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{{Infobox Story
{{Infobox Story SMW
|image=ish cover.jpg  
|image           = ish cover.jpg
|range          = Main Range
|range          = Main Range
|number in range = 35
|number in range = 35
|series=[[Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories|Big Finish ''Doctor Who'' audio stories]]
|series         = ''[[Main Range]]''
|number= 35  
|number         = 35
|doctor=Sixth Doctor  
|doctor         = Sixth Doctor
|companions= [[Peri Brown|Peri]]  
|companions     = [[Peri Brown|Peri]]
|enemy= [[Warren (...ish)|Warren]], The [[Ish]] of the [[Omniverbum]]
|enemy           = [[Warren (...ish)|Warren]], The [[Ish]]
|setting= An unnamed university in the [[Articulate Worlds]]
|setting         = [[Articulate Worlds]]
|writer= [[Phil Pascoe]]
|writer         = Phil Pascoe
|director= [[Nicholas Briggs]]
|director       = [[Nicholas Briggs]]
|music= [[Neil Clappison]]
|producer        = [[Jason Haigh-Ellery]] and [[Gary Russell]]
|sound= [[Neil Clappison]]
|music           = [[Neil Clappison]]
|cover=[[James Arnott]]
|sound           = [[Neil Clappison]]
|publisher= Big Finish Productions
|cover           = [[Clayton Hickman]]
|release date= [[August]] [[2002 (releases)|2002]]
|publisher       = Big Finish Productions
|format= 4 Episodes on 2 CDs
|release date   = 29 August 2002
|production code= [[List of production codes|6Z/B]]
|format         = 2 CDs<br/>Download
|isbn= ISBN 1-903654-73-4
|production code = [[List of production codes|6Z/B]]
|prev= Spare Parts (audio story)  
|isbn           = ISBN 978-1-90365-473-6 (physical)<br/>ISBN 978-1-84435-742-0 (digital)
|next= The Rapture (audio story)}}'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the thirty-fifth [[Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories|monthly ''Doctor Who'' audio story]] produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It featured [[Colin Baker]] as the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Nicola Bryant]] as [[Peri Brown]]. This was the second audio story to feature this line up of companion and Doctor. To date, it is [[Phil Pascoe]]'s only contribution to audio-based ''[[Doctor Who]]''.
|prev           = Spare Parts (audio story)
|next           = The Rapture (audio story)
|made prev      = The Sandman (audio story)
|made next      = Spare Parts (audio story)
|epcount = 4
}}{{audio stub}}
{{spotify|album=07mpcNmqCbysjFKZ9vKRIM|height=350}}
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the thirty-fifth story in [[Big Finish Productions|Big Finish]]'s [[Main Range|monthly range]]. It was written by [[Phil Pascoe]] and featured [[Colin Baker]] as the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Nicola Bryant]] as [[Peri Brown]].
 
This was the second audio story to feature this line up of companion and Doctor. Pascoe's story idea was picked up after he pitched it to them during one of their 'open door days', where they allowed unsolicited stories to be pitched.<ref name=":0">'Backstage' tab of [https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-ish-201 the official ''...Ish'' page] at [https://www.bigfinish.com bigfinish.com].</ref> To date, it is Pascoe's only contribution to audio-based ''[[Doctor Who]]''.


== Publisher's summary ==
== Publisher's summary ==
A conference of [[lexicographer]]s: bromides in tweed. But the leading expert in the field is found dead by her own hand — and by her hologlyphic assistant. Is he responsible? Does the death fit any conventional definitions? Can the [[Sixth Doctor]] realise who wrote the suicide note and why, exactly, it was riddled with spelling errors?
A conference of [[lexicographer]]s: bromides in [[tweed]]. But the leading expert in the field is found dead by her own hand — and by her [[hologlyph]]ic assistant. Is he responsible? Does the death fit any conventional definitions? Can the [[Sixth Doctor]] realise who wrote the suicide note and why, exactly, it was riddled with spelling errors?


[[Peri Brown|Peri]] should help out, but there's a [[Warren (...ish)|guy]]. Someone who loves language even more than the Doctor. Maybe, she realises, enough to kill for. Or perhaps just enough to ask her out to dinner. Unless, of course, he's already spoken for...
[[Peri Brown|Peri]] should help out, but there's [[Warren (...ish)|a guy]]. Someone who loves language even more than the Doctor. Maybe, she realises, enough to kill for. Or perhaps just enough to ask her out to dinner. Unless, of course, he's already spoken for...


Is it madness? Seeking transcendence in the complete lexicon? Having the right words on the tip of your tongue but never quite knowing when to use them?
Is it madness? Seeking transcendence in the complete lexicon? Having the right words on the tip of your tongue but never quite knowing when to use them?
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== Plot ==
== Plot ==
=== Part 1 ===
An obsessive voice contemplates the word "-sh", which is almost, but not quite, a full word.
The most comprehensive English language dictionary in history, the Lexicon, is nearly complete, and will soon be unveiled before a gathering of delegates. The Doctor and Peri have come to meet an old friend, Professor Osefa, the head of the project and compiler of the Lexicon. Meanwhile the conference's Symposiarch, Robert Cawdrey, has brought in new investors; but this necessitates a change to the Lexicon's preamble. Osefa locks herself into her office to finish this last bit of work; it is doubly frustrating to her, as her hologlyphic amanuensis, or scribe, Book, is stuck on contemplation of a word. The TARDIS arrives in the midst of the preparations, and the Sixth Doctor and Peri emerge; as the Doctor is a great lover of words, the conference is a perfect occasion for him. Nevertheless, he continues to be confounded by Peri's American dialect, and the two bicker over it until they are intercepted by Cawdrey. Cawdrey recognises the Doctor from Osefa's descriptions, and admits them to the conference; Peri goes off alone, tired of the argument, while the Doctor goes with Cawdrey to find Osefa. He has brought her a gift — an original text regarding obscure and preposterous words — which Cawdrey acknowledges as a Time Lord gift. However, upon arrival at the office, they find Osefa dead, apparently by suicide.


Peri goes in search of lunch, and ends up at the campus refectory, where she meets a logophile — a word lover or enthusiast — named Warren. The two hit it off, and play word games, which Peri wins; Warren loses gracefully, and then explains that their game has paid for their meal. Here in the Articulate Worlds, information is currency, and words have value. However, Warren expresses some doubt about the Lexicon project, and indeed all dictionaries; he believes language should be free to evolve naturally, and should not be pinned down to precise definitions. Words, he insists, are alive, and speak through their users — and maybe even speak people into existence. Meanwhile, Book continues to struggle with the confounding word: the word "-ish", indicating imprecision, which to his mind leads to a reduction in meaning — and making things worse, it is even found in the name of the language, ''English''.
=== Part One ===
 
The word "ish"- well, almost a word- is discussed by [[Book (...ish)|Book]]. Professor [[Osefa de Palabra Hftzbrn]] is accosted by a man about a recent paper. She gets inside and summons Book, who she then complains to about changes to the proceedings. [[Cawdrey|A man]] has left a short message for Osefa, who continues editing her speech. Meanwhile, [[Sixth Doctor|the Doctor]] arrives with [[Peri Brown]]. The Doctor explains that the conference they've arrived at is to put together [[the Lexicon]], the largest collection of words and their definitions in existence.
 
The Doctor meets Cawdrey, who organised this event, and Peri claims to be the Doctor's translator. Cawdrey says Osefa has mentioned the Doctor many times. Peri wanders off, ordering lunch, and meets [[Warren (...ish)|Warren]]. The Doctor talks with Cawdrey about the stress on the holders of the conference, and the pair go to Osefa's rooms, but find her dead, apparently by her own hand.
 
Book talks to himself, still trying to work out the word "...ish". Meanwhile, Peri and Warren keep talking, bonding over how difficult academics can be, and the idea that words are meant to be spoken. Warren says words can speak people into existence. The Doctor finds Osefa's suicide note, words mysteriously jumbled. He seems to believe it isn't a suicide. Warren explains that Book is the intelligence of the Lexicon, and that he has no freedom, as well as that they have an "information economy" here. Cawdrey explains to the Doctor that Book is a [[hologlyph]], and the Doctor thinks he's gone rogue. They decide not to call the police about Osefa's death unless they can't find the killer on their own.
 
Warren shows Peri to Book's office, and hacks into his computer, swapping a couple words to get his attention. They hide under the desk as Book comes in. Warren suggests killing Book, and shows himself, only for Book to threaten to kill the pair himself.
 
=== Part Two ===
 
Book malfunctions. The Doctor finds failures from within the computer systems, but can see Book's workspace, which is full of seemingly deliberate mistakes. They're anagrams in fact, which solve to read "Warren", who Cawdrey says is an evil disruptor of all linguistic study. Peri tells Warren to leave Book alone, just as a message comes through from Cawdrey, asking all uninvited visitors to report to the faculty offices. Warren goes to investigate, and Peri talks further to Book, who tells her of the types of words he knows.


Cawdrey scrambles to rearrange the conference schedule and conceal Osefa's death as long as possible. The Doctor examines the crime scene, noting that the room was locked from the inside until Cawdrey unlocked it. However, Osefa's suicide note is unlike her, riddled with errors and a faulty version of her penmanship. Perhaps someone else wrote it — but, who? Suspicion instantly falls on Book, who would have been the last person to see her alive, inasmuch as he is a person — and as a hologlyph, he could materialise inside a locked room. The Doctor sets the computers to locating Book for questioning. Cawdrey questions the idea of foul play, but the Doctor realises he has a personal stake in the matter: an investigation might expose some dubious investments in the project, for which Cawdrey was responsible. Therefore he agrees to investigate without police involvement, on condition that any findings be presented to the authorities; after all, the murderer is still at large.
Cawdrey addresses the visitors, welcoming them to the symposium, and introduces the Doctor. Peri questions Book's ability to understand the words he supposedly "knows", and Book says he "won't tell if you don't". The Doctor finishes his speech with a joke, then returns to Cawdrey, who tells the Doctor that he includes his corporate sponsor's trademarks and brands in the Lexicon, but those trademarks and the like were "eaten up" in the systems failure. The Doctor insists they need to talk to Book, who at that moment is telling Peri that he is having trouble remembering things.


Warren tells Peri his own designs for Book. He wants the amanuensis to rebel against the Lexicon faculty, whom he feels are using Book to restrict the development of the language. He and Peri go to Book's tiny office — as a hologlyph, he requires little space — and Warren meddles with Book's recent work in order to attract his attention. When Book arrives, he is angry, and locks them in, threatening that they may not escape alive.
Cawdrey says that the words that Book, who is a database, stores, come from many sources.
The Doctor examines Osefa's body, noting that the Lexicon is unaffected in the system failures. The Doctor is able to use Osefa's recent memories to create a quasi-hologlyph of her. Book explains to Peri that he sometimes travels to other worlds to collect inactive vocabulary, and that he will never be able to stop collecting words as they're always changing. In his most recent expedition, he went to an unremarkable planet with Osefa. Osefa is describing the same thing to the Doctor and Cawdrey, talking about the culture of the planet.


=== Part 2 ===
Something "collected" Book, he says; something undefined. Something Peri worries was collected into the Lexicon. The Osefa-glyph turns off. Book tells Peri that the Lexicon is supposed to be used by people asking him for them. To make this easier on Book, Osefa came up with an idea: she opened an interface between the real world and the Lexisphere. The Doctor is looking through Osefa's notes, which refer to "LT" many times: Lexical Transcendence. Cawdrey is shocked, as transcendentalism is a "lunatic" fringe theory. The Doctor thinks he'll able to access the Lexisphere, which is essentially Book's mind. Peri is already inside, and suddenly finds herself trapped after hearing Book say "ish".
The Doctor fails to locate Book, but finds that the campus's ordinateurs, or computers, have experienced systems failure due to internal corruption. This has the side effect of allowing him to look into Book's virtual workspace, in which he finds and corrects Warren's alterations. He is able to identify Warren from the work, which disturbs Cawdrey; Cawdrey is familiar with Warren, and claims the young man is devoted to disrupting linguistic endeavours.  This is neither the first nor the largest example of his sabotage, and it may bring down the entire symposium. To stave off disaster, the Doctor goes to entertain the delegates, sending Cawdrey to locate Warren. Cawdrey, meanwhile, is growing more stressed, as the first information lost included necessary financial data on the investors. Once the delegates are pacified, the Doctor turns his attention to the missing Book, and to Osefa's body. Her race has a hippocampus that retains some function even after death, and therefore the Doctor is able to cobble together a device which scans her brain and creates a hologlyphic duplicate of the woman. He intends to ask her what happened.


Book draws back from harming Peri and Warren, and recognises that his behaviour is bizarre. Warren challenges Book to provide definitions for obscure words, hoping to break the hologlyph's rigid thinking patterns, but is cut off by a broadcast from Cawdrey. Cawdrey insists that anyone without a symposium invitation report to the faculty. Warren goes to check out the situation, leaving Peri behind with Book; but she suspects that Warren is hiding something.  Peri talks to Book about his work, and begins to worry that he is, in fact, stressed; perhaps he is overworked, which could strain even a complex computer. He admits that his recent memories are no longer reliable. He agrees with Peri that his task — to accumulate all words and definitions — will never end, nor will it ever be fully accepted by everyone; words, after all, represent knowledge and power. However, this is his purpose; and he never questioned it, until he visited Xenocubis with Osefa. The inhabitants of that world believe that the echoes of the Big Bang created the concept of language itself — an original Word, if you will. As they believe that other languages are fragments of the original word, they collect and preserve them...but one word there was completely inexplicable to Book, and changed him.  Peri realises that Book’s pursuit of words has left him no time to interact with the users of the Lexicon; he explains that he has created a Lexisphere, a virtual interface between the real world and the meaning found in the Lexicon. Its opening was to have been the height of the symposium, but now that may not happen; and Peri realises that the uncertainty that plagues Book may also be in the Lexicon, spelling trouble.
Cawdrey answers the phone to Book's voice whispering "ish", which the entire conference begins chanting.


The Doctor learns from the Osefa hologlyph of the Xenocubis expedition, but is unable to ask about Osefa’'s death, as the hologlyph can't accept it. He switches her off. The Xenocubis notes contain references to L.T., or Lexical Transcendence — a superstition, perhaps, but one that would appeal to Osefa. From this he deduces the existence of the Lexisphere, and realises that Book is probably there. Meanwhile, Book takes Peri to the Lexisphere, which breaks words into their basic phonemes and analyzes their meaning; but he detects a presence inside it. He notes that words in the Lexicon are changing meanings as they speak; Peri realises she is trapped in the Lexisphere as things begin to shake.  The rumbling stops, but Book begins repeating a strange syllable: ''"ish..."''  Meanwhile, Cawdrey denies the Doctor access to the Lexisphere, claiming it will further disturb the conference. However, something is already disturbing it: as they watch, the crowd begins repeating the strange syllable: ''"Ish...Ish..."''
=== Part Three ===


=== Part 3 ===
Warren finds Peri in the Lexisphere, and they escape. Peri finds Book repeating "ish", over and over, faster and faster...


Warren saves Peri from the Lexisphere while Book continues to chant; but his exposure to it changes him, and he claims to feel at home inside its world constructed of words. Peri warns him about the presence inside, and wants to find the Doctor; but when Warren finds that the Doctor and Cawdrey are together, he leaves, unwilling to deal with Cawdrey. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Cawdrey are unaffected; their speech remains normal. Cawdrey identifies Book — who can travel by projection — as the first speaker of the word; but how has this condition spread?  For now, at least, the delegates are physically unharmed. Cawdrey searches for Warren, whom he blames for the situation; everyone else on the campus is infected with the ''ish'', and all communications are jammed, preventing him from summoning help. Moreover, the text in the books in the library is changing, as are the words in Osefa's note. Peri, meanwhile, locates the Doctor, who claims credit for her resistance to the condition; nevertheless he is happy to see her. He theorises that the delegates are trying to puzzle out the meaning of the word, but are becoming more disconnected from all meaning the longer they work at it.
The Doctor tries to figure out why everyone is repeating the word, but his questions are met only with "ish". The Doctor and Cawdrey think it's a technological virus, and Cawdrey thinks Warren is behind this. Peri tells Warren that there's something in the Lexisphere, and he goes back in to investigate. Book talks about the suicide note, which he corrected. He continues glitching. Cawdrey says the entire campus is affected, and pages of textbooks and anything else written are too- there are typos everywhere, and they are becoming nonsense.


