The World Shapers (comic story)

The World Shapers
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Frobisher, Peri, Jamie
Main enemy:	Voord
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
Printed in:	DWM 127-129
Release date:	August - October 1987
Reprinted in:	Doctor Who Classics Volume 3, Grant Morrison's Doctor Who 2, The World Shapers, Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1
Format:	Comic - 3 parts (24 pages)
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 2018, 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. These origins conflicted with most of the other origin stories given for the Cybermen, including Spare Parts and DWM's own The Cybermen. However, The Worldshapers was specifically referenced in 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 worldshaping spaceship prepares to land, piloted by Deedrun and Maxilla. They note that the previous planet they shaped was 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
• Dugald
• Maxilla
• Deedrun

References

• The Time Lords reveal that the Cybermen will eventually evolve beyond their capacity for assimilation and ascend to a state of pure consciousness, becoming a benevolent race in the process.
• A Time Lord is shown dying, having used up his regenerations. According to the Doctor, Time Lords "degenerate" into "random molecules" and the dead Time Lord is shown disintegrating.

Notes

• 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!"
• Charlie Kirchoff was the colourist for the Grant Morrison's Doctor Who reprint.

Continuity

• Peri references the events of TV: The Two Doctors. According to her, "a couple of years" have passed for her and the Doctor since those events.
• The Doctor badly remembers life before his second regeneration. (PROSE: Cold Fusion)

A flashback to The Invasion.

• The references to Planet 14 derive from a remark by the Cyber-Director in TV: The Invasion; in that story, the Cyber-Director recognises the Second Doctor and Jamie from Planet 14.
• According to the strip, Jamie was taught a mind-trick by the Second Doctor which allowed him to retain his memories of travelling with the Doctor, despite the attempt to erase them in TV: The War Games.
• Part of the story takes place on Marinus, with the Doctor recalling the events of TV: The Keys of Marinus.
• A reference is made to the events of TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen.
• The Doctor hints that he has stolen his TARDIS. (TV: The War Games, Frontier in Space, Logopolis, Planet of the Dead, The Doctor's Wife)
• While facing the Cybermen on a Mondasian colony ship, the Twelfth Doctor would recall Marinus as one of the worlds where they rose. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
• The Doctor and Jamie's lifesigns are registered as traces on the TARDIS's external sensory equipment. (TV: The Five Doctors)

External links

• The World Shapers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide