Polly the Glot
is written by Steve Parkhouse with art by John Ridgway and lettering by Annie
Halfacree. It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 95-97 (November 1984-January 1985) and
is reprinted in its original form in Doctor
Who: Voyager by Panini Books.
It’s quite interesting
when you are reading something like the Doctor Who Magazine
comics and get to a story that’s nothing but transitory. Steve Parkhouse’s penultimate strip, Polly
the Glot, is nothing but transitory.
Voyager set up the idea of Astrolabus as the big bad of these
final few strips after the stories with Dogbolter had concluded in The Shape
Shifter, while Polly the Glot starts as a simple moment of the
Doctor and Frobisher reuniting with Dr. Ivan Asimoff who is attempting to
protect the Zyglots from captivity in freak shows and hunting in an
organization where the big twist is that it is headed by Astrolabus. It’s a great twist but then there’s a third
issue which is used to finish the transition where the TARDIS ends up being
piloted into Astrolabus’ cabinet which is where the final story, Once Upon a
Time-Lord, will be set to finish off the arc.
Where Polly the Glot
really excels is some of the character interactions. Embracing the absurd, the first issue ends
with Frobisher and the Doctor kidnapping Asimoff at gunpoint. Frobisher brandishes a gun and that is just a
hilarious image, one of many that Frobisher just gets to create due to his
shapeshifting. Parkhouse clearly has a
ball in crafting a character like this and it’s clear why those fans who know
who Frobisher is have fallen in love.
Between this and Voyager the appreciation I already had from The
Holy Terror can only increase because he isa delightful character. Astrolabus also is an interesting villain as
it seems he is doing a bunch of crazy things simply because the Doctor and Frobisher
will notice and he wants his revenge against the Doctor. There is a slight issue with the fact that he
isn’t as interesting here as he was in Voyager, as Voyager was
this brilliant introduction while here it seems like the transitory nature of
the story means the character has also become transitory. This is a three issue story and he doesn’t
actually appear until the second issue which is kind of a shame, and the third
issue itself feels the most transitory.
Overall, Polly the Glot
while being about a Zyglot called Polly, the title is a bit misleading as to
what it is about. Ivan Asimoff is a lot
of fun here, more so than in his first appearance, and the inclusion of
Astrolabus brings things forward to what Parkhouse is about to leave the strip
on. The Doctor and Frobisher shine here
really giving the reader a sense of what the Sixth Doctor’s character would
become in the fandom despite at this point still being the harsher
characterization of Season 22. Not
perfect, but balls of fun. 8/10.
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