Babblesphere (audio story)

Babblesphere was the fourth release of the Destiny of the Doctor audio series, produced by Big Finish Productions for AudioGO.

Publisher's summary
The violent, volcanic world of Hephastos is home to a colony of composers, painters, authors and poets, all striving to create the greatest works of art the universe has ever seen. But in pursuit of their goal, artistic collaboration has been taken a stage too far...

When the Doctor and Romana arrive, they discover the colonists have neglected their well-being and their once beautiful habitat, which has now succumbed to decay, and they are enslaved to the Babble network which occupies their every waking moment. Every thought, however trivial or insignificant, is shared with everyone else and privacy is now a crime.

The colonists are being killed and the Doctor and Romana begin to suspect that a malevolent intelligence is at work. With time running out, the two time travellers race to discover the truth before they too are absorbed into the endless trivia of the Babblesphere...

Cast

 * Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Aurelius - Roger Parrott

Continuity

 * After Aurelius describes the Prolocutor's influence over the residents of the colony, Romana comments that they don't treat the computer as a deity and "run around in skins". (TV: The Face of Evil)
 * When listing inane trivia, Romana refers to characters she knows from nursery rhymes - Rassilon, Zagreus (AUDIO: Zagreus), Salyavin, (HOMEVID: Shada) the Shakri (TV: The Power of Three) and Krafayis. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)
 * The Doctor knows about Romana's sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Horns of Nimon)
 * The Doctor says he's trying to repair K9 (TV: The Leisure Hive).
 * The Eleventh Doctor makes a surprise appearance as the Fourth Doctor and Romana are making up "top five" lists, similar to his cameos in AUDIO: Shadow of Death and AUDIO: Vengeance of the Stones. The Doctor suggests he is not unfamiliar with encountering future incarnations of himself. He also accurately describes the Eleventh Doctor as being very young in appearance, despite only having a voice to go by.
 * The story appears to take place after the events of TV: The Leisure Hive. K9 is out of commission, the randomiser is no longer installed (as the Doctor is able to set specific coordinates for a destination at the end of the story), both of which occur in the TV story.
 * Romana says she and the Doctor are "old hands" at dealing with rogue computers.