The Ratings War (audio story)

The Ratings War
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Main enemy:	Beep the Meep
Main setting:	TV studio
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Steve Lyons
Director:	Gary Russell
Producer:	Gary Russell, Jason Haigh-Ellery
Music:	David Darlington
Sound:	David Darlington
Cover by:	Clayton Hickman
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release date:	10 January 2002
Format:	1 CD Download
Production code:	DWMCD03
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78575-338-1 (digital)
Big Finish DWM originals
← Previous	Last of the Titans
Next →	No Place Like Home
The Sixth Doctor Adventures
Next →	The Maltese Penguin

The Ratings War was a 2002 Big Finish audio drama, featuring the Sixth Doctor taking on one of his old comic strip foes, Beep the Meep. Originally released as an inclusion with Doctor Who Magazine #313, it was later re-released as a free download on the Big Finish Productions website on 23 July 2014.

Publisher's summary

Beep the Meep is back — and he's found a new channel for his aggression! A brand new series is about to make television history, but can the Doctor prevent his furry foe from turning a docu-drama into a crisis, or will the fluffy-wuffy animals get it in the neck? The first shots in the ratings war have been fired, and the next one is aimed at your head...

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Beep the Meep - Toby Longworth
• Roger Lowell - Robert Jezek
• Robbie McHale - Alistair Lock
• Lucy / Susan - Jane Goddard

Crew

• Director - Gary Russell
• Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
• Music and Sound Design - David Darlington
• Producers - Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Writer - Steve Lyons

Worldbuilding

• The new shows on the network include Young Cops in Hospital, Wacky Domestic Mishaps, Look! Cute Animals!, Hospital Street, Appealing Animals in Distress and Audience Shares.
• Beep threatens the Doctor with Grundian Blood Nogs.

Notes

• The Ratings War features the return of Beep the Meep, the villain in COMIC: Doctor Who and the Star Beast. His fate in COMIC: Star Beast II is also mentioned. Black Sun radiation is also mentioned, though referred to as Black Star radiation instead.
• Author Steve Lyons previously featured the Sixth Doctor and Meeps in his short story Wish Upon a Star Beast for the 1999 charity anthology Perfect Timing.
• Also included as a bonus on the original CD release is the first episode of the Eighth Doctor audio adventure, Invaders from Mars.
• This is one of only a few stories in which the Sixth Doctor is depicted travelling without a companion.
• The Doctor's speech at the end has several meta-fictional references. The Doctor disparages television, claiming it is limiting and unsuitable to his needs, a reference either to Doctor Who's cancellation or Colin Baker's unceremonious firing. He also claims that he needs a medium that allows him to be "louder" and that the audience will be "hearing more from me, I can assure you", a reference to the audio stories. Robbie McHale asks if the audience will ever know who he is (a reference to the Doctor's mysterious past) or if he would ever come back (a reference to the potential return). Further, Beep & Friends is placed on "hiatus" for eighteen months, referencing the eighteen-month hiatus that Doctor Who suffered in 1986 after barely avoiding cancellation by the BBC.
• This marks Beep's first appearance in an audio story. Additionally, it is his first not to be in comic or comic-strip form. Meep would return to audio 17 years later in Doctor Who and the Star Beast.
• After the 2019 redesign of the Big Finish website, this release was added to The Sixth Doctor Adventures.
• The preview of Invaders From Mars that was bundled with it in its release in Doctor Who Magazine still is when downloaded from either the Big Finish site or in the Big Finish app.

Continuity

• The Doctor compares Beep to a Speelsnape. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)
• Beep recalls the Fourth Doctor trapping him in a Lassie film. (COMIC: Star Beast II)

External links

• Official The Ratings War page at bigfinish.com
• The Ratings War at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for The Ratings War at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide