By Rob McCow

The Moderator

The Collector

Part one of The Moderator was printed in issue #84 of Doctor Who Monthly. Parts two and three were printed in issues #86-87 of Doctor Who Magazine (now for adults). The Doctor Who graphic novel ‘The Tides of Time’, published in 2005 by Panini Books is fab and contains The Moderator in it’s entirety.

The World Shapers

Writer – Steve Parkhouse

Artwork and Lettering – Steve Dillon

Editor – Alan McKenzie

Fellow Travellers

The Doctor is trying to get Gus back to his home, but with millions of parallel Earths to choose from, it proves to be quite a challenge. Gus is still a hard-bitten American soldier who says ‘Doc’ and other things you’d expect a companion to say. Like ‘What’s happening?’

To be honest, Gus’s characterisation isn’t so great in this one. It’s a shame, because it’s the last gasp for the Davison era in the comics and his last adventure.

The Deal

The Moderator is relating his story to an unseen audience. He had a song going round in his head since the last time he left Earth, but Intra-Venus Inc had just paid him a million gold ingots, so he was feeling good. He blew up a Zyglot, a beautiful space creature, just for the hell of it. He was on a mission from someone called Dogbolter, looking for a blue Police Telephone Box.

The Doctor lands on a rocky planet, while searching for Gus’s home world. A panicking man appears on the rocks above them, warning them that the Gaunts will get them if they are out at night. Almost immediately, a ship lands. The Gaunts are armoured troopers who open fire on the Doctor and Gus for breaking curfew. The Doctor and Gus run, but are pinned down when they reach the perimeter fence.

The Moderator continued his search for the Police Box. On an alien world, his computer finds an object that is bigger on the inside than the outside, but it turns out to be a temple for people who worship television. He blows it up and leaves his contact details in smoke trails:

COSMIC HITS – CALL ULTRA 311597

As the Gaunts open fire, the ground gives way and the Doctor and Gus find themselves underground. The Gaunts call in a dozer to seal up the hole, leaving them trapped.

Josiah W. Dogbolter is somewhere between a man and a frog. He is the richest person in the galaxy. He has a robot servant called Hob, who fills him in on his stock situation.

Frog logic. Frogic?

He also tells him that they are on the planet Celeste, where Corundum mining digs up lots of rubies. The miners on Celeste, referred to as Moles, are engaging in riots and break-outs. A Wrekka, which is a combat robot with over 300 concealed weapons, has been employed to deal with the Moles. Unfortunately, this Wrekka has suffered front-line brain damage.

The Doctor and Gus run into the Wrekka in the tunnel, who fires at them. The gunfire distracts the Gaunts, allowing the Moles to start another riot. The Wrekka launches tear gas and renders the Doctor unconscious. He drags the Doctor and Gus away.

An alien with tentacled arms is making a phone call to his mother. The phone booth is the last one he can find standing and he is just complaining that there hardly seem to be any left, when The Moderator blows up the phone booth he is using. Surviving the blast, the alien complains that he has been cut off. The Moderator curses that blowing up all the phone booths in the galaxy is taking too long.

The Doctor and Gus are brought before Hob and Dogbolter. Hob assumes they are ringleaders of the rebels, but the Doctor denies this. Hob orders the Wrekka to execute Gus unless the Doctor tells the truth. The Doctor says they arrived in a time machine and Dogbolter gets interested. On his wall is a plaque saying: ‘Time is Money’.

Dogbolter considers the future

Outside Dogbolter’s office, a rebellion is in progress as Moles capture large pieces of mining machinery. They fill a dozer with explosive and send it off towards the main offices.

Dogbolter negotiates to buy the TARDIS. The Doctor says the TARDIS is not for sale, but after some cajoling he agrees to name his price. He tells Dogbolter he can have it for half a pound of frogspawn. Naturally, Dogbolter is furious. Before he can reply though, his office is torn apart by the exploding dozer. The Doctor and Gus make a run for it. As they leave in the TARDIS, a surveyor spots them. Dogbolter is rescued from the wreckage and calls for the Moderator to find the Doctor.

