By Rob McCow

Voyager
 

The Collector

Doctor Who Magazine issues #90-94 first featured Voyager, running from July to November in 1984. In April 1989 it was coloured in and reprinted for Doctor Who: Voyager. The Colin Baker strips are due to be collected together in their entirety in Voyager, scheduled by Panini Books for 11 October 2007.
 

The World Shapers

Writer – Steve Parkhouse

Artwork – John Ridgeway

Lettering – Steve Dillon

Editor – Ian Rimmer

Colours (for the reprinted edition) – Gina Hart
 

Fellow Travellers

The Whifferdill adopts the name Frobisher ‘in deference of the Doctor’s love of all things English’. He also spends this entire story in disguise as a penguin for personal reasons. He once spent fourteen years disguised as a supermarket till in Walthamstow for love, although ‘she’ thought he did it for the money. This raises the question of how long a Whifferdill lives for, but it’s not worth worrying about too much.

The Doctor picks up a p-p-p-p-controversial companion

Frobisher is a little softer in this story than in his first. The implication is that he’s been travelling with the Doctor for a while and they’ve grown to be firm friends. He’s still witty and self-assured, but now he shows concern when the Doctor is in trouble. He’s more endearing now that he’s befriended the Doctor, plus he makes a rather cute penguin. Frobisher likes the food dispenser and has, at one point, filled the console room with Mars bars.
 

The Deal

The story starts with a devil-ship ploughing through the seas, surrounded by monsters and saluted by the Kraken. On board, the Doctor is tied to the wheel of the ship and watched over by Voyager, who is a dark and sinister being. The ship is heading for the edge of the world, and the Doctor begs for mercy as a Time Lord. Voyager, as a Lord of Life, refuses him and they plummet over the edge of the world.

The Doctor awakes in his bed to find a cold draft in the TARDIS, which has landed in the South Pole. Frobisher has already gone out to make a snowman of the Doctor, using his jacket and umbrella. Frobisher tells the Doctor that the TARDIS has landed automatically, sensing something interesting. They explore and come across a huge wooden sea-ship, frozen in the ice. The Doctor recognises the ship as the one from his dream.

Exploring mysterious landscapes

On board, they discover the frozen crew of the ship. They find that the crew used star charts instead of sea navigation charts. Suddenly, a man with a long, grey beard and a blunderbuss bursts in and demands they hand over the charts. The Doctor hands over the plans and the bearded man ties him to a chair, before getting away on skis. The Doctor tells Frobisher to get on deck to see which direction the bearded man headed. The Doctor uses a Harry Houdini trick to escape his ropes.

The bearded man skis to a Da Vinci flying machine, observed by the Doctor through the ship’s telescope. Frobisher and the Doctor give chase in the TARDIS.

The bearded man arrives at a solitary lighthouse in a vast ocean, closely followed by the TARDIS. The Doctor observes through the TARDIS instruments that the lighthouse is outputting vast amounts of energy. The beam is clearly not just for ships of the sea. The Doctor turns round to find that Frobisher has left the console room for a dip in the sea. He jumps out with a fish for the Doctor.

A golden, robotic man heads down from the steps of the lighthouse, surprising the Doctor and Frobisher. Frobisher says he found a spacecraft under the water. The golden man is an automaton, a mechanical creature with a living soul. The automaton ignores them and heads into the sea.

The Doctor sends Frobisher to the TARDIS and explores the lighthouse alone. He finds the bearded man in a bizarre Victorian laboratory, peering over the charts. The Doctor grabs the man’s blunderbuss and demands to know what is going on. The bearded man opens his jacket to reveal a target printed on his shirt and challenges the Doctor to shoot him. The Doctor is unable and lowers the gun. The man pulls out a flintlock pistol, which fires a sucker dart at the Doctor’s forehead. Then he runs through a door and locks it. The Doctor tries to blast the lock with the blunderbuss, but all that happens is a flag with the word ‘BANG’ printed on it pops out of the muzzle. Determined, he barges the door open…

Easy. It'll be the one with the teeth marks

… and finds himself dangling over the edge of the lighthouse, the rocky sea far below. The bearded man invites him to pick a card from his deck, putting it in his mouth as both the Doctor’s hands are holding onto the ledge. As he clings on for his life, the Doctor calls him mad and the bearded man takes offence, whipping out a Mr. Punch doll who starts bashing his fingers. The Doctor protests that he is a Time Lord and suddenly the bearded man stops. He says that Voyager has seen the Doctor and wants his soul. The Doctor says he saw Voyager in a dream and finds himself clinging to the edge of a table in the laboratory.

