Pest Control (audio story)

Pest Control
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Donna Noble
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::BBC Audio]]
Writer:	Peter Anghelides
Director:	uncredited
Producer:	Kate Thomas
Release details
Release number:	1
Release date:	8 May 2008
Format:	2 parts on 2 CDs
Production code:	na
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-405-67819-3

Pest Control is a made-for-audio Tenth Doctor story, written by Peter Anghelides and produced for BBC Audio, with a release occurring in the spring of 2008.

Read by David Tennant, the story is released under the same format as the BBC Books Tenth Doctor Adventures book series and their associated audio book adaptations, but was released exclusively to audio. The story features the character of Donna Noble, who makes her first BBC Books appearance in Pest Control, months prior to the release of her first adventures in print.

Plot

The Doctor and Donna encounter a group of soldiers fighting a war against a race of centaurs, a war complicated by the emergence of parasitic insect creatures and a giant exterminating robot.

References

• The Doctor and Donna briefly adopt the aliaes of Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk, respectively, among several other references to Star Trek. The Ninth Doctor was briefly dubbed Mr. Spock in DW: The Empty Child.
• The Doctor knows the sport of free running, and it's indicated that he was taught the extreme sport in the 1980s by its foremost innovator, Sebastien Foucan. However, the date given is likely incorrect as Foucan was only born in 1974 and did not rise to fame with free running until the 1990s.
• The Doctor is described as riding a motorbike-like vehicle; he also wrote a motorbike in The Idiot's Lantern.

Continuity

• There is nothing overt to suggest where during Donna's travels with the Doctor this takes place. Presumably it takes place prior to Turn Left and probably after Planet of the Ood as that episode detailed Donna's first visit to another planet. Donna also thinks about all the death she's seen and asks if it has hardened her, suggesting she has been travelling with the Doctor for awhile.
• The Doctor and Donna once again are forced to reiterate that they are not a couple, as they do frequently in the TV series proper.
• The Doctor references Donna's "extensive wardrobe", a reference to the copious amount of baggage she initially brought with her (DW: Partners in Crime).

Behind the scenes

• The liner notes erroneously credit Murray Gold with composing the Doctor Who theme music, instead of Ron Grainer; although Pest Control clearly takes place after the events of Partners in Crime, the theme arrangement from the 2005-2007 seasons is used instead of the 2008 season arrangement.