SHORT TRIPS, VOLUME 3
Following on from its first segment, Short Trips (Volume 3) from Big Finish continues with a 3-minute interlude, again narrated/voiced by Nicholas Briggs. The 6th Doctor (with Peri) interact with the android that stops the Doctor from opening the door. The Doctor uses word play and logic to get the android to deactivate, and then goes through the door… and he falls…
Briggs is more successful with the 6th Doctor’s voice and, although this is a very short segment, the Doctor does what you’d expect the 6th Doctor to do. Peri has little to no input.
Pop-Up by Dave Curran is the next main story and it sees the 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant leaving some delegates behind them, and the Doctor remarking on how advertising has taken over. There are posters advertising things everywhere, with miniature robots pasting new adverts over old ones when the old ones are barely a few minutes old. Advertising overload.
They find the TARDIS papered in layers upon layers of advertising posters. The Doctor fights his way through to the TARDIS door, as Jo sees one of the mini robots damaged in the floor. She picks it up and takes it with her to a room inside the TARDIS whereby she’s able to fix it. The robot instantly proceeds to connect to an old UNIT computer and starts displaying an endless stream of adverts. It takes the Doctor’s efforts to shut it down.
An old food dispenser fires up and starts dispensing toast with advertising messages on it. Before the Doctor has chance to stop it, the advertising program works its way from computer to computer until it reaches the TARDIS console. Now the main screen is showing nothing except an endless stream of adverts. It takes all of the Doctor’s guile to clear out the advertising “virus” before Jo discovers something that may have saved him all of that trouble in the first place.
This 15-minute story is an amusing insight into how advertising is taking over in all aspects of life. We see it today, when it’s not yet quite as bad as the situations faced by the Doctor and Jo. The final pun is an amusing way to finish the story.
A light piece with an underlying message. Katy Manning does fairly well with the 3rd Doctor’s voice, and with “young Jo” being sufficiently different from Manning’s voice that’s doing the reading.
You must be logged in to post a comment.