Big Finish Doctor Who/Recap/035 Ish

The Sixth Doctor takes Peri to a lexicographer's convention, where his old friend Professor Osefa is about to unveil the Lexicon, the most comprehensive dictionary of the English language ever written. While Peri hits it off with a charming young logophile, the Doctor discovers something far less pleasant-- Osefa has seemingly committed suicide in a locked room, but a suicide note riddled with misspellings and errors raises the Doctor's suspicions. Further investigation reveals that the professor may have stumbled across a word with the power to destroy language and meaning forever.

...ish contains examples of:

 * Artificial Intelligence: Book
 * Brown Note: The ...ish causes anyone who hears it to become mentally "stuck" on it and repeat it over and over.
 * Creation Myth: The natives of Xenocubis believe that the echoes of the Big Bang created the "first great Word," which gave rise to language. All languages are thus a corruption or fragment of the original Word.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The ...ish is a living, sentient word which literally eats meaning and can reduce humans to babbling zombies just by being spoken in their vicinity.
 * Separated by a Common Language: The Doctor and Peri argue over Americanisms, which the Doctor considers a corruption of the English language.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Inevitable in a story about word-lovers. Six takes particular pleasure in showing off his vocabulary.
 * Sound Effect Bleep: Used in story as a means to keep Peri and Bob from hearing ...ish
 * Virtual Ghost: The Doctor brings Osefa back as one of these to investigate her alleged suicide.