‘THE SHAPE SHIFTER’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Sixth Doctor meets Frobisher
Let’s check out the ‘Doctor Who’ comic book adventures featuring Frobisher with the Sixth Doctor! 🙂
Since I’ve checked out the two Big Finish audios featuring the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher together called ‘The Holy Terror’ and ‘The Maltese Penguin’, it’s only fair that I check out how Frobisher began as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion in the 1980s comic book adventures featuring the Sixth Doctor.
It’s fortunate that I own the first collection (plus a couple more) of Sixth Doctor comics called ‘Voyager’, which was originally released in 2007. I managed to acquire the ‘Voyager’ graphic novel when I subscribed to the ‘Doctor Who: The Complete History’ book series. Six comic collections were in that subscription.
It’s taken me a while to check out any of the six ‘Doctor Who’ comic collections from my ‘Complete History’ book series subscription, as I’m not what you would call an enthusiast of ‘Doctor Who’ comics. I’m interested in them certainly, but I’m not excited for them as I am with the Big Finish audios.
My latest interest in checking out the Sixth Doctor comics featuring Frobisher is because I’m currently working on a ‘Doctor Who’ story with Alan Camlann (Wolfie) of the Divergent Wordsmiths. It will have the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy meeting the Sixth Doctor, Peri and Frobisher. 😀
The Ice Warriors are expected to appear too. Hopefully by the time you read these reviews, the story will be underway in terms of the writing. At present, in terms of research, I might as well check out what Frobisher is like as a character and how he ended up as the shape-shifting penguin companion.
At the beginning of the ‘Voyager’ graphic novel, there’s an interview with John Ridgway, the artist for the Sixth Doctor comics in ‘Doctor Who Magazine’, who provides his insight on how he found drawing for the ‘Doctor Who’ comics with the Sixth Doctor. I found this very fascinating to check out.
The stories included in the ‘Voyager’ graphic novel are as follows. There’s ‘The Shape Shifter’, ‘Voyager’ itself, ‘Polly the Glot’, ‘Once Upon a Time-Lord’, ‘War-Game’, ‘Funhouse’, ‘Kane’s Story’/’Abel’s Story’/’The Warrior’s Story’/’Frobisher’s Story’, ‘Exodus’/’Revelation!’/’Genesis!’ and ‘Nature of the Beast!’ It turns out there’s an interview with Frobisher at the end of the graphic novel.
The first story featuring the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher is called ‘The Shape Shifter’. The story is by Steve Parkhouse and it’s drawn by John Ridgway, who makes his first contribution in ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂
Steve Parkhouse was firmly established as a writer in the ‘Doctor Who’ comics, having written stories for the Fourth Doctor towards the end of his era and stories for the entire Fifth Doctor era. 🙂
Having read the Fifth Doctor comic stories featured in ‘The Tides of Time’ graphic novel, I knew what to expect with Steve Parkhouse’s writing. I was intrigued by how he would develop the Sixth Doctor.
In ‘The Shape Shifter’, we’re introduced to Frobisher. He happens to be a shape-shifting alien called a whifferdill. Mind you, he isn’t the penguin-like character when we’re first introduced to him in this.
Frobisher looks like a potato-headed detective with big glasses and goes under the alias of Avan Tarklu instead. He also speaks with an American accent. Don’t think he comes from Earth’s America.
At this point, I’m not sure where whifferdills are supposed to come from. Anyway, Frobisher/Avan Tarklu goes on his biggest case yet. To pursue a bounty who happens to be a man called the Doctor.
When we meet Frobisher in ‘The Shape Shifter’, he can literally shape-shift into anything. He can become a bird, a burger, a fly, etc. He uses his shape-shifting abilities to get around places doing cases.
This is something that Steven Parkhouse noticed early on in the development of Frobisher’s character and said he was too powerful. That’s why ended up stuck as a penguin in the next story. 😐
When the Doctor meets Frobisher for the first time in his TARDIS, it’s not altogether plain-sailing. Frobisher is collecting the Doctor so that he can get his money from crime boss Josiah W. Dogbolter.
Dogbolter is someone who appeared in the ‘Doctor Who’ comic story called ‘The Moderator’, featuring the Fifth Doctor. I’ve also heard him recently in the Big Finish audio ‘The Maltese Penguin’.
I can’t say ‘The Shape Shifter’ is a great ‘Doctor Who’ story in comic form. Don’t get me wrong, the meeting between the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher and how they get to travel together is set up fine. 🙂
But with this being a two-part story and two-part stories in comic form being shorter than longer ones, I wish more was explored concerning how Frobisher agreed to not have the Doctor be turned in.
You see, Frobisher tricks Dogbolter into thinking he’s got the Doctor when in actual fact he was posing as the Doctor and he shot Dogbolter’s men in order to get away. It just feels rather rushed. 😐
There are amusing moments to enjoy from reading this comic adventure, especially when Frobisher is disguised as a telephone before changing into a bird to being attacked by a big bird wanting to eat him. 😀
It was also amusing when Frobisher became a fly and the waiter swatted him into the Doctor’s glass of chocolate soda. In fact, how did the waiter spot Frobisher as fly on the Doctor’s glass very quickly?
There’s a moment where the Doctor mentions he’s been threatened by Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Daleks and BBC producers. I doubt this refers to the BBC axing ‘Doctor Who’ in 1985 at this stage. 😀
It was eerie to see Frobisher appear on top of the Doctor’s TARDIS console with those big-rimmed spectacles of his. In fact, I’m rather curious how the Doctor managed to win Frobisher’s friendship. 😐
I mean, even when Frobisher tricked Dogbolter into thinking he got the Sixth Doctor, there’s no indication given about what the Doctor said to persuade Frobisher to not turn him in to Dogbolter. 😐
I also don’t know why Frobisher wants to stick around with the Doctor in his TARDIS apart from continuing to solve cases in time and space. It’s also very intriguing they visited 82nd century Venus.
Yeah, I know Venus somehow becomes an inhabitable world in ‘Doctor Who’, but I’m intrigued why Steve Parkhouse didn’t set this story on a fictional planet instead of an established solar system planet.
‘The Shape Shifter’ is decent enough as a comic story and an introduction to Frobisher meeting the Sixth Doctor. But it’s not a great story and I’m hoping the next story ‘Voyager’ will be a better one. 🙂
‘The Shape Shifter’ rating – 6/10
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