Voyager (comic story)

Voyager
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Frobisher
Featuring:	Voyager
Main enemy:	Astrolabus
Main setting:	Edge of the universe
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics UK
Editor:	Alan McKenzie
Writer:	Steve Parkhouse
Artist:	John Ridgway
Letterer:	Annie Halfacree
Release details
Number of parts:	5
Printed in:	DWM 90-94
Release date:	14 June - 11 October 1984
Reprinted in:	DWMAC 6, Voyager, Voyager, DWCS3 1, DWCS3 2, Doctor Who Classics Volume 6, Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 2
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
← Previous	The Shape Shifter
Next →	Polly the Glot

You may wish to consult Voyager (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

Voyager was a Sixth Doctor comic published in Doctor Who Magazine. It introduced the character of Astrolabus and began the Voyager arc.

Summary

The Sixth Doctor and Frobisher find themselves in Antarctica, but things take a turn for the worse when they meet Astrolabus and the mysterious Voyager.

Plot

It Was a Devil Ship... (1)

The Sixth Doctor is a prisoner aboard Voyager's "Death-ship". They journey to the edge of the world and fall off. The Doctor wakes in the TARDIS to find the door open. Outside, his coat is draped over a snowman, his umbrella under its arm. He collects them and continues to journey the wastes, considering how he has come to enjoy Frobisher's companionship.

The Doctor meets with Frobisher, and they spot a ship frozen in the ice, which the Doctor recognises as the one from his dream. Boarding it, they find star charts in the hold and prepare to leave with them when a man enters behind them, threatening the pair with a gun.

The Lighthouse at the End of the World... (2)

The man ties the Doctor to a chair, then makes his escape with the charts. Frobisher goes up on deck and the Doctor quickly frees himself. They watch through a telescope as he makes his escape in an original da Vinci flying machine.

The Doctor and Frobisher return to the TARDIS and follow the man. They arrive at a lighthouse. The TARDIS picks up powerful energy readings. Outside, the Doctor finds Frobisher has gone into the water. He emerges to regurgitate a fish for the Doctor. Suddenly, a robot-like humanoid appears and advances upon them.

The Lighthouse... (3)

The Doctor tells Frobisher the being is an Automaton, a living soul in a mechanical body. It walks past them and into the sea. The Doctor guesses that it could be connected to a craft Frobisher saw under the water.

The Doctor instructs Frobisher to return to the TARDIS. He peers through the lighthouse's keyhole and sees the man he chased sitting within. Opening the door with his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor threatens the man with his own gun. However, the man notes the Doctor wouldn't kill him and makes his escape. The Doctor follows and falls. He finds himself hanging on to the side of the lighthouse, far above the ground. The man leans over him and suddenly the Doctor finds he is hanging from a table, inside, with his legs safely on the ground. He asks the man who he is. The figure tells him various aliases and then proclaims himself legend.

Dreams of Eternity (4)

Astrolabus tells the Doctor the story of Alexandria, a city he helped make great. It fell and Astrolabus took to the stars. However, the Doctor identifies him as Astrolabus, the Time Lord thief who stole The Book of the Old Time before the Doctor himself was even born. He identifies the lighthouse itself as Astrolabus' TARDIS. The Doctor flees and finds the world around him transforming.

Running down a winding staircase, he sights only a door left in the blank interior. Tentacles come from behind and try to squeeze him, but he breaks free. With a final effort, he escapes and finds himself in space.

The Final Chapter (5)

The Doctor finds himself back on Earth, in the sea. Inside the TARDIS, Frobisher activates the TARDIS scanner, spots the Doctor in the water and runs to help him. Astrolabus makes his way to the top of the lighthouse and it turns into a rocket. Voyager appears in his ship as the rocket takes off, disappearing into the clouds.

The Doctor finds himself once more on Voyager's ship at the edge of the world. Again he wakes to find himself on a rocky outcrop with Frobisher. They return to the TARDIS. The Doctor sees Voyager once more, instructing him to return his star charts.

Characters

• Sixth Doctor
• Frobisher
• Astrolabus
• Voyager

Worldbuilding

Books

• Astrolabus owns a variety of books including Einstein Got It Wrong by Nostradamus.

Cosmology

• The area beyond the edge of the universe is called the Void.

Individuals

• Astrolabus claims to have an appointment with Marco Polo.
• Frobisher claims to have spent fourteen years as a till in a Walthamstow supermarket.
• Frobisher's idea of a "disguise" is a pair of glasses and false nose.
• King Ptolemy I of Egypt built a lighthouse at Alexandria.
• The Doctor uses a "little technique" he learned from Houdini to escape his bindings after being tied up.

Earth fish

• The Doctor ponders whether there are angler fish in the waters.

Technology

• Astrolabus's lighthouse is in fact his TARDIS.
• The Doctor carries a vibrator piklok that he can use to spy through keyholes and open doors.

Foods and beverages

• The last time that the Doctor left Frobisher alone with the food machine, he nearly filled the console room with Mars Bars.

Entertainment

• Astrolabus tells the Doctor to pick one of his playing cards.
• Angered by the Doctor's assertion that he is mad, Astrolabus hits him with a Punch doll.

Notes

• This story marks the first time Frobisher is seen identifying himself as "Frobisher" and using the form of a penguin, which would become his most common and preferred appearance.
• Voyager was reprinted in graphic novel format on 26 May 1989, making it one of the first Doctor Who graphic novels. It was also reprinted as part of the 2007 graphic novel Voyager.

The present-day Astrolabus and his purported past self are given starkly different skin tones in the colourised version of the story, making Astrolabus's purported backstory much more obviously fraudulent than in the black-and-white printing.

• The colourised version of the story gives Astrolabus a Caucasian skin tone. This introduces a discrepancy with the portion of the story in which Astrolabus claims to be an older form of the Alexandrian astrologer, who, without the facial hair, is more clearly depicted as black, and indeed colourised as such.

Continuity

• This story follows on from COMIC: The Shape Shifter ^[+]Loading...["The Shape Shifter (comic story)"], in which the Sixth Doctor took Frobisher on as a companion. Here, he settles on the form of a penguin, which would become the character's iconic default appearance throughout his many subsequent appearances.
• Astrolabus stole The Book of the Old Time, first discussed in TV: The Deadly Assassin ^[+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"].
• The Sixth Doctor recognises Astrolabus as "the Thief of Time" and the plunderer of many treasures from across space and time. The Third Doctor had previously battled an infamous Time Lord known as the Time Thief in PROSE: The Time Thief ^[+]Loading...["The Time Thief (DWAN short story)"], who was disgraced for robbing various planets, and to whom Astrolabus bears a strong physical resemblance. However, this original Time Thief's name was given as Madrigor; neither the apparent name change nor the prior encounter between the Doctor and the Thief are referenced here, making it uncertain that this was actually intended as a point of continuity.
• The Doctor's battles with Astrolabus would continue in COMIC: Polly the Glot ^[+]Loading...["Polly the Glot (comic story)"] and COMIC: Once Upon a Time-Lord ^[+]Loading...["Once Upon a Time-Lord (comic story)"].
• The character was indirectly referenced in PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice ^[+]Loading...["Going Once, Going Twice (short story)"], where the character of Auteur is depicted as dropping various hints that he is a surviving form of Astrolabus after the events of Once Upon a Time-Lord, although this is strongly implied to be a self-serving lie or delusion on his part.

External links

• Voyager at the Doctor Who Reference Guide