HARMA HARMA
Real Name: Harma
Identity/Class: Alternate reality (see comments) extraterrestrial (Martian/"Ice Warrior")
Occupation: Warrior;
formerly contract voluntary murderer
Group Membership: Star Tigers (Abslom Daak, Vol Mercurius, Salander)
Affiliations: The
Doctor, Bernice Summerfield;
presumably Slash Killerstein (see comments)
Enemies: Daleks, Emperor, Kill-Mechs, Napoleon, War-King
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None (see comments)
Base of Operations: Mobile across the Milky Way
galaxy in the Kill-Wagon;
formerly Slash Killerstein's Murderama, 4th Street,
Paradise (planet)
First
Appearance: Doctor Who Monthly#44/2 (September 1980)
Powers/Abilities: An Ice Warrior, Harma possesses levels of strength that would be considered low-level superhuman (but aren't, because he's not human to begin with), is highly resistant to extreme cold (if outright frozen he'd go into hibernation and could survive for millennia until defrosted), has sharp fangs and fingers that end in vicious claws (though these are normally concealed beneath the pincers of his armor). He constantly wears a bio-mechanical survival armor that augment his strength even further, and provides him a high level of protection from most weapons. It also has lethally powerful sonic blasters mounted on the wrists of each hand. Like all Ice Warriors, he is vulnerable to heat, which can swiftly render him insensate.
Height: 6'6" (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: None
History:
(Doctor Who
Magazine#198 (fb) - BTS) - The Martian Ice Warrior Harma was born
and raised in a hatchery.
(Doctor
Who Monthly#44/2 (fb) - BTS) - At some point he became one of
the few friends of mercenary Abslom Daak.
(Doctor Who Magazine#153 (fb) - BTS) - Daak
considered Harma the only Ice Warrior he'd ever met who had any sense.
(Doctor Who Monthly#44/2 (fb) - BTS)
- Eventually Harma became a licensed murderer on
the pleasure planet Paradise, paid by willing thrill-seekers to
brutally slay them in a manner of their choosing. Harma offered his
clients a range of options including crushed, pounded, stabbed, shot,
or even death by torture. Some time after last seeing Daak Harma began
working at Slash Killerstein's Murderama.
(Doctor Who Monthly#45/2
(fb) - BTS) - Harma saw on the vis-news that "some nut in the Jarith
Cluster had declared himself emperor" and his Kill-Mechs had invaded the
planet Dispater (and presumably other worlds). (see comments)
(Doctor Who Monthly#44/2) - Looking for recruits to make up the crew of his newly acquired Draconian Kill-Wagon and with very few living friends to chose from, Abslom Daak tracked Harma down to his place of work and surprised the Ice Warrior in his cubicle. Initially overjoyed to see Daak, Harma made it clear he would have happily joined the crew, but honor required that he abide by his contract to kill whoever entered the cubicle. Recognizing there was no debating a matter of honor with an Ice Warrior Daak instead knocked Harma out then loaded him into an aircab (with the assistance of Salander, the only other crew member thus far recruited). By the time Harma woke up he was aboard the Kill-Wagon as it hurtled into space. Initially he was somewhat despondent, feeling ashamed for breaking his contract, until Daak pointed out that he was responsible, not the Ice Warrior, for this breach. Daak told his friend to straighten himself out, as he'd need the Martian's help keeping their next intended recruit, Mercurius, in line, as the next prospective crewman was not his friend.
(Doctor Who Monthly#45/2)
- Curious at Daak's comment that Mercurius was not a friend, Harma asked
how Daak knew him, and he and Salander listened as Daak explained how
he, Mercurius and a woman named Selene had been business partners until
Mercurius ran off with both Selene and a fortune they had stolen
together. Hearing Daak state that Mercurius now had his own private
planet, Dispater, Harma reacted with shock and informed Daak that
Dispater had recently been invaded by ...
(Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer GN) - Daleks...
or....
(Doctor Who Monthly#45/2)
- the Emperor's Kill-Mechs.
(Doctor Who Monthly#45/2 - BTS) - The Kill Wagon reached Dispater as the invaders were rapidly closing on Mercurius' location; Harma stayed on board while Daak grabbed Mercurius.