Book continues to be obsessed.  He focuses on Osefa's death, and her keynote address, and the word ''"-ish"''. Osefa had planned the address to deal with "word killers", individuals in history who were forced to remove old words from dictionaries due to limited space — a futile pursuit, as words never really die. Stuck in this obsession, Book deflects Warren's attempts to recruit him; Warren wants access to the Lexisphere. Osefa materialises before Book, in hologlyhic form; the hologlyph continues work on the address, touching the topic of lexical transcendentalism. She starts from the idea of pi, which is a transcendental number, not rigidly definable; so what, then, would be a transcendental word?
Cawdrey says Osefa's note is changing. Peri finds the Doctor, and he explains that they're trying to figure out the meaning of the word, and keep repeating it until it becomes meaningless. So, their minds switch off. Warren is in the Lexisphere, and begins to think about "ish", too. Peri tells the Doctor about Warren going back into the Lexisphere. The Doctor suggests thinking of the campus as a multilingual phrasebook. This "virus", if it is a virus, is searching through the book, ignoring languages like architecture and reality and birdsong because those aren't what it's looking for.


Peri updates the Doctor on her adventures, but stops when the sound of birdsong outside stops, then returns.  The Doctor realises the contamination is spreading to other forms of language — such as birdsong — but only those which suit it; languages such as architecture are unaffected thus far.  He traces the situation back to the idea of lexical transcendence; short words can have many meanings, longer words only a few — so what about the longest possible word?  Such a word, the Omniverbum, would have such dense meaning that it could warp reality around it. While Osefa and Book have clearly not found the Omniverbum, perhaps they found a fragment of it: a sentient word of sorts, eating meaning — the ''"ish"''. Cawdrey returns and reports the spread of the infection; the Doctor tells him to shut down the Lexisphere, as the ''ish'' can use it to spread. For their protection, he gives Peri and Cawdrey in-ear translation devices, Babel Masters, which will censor the ''"ish"'' syllable in their hearing.  Cawdrey refuses to consider that the Doctor could be right, leaving Peri to work alone on the Lexisphere; however, the ''ish'' begins to manipulate words on the screen, trying to get to them in a non-verbal manner.
Book talks to the hologlyph version of Osefa, who is talking about lexical transcendentalism: the search for the mythical longest word in the cosmos. One that is very long and thus has no known meaning. The Doctor says such a word would cause meaning itself to collapse. The Doctor thinks Book found a surviving fragment of this word, this "[[Omniverbum]]", and this fragment is "the ish". Cawdrey reappears, and the Doctor gives him a sort of earpiece that filters out instances of the ish, so they don't start repeating it like everyone else. The Doctor goes to find Book. Cawdrey refuses to believe that a word can be alive, and Peri tries to shut down the lexisphere. On the monitors appear the word "ish", and yet they're still not infected.


The Doctor meets Book in Osefa's office. Book tells him that Osefa's search for the ultimate, transcendent meaning revealed only hollowness. Warren arrives in a state of rapture, and forces Book to explain what happened here: Book infected Osefa with the ''ish'', and she killed herself rather than watch all her knowledge degrade into babble. Warren plans to use Book to spread the ''ish'' across the Articulate worlds — and once babble is given power over the minds that it infects, he will reveal the Omniverbum and destroy all language forever.
The Doctor returns to "where it really all started", and Book is there. He tells the Doctor that he found out nothing about the omniverbum, and that language is hollow and pointless. It was this realisation that drove Osefa to suicide. Meanwhile, the Osefa hologlyph is trying to work, and then Book appears. He's saying "ish", and Osefa's notes change. Warren appears, telling the Doctor that the ish is the future. Peri tries to get Cawdrey to help her, but he is panicking. Peri calms him down. Warren insists that people are just playing with "ish", that freedom would come with the destruction of language: with the omniverbum.


=== Part 4 ===
=== Part Four ===


Osefa appears and distracts Warren long enough for the Doctor and Book to escape. He lets them go, and explains his plan to Osefa — who then gives him a revelation about himself. Meanwhile Book takes the Doctor to his office, and reveals his remote projectors, which are necessary for Book to leave the campus.  The Doctor reluctantly destroys them to hinder Warren's efforts. Book reveals that he is in fact infected, but that he has the ability to disassociate himself from portions of the Lexisphere's content; he has been combining this ability with a focus on the widely-varying meanings of ''ish'' in order to keep himself sane. The Doctor realises that Warren and the ''ish'' have different agendas; Warren wants to spread it everywhere, but the ''ish'' has voluntarily confined itself to the campus thus far. It most likely wants the Lexicon. Book blames himself, but the Doctor assures him that he is not to blame; he was doing his job, and was taken advantage of. They confirm that they ''ish'' is a fragment of the Omniverbum, a living syllable that consumes meaning until only babble is left. The Lexicon gave it a wealth of sustenance, but it bided its time until the various delegates — linguists, all — arrived, ready to be consumed.  Now it can only be fought in the Lexisphere.
The Doctor and Book escape while Warren meets hologlyph Osefa. The Doctor begins destroying remote projectors, as they're essential to Warren's plan. Book seems able to stay sane as long as he stays away from the word "ish". Peri takes out her earpiece, realising that they were getting infected anyway. The Doctor figures out that the ish hasn't left campus because it wants Book. It wants the Lexicon. The Doctor thinks rewriting the Lexicon will save them.


Realising they are already infected, Peri and Cawdrey remove their Babel Masters. Knowing time is short, Cawdrey explains that Warren — unknown to himself — is a hologlyph, which was programmed by Cawdrey and connected to the Lexisphere just as Book is.  With his built-in love of words, he was designed to sabotage the efforts of the Lexicon's competitors; but Warren's capacity for destruction was too great, and he has harmed the Lexicon as well. However, he must be prevented from knowing the truth about himself; if he learns it, he will not need Book to spread the ''ish''. However, it's too late; as Cawdrey shuts down the Lexisphere, Warren materialises, having learned the truth from the Osefa hologlyph. He cannot be reasoned with, and Peri begins to fall to the ''ish''.  Warren reveals that Osefa knew the truth all along, but allowed it as a mark of pity toward Cawdrey, whom she considered incompetent; this breaks Cawdrey's sanity, and he succumbs fully to the ''ish''. However, the Doctor arrives and draws Peri back to Sanity. The Doctor bluffs Warren into believing he is having a seizure, temporarily destabilizing him and giving Peri time to explain what has happened.  Warren recovers, and panics when he realises the ''ish'' is deserting him.
Warren tries to convince Osefa that the "ish" is the natural conclusion of the work of the Lexicon. Cawdrey reveals to Peri that Warren is a hologlyph, an appendix. He's connected to the lexisphere, and he was programmed by Cawdrey to be interested in language, which led him to many different conferences, studying words. Peri and Cawdrey keep trying to shut the lexisphere down. Osefa decides to tell a story instead of her usual speech- a story about the Doctor. Book suggests that the omniverbum is the length of the universe, only ending when the universe dies, and the Doctor replies that the omniverbum is drawing in other words. The conference-goers are it's snack, and Book is it's main course.


