Sold Out (short story)

Sold Out was the second short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: A Day in the Life. It was written by Danny Oz. It featured the Sixth Doctor and Mel.

Summary
The Doctor attends a virtual reality dream concert by rock star Diamond Sharp while Mel watches the technicians, Alec and Carol, work the consoles.

In the dream concert, the Doctor and several others are connected to the computer. Diamond's agent, Rolly, and a music critic, Robin Pen, are there as well.

The concert starts with a giant-sized Diamond, decades younger in appearance, playing his guitar while black skeletons fight against white skeletons. Suddenly a giant pink snake appears and eats Diamond. The others think it's part of the show, but Rolly knows better. The snake disappears, and a giant robot appears. It kills two members of the audience, and the Doctor shouts for everyone to hit their wake-up switches. However, this does not work.

Alec, Carol and Mel are aware that something is wrong, but they can't disconnect the viewers. In the dream concert, the Doctor grabs a guitar and plays a chord that shatters the robot's left hand, but the robot brushes off a black skeleton that tries to stop it, grabs Rolly and stalks off.

The Doctor assigns to Robin the safety of the audience. He tells them to find the exit, and recruits the black skeleton, whom he names Jack. Robin and the survivors are chased by a black cloud, and the Doctor and Jack encounter a talking dragon. Alec and Carol tell Mel that Diamond's computer deck used to belong to a serial killer.

Mel connects herself to the dream and finds herself in a huge library. The librarian denies that she is killing anyone, though she is being used to kill. Robin confronts the cloud, remembering that the Doctor had told him he can change things in this environment.

The librarian tells Mel that Diamond's plan is to hold one last concert, kill the audience, blame it on the computer deck and collect millions from his story. The Doctor and Jack find Diamond in the dream. The Doctor confronts him, and Diamond tries to dig into the Doctor's subconscious thoughts. Robin makes the cloud disappear.

The librarian tells Mel that the Doctor has help from her avatar, Jack. However, she can't help the Doctor. Mel sees the Doctor in a small laboratory, where a man dressed in an organ-grinder's outfit orders him to dance. Mel yells at the librarian, and suddenly she finds herself back into the control room, having been kicked out of the dream by the librarian.

The Doctor, feeling the same trapped feeling he had during his third incarnation, realises there's only one way to stop a musician, and he brings in several critics who have no idea who Diamond is. Diamond curls up in a corner and cries.

Some time later, the Doctor and Mel contact the librarian, and make arrangements for Rolly to be her manager, as she was the one who wrote the music sung by Diamond. The Doctor suggests to Mel that they drop in on Alistair.

Characters

 * Sixth Doctor
 * Melanie Bush
 * Diamond Sharp
 * Rolly
 * Alec
 * Carol
 * Robin Pen
 * Jack
 * The librarian

Continuity

 * Diamond references the Doctor's role in the destruction of the Vervoids (TV: Terror of the Vervoids) and the Silurians. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)