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The Big Finish ''Short Trips'' are a collection of
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
anthologies
In book publishing
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed work ...
published by
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on cult science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'', the ...
based on the
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
series ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'', beginning with the collection ''Short Trips: Zodiac'' in December 2002 and ending with the loss of their license in 2009. The ''Short Trips'' name was inherited from
similar collections published by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, who decided in March 2000 that it was no longer financially viable to produce collections of short stories. Big Finish Productions negotiated a licence to continue producing these collections, publishing them in smaller runs and in
hardback
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occas ...
, thus allowing for a higher cover price and increased profit margins than on the BBC collections.
In May 2009 and after 28 collections, Big Finish announced that they were ending the ''Short Trips'' series as the BBC had not renewed it for a second licence, eventually halting sales of the books on the Big Finish Website in December 2009. Even so, the books are still available via off-site retailers and a final 29th volume collected the editor's favourite story of each of the previous volumes.
Books
The Big Finish ''Short Trips'' volumes are produced in a slightly different manner from their BBC predecessors: instead of being centrally produced, Big Finish commissions editors for the volumes, who in turn commission stories from writers for the themed collections. Because of this, each volume is produced depending on the working methods of its editor – some editors commission stories on invitation from writers, whilst others welcome unsolicited submission of stories. ''
How the Doctor Changed My Life'' featured stories all written by previously unpublished authors. This was as a result of a competition, run by Big Finish in 2007, to seek out new talent.
Each collection is conceived around a single theme, with the individual stories exploring that theme:
The collections have mixed established ''Doctor Who'' writers from the television series, such as
Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964) is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the ''Peter Grant (book series), Rivers of London'' series of novels. He also wrote two ''Doctor Who'' serials in the late 1980s and spin-of ...
,
Ian Briggs
Ian Briggs (born 31 October 1958) is a British television writer, author and manager, whose work includes scripts for the BBC drama series ''Doctor Who'' and '' Casualty''.
Writing
Briggs wrote two serials for ''Doctor Who'', '' Dragonfire'' and ...
,
Andrew Cartmel
Andrew J. Cartmel (born 6 April 1958) is a British author and journalist. He was the script editor of '' Doctor Who'' during the Sylvester McCoy era of the show between 1987 and 1989. He has also worked as a script editor on other television ser ...
,
Terrance Dicks
Terrance William Dicks (14 April 1935 – 29 August 2019) was an English people, English author and television screenwriter, script editor and Television producer, producer. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fictio ...
,
Glen McCoy,
James Moran,
Marc Platt,
Helen Raynor
Helen Raynor (born March 1972) is a Welsh television screenwriter and script editor from Swansea. She is best known for her work on the relaunched BBC science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. She previously worked as a theatre director. Besides te ...
and
Eric Saward
Eric Saward (; born 9 December 1944) is a British radio scriptwriter who worked for the BBC as a television script editor and screenwriter on the science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' from 1982 until 1986. He wrote the stories '' The Visitation' ...
with writers who made their name in other ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ranges, such as
Paul Cornell
Paul Douglas Cornell (born 18 July 1967) is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as ''Doctor Who'' fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield.
As well as ''Docto ...
,
Joseph Lidster
Joseph Lidster is an English playwright and screenwriter, best known for his work on the '' Doctor Who'' spin-off series ''Torchwood'' and ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''.
Biography
His debut work was the audio play '' The Rapture'' for Big Finis ...
,
Kate Orman
Kate Orman (born 1968 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian author, best known for her books connected to the British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who''.
Biography
Orman was born in Sydney, but grew up in Canberr ...
,
Lance Parkin
Lance Parkin is a British author. He is best known for writing fiction and reference books for television series, in particular '' Doctor Who'' (and spin-offs including the Virgin New Adventures and Faction Paradox) and as a storyliner on ''Emmerd ...
,
Philip Purser-Hallard
Philip Purser-Hallard (born 1971 as Philip Hallard) is a fantasy, science fiction and crime author described by the British Fantasy Society as "the best kept secret in British genre writing". ,
Gareth Roberts,
Gary Russell
Gary Russell (born 18 September 1963) is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series ''Doctor Who'' and its spin-offs in other media. As an a ...
and
Robert Shearman
Robert Charles Shearman, sometimes credited as Rob Shearman, is an English television, radio, stage play and short story writer. He is known for his World Fantasy Award-winning short stories, as well as his work for ''Doctor Who'', and his asso ...
, and writers from other literary spheres, including
Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett (born 12 October 1965) is an English comic book writer and novelist. He has been a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, sinc ...
,
Lou Anders
Lou Anders is the author of the ''Thrones & Bones'' series of middle grade fantasy novels. Anders is a Hugo Award-winning American editor, a Chesley Award-winning art director, an author and a journalist.
