Prime Time, by Mike Tucker

Second paragraph of third chapter:

From his earliest memory he had been interested in music, in sound, without the slightest interest in crops or cereal processing. His father and brothers had tried to pressure him into joining the family business, he remembered that, but his mother had always stood by him, encouraged him, sending him to boretha lessons when he was old enough, buying him Blinnati classical opera for his event-days.

I’m realising that Mike Tucker is one of the unsung talents of Who spinoff fiction. He has specialised in the Seventh Doctor/Ace period immediately between Survival and the New Adventures; here he brings them to a satire on reality television secretly controlled by aliens which is reminiscent of both Vengeance on Varos and Bad Wolf, but frankly hits the target rather better than either, and also brings in a body-horror Master who is still infected with the cheetah virus from Survival. It’s true to the spirit of late-1980s Who, and well-paced and characterised. Great stuff.

Next in internal chronolgy is another Past Doctor Adventure, Heritage by Dale Smith.