Doctor Who - Audio Details

A conference of lexicographers: bromides in tweed.  But the leading expert in the field is found dead by her own hand - and by her hologlyphic assistant.  Is he responsible?  Does the death fit any conventional definitions?  Can the Doctor realise who wrote the suicide note and why, exactly, it was riddled with spelling errors?

Peri should help out, but there's a guy.  Someone who loves language even more than the Doctor.  Maybe, she realises, enough to kill for.  Or perhaps just enough to ask her out to dinner.  Unless, of course, he's already spoken for...

Is it madness?  Seeking transcendence in the complete lexicon?  Having the right words on the tip of your tongue but never knowing when to use them?

If so, how?

...ish

IF YOU'VE GOT THIS FAR, you may already have your dictionary out.  I'd even say it's possible that during the play, you'll reach again for your Complete Oxford or your Merriam-Webster or your Macquarie.  If so, I don't apologise.  I'm delighted.  It means that ...ish has the same effect on its listeners that Doctor Who has always had on me.

Seven years old.  Space adventures and obscure vocabulary are what commands a boys interest.  So it was entirely appropriate that Colin Baker's Doctor should appear on screen when I was seven.  Sitting transfixed, I saw a hero I could admire for the surprising but simple reason that he just didn't speak like anybody else.  Sesquipedalian shouting matches were his style - sending me to look up the language he used, and to be struck by its subtleties.  So the chance to write for the Sixth Doctor, and his relationship with Peri, with all the comedic and dramatic opportunities that their linguistic disfunctions allow, is something I've savoured.

Have a listen, then heave that lexicon off the shelf once more.  Help yourself.  Hang around after your initial questions are answered, and explore.  Happen on unusual words and let them stick in your head.  Hold pages containing all the words you will probably ever use, and every Doctor Who story not yet written or heard.  Hyperbole?  Hey.  How many other books are there like the dictionary: bigger on the inside than out?

Phil Pascoe, March 2002 ...ish