Changes (comic story)

Changes
Doctor:	[[doctor::Sixth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Frobisher Peri Brown
Main enemy:	Kymbra Chimera
Main setting:	The TARDIS
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Marvel Comics]]
Editor:	Sheila Cranna
Writer:	Grant Morrison
Artist:	John Ridgway
Colourist:	Monochromatic
Letterer:	Annie Halfacree
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who Magazine 118-119
Release date:	November - December 1986
Format:	Comic - 2 parts (16 pages)
DWM comic stories
← Previous	Salad Daze
Next →	Profits of Doom

Changes was a Sixth Doctor comic strip published in Doctor Who Magazine. It was significant for showing many parts of the Doctor's TARDIS other than the control room and corridors usually seen on television.

This story also included the appearance of another shapeshifter aboard the TARDIS: the Kymbra Chimera. This Chimera took on the appearance of both the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown.

Plot

Peri and Frobisher are rummaging through a storage room in the TARDIS. Peri is so taken aback by the cultural treasures she discovers that she doesn't pay attention when the Sixth Doctor reports that there is an intruder aboard the TARDIS. Peri and Frobisher decide to explore the TARDIS some more, while the Doctor investigates the intruder. The Doctor discovers a Swuffle he brought aboard was in fact a shapeshifter, a Kymbra Chimera. The shifter changes to the form of Peri, but Frobisher quickly spots the difference: Peri's clothes and necklace are fused into 'her' flesh, as the Chimera is unable to duplicate clothing. The Chimera and Frobisher fight as the Doctor discovers a way to suck the intruder out the TARDIS. He does so in the nick of time.

Characters

• The Doctor
• Frobisher
• Peri Brown
• Kymbra Chimera

References

The Doctor

• The Sixth Doctor possesses portraits of himself by Michelangelo and Vincent van Gogh. Which incarnations of the Doctor they depict is left unrevealed.

Energy beings

• The Doctor mentions the Mandragora Helix from The Masque of Mandragora.

Literature

• Peri finds a folio of a play called Mischief Night, or As You Please, which she surmises may be a lost play by William Shakespeare.

TARDIS

• Other items visible in the TARDIS storage room include a National Geographic Magazine, assorted toys, a globe, a map of Barsoom, a Dalek construction kit, and a 78 rpm record by Bill Haley.
• When the Doctor and Frobisher walk through the TARDIS interior, Bessie is seen stored in a darkened room. Clothes the the Fourth and Fifth Doctors wore are also shown on stands in another chamber.
• The TARDIS has a "Memory Vaults" area that recreates places the ship has visited.
• There is also a populated TARDIS Zoo, which the Doctor describes as a "way station" where he keeps endangered animals, often saving them from extinction.

Notes

• This is one of a handful of stories to make an extensive exploration of the interior of the TARDIS. See The Invasion of Time and Castrovalva for other examples.
• Reprinted in The World Shapers Graphic Novel
• Reprinted in Grant Morrison's Doctor Who 1 colourised by Charlie Kirchoff
• Reprinted in Doctor Who Classics Volume 3 (Grant Morrison's Doctor Who reprint)

Continuity

• Peri has the same hairstyle and clothing similar to what she wears in The Mysterious Planet.
• The TARDIS' state of temporal grace, which renders weapons useless, does not function when the ship is in "normal space". (This is a possible attempt to rectify continuity issues created by several occasions on which weapons are shown being fired within the TARDIS.)
• The Doctor returns to the secondary control room last seen in The Robots of Death. The room includes what appears to be a tea dispenser.
• The Doctor mentions the Mandragora Helix, which first appeared in The Masque of Mandragora.

Timeline

• This story takes place after DWM: Salad Dae
• This story takes place before DWM: Profits of Doom

External links

• Changes at the Doctor Who Reference Guide