(Doctor Who Monthly#46/2) - Racing away from Dispater the ship approached a cluster of orbiting meteoroids. Harma suggested using them for target practice, but Daak nixed the idea, not wanting to give away their position to potential foes. However Mercurius opened fire anyway, having realized that the meteoroids were camouflaged Dalek Space-Commando units. With battle about to commence Daak ordered Harma to man the Wagon's rear turret, and they began blasting away at the closing Daleks. Wanting to stay and finish off their foes, Daak was angered when Mercurius instead insisted they flee, until Mercurius pointed out that they had only been facing an advance guard and many more Daleks would have soon arrived. Instead Mercurius suggested that they return in twelve hours, by which time the Daleks would have mostly returned to their command ship to recharge, leaving them vulnerable and all in one easily attacked location. Harma queried how Mercurius knew this, and how he had known the meteoroids had been Daleks, but Daak told him that he'd never get an honest answer out of their new teammate. Heeding Mercurius' strategic advice, a dozen hours later the Kill Wagon returned to Dispater and launched a surprise attack on the Dalek command module, destroying it and the bulk of the invading Daleks in a single strike.
(Vworp Vworp#2 "The World of the War-King") - As they departed Dispater a voice began ringing out within the ship urging Abslom to visit the world of the War-King, a being known to view war as art. Mercurius noted that someone was broadcasting this signal and somehow using their entire ship as a giant resonant receiver, making the invitation a fairly obvious trap. However, the discovery that the cryogenic chamber maintaining Daak's mortally wounded beloved Taiyin was malfunctioning left them little choice, as the War-King's world was the only place close enough where they might find parts to fix it before Taiyin was lost forever. Landing near the War-King's citadel the group split into pairs to infiltrate it, with Harma accompanying Daak. Attacked by flying gun-turrets Harma noted they should have taken those out from the Kill-Wagon even as he returned fire. As soon as Daak breached the walls with his chainsword the pair found portable cooling units, just what they needed to fix Taiyin's cryogenic chamber, waiting right by their entry point. With the convenient find making it clear the whole thing was just a game to the War-King, Daak and Harma grabbed the units and headed back to the Kill-Wagon. Moments after they got there Mercurius also arrived, minus Salander but with the head of the War-King's robot strategic computer, Napoleon. As Daak demanded to know where Salander was Mercurius launched their ship into space and informed his teammates that Salander wasn't coming... (see comments)
BTS - The group rescued Salander, who clearly wasn't
dead after all.
(Doctor Who Magazine#173) - Harma and the other
Star Tigers visited Bonjaxx's
Bar on Maruthea,
a way station in the middle of the time vortex. The owner was
celebrating his birthday and the establishment was packed with
revelers, including several incarnations of the Time Lord known as the
Doctor (though none of them were seen to interact directly with any of
the Star Tigers). A bar brawl broke out, and by the time it began to
die down Harma was lying unconscious on the floor; whether this was
because he'd been knocked out during the fight or had simply passed
out from intoxication remains unrevealed.
(Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer GN (fb) - BTS) - Garbled reports on the subspace radio of frenzied Dalek activity across several star systems heralded the start of a month-long campaign of galactic terrorism as the Daleks targeted any vessel traversing the space lanes that violated the Dalek's unilaterally imposed exclusion zone. Then things went suddenly quiet, leading the Star Tigers to ponder whether their enemy was preparing for the next phase of their masterplan. Salander and Harma took the Kill-Wagon on a reconnaissance mission to the frontier worlds of Plenarus and Hell, amid rumors that an elite strikeforce of Daleks were poised for a massive genocidal offensive. Daak and the skeptical Mercurius chose to remain behind sampling the pleasures of Paradise. Out by Hell the two reptilian Star Tigers confirmed the presence of a large Dalek force, and headed back to collect their colleagues.
(Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer GN) -
After locating Mercurius the group found Daak in the Mars Old-Fashioned
Alcohol Bar, which the Dalek-Killer had just trashed while battling
Mercurius' former aide, the robot Klikbrain. Harma informed Daak of
their discovery, news that Daak reacted to with gusto, relishing the
fight soon to come.
(Doctor Who Magazine#152) - Over the planet Hell, a world
where the Daleks were forcing the native Helkans to build a Dalek
Death-Wheel, the Kill-Wagon engaged in a firefight with numerous Daleks.
