The TARDIS collides mid-flight with the Mechanoid bounty Hunter Death's Head, and the Doctor finds himself struggling for his life.
- Backdoor Pilot: The strip exists to take Death’s Head out of The Transformers (Marvel) and into his own spinoff.
- Batman Gambit: The Doctor deals with Death’s Head by pretending to surrender and luring him into the TARDIS, where he can project him forward in time to the year 8162.
- Continuity Nod: Death’s Head vaguely alludes to his appearance in The Legacy of Unicron ending with him being thrown into the Time Vortex with Cyclonus and Scourge.
- Deus ex Machina: Were it not for the convenient presence of the Master’s Tissue Compression Eliminator, the Doctor’s encounter with Death’s Head would’ve been a Curb-Stomp Battle in the latter’s favour.
- Dramatic Irony: Death’s Head assumes that Cyclonus perished in their altercation, when readers of the Transformers know that he was simply sent back to 1987… Though he does end up dying at the hands of a Shockwave-controlled Megatron, Death’s Head has no way of knowing this.
- Godzilla Threshold: Death’s Head is such a terrifying foe that the Doctor’s first instinct is to try and kill him.
- No-Sell: Played With. The Tissue Compression Eliminator fails to kill Death’s Head, but it does shrink him down to human size.
- Police Are Useless: The Time Warden supposed to resolve the conflict is terrified into standing back by Death’s Head.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Whereas Death’s Head was tough, but surpassable for the similarly giant Transformers, the regular sized Doctor is no match for him.
