Dead Media (audio story)

Dead Media was the ninth story of the ninth season of Big Finish Productions' Short Trips series. It featured the Twelfth Doctor.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Like everyone else in 2017, the Doctor is doing a podcast.

Named the 'People of St Lukes', the podcast is about the everyday lives of students at the university. Only, with the Doctor involved, the everyday is dangerous and extraordinary.

Something's lurking in the A/V department, something that is trapped in old equipment... as the Doctor quickly discovers, outdated technology does have a role in the modern world.

That role? Ending it.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Twelfth Doctor
• Petra
• Prof. Petra Elliott (alternate dimension)

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Petra belongs to the A/V club, which is located in Building D.
• The Doctor names this episode of the podcast, which he is presenting, "The Monster at the End of This Podcast". This is in tribute to a children's picture book which would become a major religion in the 2020s.
• The Doctor used to have a tape deck, but he thinks that it was blown up by Ace, or possibly by Cybermen.
• The St Luke's University library once turned invisible for three days. The Doctor claims not to be entirely responsible.
• The Doctor mentions that Nardole has taken the TARDIS to see ABBA at Eurovision 1974.
• The Doctor refers to the trapped creature as a trans-dimensional cassette being, though he hopes to come up with a better name later.
• The Doctor and Petra are chased out into the St Luke's quadrangle.
• The Doctor advertises Debbie's Kebab Chalet as part of the podcast.
• The Doctor captures the creature with a Polaroid photograph.
• While explaining waveforms to the listener, the Doctor references Joy Division.
• Petra compares the Doctor's plan to "turning the world into a pair of noise-cancelling headphones".
• The alternate Petra has a degree in quantum physics. She mentions the observer effect and the Weizmann experiment.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Though alternate Petra gives her surname as Elliott, the Doctor's version of Petra does not make clear that her full name is Petra Elliott, as well.
• Petra clearly named for writer John Richards' friend Petra Elliott, who is also a co-writer alongside Richards on the Doctor Who-inspired Australian audio comedy series Night Terrace. Elliott was also Richards' co-host on Splendid Chaps, an actual podcast celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who.
• This story marks Jacob Dudman's debut voicing the Twelfth Doctor.
• The podcast name "The Monster at the End of This Podcast" is a reference to The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover, the best-selling Sesame Street book in the franchise's history.
• This story was originally released as a download only.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The Doctor finds it ironic that in his third incarnation, he was trapped on Earth without a working TARDIS, whereas now he has a working TARDIS but no intention of leaving. (TV: Spearhead from Space, et al.)
• The Doctor refers to the TARDIS's history of melting clocks, (TV: The Edge of Destruction) having Vortisaurs in the corridors, (AUDIO: Storm Warning, Sword of Orion, et al.) and middle-aged archaeologists being born to young women. (TV: The Almost People, A Good Man Goes to War)
• The Doctor mentions the Time-Space Visualiser. (TV: The Space Museum, et al.)
• The Doctor refers to his self-doubt about being a good man, (TV: Into the Dalek) and how he later learned the goal should rather be in the trying. (TV: Death in Heaven)
• The Doctor thinks about being trapped and alone, "hitting the wall over and over". (TV: Heaven Sent)
• The Doctor regrets inadvertently bringing the Mandragora Helix to Italy, (TV: The Masque of Mandragora) and the Family of Blood to England. (TV: Human Nature / The Family of Blood)

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Official Dead Media page at bigfinish.com