Big Finish Doctor Who/Recap/S2/E02 Max Warp/NEDA

The Doctor and Lucie are in the audience of Top Gear In Space, here called "Max Warp". The Doctor squees happily over all the cool spaceships and the show's "Funky Board". Lucie thinks that he's a rubbish date with a spaceship fetish, that the TARDIS is a glorified shed anyway, and that Space Jeremy Clarkson (here called Geffory Vantage) is definitely too old and balding to be wearing tight jeans.

Things quickly take a turn for the worse, however, when Space Richard Hammond (here called "The Ferret") violently crashes his space ship and dies live on air. Space Clarkson and Space James May (named O'Reilly) are horrified, but Space Clarkson immediately segues into a rant about how any ship produced by the Kith can be expected to explode. Space May reminds him to stay politically correct, but Space Clarkson won't have it.

Equally horrified is the local president Varlon, whose peace talks with the Kith after a long war were going so well until now. She asks her spin-droid for advice on a media spin. The droid has mysteriously been replaced, and the new model advises her that her career may be over if she doesn't act quickly.

The Doctor and Lucie investigate. They meet the security guard (who saw no activity), the president (who's worried about her job and relies entirely on the spin-droids now), and the Kith Ambassador (a sentient sponge). They also get drugged and kidnapped and shoved into a simulation of a crashing space ship for a bit, which rather confuses them.

Lucie pretends that the studio has ordered "Max Warp" to include her on the show from now on. Space Clarkson instantly hates her, mainly because she's a woman and not nearly dumb enough to have audience appeal. He's also a hardened war veteran and still grumbly about there suddenly being peace with the Kith. Space May, however, likes Lucie. A lot. A whole lot. And wants to spend nice long evenings with her talking about space ship engines. They tell her that Space Hammond was also ordered to join the show by the studio, just a few months ago.

When the Kith Ambassador escapes an assassination attempt, the Kith warships mobilise around the planet. The Ambassador's ship is destroyed with him in it. The peace seems to have been shattered, but president Varlon makes a swift decision to finally ignore her spin-droid and just offer her help and resources to the wounded Kith, instead of mobilising her own troops in retaliation.

The Doctor gives The Summation. First of all, Space Clarkson was behind it all, because he wanted the war to continue. Space Hammond never died in that crash -- he was inside the spin-droid suit. Because he was a Kith spy all along and had the space ship on remote control. (The odd simulation was supposed to be a somewhat rubbish clue to the Doctor, which would help expose Space Clarkson.) And the Kith Ambassador is safe and sound, because the Doctor realised what was going on just in time and helped him to safety. With all that out of the way, the relations between the two species improve dramatically.

"Max Warp" loses its main host, Space May takes over, and the whole thing gets re-tooled into a very dull show that's just about space ship engines and caravan holidays. Lucie notes that it'll probably get cancelled within a month. She and the Doctor head back to the "Time And Relative Dimensions In a Shed".

Tropes:

 * Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: The Doctor keeps getting distracted by all the cool space ships.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology: The Doctor is fascinated by the Kith.
 * Breather Episode
 * Butt Monkey: James May really can't catch a break.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Richard Hammond was actually in a serious car crash in 2006, two years before this episode aired.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Lucie has a few of her most shining moments. Particularly when she notices that the Doctor likes the TARDIS that way.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed
 * The Summation
 * Take That: The entire episode gleefully gives the finger to Top Gear.