| ...ish by Philip Pascoe |
| Story 35 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a planet which is hosting a special conference of word experts from all over the place, to celebrate the launch of a new super-collection. Peri meets up with a guy called Warren who feels under-appreciated by the people he works for. The Doctor pays a visit to an old acquaintance, but she has been killed in odd circumstances. The amazing new computer has been got at. A viral word, ...ish, has started to corrupt the systems, and has begun rendering spoken language into a repetitive chant. It transpires that someone is trying to destroy the Omniverbum, the original word, and ...ish will therefore threaten the entire universe. It turns out that Warren has a large part to play. The Doctor manages to stop the ...ish virus, with help from Peri. |
| Review:- So, this is why I've been putting off this review. I think I may have not been fully concentrating to it, which is unwise as this is a story which needs very close attention. The ideas are sparkling, and the potential threat posed by ...ish is actually well presented. It's just such a verbose load of clever-dickery. Strangely, this was only the 2nd Big Finish play to feature Colin as the Doctor alongside Nicola as Peri. The invention of Evelyn rather put paid to development for Peri (as indeed has Erimem), so her return seems quite curious. Indeed, given the frequent complaints that the Doctor and Peri don't get on, here we see them both having a whale of a time. The Doctor making the most of his penchant for wordplay is no surprise, but Peri gives as good as she gets, and gets what is probably her finest story. Certainly towards the end, when she has to help the Doctor avoid saying words containing the suffix -ish is one of the most memorable I can think of from all BF's plays. What a shame that the overall story just doesn't quite hold on. Although the Omniverbum and ...ish are two remarkable concepts, and make for a unique and challenging story, it has to be said that the rest of the cast are about as distinctive as a paint catalogue. I'm going to have to listen to this again someday (if only to pay more attention). I don't relsih the day. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |