Changes (comic story)

Changes was a Doctor Who Magazine comic strip. It was significant for showing many sections of the Doctor's TARDIS other than the bland corridors commonly seen on television.

Changes saw the appearance of another shape-shifter aboard the TARDIS; the Kymbra Chimera. This Chimera took on the appearance of both the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown.

Summary
Peri Brown and Frobisher are rummaging through a storage room in the TARDIS and Peri is so much taken aback by the cultural treasures she discovers that doesn't pay attention when the Doctor reports that there is an intruder aboard the TARDIS. Peri and Frobisher decide to explore the TARDIS some more, while the Doctor investigates the intruder. The Doctor discovers a Swuffle he brought aboard was in fact a shapeshifer, a Kymbra Chimera. The shifter changes to the form of Peri but Frobisher quickly spots the difference. The chimera and Frobisher fight as the Doctor discovers a way to suck the intruder out the TARDIS and he does so in the nick of time.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Frobisher
 * Peri Brown
 * Kymbra Chimera

The Doctor

 * The Doctor possesses portraits of himself by Michelangelo and Vincent van Gogh. (Which incarnations of the Doctor are featured is left unrevealed, though it is likely the Second, Fifth, or Sixth Doctor. (There is a period in the comic strips when Peri does not travel with the Sixth Doctor, leaving time for him to have the portraits done).

Energy beings

 * The Doctor mentions the Mandragora Helix from DW: The Masque of Mandragora.

Literature

 * Peri finds a folio of a play called Mischief Night, or As You Please, which she surmises may be a lost play by William Shakespeare. 

TARDIS

 * Other items visible in the TARDIS storage room include a National Geographic Magazine, assorted toys, a globe, a map of Barsoom, a Dalek construction kit, and a 78 rpm record by Bill Haley.
 * When the Doctor and Frobisher are walking through the TARDIS interior, Bessie is seen stored in a darkened room. Clothes the the Fifth and Fourth Doctors wore are also depicted on stands in another chamber.
 * The TARDIS has a "Memory Vaults" area that recreates places the ship has visited.
 * There is also a populated TARDIS Zoo which the Doctor describes as a "way station" where he keeps endangered animals, often saving them from extinction.

Continuity

 * Peri has the same hairstyle and similar clothing to what she wears in DW: The Mysterious Planet, placing this story closer to the events of that story than DW: Revelation of the Daleks.
 * The TARDIS' state of temporal grace, which renders weapons useless, does not function when the ship is in "normal space". (This is a possible attempt to rectify continuity issues created by several occasions in which weapons are shown being fired within the TARDIS.)
 * The Doctor returns to the secondary control room last seen in DW: The Robots of Death. The room includes a tea dispenser.
 * The Doctor mentions the Mandragora Helix, which first appeared in DW: The Masque of Mandragora.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after DWM: Salad Daze
 * This story takes place before DWM: Profits of Doom