The Dr Who Annual 1966: "The Sons of the Crab"

The Dr Who Annual 1966
"The Sons of the Crab"
Written by [unknown]
Published: September 1965

What's It All About

"The Sons of the Crab" sees the Dr Who, who describes himself as a human scientist from the planet Earth, taking his TARDIS beyond the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time and landing on the planet Wengrol in the Crab Nebula. 

After being captured and being poked a prodded like a lab specimen, Dr Who is sent before the planet's leader and learns that the inhabitants of the planet are continually mutating thanks to the deadly radiation of a new star that entered their system. While the leader foresees no cure to their mutations, the leader looks to Dr Who to take hundreds of test tubes containing their "children" and seed them on another world.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Having read several of the 1970s Tom Baker era annuals in the past, I was very uncertain about visiting these annuals but was actually quite surprised at the rather in-depth story that we were getting here. It's rather unusual for an annual that would be aimed at children to tackle the themes of eugenics and to have such a terrible ending that saw the test tubes become unviable once the TARDIS dematerialized.

Unfortunately, while this was a rather in-depth story, the prose didn't exactly set me alight, it was very, very dry. That's not to say there was some good characterization for Dr Who, especially when his dander was up when he was being poked and prodded. 

Could it work as a Doctor Who story?

Despite the fact that Dr Who refers to himself as a human from the planet Earth, I could easily see this story slotting into the regular Doctor Who continuity. Unlike many of the upcoming stories, especially from the TV Comic era, Dr Who doesn't act rashly or commit any violent actions and indeed seeks out to preserve life at the very end of the story.

If we were to look at this story as a Doctor Who story, then it would have to be placed very early within "Season 0" as the TARDIS hasn't been further than the Crab Nebula prior to this story. As for Susan's absence, some timelines suggest that the Doctor had dropped Susan off somewhere while he found a suitable place for them to settle. However, I don't consider this very likely, suggesting that Susan was inside the TARDIS all the time. It wouldn't be out of character for the Doctor to perhaps lock the internal door and keep Susan safe while he explored. Either that or she was asleep. 

6/10

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"The Lost Ones"