1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 16 minutes. Written by: Dave Curan. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs, Ken Bentley. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Katy Manning.
THE PLOT:
After attending a peace conference, the Doctor is in a hurry to leave the asteroid Epsilon Gamma. Jo is confused by the rush - until she notices the flood of advertising everywhere, so pervasive that the TARDIS has been literally buried under billboards planted by Micro Server Robots.
The Doctor shoes the robots away... most of them, at least. Jo notices one with a crippled leg and, out of misplaced compassion, tucks it away in her pocket when they leave in the TARDIS. She is able to repair it, which leaves her quite pleased with herself.
Then the robot taps into the TARDIS systems and begins flooding the time/space vehicle with ads, leading the Doctor desperate to stop the promotional deluge!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: He has fond memories of Epsilon Gamma as it was before it was consumed by advertising. He abhors the current state of it, observing to Jo that people have long stopped paying attention to the ads, but that hasn't stopped the corporations. He reacts with weary disapproval to Jo's sympathy for the tiny robot, but he quickly gives up on trying to get her to see that the robot isn't alive and therefore can't be in pain. By this point, he's realized that he's not going to change her nature (nor does he particularly want to).
Jo Grant: When she notices the injured robot, she can't help herself from trying to rescue it, which leads to the entire situation in the story. We see again that underneath her surface ditziness, she's rather capable. She's able to repair the robot without any help in a matter of minutes. This time, that ends up not being such a good thing. Though the Doctor doesn't berate her for creating the mess, she feels enough sense of responsibility to take it on herself to organize afterwards.
THOUGHTS:
Like most of the early Big Finish Short Trips, Pop-Up is a trifle. Fortunately, it's a fun trifle.
Writer Dave Curan works within the 16-minute running time by keeping his structure simple and precise: The advertising robots are introduced creating minor mayhem by covering the TARDIS exterior with ads, setting up the larger mayhem created when one manages to tap into the interior systems. The Doctor tries to resolve the problem, only for the situation to keep escalating. It's small scale, but it works because there aren't any deviations. There's some minor and obvious commentary about pervasive advertising, but everything is here to advance the base story.
The piece benefits from a splendid reading by Katy Manning. As usual, she does an equally fine job of capturing the Third Doctor's voice and of recapturing her old, early 1970s performance as Jo. She's also extremely good with the advertising voices, putting on an inauthentically chirpy tone for the promos, which adds to the humor while at the same time conveying how annoying it would be to be stuck in the center of this.
OVERALL:
Pop-Up is a tiny diversion; but within that stricture, it's expertly turned. It's meticulously structured and benefits from an outstanding performance by Katy Manning - and it's also quite a bit of fun. A good listen, though it probably won't linger long in the mind afterwards.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
Set during: Season Ten
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