The Maltese Penguin

A gorgeous dame looking for help. A mystery to be solved. A private eye who looks looks like a penguin who could use the work. And a traveller in time and space called the Doctor. All in a night's work.

The Maltese Penguin is another Big Finish freebie made available to subscribers, and this time we get to meet Frobisher, another of the sixth Doctor's non-television companions. Frobisher first made his appearance in the comics of Doctor Who Magazine, where it was a lot easier to realize a shape-shifting companion who chose the guise of an emperor penguin as a body than it would be on television (in the late 80s it would have been hard for anyone, but imagine the BBC's version... oh no...). It was only a matter of time before Frobisher made the jump to the Big Finish range, complete with put-on New York accent, much the same as future companion Bernice Summerfield will move from the pages of the New Adventures into audio.

Penguin joins Frobisher's story after he has been separated from the Doctor for some time; there's no real introduction made but most people in fandom who are buying the Big Finish discs will know Frobisher already, but to the uninitaited, he is one of a species known as a Whifferdill, and they can change shape at a whim. The Doctor arrives to offer Frobisher a chance to rejoin him in the TARDIS, but Frobisher remains firm that he needs a break, although he adopts the Doctor's form when going undercover to investigate the mystery he is hired for. At first it feels like New York and Frobisher has been dropped back in time as a semi-famous gumshoe, but when the characters do not show surprise that he's a penguin, and the boss of the city turns out to be a giant bullfrog, we ain't in NYC no more.

It's a comedy. How could it not be. Colin Baker gets to put on his own over-the-top Bronx accent when Frobisher imitates the Doctor's form, and you can tell it was played strictly for laughs, right down to the lonely saxaphone rendering of the Doctor Who theme (at least it sort of sounds like it).

And it's not a one-off for Frobisher. He's got another adventure.

NEXT EPISODE : THE HOLY TERROR