"Short Trips" is a label that has been applied to stories and books, published by both BBC Books and Big Finish Productions. Except for a few special cases, everything released under the "Short Trips" banner has been a short story anthology. The majority of these anthologies have been collections of prose issued from 1998 to 2009, but Big Finish resurrected the name as a label for audio anthologies and single audio downloads beginning in 2010.
BBC Books
"Short Trips" was a name initially given to three short story anthologies published by BBC Books, starting in 1999. The notion was very similar to Virgin Books' Decalog anthology series. These three new books were published in conjunction with the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures book series. Each book contained stories featuring the first eight incarnations of the Doctor. After publishing the anthology Short Trips and Side Steps in March 2000, BBC Books abandoned short stories for full length prose.
BBC Audio
BBC Audio also released a few collections of stories adapted from the print books, plus a few originals, in audio format.
| # | Title | Format | stories | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Short Trips | double cassette | 6 | 1998 |
| 2 | Earth and Beyond | double cassette, audio CD | 3 | 1998 |
| 3 | Out of the Darkness | audio CD | 3 | 1998 |
| 4 | Tales from the TARDIS Volume 1 | MP3-CD | 9 (+3 novels) | 2004 |
| 5 | Tales from the TARDIS Volume 2 | MP3-CD | 3 (+4 novels) | 2004 |
| 6 | Tales from the TARDIS | audio CD | 2 | 2008 |
Big Finish Productions
In 2002, Big Finish Productions obtained the rights to the Short Trips series. The Big Finish Short Trips books, like the Decalog series, are built around themes. These include an annual volume dedicated to Christmas-related tales and one volume dedicated to Dalek stories. A total of twenty-eight volumes of new material — featuring several hundred stories featuring the first eight Doctors — were published by March 2009.
On 17 April 2009, Big Finish announced it was ending the Short Trips line, since the BBC had not renewed the company's license to issue Doctor Who stories in print. [1] A final Short Trips volume, a "best-of" collection, subsequently appeared in May 2009, coinciding with Big Finish briefly making its back stock of earlier Short Trips books available at a discounted rate.
CD releases
In less than a year, however, Big Finish revived the Short Trips format, this time as exclusive-to-audio readings of short stories, most performed by veteran cast members. It began by soliciting stories from fans, though seasoned writers also contributed stories (along with one short story from Colin Baker). Unlike almost every thing else produced by Big Finish, they feature only one actor reading a story, being audiobooks rather than audio dramas. All in the regular series are original to audio, and have not previously appeared in print.
Monthly series
Starting in January 2015, new Short Trips have been released as monthly individual downloads.
Series 5
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flywheel Revolution | Dale Smith | 1st | none | January 2015 |
| 2 | Little Doctors | Philip Lawrence | 2nd | Jamie, Zoe | February 2015 |
| 3 | Time Tunnel | Nigel Fairs | 3rd | Jo | March 2015 |
| 4 | The Ghost Trap | Nick Wallace | 4th | Leela | April 2015 |
| 5 | The King of the Dead | Ian Atkins | 5th | Nyssa, Tegan | May 2015 |
| 6 | The Shadows of Serenity | Nigel Robinson | 6th | Peri | June 2015 |
| 7 | Dark Convoy | Mark B Oliver | 7th | Ace | July 2015 |
| 8 | Foreshadowing | Julian Richards | 8th | Charley | August 2015 |
| 9 | Etheria | Nick Wallace | 1st | Steven, Vicki | September 2015 |
| 10 | The Way of the Empty Hand | Julian Richards | 2nd | Jamie, Zoe | October 2015 |
| 11 | The Other Woman | Philip Lawrence | 3rd | Jo, UNIT | November 2015 |
| 12 | Black Dog | Dale Smith | 4th | Leela | December 2015 |
Series 6
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gardens of the Dead | Jenny T Colgan | 5th | Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough | January 2016 |
| 2 | Prime Winner | Nigel Fairs | 6th | Peri | February 2016 |
| 3 | Washington Burns | Julian Richards | 7th | Ace | March 2016 |
| 4 | The Curse of the Fugue | Alice Cavender | 8th | Lucie | April 2016 |
| 5 | This Sporting Life | Una McCormack | 1st | Steven, Dodo | May 2016 |
| 6 | Lost and Found | Penelope Faith | 2nd | Ben, Polly | June 2016 |
| 7 | The Blame Game | Ian Atkins | 3rd | Liz Shaw | July 2016 |
| 8 | Damascus | Jonathan Barnes | 3rd | UNIT | August 2016 |
| 9 | A Full Life | Joseph Lidster | 4th | Adric, Romana II | September 2016 |
| 10 | Rulebook | Tony Jones | 5th | Peri | October 2016 |
| 11 | The Man Who Wasn't There | Ian Atkins | 8th | Charley | November 2016 |
| 12 | The Hesitation Deviation | James Goss | 7th | Benny | December 2016 |
| X | Forever Fallen | Joshua Wanisko | 7th | Ace | December 2016 |
Series 7
| # | Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The World Beyond the Trees | Jonathan Barnes | 8th | Liv, Molly | January 2017 |
| 2 | Gardeners' Worlds | George Mann | 3rd | Jo | February 2017 |
| 3 | The Jago & Litefoot Revival | Jonathan Barnes | 10th, 11th | Jago, Litefoot | |
| 4 | Falling | 1st | Ben, Polly | May 2017 | |
| 5 | How to Win Planets and Influence People | James Goss | 4th | Sarah, Harry | June 2017 |
| 6 | Flashpoint | Andrew Smith | 8th | Lucie | July 2017 |
| 7 | The British Invasion | Ian Potter | 2nd | Jamie, Zoe | August 2017 |
| 8 | A Heart on Both Sides | Rob Nisbet | 8th | Nyssa | September 2017 |
| 9 | All Hands on Deck | Eddie Robson | 8th | Susan Foreman | October 2017 |
Subscriber exclusives
In addition to the above, several stories taken from the Short Trips books (up to Tweaker) have had readings recorded and made available for special subscriber-only downloads.[2] In December 2014, Big Finish announced a retroactive expansion of the subscriber exclusives with stories written specially for audio (from A Room with No View onwards). The expansion resulted in having four subscriber exclusives per year from 2010 onward.[3] All successive stories were also written specially for audio:
Rarities
Starting in September 2016, Big Finish began re-releasing their harder to obtain Short Trips stories in the Short Trips Rarities series.[4]
Footnotes
- ↑ Big Finish - News - Short Trips Announcement (17 April 2009). Retrieved on 11 September 2009.
- ↑ Doctor Who - Subscriber Short Trips. Retrieved on 31 Dec 2016.
- ↑ Big Finish - News - Doctor Who Subscribers Get More - Short Trips (22 December 2014). Retrieved on 21 April 2016.
- ↑ Big Finish - News - Doctor Who Short Trips Offers! (30 September 2016). Retrieved on 30 September 2016.
