Steve Parkhouse

Doctor Who: Voyager collects comics that first appeared in Doctor Who Magazine featuring the continuing adventures of the sixth Doctor as portrayed by Colin Baker written by Steve Parkhouse with art by John Ridgway. It includes the stories “The Shape Shifter,” “Voyager,” “Polly the Glot,” and “Once Upon a Time Lord.” The first introduces Avan Tarklu, a Whifferdill shapeshifter, who begins tracking the Doctor for a bounty. He ends up joining the doctor on his travels, adopting the form of a penguin and the name Frobisher. Across the four stories, the Doctor and Frobisher seek after Astrolabus, a magician who stole star maps from the Voyager. The Voyager claims to be a Lord of Life much as the Doctor is a Lord of Time. He tasks the Doctor with retrieving the star maps as they enter on a journey through imagination, demonstrating all the psychedelic storytelling the comics medium makes possible. Ridgway’s art resembles that of Bill Sienkiewicz, Steve Bissette, John Totleben, or Dave McKean in its abstract embellishments, though he faithfully replicates Colin Baker’s appearance as well as that of his TARDIS. Frobisher is good fun as a sidekick and given plenty of expression so that he livens up the story. Doctor Who fans will find this story entertaining, but it will particularly appeal to fans of the Sixth Doctor and that era of Doctor Who storytelling.… (meer)