Written by John Dorney, "The Fourth Wall" was the third Doctor Who audio story to feature original companion, Phillipa "Flip" Jackson, The Second with her as a main companion.
Augustus Scullop owner of the biggest MegaCorp in the galaxy, Trans-Gal empire, is in financial difficulties. To try and boost ratings from the planet Transmission he invents a new type of game show, and a new form of technology he calls "LASER".
This has nothing to do with the Doctor, until his companion Flip gets directly taken out of the TARDIS.
As the Doctor tries to find out what happened to her, Flip finds herself on an alien planet where she's being hunted by awful pig beasts, all for the sake of ratings...
The Fourth Wall contains examples of the following tropes:
- The Ace: "Jack Laser"
- Bad "Bad Acting": The Doctor and Matthew "act" out a new director's cut to save the day.
- BBC Quarry: Flip's first message to the Doctor is to describe her surroundings as "A quarry", the Doctor quips back that that doesn't narrow things down much.
- Big Damn Heroes: Flip arrives just in time to stop Lord Kran killing the Doctor.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Mentioned by Flip, and one of the signs that helps her realise she's basically in a TV show.
- Call-Back: The Doctor apparently still enjoys a game of cricket. Though he mentions he can't watch Cricket games live because he "might bump into himself".
- The Doctor mentions the Porcions accidentally once tried to conquer Skaro.
- Flip mentions having met the Daleks
- Nick Kenton refers to the Acteon Galaxy.
- The Doctor mentions the REEL-life broadcasting system is similar to technology his people have power over but they use it for more than entertainment.
- Contemplate Our Navels: Kran does this once he leaves LASER.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: When Augustus Scollop starts his speech about his new program the first thing that happens is someone going *COUGH* GETONWITHIT *COUGH*
- Create Your Own Villain: Jack Laser killed his arch nemesis Lord Kran's wife, and this set him off on his Start of Darkness.
- Defictionalization: A literal case... In-Universe.
- Ditto Aliens: The Porcions.
- Dirty Coward: Nick, the actor who plays Jack Laser.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: Mentioned by Augustus as to why he's low on funds.
- Double-Meaning Title: Flip doing it when she's Trapped in TV Land. But then TV Land breaks into the real world...
- Dressing as the Enemy: A Villainous Inverted Trope.
- "Eureka!" Moment: The Doctor has one when he realizes fiction inside the bubble can be transferred across.
- Evil Gloating: Lord Kran.
- Evil Laugh: Lord Kran.
- Fantastic Racism: "You saying we all look the same!? That's a bit racist!"
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Well, once the security protocols go down.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Lord Kran. And when he finds out he's not real, this goes into overdrive.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Flip quips that the Warmongers are like terrorists trying to shoot at Bruce Willis.
- Jack Laser was created to invoke this trope, which is bad news in the climax which involves protecting the reality generator.
- Implacable Man: The Warmongers are apparently capable of withstanding bullets, lasers, and nuclear explosions.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Porcions, according to the Doctor; they want to be in the same league as the Daleks and the Sontarans, but they keep making mistakes such as invading planets where the sun is about to go supernova.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: The Porcion leader sees the Warmongers, and doesn't mind the fact they're killing people, or chasing them down, it's the fact they're wearing the same outfit as they are.Chimbly: That look is COPYRIGHT.
- Large Ham: Jack Laser doesn't do subtle. Lord Kran also indulges in this.
- Layman's Terms:The Doctor: DON'T go anywhere.Flip: I'm on a barren alien planet, Doctor! Where am I going to go!? Tesco's!?The Doctor: It might sound a stupid instruction, but you'd be astounded how many of my previous companions were predisposed to ambulation.Flip: You mean had a tendency to walk about?The Doctor: ... Yes.
- Left the Background Music On: Flip recognizes a Scare Chord when she's talking, and the Doctor realizes The Hero is about to enter when the music starts blaring dramatically.