The Doctor offers himself as a new host to the ''ish'', in the process defending English as the most powerful language in the Universe. The ''ish'' reveals it wants to return home, as it were — to the Omniverbum. The Doctor offers to help it do so if it will release the delegates, but it expels him from the Lexisphere. He finds Peri repeating the syllable and Cawdrey raving madly while Warren begs the ''ish'' to return; it seems all is lost.
Warren appears to Peri and Cawdrey. Peri begins succumbing to the ish, and Warren tells Cawdrey that Osefa knew about Warren, but let him keep going, knowing that Cawdrey was too useless to help otherwise. Osefa speaks about the Doctor's ability to defeat evil using language, but speculates that he may fail when faced with something that lived in language. The Doctor arrives and destabilises Warren by changing the language he runs on, with the ish abandoning him. Looking for a new host, the ish enters the Doctor's mind.


Osefa's hologlyph appears and addresses the delegates; but instead of its planned speech, it talks about the Doctor, a man who uses speech as his primary defence against evil.  But, what if that man could not talk himself out of a threat?  What if words were the enemy?  She uses this to defend the necessity of language, for without it, there is nothing.  She then vanishes, leaving Book despairing.
The ish seems to be after the omniverbum- its home. The Doctor tries to convince the ish to let him return it back to where Book collected it from, but it doesn't agree. Peri is becoming infected too, and now the Doctor is the only one safe. Book talks to Osefa, or the closest definition he has- her hologlyph. The Doctor realises that the ish feeds on one word at a time, so it wouldn't know what to choose if they give it conflicting alternatives- American versus English words. The ish begins to lose control. Peri, Cawdrey, and Warren are no longer under the ish's control.


The Doctor despairs as well...until Peri begins to spout her American idioms.  He realises this may be a key; if they can give the ''ish'' conflicting words for the same meaning, it will become confused.  With Peri, he begins shouting out English words, while Peri shouts their American counterparts.  Unable to bear it, the ''ish'' retreats to the Lexisphere, and the Doctor and Peri escape it as the Omniverbum — with the rumbling they heard before — approaches. Warren remains behind, and the ''ish'' chooses him as its host in order to return home. However, he intends instead to pull the Omniverbum into the real world, completing his plan to destroy language and meaning and, by extension, reality. To drive the Omniverbum back, the Doctor knows they must strike it with the full force of the English language, which — due to its durability and evolution — is more powerful than even the longest world.  Book disassociates himself from the full mass of the Lexicon, which overloads the Lexisphere with meaning, forcing the Omniverbum back to the conceptual space from which it came. It takes the ''ish'', and Warren, with it.
The omniverbum is breaking through. They run. Warren dematerialises, desperate to make his plan succeed: to bring the omniverbum back. The English language is too vast, though, vaster than the omniverbum, so the Doctor asks Book to use the Lexicon to stop the omniverbum, which succeeds, but destroys the Lexicon by doing so. The conference-goers begins returning to sanity. The ish isn't alive anymore, not properly. Warren has been taken by the ish, and Cawdrey cannot speak, ever again.


In the aftermath, the delegates recover; but Cawdrey never will, for his capacity for language is gone.  The Lexicon, too, is gone, and the Lexisphere is destroyed, but the faculty have retained Book and Osefa to create a new dictionary...on paper.  The Doctor encourages them, and warns them about other sentient words, and promises to return and check on them.  With Peri, he returns to the TARDIS, and makes an exit.
Osefa has returned as her hologlyph is here to stay, and she and Book have a job lined up. They have to start again, but slower, without the technology they had before. The Doctor and Peri depart.
[[File:DWM-321_ISH.jpg|thumb|Illustration preview by [[Martin Geraghty]] in DWM 321]]


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
Line 81: Line 98:
* [[Book (...ish)|Book]] — [[Moray Treadwell]]
* [[Book (...ish)|Book]] — [[Moray Treadwell]]
* Professor [[Osefa de Palabra Hftzbrn]] — [[Marie Collett]]
* Professor [[Osefa de Palabra Hftzbrn]] — [[Marie Collett]]
* [[Warren (...ish)|Warren]] — [[Chris Eley]]
* Symposiarch [[Cawdrey]] — [[Oliver Hume]]
* Symposiarch [[Cawdrey]] — [[Oliver Hume]]
* [[Warren (...ish)|Warren]] — [[Chris Eley]]
* [[Delegate (...ish)|Annoying Delegate]]/[[Robot waiter (...ish)|Robot Waiter]] — [[Nicholas Briggs]]
 
== Worldbuilding ==
 
=== Technology ===
* The Doctor uses [[Transgalactic Babel Masters]] to block the word "ish" from being spoken.
 
=== References ===
* Cawdrey mentions that Warren "spoonerised" the newsletter of the proper speaking society. Spoonerising something refers to swapping the first letters of two words, after the Oxford don Spooner, who famously often got his letters mixed up. For example, a spoonerism of "You have missed all my history lectures" is "You have hissed all my mystery lectures" {{W|Spoonerism}}.
* Warren calls the Doctor the man with the "coat of many colours", referencing [[Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat]] {{W|Joseph_and_the_Amazing_Technicolor_Dreamcoat}}.
 
=== Language ===
 
* English is the language of [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] and [[Shakespeare]]
* The Doctor thinks little of [[Merriam Webster]]


== References ==
=== People ===
=== Books ===
* Book is a [[Hologlyph]]. His function is to collect, present and arrange linguistic data from [[dictionary|dictionaries]].


=== Colleges and universities ===
* Peri says her major in college is botany. Maybe.
* The conference held at a university is a collection of Linguistics, Lexicologists, and Logomaniacs, with multiworld attendees including ABCDarians and Xenophilologists.
* Osefa's species has an unusually strong hippocampus which can recall recent memories, even after death, for some time.


=== Languages ===
== Gallery ==
* The [[Omniverbum]] is the longest word in the universe known to exist.
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true" widths="250">
* The [[Ish]] is an affix to this word, and is a sentient meme, perhaps like the [[Bad Wolf meme]] or the [[Bad Wolf (entity)|Bad Wolf]] itself.
ish cover.jpg|Original CD cover
* The Doctor says he can communicate via the language of [[Delphon]]; it's a silent language expressed using one's eyebrows.
DWM-321_ISH.jpg|Illustration preview by [[Martin Geraghty]] in [[DWM 321]]
</gallery>


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* The Doctor makes an aborted reference to an encyclopaedia that was too heavy to lift that "ran from DAL to...". This is a nod to [[Terry Nation]]'s apocryphal claim that the name of the [[Dalek]]s was inspired by an encyclopaedia volume running from DAL to LEK.
* The Doctor makes an aborted reference to an encyclopaedia that was too heavy to lift that "ran from DAL to--", a nod to [[Terry Nation]]'s apocryphal claim that the name of the [[Dalek]]s was inspired by an encyclopaedia volume running from DAL to LEK.
* This episode marks the first instance of the Doctor swearing. In Part 3, he says "Shit" to Peri to test whether the word blocking machinery works. He says this word later in the episode, but the word blocking machinery blocks it from hearing.
* This audio drama was recorded on [[6 March (production)|6]] and [[8 March (production)|8 March]] [[2002 (production)|2002]] at [[the Moat Studios]].<ref name=":0" />
* This audio drama was recorded on [[6 March (production)|6]] and [[8 March (production)|8 March]] 2002 at [[The Moat Studios]].
* This story is set between ''[[Revelation of the Daleks (TV story)|Revelation of the Daleks]]'' and ''[[The Trial of a Time Lord (TV story)|The Trial of a Time Lord]]''.<ref name=":0" />
** This story's Big Finish page does not state a chronological placement in relation to other Big Finish stories, as the sentence for it has been left unfinished.<ref name=":0" /> However, the production code of this story being 6Z/B<ref>'Production credits' tab of [https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-ish-201 the official ''...Ish'' page] at [https://www.bigfinish.com bigfinish.com].</ref> would indicate a setting after ''[[Whispers of Terror (audio story)|Whispers of Terror]]'', its production code being 6Z/A,<ref>'Production credits' tab of [https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-whispers-of-terror-621 the official ''Whispers of Terror'' page] at [https://www.bigfinish.com bigfinish.com].</ref> and before ''[[The Reaping (audio story)|The Reaping]]'', its production code being 6Z/C.<ref>'Production credits' tab of [https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-reaping-252 the official ''The Reaping'' page] at [https://www.bigfinish.com bigfinish.com].</ref>
* In Part 2, while the Doctor is addressing the symposium, he remarks, "And, he looked at me and said: 'Sausage? ''Sausage?!''<nowiki/>'" A reference to the third episode of ''Blackadder the Third,'' "Ink and Incapability", which features Dr Samuel Johnson, the progenitor of the original dictionary. In the original episode, the exclamation comes at his discovery that he's left the word "sausage" out of his final edition.
* The processing sounds heard in Part 2, while Peri is talking with Book, contain the distinctive bootup noise of the titular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As heard on both radio and seen on television.
* This story is set between ''[[Revelation of the Daleks (TV story)|Revelation of the Daleks]]'' and ''[[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|The Trial of a Time Lord]]''.
* This story was originally released on CD. It is now available as a download, as well as to stream on Spotify.


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
Line 106: Line 142:


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{bigfinish|releases/v/-ish-201|...ish}}; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.
{{bigfinish|releases/v/-ish-201|...ish}}; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.
{{dwrefguide|who_bf35.htm|...ish}}
{{dwrefguide|who_bf35.htm|...ish}}
* {{tetrap|6/ish.html|...ish}}[[...ish|'''<nowiki/>''']]
{{tetrap|6/ish.html|...ish}}


{{BFA monthly}}
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}{{BFA monthly}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{TitleSort}}
[[Category:Sixth Doctor audio stories]]
[[ru:...ish]]
[[Category:Doctor Who monthly audio stories]]
 
[[Category:2002 audio stories]]
[[Category:Sixth Doctor Main Range audio stories]]
[[Category:2002 Main Range audio stories]]
[[Category:Audio stories that use Delia Derbyshire's 2nd theme]]
[[Category:Audio stories that use Delia Derbyshire's 2nd theme]]

Latest revision as of 23:12, 17 November 2024

RealWorld.png

audio stub
▶︎
Spotify

...ish was the thirty-fifth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Phil Pascoe and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

This was the second audio story to feature this line up of companion and Doctor. Pascoe's story idea was picked up after he pitched it to them during one of their 'open door days', where they allowed unsolicited stories to be pitched.[1] To date, it is Pascoe's only contribution to audio-based Doctor Who.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

A conference of lexicographers: bromides in tweed. But the leading expert in the field is found dead by her own hand — and by her hologlyphic assistant. Is he responsible? Does the death fit any conventional definitions? Can the Sixth Doctor realise who wrote the suicide note and why, exactly, it was riddled with spelling errors?

Peri should help out, but there's a guy. Someone who loves language even more than the Doctor. Maybe, she realises, enough to kill for. Or perhaps just enough to ask her out to dinner. Unless, of course, he's already spoken for...

Is it madness? Seeking transcendence in the complete lexicon? Having the right words on the tip of your tongue but never quite knowing when to use them?

If so, how?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part One[[edit] | [edit source]]

The word "ish"- well, almost a word- is discussed by Book. Professor Osefa de Palabra Hftzbrn is accosted by a man about a recent paper. She gets inside and summons Book, who she then complains to about changes to the proceedings. A man has left a short message for Osefa, who continues editing her speech. Meanwhile, the Doctor arrives with Peri Brown. The Doctor explains that the conference they've arrived at is to put together the Lexicon, the largest collection of words and their definitions in existence.

The Doctor meets Cawdrey, who organised this event, and Peri claims to be the Doctor's translator. Cawdrey says Osefa has mentioned the Doctor many times. Peri wanders off, ordering lunch, and meets Warren. The Doctor talks with Cawdrey about the stress on the holders of the conference, and the pair go to Osefa's rooms, but find her dead, apparently by her own hand.

Book talks to himself, still trying to work out the word "...ish". Meanwhile, Peri and Warren keep talking, bonding over how difficult academics can be, and the idea that words are meant to be spoken. Warren says words can speak people into existence. The Doctor finds Osefa's suicide note, words mysteriously jumbled. He seems to believe it isn't a suicide. Warren explains that Book is the intelligence of the Lexicon, and that he has no freedom, as well as that they have an "information economy" here. Cawdrey explains to the Doctor that Book is a hologlyph, and the Doctor thinks he's gone rogue. They decide not to call the police about Osefa's death unless they can't find the killer on their own.

Warren shows Peri to Book's office, and hacks into his computer, swapping a couple words to get his attention. They hide under the desk as Book comes in. Warren suggests killing Book, and shows himself, only for Book to threaten to kill the pair himself.

Part Two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Book malfunctions. The Doctor finds failures from within the computer systems, but can see Book's workspace, which is full of seemingly deliberate mistakes. They're anagrams in fact, which solve to read "Warren", who Cawdrey says is an evil disruptor of all linguistic study. Peri tells Warren to leave Book alone, just as a message comes through from Cawdrey, asking all uninvited visitors to report to the faculty offices. Warren goes to investigate, and Peri talks further to Book, who tells her of the types of words he knows.

Cawdrey addresses the visitors, welcoming them to the symposium, and introduces the Doctor. Peri questions Book's ability to understand the words he supposedly "knows", and Book says he "won't tell if you don't". The Doctor finishes his speech with a joke, then returns to Cawdrey, who tells the Doctor that he includes his corporate sponsor's trademarks and brands in the Lexicon, but those trademarks and the like were "eaten up" in the systems failure. The Doctor insists they need to talk to Book, who at that moment is telling Peri that he is having trouble remembering things.

Cawdrey says that the words that Book, who is a database, stores, come from many sources. The Doctor examines Osefa's body, noting that the Lexicon is unaffected in the system failures. The Doctor is able to use Osefa's recent memories to create a quasi-hologlyph of her. Book explains to Peri that he sometimes travels to other worlds to collect inactive vocabulary, and that he will never be able to stop collecting words as they're always changing. In his most recent expedition, he went to an unremarkable planet with Osefa. Osefa is describing the same thing to the Doctor and Cawdrey, talking about the culture of the planet.

Something "collected" Book, he says; something undefined. Something Peri worries was collected into the Lexicon. The Osefa-glyph turns off. Book tells Peri that the Lexicon is supposed to be used by people asking him for them. To make this easier on Book, Osefa came up with an idea: she opened an interface between the real world and the Lexisphere. The Doctor is looking through Osefa's notes, which refer to "LT" many times: Lexical Transcendence. Cawdrey is shocked, as transcendentalism is a "lunatic" fringe theory. The Doctor thinks he'll able to access the Lexisphere, which is essentially Book's mind. Peri is already inside, and suddenly finds herself trapped after hearing Book say "ish".

Cawdrey answers the phone to Book's voice whispering "ish", which the entire conference begins chanting.

Part Three[[edit] | [edit source]]

Warren finds Peri in the Lexisphere, and they escape. Peri finds Book repeating "ish", over and over, faster and faster...

The Doctor tries to figure out why everyone is repeating the word, but his questions are met only with "ish". The Doctor and Cawdrey think it's a technological virus, and Cawdrey thinks Warren is behind this. Peri tells Warren that there's something in the Lexisphere, and he goes back in to investigate. Book talks about the suicide note, which he corrected. He continues glitching. Cawdrey says the entire campus is affected, and pages of textbooks and anything else written are too- there are typos everywhere, and they are becoming nonsense.

Cawdrey says Osefa's note is changing. Peri finds the Doctor, and he explains that they're trying to figure out the meaning of the word, and keep repeating it until it becomes meaningless. So, their minds switch off. Warren is in the Lexisphere, and begins to think about "ish", too. Peri tells the Doctor about Warren going back into the Lexisphere. The Doctor suggests thinking of the campus as a multilingual phrasebook. This "virus", if it is a virus, is searching through the book, ignoring languages like architecture and reality and birdsong because those aren't what it's looking for.

Book talks to the hologlyph version of Osefa, who is talking about lexical transcendentalism: the search for the mythical longest word in the cosmos. One that is very long and thus has no known meaning. The Doctor says such a word would cause meaning itself to collapse. The Doctor thinks Book found a surviving fragment of this word, this "Omniverbum", and this fragment is "the ish". Cawdrey reappears, and the Doctor gives him a sort of earpiece that filters out instances of the ish, so they don't start repeating it like everyone else. The Doctor goes to find Book. Cawdrey refuses to believe that a word can be alive, and Peri tries to shut down the lexisphere. On the monitors appear the word "ish", and yet they're still not infected.

The Doctor returns to "where it really all started", and Book is there. He tells the Doctor that he found out nothing about the omniverbum, and that language is hollow and pointless. It was this realisation that drove Osefa to suicide. Meanwhile, the Osefa hologlyph is trying to work, and then Book appears. He's saying "ish", and Osefa's notes change. Warren appears, telling the Doctor that the ish is the future. Peri tries to get Cawdrey to help her, but he is panicking. Peri calms him down. Warren insists that people are just playing with "ish", that freedom would come with the destruction of language: with the omniverbum.

Part Four[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor and Book escape while Warren meets hologlyph Osefa. The Doctor begins destroying remote projectors, as they're essential to Warren's plan. Book seems able to stay sane as long as he stays away from the word "ish". Peri takes out her earpiece, realising that they were getting infected anyway. The Doctor figures out that the ish hasn't left campus because it wants Book. It wants the Lexicon. The Doctor thinks rewriting the Lexicon will save them.

Warren tries to convince Osefa that the "ish" is the natural conclusion of the work of the Lexicon. Cawdrey reveals to Peri that Warren is a hologlyph, an appendix. He's connected to the lexisphere, and he was programmed by Cawdrey to be interested in language, which led him to many different conferences, studying words. Peri and Cawdrey keep trying to shut the lexisphere down. Osefa decides to tell a story instead of her usual speech- a story about the Doctor. Book suggests that the omniverbum is the length of the universe, only ending when the universe dies, and the Doctor replies that the omniverbum is drawing in other words. The conference-goers are it's snack, and Book is it's main course.

Warren appears to Peri and Cawdrey. Peri begins succumbing to the ish, and Warren tells Cawdrey that Osefa knew about Warren, but let him keep going, knowing that Cawdrey was too useless to help otherwise. Osefa speaks about the Doctor's ability to defeat evil using language, but speculates that he may fail when faced with something that lived in language. The Doctor arrives and destabilises Warren by changing the language he runs on, with the ish abandoning him. Looking for a new host, the ish enters the Doctor's mind.

The ish seems to be after the omniverbum- its home. The Doctor tries to convince the ish to let him return it back to where Book collected it from, but it doesn't agree. Peri is becoming infected too, and now the Doctor is the only one safe. Book talks to Osefa, or the closest definition he has- her hologlyph. The Doctor realises that the ish feeds on one word at a time, so it wouldn't know what to choose if they give it conflicting alternatives- American versus English words. The ish begins to lose control. Peri, Cawdrey, and Warren are no longer under the ish's control.

The omniverbum is breaking through. They run. Warren dematerialises, desperate to make his plan succeed: to bring the omniverbum back. The English language is too vast, though, vaster than the omniverbum, so the Doctor asks Book to use the Lexicon to stop the omniverbum, which succeeds, but destroys the Lexicon by doing so. The conference-goers begins returning to sanity. The ish isn't alive anymore, not properly. Warren has been taken by the ish, and Cawdrey cannot speak, ever again.

Osefa has returned as her hologlyph is here to stay, and she and Book have a job lined up. They have to start again, but slower, without the technology they had before. The Doctor and Peri depart.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

References[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Cawdrey mentions that Warren "spoonerised" the newsletter of the proper speaking society. Spoonerising something refers to swapping the first letters of two words, after the Oxford don Spooner, who famously often got his letters mixed up. For example, a spoonerism of "You have missed all my history lectures" is "You have hissed all my mystery lectures" Spoonerism.
  • Warren calls the Doctor the man with the "coat of many colours", referencing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Joseph_and_the_Amazing_Technicolor_Dreamcoat.

Language[[edit] | [edit source]]

People[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Peri says her major in college is botany. Maybe.
  • Osefa's species has an unusually strong hippocampus which can recall recent memories, even after death, for some time.

Gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor makes an aborted reference to an encyclopaedia that was too heavy to lift that "ran from DAL to--", a nod to Terry Nation's apocryphal claim that the name of the Daleks was inspired by an encyclopaedia volume running from DAL to LEK.
  • This audio drama was recorded on 6 and 8 March 2002 at the Moat Studios.[1]
  • This story is set between Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord.[1]
    • This story's Big Finish page does not state a chronological placement in relation to other Big Finish stories, as the sentence for it has been left unfinished.[1] However, the production code of this story being 6Z/B[2] would indicate a setting after Whispers of Terror, its production code being 6Z/A,[3] and before The Reaping, its production code being 6Z/C.[4]
  • In Part 2, while the Doctor is addressing the symposium, he remarks, "And, he looked at me and said: 'Sausage? Sausage?!'" A reference to the third episode of Blackadder the Third, "Ink and Incapability", which features Dr Samuel Johnson, the progenitor of the original dictionary. In the original episode, the exclamation comes at his discovery that he's left the word "sausage" out of his final edition.
  • The processing sounds heard in Part 2, while Peri is talking with Book, contain the distinctive bootup noise of the titular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As heard on both radio and seen on television.
  • This story is set between Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord.
  • This story was originally released on CD. It is now available as a download, as well as to stream on Spotify.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 'Backstage' tab of the official ...Ish page at bigfinish.com.
  2. ↑ 'Production credits' tab of the official ...Ish page at bigfinish.com.
  3. ↑ 'Production credits' tab of the official Whispers of Terror page at bigfinish.com.
  4. ↑ 'Production credits' tab of the official The Reaping page at bigfinish.com.
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