The bearded man introduces himself as Astrolabus, amongst many other things. He tells the Doctor about the lighthouse at Alexandria, built by King Ptolemy. The King asked Astrolabus to make a light that would last a thousand years. Astrolabus used light from the sun to achieve this. Then an approaching conjunction of planets brought visitors from beyond the stars; magic and science became one. In return for their new knowledge of space and time, the visitors asked for the charts showing the secret places of power. The faithful few who guarded the charts fled by boat, but chthonic winds blew them to the frozen depths of hell. Astrolabus remained true to the King.

The Doctor spies on Astrolabus' marvellous lair

As the conjunction of the planets finally happened, beasts rose from the sea and destroyed the lighthouse. Voyager came from the depths of old time, bringing death. The city fell and Astrolabus escaped aboard the visitors’ starship. They tried to use the charts to cross the meridians of time, but came to grief and the starship crashed into the sea below the lighthouse. Astrolabus had kept his promise, he had become the flame of Alexandria.

The Doctor remembers who Astrolabus was. He was a thief who stole the Book of Old Time from Gallifrey. The Doctor surmises that the beacon is Astrolabus’s TARDIS. He declares the old man mad and leaves. But as he pushes through the door, he falls from the lighthouse into open space. Suddenly he finds himself in the sea, trying desperately to hold onto the rocks.

Braking free from the madness of Astrolabus

Frobisher sees the Doctor in trouble and heads out to rescue him. Astrolabus makes his escape as the Voyager arrives. The lighthouse crumbles away as an ornate spaceship heads into the air, smashing through the lighthouse. The ship explodes in the air. The Doctor sees Voyager’s sailing ship and finds himself once more tied to the wheel. The ship plunges over the edge of the world.

The Doctor finds himself on the rocks with Frobisher, the lighthouse destroyed. As he prepares to leave with Frobisher, Voyager appears in the sky, telling the Doctor that he must return the charts that were stolen by the Time Lords. The Doctor protests that it was the banished Time Lord Astrolabus that stole the charts. Voyager repeats his demand for the charts, saying that if they are not returned, the Doctor may find his Universe has come to an end. The Doctor and Frobisher resolve to go somewhere as far away as possible.

As they leave, the automaton stands on the rocks, beaming out light from its head.
 

TV Action

Gallifrey gets a mention.

The Doctor met Leonardo da Vinci, on more than one occasion.

The Voyager character resembles the Black Guardian in appearance and powers, but is immeasurably more sinister.

A lighthouse features prominently in The Horror of Fang Rock.

The untransmitted TV story Shada features a Gallifreyan book with unusual properties. It is not stated whether the star charts stolen from Gallifrey have similar properties.

Any other similarities between this story and the TV show ‘Doctor Who’ are entirely coincidental.

The long gap between seasons meant that all 6 parts of Voyager were published between The Twin Dilemma (March 1984) and Attack of The Cybermen (January 1985). Consequently, the character of the Doctor was entirely open to interpretation. It was made clear in The Twin Dilemma that the Doctor’s manic state of mind was due to his regeneration, so this more thoughtful and rational version of his character is entirely valid for the time. Indeed, it seems that Frobisher produces a more calming effect on the Doctor than Peri ever did. The Whifferdill is far better able to cope with a crisis and is even able to leave the TARDIS without the Doctor to hold his hand. Or flipper. Or whatever.
 

4-Dimensional Vistas

The Shape Shifter was just a warm up. I suspect that Ridgeway drew Voyager ‘with relish’. From the frozen landscape of Antarctica to Astrolabus’ bizarre laboratory, everything is drawn with panache and style. The opening instalment sets a fabulously high standard as enormous sea creatures pursue Voyager’s sea ship over the edge of the world. The statues holding the world up add to the drama and scope of the scene, they look ancient and magnificent.

