonise them. The original pitch for the anniversary was simply to bring back John and Gillian, who had left the TARDIS for Space University during the Second Doctor's run of comics. The choice to illustrate the Doctor's gladstone bag as being inside the TARDIS of both worlds was intended to imply that the adventures of John and Gillian might have really once taken place.
The story certainly doesn't match within the timeline of the original TV Comic, being mostly a tribute to the work of Neville Main. Because of this, it's equally valid to say that the Doctor is merely dreaming in remembrance of his earlier adventures, rather than that they never happened. Grey later stated that many fans became emotional over the reveal, saying, "I think the desire for a simpler, cleaner childhood world is something shared by everyone." The comic was voted the best of the year by Doctor Who Magazine readers.
== Summary ==
The Eighth Doctor, John and Gillian visit Darbodia where they discover that the inhabitants have been purged of all imagination. Upon discovering that villainous scientist Wargonn has imprisoned the native species, the Doctor and his grandchildren work to foil his schemes.
== Plot ==
Landing on Darbodia, the Eighth Doctor, John and Gillian are curious as to why the inhabitants are so withdrawn. The Doctor attempts to encourage a reaction by setting off fireworks produced from his amazing Gladstone bag, but draws attention from the ruler Wargonn, who sends his robots to deal with them.
The Doctor is able to fend off the robots by shining a blinding spotlight from his bag onto them to disable their visualisers, but Gillian is captured and taken away. A local artist, Pobla, volunteers to help the Doctor retrieve Gillian and takes him to Darbodia's Parliament House. Inside, the trio fall through a trapdoor and into a prison cell where they find the native Figments, creatures made out of thought that are said to give Darbodians all their dreams, imprisoned. The Doctor uses an acetylene torch from his bag to burn his way out of the prison, and they eventually confront Wargonn in his chamber. Wargonn claims that he imprisoned the Figments because ideas are dangerous and should be controlled by the most intelligent.
The Doctor proves his own intelligence by tricking Wargonn into looking through his bag, which is bigger on the inside due to Time Lord technology. John pushes Wargonn inside in the bag and the Doctor refuses to help him escape until he agrees to surrender; if not, the Doctor will leave Wargonn trapped in the bag forever. With the Figments returned to the city, the Doctor tells the people of Darbodia to take better care of them in future before leaving.
Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor falls asleep and upon awakening he is saddened to find himself alone. Noting that John and Gillian are figments of his imagination, the Doctor recalls how much he enjoys travelling with the pair in his dreams — where villains are naughty instead of evil, people never die, and promises are never broken. The Doctor thinks that, while their worlds may never meet for good, he will never stop trying to make it happen.
== Characters ==
* Eighth Doctor
* John Who
* Gillian Who
* Pobla
* Wargonn
== Worldbuilding ==
to be added
== Notes ==
* The Land of Happy Endings was dedicated to the work of Neville Main, who illustrated numerous First Doctor comic stories in TV Comic from 1964 to 1966.
* This is the first appearance of John and Gillian in a comic story since their departure in the comic story Invasion of the Quarks in 1968. In the interim, John had appeared as Professor John Who, head of Space Science, in Beware the Trods! in DWCC 8 in 1993. Furthermore, they had appeared as fictional characters created by Jason, the Master of the Land of Fiction, in the novel Conundrum in 1994.
* The Doctor states that "people never die" during his travels with John and Gillian. As the comic is primarily a tribute to Neville Main, it does not take into account later comics which were much less lighthearted — such as The Monsters from the Past.
* The Land of Happy Endings was reprinted in The Flood graphic novel.
* In the graphic novel The Flood, Gray briefly jokes that his only regret with the comic is not having the Eighth Doctor wear the Second Doctor's stovepipe hat, which was seen in spin-off media but rarely on TV.
* An alternate version of the story considered by Scott Gray featured John being the one who was trying to relive his adventures. The story would have revealed the "world" to be a game being played by a 50-year-old John after the death of Gillian. John would have been saved and confronted by the real Eighth Doctor. When mentioning this idea to Clayton Hickman, Gray said that Hickman "made a face like he'd eaten a giant lemon soaked in vinegar. With onions." They eventually went with the more positive outlook of the Doctor dreaming about their adventures.
== Continuity ==
* The Doctor's TARDIS arrives by whirling. (COMIC: The Klepton Parasites)
* The Moderator General once also deemed ideas as dangerous and outlawed them, along with all emotions, until being stopped by the Fourth Doctor. (COMIC: City of the Damned)
== External links ==
Category:Eighth Doctor DWM comic stories
Category:2003 comic stories
Category:One part comics