Though individually the pepperpots were no match for Star Tigers'
vessel, their sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm the ship, but Daak
overruled Salander's suggestion that they retreat. Moments later a
concerted Dalek attack crippled the Kill-Wagon, sending it into a
terminal dive towards the world below. As they went into freefall Harma
noted that this was going to be painful. Seconds later the ship made an
explosive landing; Dalek scouts scanned the crash site and declared
their foes eliminated. Shortly thereafter the seventh incarnation of the
Doctor chanced to land on Hell and came across the Kill-Wagon's remains,
finding the bodies of Mercurius and Salander on the ground nearby and
Harma hanging lifelessly from the wreckage. Checking Salander's pulse
and glancing at the others, the Doctor declared them all dead, but
before he could investigate further (and critically, before he could
properly confirm they were actually as dead as they looked) Dalek
guards confronted him, only to be swiftly slain by the still living
Daak.
(Doctor Who Magazine#153) - Daak told the Doctor not to trouble himself with the other Star Tigers, stating they were all dead (see comments), and eulogized for a moment over each of his fallen comrades.
(Doctor Who Magazine#198 (fb) - BTS) - After Daak seemingly sacrificed himself to destroy the Death-Wheel and the Doctor had departed the other three Star Tigers were revived by the grateful Helkans using their advanced medicines. Their recuperation after this included copious imbibing of the local ale.
(Doctor Who Magazine#198) - Unknown to the other Star
Tigers, Daak survived the Death-Wheel's destruction, transmatted away at
the last second by the Daleks; using robots posing as Earth council
members, they tricked Daak into agreeing to locate the Doctor for them.
Meanwhile the seventh Doctor, now accompanied by his latest companion,
archaeology Professor Bernice "Benny" Summerfield, returned to Hell as
part of one of his Machiavellian schemes, in this case a plot to stop
the Daleks. The pair found Harma, Mercurius and Salander resting in a
drunk stupor. A student of Ice Warrior history and culture, Benny shook
the inebriated Harma awake with her foot and asked the groggy alien a
Martian joke in his native tongue, eliciting him to respond that he'd
not heard that quip since the hatcheries. Mercurius explained to the
Doctor how he and his friends had survived, but was interrupted by the
arrival of Daak, transmatted to their location. When he took the Doctor
prisoner Benny, Mercurius and Harma all pointed their weapons at him,
but before things could escalate the entire group were transmatted back
to the "council." Everyone else was fooled by the robots, but Benny and
the Doctor saw through the deception, and Harma responded with surprise
as the Time Lord yanked one of the councilors by his beard and literally
pulled his head off. As the other councilors began to draw blasters from
their robes Benny blasted them to pieces, but the walls of the chamber
opened up to reveal that the group was actually on the Dalek homeworld
Skaro, and surrounded by dozens of Daleks.
(Doctor Who Magazine#199) - Luckily for the Doctor, Benny
and the Star Tigers the Daleks wanted them alive and were only firing
stun shots, plus, as the Doctor noted, he had planted a computer virus
in the Dalek computers the last time he'd been there, which was now
making the Daleks all terrible shots. As the others held off the Daleks,
the Doctor tried to recall what else the virus could do, prompting an
exasperated Harma to tell him to "remember fast." Finally recalling, the
Doctor opened an access panel in the floor that led into service ducts,
and the group swiftly fled into them. Crawling through the ducts the
Doctor eventually located the chamber where the Daleks had taken
Taiyin's body, but it had been booby trapped and as soon as Daak touched
it a knockout gas was released, rendering them all unconscious. The
group woke up in a cell, and except for the Doctor were then fitted with
headbands that placed them under Dalek mind control.
(Doctor Who Magazine#200) - The Daleks loaded their
prisoners on a battle cruiser and headed into the territory of the
Thals, their ancient enemies, seeking their creator Davros, who was now
considered a threat by the Emperor Dalek, and whose location they
believed the Doctor knew. Harma and the others were kept in trances,
hostages to ensure the Doctor's co-operation; walking by their insensate
bodies the Doctor reassured his friends that everything would be fine.
He directed the Dalek to the planet Spirodon and the Daleks, Doctor and
mind controlled allies (under the direction of a "Psyche" Dalek) headed
into the jungle in the direction of Davros' hideout. However, Davros was
waiting for them, and in command of his own force of four million
Daleks.
(Doctor Who Magazine#201) - As the two Dalek factions
began fighting, the Doctor swiftly wrapped the metal map he had been
consulting round the Psyche Dalek's control device, blocking its signal.
At the same moment the invisible natives of the planet, the Spiridons,
removed the control headbands (the sudden reveal of invisible alien
allies with no prior hints of same might seem like deus ex machina
storytelling to those unfamiliar with Doctor Who, but Spiridon and its
invisible inhabitants had previously appeared in a TV story, so its
actually just using previously established lore). Taking advantage
of the confusion, the group fled into the jungle. Once out of immediate
danger they paused to plan, and Harma claimed to Benny that he'd not
actually been brainwashed, but just trying to figure out the joke she'd
told him, an excuse that didn't fool her for a second.
