The World Shapers (comic story)

The World Shapers
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Peri, Frobisher, Jamie
Main enemy:	Cyber-Control
Main setting:	Marinus
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Editor:	Sheila Cranna
Writer:	Grant Morrison
Penciller:	John Ridgway
Inker:	Tim Perkins
Letterer:	Richard Starkings
Release details
Number of parts:	3
Printed in:	DWM 127-129
Release date:	9 July - 10 September 1987
Reprinted in:	The World Shapers, Grant Morrison's Doctor Who 2, Doctor Who Classics Volume 3, Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1, Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
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Next →	A Cold Day in Hell!

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The World Shapers was the final regular Doctor Who Magazine comic strip to feature the Sixth Doctor. It featured the death of Jamie McCrimmon, a fate which, as of 2023, has not been contradicted in any medium. It has also attracted attention because it was written by legendary comic scribe Grant Morrison.

It was a Mondasian Cybermen origin story which showed that the Cybermen evolved from the Voord from the First Doctor serial The Keys of Marinus. These origins conflicted with most of the later origin stories given for the Cybermen, including the Fifth Doctor audio Spare Parts and DWM's own The Cybermen comic series. However, The World Shapers was specifically referenced in the Twelfth Doctor story The Doctor Falls as one of many origins of the Cybermen which all coexist in the Doctor Who universe, though it also establishes Planet 14, Marinus and Mondas as separate planets, contradicting The World Shapers.

Summary

After a trip to Marinus, the Sixth Doctor is convinced to visit an old friend, but this will be Jamie McCrimmon's final adventure...

Plot

Part one

The Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown and Frobisher follow a distress signal to a watery planet that the Doctor recognises as Marinus, although it is now apparently deserted. The signal is coming from another TARDIS. They find an elderly, dying Time Lord who mutters "Planet 14" before expiring. As he was on his last regeneration, his body breaks down into its constituent molecules, though the Doctor notes that it happened very quickly. The late Time Lord's TARDIS informs them they were sent to Marinus to investigate violent disturbances in the space-time continuum. Frobisher moults rapidly and Peri's hair and fingernails grow; the Doctor notes that time has been accelerated. The mention of Planet 14 jogs the Doctor's memory. He dimly recalls an adventure from his second incarnation. He decides to visit Jamie McCrimmon to see if he would know.

As they depart in the TARDIS (observed by a group of Voord), a spaceship prepares to land, piloted by Deedrun and Maxilla, who repair Worldshapers. They note that the last Worldshaper they repaired was on Planet Thirteen...

Part two

The TARDIS has arrived in Scotland in the 18th century, and the travellers are escorted by Dugald to visit "Mad Jamie", who has been labelled as crazy after the Battle of Culloden, claiming to have visited the moon and stars. Having miscalculated by about 40 years, they've arrived to find Jamie an isolated old man living alone in a run-down shack. Jamie (who had been trained by the Doctor to resist the Time Lords' erasure of his memory) recalls the mention of Planet 14 by the Cyber Controller in their dealings with the Cybermen's attempted invasion of Earth via the London sewers. He begs the Doctor to take him with them, and they depart in the TARDIS before the bewildered eyes of the villagers.

They arrive on Marinus only a week since their departure, but in that time the vast oceans have been drained. They encounter Maxilla, now rapidly aged, gasping for help and claiming that "it's all gone wrong." They turn to find themselves surrounded by a party of Voord, who bear some uncanny resemblances to Cybermen...

Part three

They retreat with Maxilla into the safety of the TARDIS. Maxilla tells how the Voord had captured the Worldshaper and used it to rapidly evolve. His partner, Deedrun, was killed in the process, but Maxilla partially shielded himself with a time shield. The Voord are evolving into Cybermen. The Doctor realises the peril the Cybermen would pose with the Worldshaper. He resolves that the machine must be destroyed. Leaving Peri and Frobisher behind in the TARDIS, the Doctor, Jamie and Maxilla home in on the Worldshaper. Maxilla is stunned to find it unguarded, but runs into a protective field surrounding it which ages him to death. Jamie, however, sacrifices his life by plunging his sword into the heart of the Worldshaper. An enormous burst of temporal energy engulfs the entire planet (though the Doctor escapes to the TARDIS), causing millions of years of geological development to pass very quickly. Once it subsides, they emerge from the TARDIS to find a pair of Time Lords waiting for them. The Doctor now recognises the planet as Mondas. The Time Lords order the Doctor and his party to leave, despite the Doctor's insistence they have the chance to stop the Cybermen's development before they can threaten the galaxy.

As the Doctor angrily departs, the Time Lords reflect that in five million years' time, the Cybermen will evolve beyond corporeal form into a disembodied benevolent race, becoming the most peaceful and advanced people in the Universe. They agree that the millions of years of bloodshed in the interim are worth "the ultimate salvation of sentient life."

Characters

• Sixth Doctor
• Frobisher
• Peri Brown
• Jamie McCrimmon
• Maxilla
• Dugald
• Deedrun
• Dying Time Lord
• Time Lord in red

Worldbuilding

• The Time Lords reveal that the Cybermen will eventually ascend to a state of pure consciousness.
• Peri and Frobisher experience accelerated ageing as a result of time spillage.
• Frobisher says Worldshapers were banned after one was used on the planet Yxia, causing the whole planetary system to fall apart.

Notes

A flashback to The Invasion.

• This marks the final appearance of the Sixth Doctor in regular comic strip format. His final lines in his comic book tenure are; "You haven't heard the last of this!"
• The Doctor's mention of "the Fishmen of Kandalinga", events from the Doctor Who Annual 1967 story The Fishmen of Kandalinga, marks the first instance of Doctor Who Magazine comics acknowledging a non-televised story distributed by another publisher.
• Charlie Kirchoff was the colourist for the Grant Morrison's Doctor Who reprint.
• It is unclear how the Doctor or Jamie are aware of the reference to Planet 14 from the events of TV: The Invasion, as their positive identification by the Cyber Module was made in confidence to Tobias Vaughn alone, so no other character would possess knowledge of the exchange. Furthermore, Jamie recalls the Cyber-Controller mentioning it, rather than the Cyber Module, though Jamie getting the terminology wrong is a possible excuse. If the Doctor and Jamie are remembering correctly, this points to the possibility of a further, unseen adventure with the Second Doctor, Jamie and the Brigadier fighting the Cybermen.

Continuity

• The Doctor recalls two of his previous trips to Marinus. (TV: The Keys of Marinus; PROSE: The Fishmen of Kandalinga)
• The Doctor hints that he has stolen his TARDIS. (TV: The War Games, Frontier in Space, Logopolis)
• The Doctor badly remembers life before his second regeneration. The Third Doctor repeatedly encountered problems with his recall as a result of memory blocks installed by the Time Lords. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death, The Claws of Axos)
• Peri last saw Jamie roughly "a couple of years" ago, though he looked much younger. (TV: The Two Doctors)
• Jamie was taught a mind-trick by the Doctor which allowed him to retain his memories of travelling in the TARDIS, despite the Time Lords' attempt to erase them. (TV: The War Games)
• The Doctor and Jamie's lifesigns are registered as traces on the TARDIS's external sensory equipment. (TV: The Five Doctors)
• This will not be the last time that the Time Lords interfere directly in the climax of an adventure with the Doctor and Peri. (TV: Mindwarp)

External links

• The World Shapers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide