...ish (audio story)
...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. To date, it is Pascoe's only contribution to audio-based Doctor Who.
Publisher's summary
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
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor — Colin Baker
- Peri Brown — Nicola Bryant
- Book — Moray Treadwell
- Professor Osefa de Palabra Hftzbrn — Marie Collett
- Warren — Chris Eley
- Symposiarch Cawdrey — Oliver Hume
- Annoying Delegate/Robot Waiter — Nicholas Briggs
References
to be added
Notes
- 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 episode marks the first audio 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 and 8 March 2002 at The Moat Studios.
- 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.
Continuity
- Peri refers to her botany course and her stepfather Howard Foster. (TV: Planet of Fire)
- The Third Doctor demonstrated the Delphon eyebrow language to Liz Shaw when they first met, saying, "Hello". This took place soon after he had finished regenerating and was testing out his new eyebrows. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
External links
- Official ...ish page at bigfinish.com; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.
- ...ish at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for ...ish at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
