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No. 5488: Splinxfield

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Splinxfield

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Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=5488

Strip by: Garlene1987

{Splinx, a white robot cat, walks towards K9 on the table}
{Splinx kicks K9 off the table}
{Splinx looks down at K9 with a smug, superior smirk}
Sixth Doctor: SPLINXFIELD!

The author writes:

I realized today it had been ages since I did my last Doctor Who SRoMG, indeed it turned out to be the first one I ever did. It's time to fix that. This time though, it's a pretty deep cut.

Okay, so in 1985, during Colin Baker's first full season as the Sixth Doctor, Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror was released by the company Micro Power on the BBC Micro, and on the Amstrad CPC & C64 in 1986. It is a rather bizarre entry in what I suppose is an early example of what we now call the "expanded universe" during the show's actual production (okay, actually I can't find any details as to whether it was during the infamous 1985 hiatus or not, but it did come back that time, so...?). It features Daleks-that-aren't-Daleks because of rights issues, the only appearance of the Anthony Ainley Master in 8-bit, and completely out of nowhere, a female robot cat named Splinx. She is one of the most ridiculous out of-nowhere characters in the "EU", during a time when in these sort of spin-offs, especially on brand-new but very limited technology that had to get out to the public ASAP, you got no character development, just what's in the manual, if you even had it.

But that all the more makes her the EU character I want to see canonized into the Doctor Who TV series. Out of every single one of them. Give me a sleek, realistic, fully-flexible, hyper-intelligent snarky cat; and bring back the often cringeworthy but nevertheless popular tin dog. I know some of you would prefer this in the audios with Colin Baker (CHAOS!), but guess what? It DID happen... set in an alternate universe where The Doctor is called The Warrior (or The Wanderer? The wiki says both and won't elaborate, as far as I can tell among all those ads). She does not talk and if you can't have a talking robot cat when you are doing an audio adventure, what's the point? Strike three, Big Finish (no I will not elaborate).

Anyway, I hope tardis2334 does not mind. This was a hilarious idea and totally in character for Jon. But in this case that is ol' Sixy himself. Chaos, true chaos. Think of the possibilities, even with a new Doctor. (Hey, if Beep The Meep can get in...)

Original Square Root of Minus Garfield strip: 2012-01-07.

Original strip: 2003-07-13.