Meeting his old friend Ivan Asimoff again, the Sixth Doctor is roped into helping free Polly, a captive Zyglot. Who is behind her imprisonment?
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Ah, Polly the Glot… I have a huge fondness for Ivan Asimoff, and I like the humour here, but, yeah, the somewhat romantic undertones in Asimoff’s relationship with Polly is a bit weird. Still, a good story. 8/10
1 Like
I found this story to be kind of boring even if it had some great moments. My favorite was to see all the aliens at the begining.
3 Likes
Polly the Glot is imaginative and often very funny, but it never quite fulfils the promise of its central premise. The ideas are stronger than the execution, leaving another enjoyable comic that feels as though it needed a few more pages to breathe.
Seeing Ivan again is always fun, and I wanted to know more about Polly! And Astrolabus is sort of just there. My favourite aspect was the defence robot who attacks the Doctor with a mop. That got a laugh out of me.
I specifically loved Ian’s remark afterward:
7/10 = Good
4 Likes
I half remembered this from reading it years ago as a fairly inconsequential story in among the ‘big’ stuff like Voyager and the upcoming Kane/Abel/etc story and the Genesis/Revelation arc.
Rereading it last night, I found myself fully absorbed into this strange comic strip world that DWM have put the Doctor into. I’ve said before that in the 4th and 5th Doctor strips it often felt like the writers were inserting the Doctor into comic worlds where he didn’t really fit and would then just be carried along by events without ever being very Doctor-y. The 6th Doctor strips seem to be bucking that trend, finally, and having a character who is more recognisably the Doctor. As I said in the last couple of strips, it helps that he has a decent, permanent companion in the shape of Frobisher (pun intended) but it’s also the fact he is far more proactive now.
Polly the Glot is an odd tale though, bringing back Doctor Asimoff to present the Doctor with a request to help him save an endangered species. What’s odd is that the story tries to force a ‘mystery’ on to the plot which never really sticks or makes sense and has the characters do some decidely odd things without much explanation (such as Frobisher disguising himself in a trenchcoat and hat - rather than, you know, shape-shifting… it will be a few strips yet before Frobisher is ‘stuck’ as a penguin but this strip is the beginning of the writers seemingly blurring the lines between him being a shape shifter and an actual penguin - not least his desire for chocolate pilchards).
It gets even odder when we discover that a certain Astrolabus from Voyager is behind both the plot to kidnap Zyglots AND the organsiation tasked with saving them! There is a glorious page with the Doctor suddenly succumbing to his mental powers and falling into a planet which rotates to reveal Astrolabus’ mouth which swallows the Doctor. It’s a hugely striking image and provides a strong link with the previous story showing that this strips are interlinked more than was obvious at first glance.
This ‘arc’ element of the strips was something they tried in the 5th Doctor strips to only limited success but here, despite the surreal imagery, it seems much more coherent and natural.
The story reaches it’s conclusion with the Zyglot released, Asimoff with a briefcase full of money to save others and, in a shock cliffhanger, Frobisher kidnapped by Astrolabus!
So for a strip I remembered as an inconsequential filler story, I discovered it is far more linked ot the ongoing arc than I remembered which made for a much more satisfying read.
I also have to comment on the humour of these strips. I noticed in Voyager and The Shape-Shifter that there are quite a few ‘sight’ gags in the panels, some of which I think probably go over the heads of anyone reading this that is a) not from the UK and b) didn’t live in the UK around the time these strips were written.
Two jokes in Polly the Glot stood out for different reasons. One was the name of the ‘airline’ being used by Asimoff - Pan Galactic Trips which has the logo PG Trips written behind his head. I’m not ashamed to say it made me laugh out loud. PG Tips is a well known UK brand of tea which was famous for a series of advertisements in the 80s involving chimps doing hilarious things (like moving pianos up staircases) - all dressed as humans and voiced. Obviously nowadays that would never pass muster on TV, rightly so, but PG Tips is a brand lodged into the British consciousness.
The second gag is slightly more awkward because it’s the three legged man exhibit at the carnival Polly the Glot is displayed at. The man is clearly drawn to resemble Rolf Harris who was famous for doing his ‘Jake the Peg’ routine of a man with the three legs…
Of course, now that we know he was a horrific abuser the image doesn’t raise a laugh, but a shudder. (That said, there was a Harris joke in the second episode of Ghosts Australia we watched last night - but that one was far more ‘knowing’ and very ‘blink and you’ll miss it’.)
But poorly-aged joke aside, this was another great strip adding to the upward trend these are currently taking.
3 Likes
Another humorous story. It had a nice, low stakes plot that made me like Dr Isamov. 4/5
4 Likes
While this story falls short of the highs set by ‘The Shape Shifter’ and ‘Voyager’, ‘Polly the Glot’ continues the trend of astonishing visuals for the ongoing journey of the Doctor and Frobisher. It’s thrilling to have continuity between stories; the Fourth Doctor’s DWM comics didn’t have many examples, and what existed with the Fifth Doctor’s run left a lot to be desired, but these three stories have sustained a great pace with a wonderful, vivid, insane, and thoroughly enjoyable mystery.
The return of Ivan Asimoff was a nice surprise and yielded a more pleasant adventure this time around, though that may be more to do with the story than his character—his first appearance was a tad too generic for me to feel like Ivan had anything to him besides an equally generic science-fiction character. The Glots and the Akkers are some really great pieces of worldbuilding, with the former illustrated gorgeously and the latter being one of DWM’s more successful attempts at capturing Douglas Adams’ niche of science-fiction comedy.
It was a pleasant surprise in Part Two having the Doctor succumb to the influence of Astro Labus’ post-hypnotic suggestion and, with the ending being what it was, I’m intrigued to see how this range will handle the over-arching narrative as it progresses. So, while less complete than its previous entries, the Sixth Doctor’s DWM run is still going strong with a story I cannot rate lower than a solid 8/10!
4 Likes
Verdict after Issue One - This was hilarious? As predicted, no discernable connection to the previous story, but proper good fun and more stunning artwork. Asimov is a thing of beauty! I’m slightly questioning why Frobisher remains as a penguin when he, for example, wants to intimidate someone or save the Doctor’s life. But other than that, I’m having a great time so far…
Verdict after Issue Two - This is so much fun. It feels quite Douglas Adams and, in so being, feels much more akin to what I expected from the Frobisher era. A good chunk of this hilarious chaos seguing into something darker and surprising would be amazing. I wonder if the whole arc’s structure would have been better suited if this story was swapped with Voyager in the running order… Still, this was nothing short of cinematic - that page of the Doctor falling into an abyss that gradually becomes Astrolabus’s face and then his mouth. Favourite art in a DW comic so far.
Verdict after Issue Three - Brilliant. Tight, entertaining, void of infuriating nonsense but full to the brim with delightful nonsense. Astrolabus is nuts in the best way, and Asimov is properly hilarious. Again, I’m a little sad about how small Frobisher’s role has been, and a little confused about why he doesn’t transform into something that would help most of the tight spots he gets into. But beyond that, this whole story had very little to complain about.
4 Likes