Gallifrey to Trenzalore #14: Losing the Audience by Mat Coward

Short Trips: Defining Patterns
"Losing the Audience"
Written by Mat Coward
Published: 5th June 2008
Read: 2nd March 2016

The Doctor's tinkering with the TARDIS again and that can only mean one thing: trouble! Having been safely living in Shoreditch, 1963 for some time, a very frustrated and crotchety Time Lord decides to mess around with some purple wires and before they know it there's a flash of light and the TARDIS dematerializes. Thankfully, they've only travelled back eight years and several miles to the BBC Paris Theatre on Lower Regent Street, London. Unfortunately, something in the area is preventing them from leaving.

Further mysteries arise in the form of radio comedians and (divorced) partners Max and Maxine Wheeler. They've been doing they're a comedy show on the BBC since 1948 and have built up a small, but loyal following, who attend all of their recordings at the Paris. However, in recent months, they've both noted that these followers have started to thin out, and not just because of the rise of the likes of The Goon Show and Tony Hancock's Half Hour. No, they are getting reports that their followers are dying of sudden heart complications and Max is worried that "something" from the Second World War is returning to haunt him.

The entrance to the BBC Paris Theatre. (Image: Orbem.co.uk)

The sudden death of their producer shortly after he was embraced by a strong entity, leads Max to seek out the help of the Doctor and Susan, who he has encountered prowling around the BBC. Although he believes the Doctor to be an old hammy actor or magician who insists on staying in character and costume, Max finds himself confiding in the older man. He tells him about the early days of the war in 1940 when he and a band of mischievous miscreants were recruited by the British Army as part of 'Operation Shaker' to serve as a guerilla army against German invasion. However, Max had always believed there was more to it as stated when they were advised at the time that they shouldn't be surprised if large numbers of German occupiers started dying suddenly.

The Doctor is certainly intrigued, especially when he learns that the TARDIS is prevented from leaving by a strange resonance emanating from Broadcasting House, known locally as the "BBC hum" and put down to the state of the art air conditioning system. Setting out to find the cause of the hum, the Doctor has Max and Maxine re-enact one of their shows at Broadcasting House and, modifying a canned laughter track, is able to draw out the Shakers.

The "hammy actor" and Susan.

 The Shakers, alien beings from a different realm, were somehow contacted by the British government during the early days of the war and were promised the whole of India in exchange for their assistance in killing the Nazi's. However, once Soviet Russia had entered the war and the threat of invasion halted, the government imprisoned the Shakers in the very fabric of Broadcasting House. It is the patterns of the laughter and the performance of Max and Maxine's show that led to the Shaker's awakening, and they assumed that the audience were German occupiers. Upon learning the truth, the Shakers declared war on the British and the Doctor was forced to wipe them out.

Leaving Max and Maxine to get on with their lives, the Doctor and Susan depart in the TARDIS, unsure if they'll be able to make it back to 1963.

An interesting tale by Mat Coward which see the Doctor and Susan take a little trip back to 1955 and investigate the "BBC hum". Although I don't have extensive knowledge of the early TV and radio of that era, it just oozes with various references to the Goons, Hancock and the various radio programmes that were broadcast at that time. As a bonus, Coward also delves into the Second World War and investigates just how desperate the British government were to defend these Isles from the Nazis, which ticks all the right boxes for me.

Among the many highlights of the story include Max mistaking the TARDIS for a new-fangled TV prop and had the Doctor down as an old hammy actor who would never be out of character. To top it all though, would be to actually see the Doctor guffawing at a Goons recording and then get to appear in a play   My only quibble would be that the Doctor was just a tad too crotchety and snappy, especially to Susan and Maxine, although that is nicely deflated when he hugs Susan when she finally convinces him to watch a show and Max's impression of him at Broadcasting House.

8/10

Next Episode

"The Splintered Gate"