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 . . . Plot . The Doctor and Romana II — and K9 , though he is not seen — land on the world of Hephastos , which has a small human colony of about ten thousand people . Immediately before they materialise , a man staggers into the street , spouting trivia about his day . . . then dies suddenly , smoke pouring from his ears . Visible on his head is an electronic interface chip , wired into his brain . Accused of murder , the Doctor and Romana are taken into custody by a hostile robot . It is surprised to discover they lack interface devices , and takes the Doctor away to be fitted with one , promising Romana that she is next . While he is gone , Romana meets another prisoner , Aurelius , who explains the situation . The devices are brain links that connect every person on the colony to a central computer network , called the Babble network . At one time they were voluntary , but now they are compulsory ; the central computer , the Prolocutor , controls the planet , and private thought ( " clandestination " ) is a crime , of which Aurelius is guilty . He has found ways to hide his thoughts from the network , and must suffer for it . The duo escape the cell , and meet a most unlikely group of rebels : a crowd of elderly women who have managed to remove the devices , and now live beneath the notice of the Prolocutor — or so they believe , at least . Together they rescue the Doctor , who has just completed testing prior to the implantation procedure . They make their way to a subterranean control room , where they find more of the Babble network ' s history — and the skeletons of its original controllers , sitting where they were when the Prolocutor killed them and seized control . They are just about to end the machine ' s reign , when Aurelius turns on them . Speaking with the voice of the Prolocutor , he tells them that he was planted in the cell by the computer to engage and then betray the Doctor and Romana , and bring them into the Babble network ' s control . Although Aurelius had believed he had free thoughts , he was mistaken ; his implant was only temporarily disabled , and now had been reactivated . The computer forces the Doctor and Romana to join the network , not via implant — which they will eventually have , once incorporated — but via the more primitive headsets the original operators had used . Once connected , they find themselves inside the virtual Babblesphere , a digital world populated by the minds of everyone on the planet , endlessly spewing their thoughts to each other . The Prolocutor reveals its plan : The rebels had previously sent a distress signal , and the Empire will not ignore it . Once help is sent , they will be absorbed into the sphere , and their ships will be used to reach other worlds , until the Prolocutor controls the Empire . Unfortunately , it reveals its weakness as well : It cannot deal with the vast amounts of trivia flowing through it . What people eat , what they wear , how they feel . . . these things are driving it insane . To lighten the burden , it has begun to kill off the worst offenders , like the body beside the TARDIS . This gives the Doctor a plan . While he distracts the computer , Romana rouses the masses inside the sphere and leads them to ramp up the trivia they are pouring out . Still , this is not enough to stop the computer — until the Doctor and Romana join in . With the weight of all the minutiae that a Time Lord ' s long life accumulates , they begin to overcome the machine . In the midst of this , a new voice arises — that of the Eleventh Doctor . The Fourth Doctor quickly deduces that it is a future incarnation of himself ( and takes a moment to insult his relative physical youth , of course ) . The Eleventh Doctor tells him to save a copy of the Prolocutor ' s program and send it to an artificial intelligence museum on a hard drive — and then he adds a burst of trivia of his own , driving the Prolocutor to self - destruction . As the Babblesphere collapses , the Doctor and Romana free themselves , and the Doctor moves to save the program as requested . He gets it , and adds a little something extra — a copy of his own psyche , to keep the program company in its exile . After all , it ' s not an evil mind , just lonely . Then , twenty - four hours later , with the colony experiencing a remarkable turnaround , they return to the TARDIS and go on their way .