Gobbledegook (audio story)
Gobbledegook was the fourth audiobook released in the Interludes series. It was released as a bonus download with the audio anthology Conflicts of Interest. It was written by Frazer Lee and featured the Fifth Doctor.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Chief librarian Velar's beloved books are being returned with their text completely garbled at planet Batear's largest library. Batearian books are living things, organically linked via the ancient cave system where they are shelved. Unless Velar's old friend the Doctor can detect a pattern in the chaos, Batear's entire cultural history will become gobbledegook!
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Having left his job as High Ambassador at the Batearian Embassy, Velar is working at the library as chief librarian and notices that several books have, to various degrees, had their text replaced with nonsense. He tries to show the Doctor, who has changed his face since they last met, when he unexpectedly arrives in his TARDIS, but he finds that the text has returned to normal. The two old friends catch up and the Doctor explains that his ship detected unusual readings on the way to Earth and materialised on Batearia of its own accord.
Several students tell Velar that the books they need are not on the shelves despite the system saying otherwise, leading Velar and the Doctor to go in search of them; on the way, Velar tells the Doctor about how Batearian books and their shelves are living things and connected to an intellect. They locate the books by index number, but they are filled with gobbledegook and Velar worries that the history of the Batearians would be entirely lost if it were to spread. The Doctor notices that the illustrations, including photographs and diagrams, remain unchanged aside from any text depicted, confirming his belief that the phenomenon is caused by a word virus.
The Doctor and Velar enlist the help of the students in finding all of the affected books. Once a number of them are gathered, the text moves across the books and spells out a message: "we are the Thewth". The Thewth have lost their language, memory and culture and the Doctor has the students transcribe the Thewth's alphabet, allowing them to remember and become whole once more. The books are restored and the Thewth depart, after which Velar leads the Doctor back to the TARDIS and joins him for one more adventure.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Books in the library include:
- Zeitgeist of the Arts, the go-to introductory text for all of the university's art programmes.
- Light and Shadow in Form and Practice.
- Velar wears pince-nez.
- Velar once holidayed at the Bay of Stars. He saw stonegulls there.
- Velar enjoys baking.
- Velar lives in a burrow.
- Velar felt survivor's guilt after the war with Earth.
- The Doctor and Velar drink tea.
- Velar does not know what a jigsaw is.
- Helor was the first saint of Batearia.
- Favar IV was a politician.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
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- The word "arbrax", seen on this story's textless cover, is a reference to Twitter user Arbrax, a friend of cover artist Rafe Wallbank's.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The word "facdocksparation", seen on this story's cover, would go on to feature in the novella PROSE: {{esquivalience}} [+]Loading...["esquivalience (novel)","'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000005-QINU`\"'"]. Although conspicuously reminiscent of a mangling of the name "Faction Paradox", it was therein properly defined as "a word referring to the decay of documents or other forms of data due to an unnatural change in their history".
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