Early life
Lou Anders is originally f ...
,
Scott Andrews,
Jonathan Clements
Jonathan Michael Clements (born 9 July 1971) is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for '' Neo'' magazine. He is also the co-aut ...
,
Peter David
Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956), often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games.Buxton, Marc (March 29, 2014)"From 'Future Imperfect' to '2099': Peter David's Greatest Hits" Co ...
,
Richard Dinnick,
Keith R.A. DeCandido,
Brian Dooley,
Diane Duane
Diane Duane (born May 18, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author, long based in Ireland. Her works include the ''Young Wizards'' young adult fantasy series and the '' Rihannsu'' Star Trek novels.
Biography
Born in New York ...
,
Nev Fountain
Nev Fountain, born Steven John Fountain (born 12 August 1969), is an English writer, best known for his comedy work with writing partner Tom Jamieson on the radio and television programme '' Dead Ringers''.
Early life
A native of Stamford, F ...
,
Lizzie Hopley
Elizabeth Hopley is a British actress and writer.
She has appeared in several audio plays based on the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Her first appearance was as the Eighth Doctor’s companion Gemma Griffin in ''Terror F ...
,
Todd McCaffrey
Todd J. McCaffrey (born 27 April 1956 as Todd Johnson) is an Irish American author of science fiction best known for continuing the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' series in collaboration with his mother Anne McCaffrey.
Life
Todd Johnson was born 27 Apr ...
,
Juliet E. McKenna,
Paul Magrs
Paul Magrs (pronounced "Mars"; born 12 November 1969) is a writer and lecturer. He was born in Jarrow, England, and now lives in Manchester with his partner, author and lecturer Jeremy Hoad.
Early life
Magrs was born in Jarrow, Tyne & Wear, on ...
,
James Moran,
Gary Owen,
Stel Pavlou
Stelios Grant Pavlou (born 22 November 1970) is a British screenwriter and speculative fiction novelist. He is known for writing the novel ''Decipher'' and the screenplay for the film ''The 51st State''.
Personal life
Pavlou was born in Kent, En ...
,
Steven Savile
Steven Savile (born 12 October 1969) is a British fantasy, horror and thriller writer and editor living in Sweden. His published work includes novels and numerous short stories in magazines and anthologies.
Career
Steven Savile started out ...
,
James Swallow
James Swallow is a British author. A BAFTA nominee and a ''New York Times'', ''Sunday Times'' and Amazon #1 best-seller, he is the author of several original books and tie-in novels, as well as short fiction, numerous audio dramas and video ga ...
and
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet (born October 6, 1964) is an American alternative rock/power pop singer-songwriter and musician who was part of the burgeoning music scene in Athens, Georgia, during the 1980s before gaining commercial success in the 1990 ...
.
Audio
On 31 December 2009, Big Finish lost their license to produce or sell their short story anthology book series Short Trips. On 10 February 2010 Big Finish announced that the range would be relaunched as double CD audiobooks featuring eight new short stories each. The stories were to be read by popular ''Doctor Who'' actors. Also on this day Big Finish asked for short story submissions, from anyone who hadn't written for them before, for possible inclusion on the CDs. Soon after the closing date it was announced that they had received 500 entries and that
Colin Baker
Colin Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor who played Paul Merroney in the BBC drama series '' The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series '' Doctor ...
would be among the actors reading the stories, as well as writing the Sixth Doctor story for Volume 1. After four volumes, this series was discontinued, but the range was relaunched yet again as a monthly download-only series in 2015. The person in brackets in the "Featuring" column is who the story is read by.
Single Short Trips (2009–21)
The releases listed below were single releases made available by Big Finish as subscriber and magazine exclusives and podcasts. Starting from September 2016, Big Finish is releasing these exclusives to general customers under the banner, Short Trips Rarities. There will be at least a two-year delay between a story's subscriber exclusive release and its wider general release, in order to still keep these an incentive to subscribers of the main range.
''Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trips'' (2016–present)
The annual ''Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip'' will continue to be released individually.
Volume 1 (2010)
Volume 2 (2011)
Volume 3 (2011)
Volume 4 (2011)
Series 5 (2015)
Series 6 (2016)
Series 7 (2017)
Series 8 (2018)
Series 9 (2019)
Series 10 (2020)
Volume 11 (2022)
In November 2020, it was announced that the Short Trips range would return to the audio anthology format. It consists of 6 episodes.
Volume 12
External links
Big Finish's Short Trips pageOutpost Gallifrey's reviews pageInterview with range editor, Ian Farrington
References
{{Doctor Who Big Finish
Novels based on Doctor Who
Audio plays based on Doctor Who
Big Finish Productions
Doctor Who spin-offs
Book series introduced in 2002