The Doctor and Gus land on a Pacific island, very similar to the one they left in 4-Dimensional Vistas. Gus is happy that this is close enough to home. As they say their farewells, the Moderator catches up with them. He opens fire and injures Gus, who returns fire with his pistol. The Moderators battle armour is proof against beam weapons, but useless against projectile fire. The Moderator is knocked down and his helmet falls off, but Gus is mortally wounded. Tearfully, the Doctor picks up Gus’s pistol as the Moderator’s helmet speakers play ‘We’ll Meet Again’…

Later, the Moderator is recovering in hospital. Hob is visiting him. The Moderator reveals that the Doctor merely shot his helmet, stopping the song. Under Dogbolter’s orders, Hob disconnects the Moderator’s life support.

TV Action

The Moderator ran from January to April 1984, at the same time as virtually the whole of Season 21. With its greedy frogs and crazy robots, The Moderator has little in common with Doctor Who on TV at the time. Although it does touch on the Doctor’s compassion for his companions. Whereas he was able to sacrifice his life to save Peri’s in Caves of Androzani, there is nothing that the Doctor can do to stop Gus from dying.

4-Dimensional Vistas

After months of Mick Austin’s unique style, Steve Dillon comes as a relief and a disappointment. He draws in a very traditional comic book style, with little of the idiosyncrasy of Austin or the artistic flair of Dave Gibbons. For younger readers especially it must have been good to get back to more accessible and simple art.

The design of the creatures and characters in this story is great. Dogbolter is fantastic, though whether he’d exist without Dangermouse’s Baron Greenback is another question. The two robots, Hob and the Wrekka are full of character, with their designs and facial expressions bringing out their personalities. The Gaunts look menacing and efficient, with simply designed but sinister helmets. The Moderator himself is a clanking slab of an armoured warrior and looks pretty invincible.

Moderation in action! Threads deleted, members banned

Sadly though, aside from one or two brilliant moments, the likeness of Davison eludes yet another artist.

End of The Line

Again, a Doctor’s final comic strip story is more concerned with setting things up for the future than providing a closing chapter. The Moderator feels in some ways like half a story. The plight of the Moles on Celeste is covered in a very fleeting way and the Doctor does nothing to save them. Dogbolter’s quest for the TARDIS and revenge on the Doctor is left unfinished. Worst of all, Gus is mostly redundant in his final story. This is a real shame because he had potential to be an interesting companion, but never got a chance to shine. As a result his death is not nearly as moving as it should be. However, the Doctor’s reaction is superb.

The framing device of The Moderator’s report to Hob the robot is quite clever, but it distracts from the main story a little too much. There’s a rather confusing moment in the third part of the story where Dogbolter’s office is destroyed and the frame immediately after shows the Wrekka standing in the rubble. It makes it seem that the out-of-control Wrekka caused the damage, when actually it was the Moles loading a dozer up with explosive.

There’s a lot to enjoy in The Moderator, it’s a jam-packed story with humour and action. The Doctor’s line about wanting ‘half a pound of … frogspawn’ in return for the TARDIS is a particular delight. The cultists worshipping television with their litany ‘Thine is the contrast, the power and the volume’ are rather Douglas Adams as well.

With The Moderator, Steve Parkhouse abandons the themes that had run right through the Davison era. The Doctor isn’t working for nebulous Higher Powers any more and the TARDIS is merely a door between adventures. Albeit one that Dogbolter is prepared to buy at any price! The way is being paved for new directions and a new Doctor.

Follow That TARDIS!

The original run of the comic strip was interrupted for one issue by a reprint of back-up strip Skywatch-7, which depicted UNIT fighting the Zygons. This covered the change from Doctor Who Monthly to Doctor Who Magazine.

In 4-Dimensional Vistas, the clairvoyant character predicts that a man from another world will die. This turns out to be Gus.

This story received bland praise in the Doctor Who Magazine letters pages.

Many of the elements from this story reappear in the early run of the Colin Baker comic strips. Dogbolter, Hob and the Gaunts are revisited in The Shape Shifter, while the Zyglots are seen in more detail in Polly The Glot.

Mr.Dogbolter also appears in the Big Finish adventure, ‘The Maltese Penguin’. The cover features a CGI rendering of the character.

Steve Dillon had previously drawn Abslom Daak in Doctor Who Weekly and went on to do work for 2000AD.

Gus’s last words are ‘Looks like… I just didn’t make it… Doc…’