I wonder if I could get away with listing the iconic images in this story? There’s the Kraken attacking the lighthouse; Astrolabus’ escape on his da Vinci flying machine; the snowman with the Doctor’s jacket and umbrella; the stunningly beautiful automaton and spaceship that exude classical design and loving workmanship; Voyager’s ship flying past a planet with a human face and leaving a skull-shaped moon; the Doctor plummeting from the lighthouse into space, against the backdrop of a vast, ringed planet; and the ice-covered sea ship, complete with frozen crew. Captain Birds Eye knows how to keep his fish fingers fresh.

Other details are handled confidently. The Doctor descends the spiral staircase from the top of the lighthouse over eight silent panels, reinforcing the tension as he tries to escape the madness of Astrolabus. There’s a wonderful shift in perspective from the moment that the Doctor is hanging over the edge of the lighthouse to the laboratory where he is hanging onto the edge of a table. Voyager’s face appropriately ancient and authoritarian. It’s so lined and gnarly that it looks like it could be made of wood.

Colin isn’t always captured perfectly, but his face frequently appears with heavy shadows and there’s lots of character and expression in it. As for his outfit, again a costume that was brash and over-stylised on television translates well to the comic strip. Especially in black and white!
 

End of The Line

This is one of my absolute favourite comic strips. Voyager is a story you really couldn’t tell in any other format. In many ways it’s standard Steve Parkhouse stuff, with a nebulous, super-powerful threat and mad goings on to which the Doctor is little more than a witness. But the scope of the imagery and the legendary back-story involving the Lighthouse at Alexandria give it a weight and resonance beyond Tides of Time or The Stockbridge Horror. That and the fact that this is just the first half of the story concluded in Once Upon A Time Lord. It’s chock full of stunning images, there are pages you can just stare at for hours on end.

Astrolabus is a superb villain. Partway between the Meddling Monk and the Master, but madder than both by spades, he is arrogant and obsessive. He gets lovely bonkers dialogue, often saying the same thing in five different ways and different languages. Though he may look like a shabby old man, he has the Doctor like a puppet on a string and totally outfoxes him. The Doctor isn’t even close to beating him and at the end Astrolabus escapes, leaving the Doctor to the mercy of Voyager.

Of course, this story also features the Doctor’s new companion, the penguin. I like Frobisher. As a concept, ‘wisecracking penguin’ sounds like a disaster, but he’s written with such vivaciousness and wit that it works. As opposed to most of the TV companions, he is travelling with the Doctor through his own choice and on his own terms. Frobisher shows he is quite capable of acting on his own and the little anecdote about pretending to be a checkout till in Walthamstow even adds a little poignancy to his character. What did Peri ever do for love? Don’t answer that!

Voyager is a confident, epic and enthralling tale.

Voyager

Follow That TARDIS!

There were a couple of letters generally praising the strip published in Doctor Who Magazine.

Voyager was given away in an abridged form in packs of Golden Wonder multipack crisps in late 1986, with a photographic cover. The comics were 145mm by 105mm, according to the advert. Pretty cool!

Voyager pulls elements from ‘The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Coleridge, with Astrolabus in the role of the Mariner.

Items in Astrolabus’ laboratory include lots of books, a large animal skull with a messy candle on top of it, a copy of ‘Einstein Got It Wrong by Nostrodamus’, a crocodile hanging from the ceiling and a big lectern.

Supporting the edge of Voyager’s world are enormous statues of a man standing on an elephant, standing on a tortoise. This comes originally from Hindu philosophy – Terry Pratchett’s Discworld employs a similar mechanism of animalistic planetary support.

The Doctor wears stripy pyjamas in bed and wears an orange dressing gown, which has a cat on the left hand breast pocket. This story implies that the 6th Doctor sleeps regularly on board the TARDIS.

Frobisher is disguised as an Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri). Other popular fictional penguins include: The Penguin (from Batman), Mumble (from Happy Feet), Pingu, Chilly Willy and Mr.Flibble (Red Dwarf).