(Doctor Who Magazine#201 - BTS) - Harma apparently asked
Benny if she'd like to go on a date once the current adventure ended,
and she agreed - or at least she joked later that she had a date
with him.
(Doctor Who Magazine#201) - The Spiridons, Benny, Harma
and the other Star Tigers sabotaged the Imperial Dalek shuttles to
ensure they couldn't leave the planet, while the Doctor went to locate
the Black Dalek, leader of the Imperial Dalek taskforce. However, they
were then captured by Davros' Daleks and brought to where the Doctor,
Davros and Black Dalek were. The Doctor revealed he had deliberately
taken Davros to Spiridon, a world where he knew a massive Dalek force
was hibernating (cf that prior TV story) so that Davros could
use them to defeat the Imperial Daleks, and then led the Imperial Forces
into Davros' ambush, in return for Davros' promise to reprogram his
Daleks to have consciences. Predictably however, Davros gloatingly
admitted he had no intention of keeping this promise, and instead
demanded the Doctor assist him or see his friends tortured and killed.
(Doctor Who Magazine#202 (fb) - BTS) - Davros loaded his
captives onto a spaceship and led an armada of his Daleks back to Skaro,
unaware that en route the Doctor had covertly disabled his friends'
restraints and they were only playing along, waiting for the right
moment.
(Doctor Who Magazine#202) - Harma and the others watched
as Davros' forces defeated the Imperial Daleks, then disembarked on
Skaro to witness Davros confronting the Emperor Dalek. As soon as Davros
exterminated the Emperor Daak sprang into action and used his chainsword
to slice Davros and his guards in half. Disabled but not dead, Davros
watched as the Doctor summoned his TARDIS. Daak wanted to hunt for
Taiyin's body, but with a large Dalek force about to breach the room the
Doctor ordered Harma and Mercurius to drag their leader bodily into the
TARDIS. The Time Lord returned them all to Paradise, where the group
relaxed with drinks at the Existentialist's Bar.
Comments: Created by Steve Moore and David Lloyd.
Harma comes from the same reality as the Time
Lord known as the Doctor, which is presumably either 5556 (seen in the
Neutron Knights story where the Doctor encountered King Arthur and
Merlin on a dying future Earth) or 5555 (Dragon's Claws, based on the
Doctor's foe Dogbolter being seen there when he had no access to
dimension travel tech and only very limited, prototype time travel that
he hadn't personally used). He's an Ice Warrior, a race created by Brian
Hayles which originally appeared in the Doctor Who TV story The Ice
Warriors in 1967. Ice Warriors is strictly speaking a profession/rank,
not their species - we've also met Ice Lords; they are native Martians,
though they'd long abandoned the planet around the time humans began
venturing into space. Since it might not be clear to anyone who only
knows Ice Warriors from these comic stories, Harma is wearing armor and
we've never seen him out of it (which is why I list his eye color as
unrevealed - his helmet has red lenses, but those aren't his eyes).
Indeed, we've rarely seen any Ice Warrior outside of their armor. The
first time was in a comic strip in the Radio Times (think TV Guide),
which depicted a female, Luass. The first time a male Ice Warrior was
clearly seen with his helmet off was in the TV story Cold War in 2013,
and that depiction is presumably how Harma would also look if he took
off his helmet. We only caught glimpses of the rest of his body out of
armor, but it was considerably slimmer than his armored look. A week
earlier the TV story The Rings of Akhaten had used the originally
planned model for the unarmored Ice Warrior as a background alien only
seen blurred in the background (see figure below right); subsequently
pictures of the head of this model were released online (middle right),
which looks somewhat different from the CGI version seen a week later.
The differences might simply be attributed the variations within the
species, the same way human features vary.
Harma worked for Slash Killerstein's
Murderama when we first meet him. Though we never see Harma interact
with Slash, the Murderama owner turns up in the prose tale Between the
Wars, so he's a real individual, not just a brand name like Ronald
McDonald, and so as a former employee Harma could be considered
affiliated to him, however obliquely.
In Doctor Who Magazine#153 Daak calls Harma
"Haama" - this is simply an error, not an alias of any kind.