- Lost in Translation: Deathbringer; Slayer of All; Destroyer of All translates into English as "Chimbley".
- Lotus-Eater Machine / Reality Warper: The Trapped in TV Land machine creates a world which can superimpose itself over dimensions.
- Meaningful Name: Transmission.
- Also the title of the story, Flip recognizes everything in Trapped in TV Land.
- MegaCorp: Trans-Gal Empire.
- Me's a Crowd: Kran uses Scallop's duplication technology to generate multiple versions of himself from various other copies of LASER.
- Mickey Mousing: Whenever Lord Kran is on the scene, evil music follows him about, and when he gets interrupted, so does the music.
- Miles Gloriosus: Nick Kenton.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Matthew Howland plays the villainous Lord Kran within the LASER show, but is the actor who most wants to stop his fictional role.
- No One Could Survive That!: When Flip gets unceremoniously killed by Lord Kran.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Lord Kran once he leaves the LASER program.
- Other Me Annoys Me: The Doctor notes that he doesn't go watch live matches because he might bump into himself and his other iterations can prove quite irritating.
- The Password Is Always Password: One of the Porcions tries to enter a security computer by entering "Password" repeatedly. It doesn't work.
- Percussive Maintenance: When The Doctor's universal receiver doesn't work (It's quite like a TV) he starts bashing it.
- Pig Man: The "Warmongers" and the Porcions.
- Pilot
- Planet of Hats: Transmission.
- Pocket Dimension: The Television program is one.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Jack Laser. Constantly.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:Kran: If I'm not real, then who's throttling you?
- Punny Name: REEL-life.
- Red Herring: The Doctor believes the Porcions took the security circuit, but they didn't.
- Refugee from TV Land: All the fictional characters find themselves able to enter the real world from the reality bubble the show is based in. This includes the maniacal villain Krarn and his hoard of Warmongers.
- Reset Button: The Doctor creates one by filming a scene that establishes that the weapon that killed Flip can occasionally malfunction and just induce a death-like state, although this only saves Flip as her body was still in the projection.
- The Scream: As soon as the Doctor disconnects with Flip, she hears one and her Chronic Hero Syndrome kicks in.
- Screaming Woman: Jancey.
- Schmuck Bait / Batman Gambit:The Doctor: Behind you.Kran: You take me for a FOOL, if you think I'd fall for that.
- Series Continuity Error: Every single one of them pointed out by Flip within LASER.
- Shout-Out:Flip: It's like terrorists trying to shoot Bruce Willis!Flip: I've seen more realistic guns on Blue Petah!
- Flip also thinks the artificial planet Transmission looks like the Death Star.
- Sympathetic Murder Backstory: Discussing Laser's role in the death of Lord Kran's wife, the producer explains that his intention is to establish in later stories that the death of Kran's wife was an accident, but he hasn't had time to work out the details yet.
- Theory of Narrative Causality: The Warmongers can't be defeated by anybody. Except Jack Laser.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Flip isn't exactly the most manly of tomboys, but Jancey is an absolute Scream Queen.
- Trapped in TV Land
- Trojan Prisoner: Invoked Trope by the Doctor, and he describes it as one of The Oldest Tricks in the Book.
- Unknown Rival: The Porcion leader Chimbly has met the Doctor repeatedly, the Doctor only being vaguely aware of it.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When Flip is confronted with a machine that can convert light energy from any transmission ever, and she wonders why it's in black and white.
- Villainous BSoD: Lord Kran when he finds out he was fictional and all of his Start of Darkness was just "drama".
- You ALL Look Familiar: The Doctor describes the Porcions as a species as Pig Men with silver stockings and cloaks which as a race is unique, but among themselves they're all identical.
- Your Door Was Open:Chimbly: How did you get in!? Our forcefields are up!The Doctor: Your backdoor was open.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Played With.Chimbly: You have failed me! And you know how I deal with failure!Porcion: A stern word, and a request not to do it again?Chimbly: That's the one.
- Played very straight with Lord Kran.