From Doctor Who Magazine #90-94
A Review by Finn Clark 28/9/04
Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. Anyone can write random weirdness, but I don't think I've read anything else that brings together reality and dream logic quite as Steve Parkhouse did in these forty pages. That's not just within Doctor Who, by the way. John Ridgway once said that Steve Parkhouse's DWM scripts were the best writing he'd ever illustrated in his career. These five episodes are only half of the Voyager arc (the rest being Polly The Glot and Once Upon A Time-Lord...) but they're its engine. This is the story arc's power.
We begin with the creepiest dream sequence in all of Who. You know how normally a dream sequence is obviously "just a dream sequence"? Not here. That first episode is scary, perhaps partly because it introduces HIM. Voyager himself hardly appears during the year-long story arc that bears his name, but his shadow hangs over every page. We've seen a fair few godlike entities in Doctor Who, but I can't think of one more awesome.
Just to illustrate this... should the Voyager story arc really be named after Astrolabus? Astrolabus is the ongoing villain. He keeps showing up, while Voyager only appears fleetingly and even after it's all over we don't know who the hell he is. 'Twould be less confusing too. You wouldn't have to keep explaining that you meant Voyager the graphic collection instead of Voyager the five-parter from DWM 90-94. However renaming this story arc Astrolabus would almost be like renaming Bram Stoker's most famous novel as Renfield. There's no question about who's the scariest guy in its pages.
However having said all that, Astrolabus is a great character. He makes an instant impact, e.g. the bit when the Doctor threatens to shoot him. Then there's what he does when the Doctor's dangling by his fingertips over a fifty-foot drop on to some jagged rocks. I laughed aloud! There are all kinds of reasons why I prefer Voyager to The Tides of Time, but Astrolabus is probably the biggest. Voyager himself is more awesome than the devil-figure of Melanicus, but in Astrolabus we simply have one of my favourite villains in Doctor Who. As the Doctor says - "Mad. You're quite, quite mad." Yup, got that right. Astrolabus is a total fruitcake, but he's also a being of incomprehensible power in whose presence the laws of reality warp and shift. Cool!
Sometimes it's hard to keep in mind that this story is set on Earth instead of, say, the inside of Astrolabus's head. (Specifically the TARDIS lands in Antarctica, then a nearby bit of ocean that's slightly more temperate but within modest flying-range of an air-bicycle.) The most extraordinary thing about this story is how its dream-logic invades the real world, while its one explicit dream sequence is scary, impossible and vital set-up for the following year's story arc. Even if Astrolabus hadn't warned us later, we knew to take it seriously at the time. (The sailor turned to an icicle in the middle of Antarctica is also a big clue.)
Even on repeat readings, this tale surprises you. Many stories make me admire their creators' craftmanship, but Voyager makes me marvel at the brain that could even imagine it. Just when you think you've got a handle on its Alice in Wonderland logic, suddenly it's time for a whack of exposition about astrological aliens in ancient Alexandria and krakens witnessing the fall of civilisation. "Then the skyships came, bearing travellers from the stars. The city had become a crossroads in time. Past and future had conjoined - sorcery and science now walked hand in hand."
Oh, and as if all that wasn't enough, Astrolabus is funny! In addition he surrounds himself with antiques and impossibilities (e.g. the "Da Vinci original") that make his world visually striking. John Ridgway obviously had a riot drawing it.
Frobisher kicks arse. The Shape Shifter (DWM 88-89) made some fans feel he was too silly to be a True Companion (TM), but here he's become the reassuring rock of normality. Flippant, down-to-earth and, yes, sometimes silly, he's always good for a laugh. "I once spent fourteen years as a till on a checkout counter in a supermarket in Walthomstow. I did it for love, but she thought I was only in it for the money."
To go off on a historical tangent... "He had formed a firm friendship with the little shape-shifter. He admired his many talents, his knowledge of different worlds. The Whifferdill, in spite of numerous aliases, had finally adopted the name "Frobisher" in deference to the Doctor's love of all things English." The original Frobisher was a 16th-century English navigator, Martin Frobisher (1535-1594). After three decades of exploration he served as vice admiral in Sir Francis Drake's West Indian expedition of 1585, was knighted for helping to defeat the Spanish Armada of 1588 and died fighting the Spanish off the French coast in 1594. Frobisher Bay, Baffin island, is named after him. So now you know.
Not everything is explained, but somehow it doesn't matter. What's the deal with that undersea craft and its guardian? "It's not a robot, it's an automaton. It's a mechanical body inhabited by a living soul!" That final shot... is it just a coincidence that from behind, the automaton appears to have Colin Baker's curls? Are we meant to wonder if the Doctor's soul is trapped in there? In any other tale that would be a ridiculous notion, but it struck me back in 1984 and it strikes me again today. In the sinister netherworld of Voyager and Astrolabus (especially given their last words to the Doctor), maybe it's a possibility.
This story was reprinted in the Voyager graphic novel (with lovely painted colour by Gina Hart) and the Golden Wonder mini-comic #6. I love this tale; it's not just a good story, or even a great one. It's astonishing. Every so often, as here, the comic strips show us what they're capable of.