Big Finish Doctor Who/Recap/Specials the Ratings War
This short, one-episode drama shows the Doctor, travelling alone, stumbling on a television network that has somehow garnered unprecedented ratings by showing unmitigated trash. The Doctor is sure that this is a plot by an old nemesis, Beep the Meep, to cause more chaos. Can the Doctor pull the plug on Beep's plot before he causes the death of millions?
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The events concerning Beep being trapped in a film are from a Doctor Who Magazine comic strip. From 1995. Meaning that many listeners to the audio drama either never saw the original comic strip or may have forgotten it by then.
- Canon Immigrant: This story introduced Beep the Meep, who was a frequent foil for the Fourth and Fifth Doctors in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips.
- Complete Monster: Given Beep's plans? Oh, yeah.
- Cute Is Evil: Beep fits this trope to a T.
- Paper Clips For Everything: The Doctor ends up jimmying the power pack of Beep's laser pistol with a paper clip, draining it enough to keep himself from being killed when Beep shoots him, and for two contestants on Audience Share to end up being only given a static shock when they're shot by Beep.
- Fake American: Sorta... The head of the network is played by Robert Jezek, who's actually Canadian.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: The Doctor vs. Beep is a grand battle royale of hamtasticness.
- Incoming Ham: The Doctor essentially enters with one of these. This being Doctor Who, he continues to chew the scenery ever after.
- Indy Ploy: The Doctor's plan to get Beep to delay releasing the final "go" signal ends up being essentially this.
- Killer Rabbit: Essentially what Beep is. A cute little rabbity thing (NOT that one...) whose fluffy exterior conceals within a psycopathic, sociopathic maniac (no, really, not THAT one...)
- Meaningful Name: Audience Share, which of course refers to ratings.
- Mind Control Device: Beep has hooked up the TV network's transmitters to one of these, and intends to use the intentionally outrageous lyrics to the theme song for "Beep & Friends" as instructions to the 80% of the population watching to go on a omnicidal spree.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Beep the Meep.
- Refuge in Audacity: The "Beep & Friends" theme song, and Beep's ranting after his arrest (apparently, the full versions of both went Up to Eleven in this regard).
- Rant-Inducing Slight: All it takes is for Beep to be arrested for "the most high of all the Meeps" to go on a full on rant that threatens the lives of all the viewers and their pets.
- Squick: The aforementioned theme song.
- Take That: Many of the complaints levelled against the TV network's programming at the beginning of the episode are complaints that were levelled at Doctor Who leading up to the infamous 18-month hiatus. This becomes a meta-Brick Joke at the end, as the emcee of Audience Share remarks that after Beep's arrest, "Beep & Friends" has been put on hiatus for 18 months. May also be a case of Lampshade Hanging for Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, as Colin Baker was the incumbent Doctor who was unceremoniously fired due to the hiatus, and whose firing was apparently one of the conditions for the hiatus' end.
- The entire drama can be seen as a massive Take That to reality TV, as the network puts on the most brain-rotting trash, and gleefully remarks that much of it is cast by the viewers themselves, who appear for the sheer fame, and so the network doesn't have to pay them a cent in compensation. Not like anything like that ever happens in real life...
- Wardrobe Malfunction: An "unintentional" one resulted in Linda being one of the two finalists on Audience Share.