Given how similar most Ice Warriors look,
it's not confirmed that the Ice Warrior on Maruthea was Harma; however,
Daak and Mercurius are both present, the Kill-Wagon is seen docked to
the station, and there's a Draconian also in the bar, so it does seem
reasonable that all four Star Tigers were present. The presence of the
Kill-Wagon means this was presumably before the encounter with the
Daleks over Hell, making it prior to Doctor Who Magazine#152 in the
team's personal timeline.
In the Star Tigers episode in Doctor Who Monthly#45, Harma had heard on the vis-news that Dispater had been invaded by the self-appointed Emperor's Kill-Mechs. The script had originally intended the invaders to be Daleks, Daak's main foes, but a rumor that Dalek creator Terry Nation was about to withdraw the rights prompted a last minute revision. The Daleks appeared in the next episode as it had become clear Nation had no such plans. When the story was reprinted in the Abslom Daak graphic novel the original artwork and dialogue was restored. This included removing the dialogue where Harma explains how he'd heard about the Emperor and his Kill-Mechs; instead, Harma had just heard of the Daleks attacking Dispater through sources unrevealed. Thankfully, given this is all Doctor Who related, we can treat both versions as being correct. Given their presence in other episodes, the Daleks were the ones to originally attack Dispater, only for some alteration to the timeline to eradicate the Daleks from these events (during the later Time War between the Daleks and Time Lords, both sides tried to wipe one another out of history, so Daleks vanishing from events was likely through Time Lord actions); to maintain the overall flow of the timeline, reality coped by providing substitutes for the Daleks, but then the original timeline was restored (likely by the Time War era Daleks).
Vworp Vworp is an intermittently published
fanzine for Doctor Who Magazine and Doctor Who expanded media in
general. Despite being a fanzine, it's done to a very high standard, and
has included a number of new stories, some continuations of tales that
appeared in the official magazine, and others based on scripts
commissioned for official productions that ultimately didn't get
produced. The Daak story in Vworp Vworp#2 was a script done by Daak
creator Steve Moore and his original plan to continue the Star Tigers'
adventures. Intending to gradually parse the Daak character away from
its Doctor Who roots, the first installment killed off Salander, and the
second would have presumably eliminated Harma, as their species, the
Draconians and Ice Warriors, were both from the TV show. However, only
the first script was completed, and the idea was abandoned until Vworp
Vworp finally brought in artist Martin Geraghty to bring it to life.
Given who wrote it, I have to consider it an official Star Tigers
episode, slotting into their timeline between the end of their own
series in Doctor Who Magazine and their return in the Doctor's own
strip. Since Salander is alive in the latter, presumably he didn't
actually die fighting the War-King's forces and eventually reunited with
the others. This is fairly feasible, as his death wasn't really
confirmed - he was shot in the back with an energy weapon and collapsed;
Mercurius glanced at his prone form, but wasn't seen to check the body
as he was still under fire himself at the time, so it's easy to argue
that he just assumed Salander was slain and fled the scene.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Harma has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Vworp Vworp#2, p3 of story, pan6 (main image)
Doctor Who Monthly#44, p33 (p3 of story), pan4 (headshot)
Doctor Who Monthly#46, p32 (p2 of
story), pan2 (running to the gun turret, clearer view of his claws)
Doctor Who Classics V#3, p12, pan3 (colorized reprint of Doctor Who
Magazine#153, p24 (p4 of story), pan3) (Harma hanging from the
wreckage of the Kill-Wagon, showing his coloration - note that Ice
Warriors don't normally have red "ears" on their armor, and that is a
mistake here)
Radio Times (14th December 1996), pan 4 (unmasked female Ice
Warrior)
Screen shots and production stills of male unmasked Ice Warriors
Appearances:
Doctor Who Monthly#44-46 (September-November 1980) - Steve Moore
(writer) David Lloyd (art), Dez Skinn (editor)
Doctor Who Magazine#152-153 (August-September 1989) - Richard &
Steve Alan (writers), Lee Sullivan (art), John Freeman (editor)
Doctor Who Magazine#173 (April 1991) - Gary Russell (writer), Mike
Collins (pencils), Steve Pini (inks), John Freeman (editor)
Doctor Who Magazine#198-202 (February-July 1993) - Paul Cornell
(writer), Lee Sullivan (art), John Freeman (editor)
Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer GN (April 1990) - John Tomlinson (writer), Lee
Sullivan (art)
Vworp Vworp#2 (August 2011) - Steve Moore (writer), Martin Geraghty
(art)
First Posted: 03/30/2025
Last updated: 03/30/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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