The BBC ''Short Trips'' books are a collection of

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

published by

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Consumer Publishing and BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidia ...

based on the

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', following a pattern established by

Virgin Publishing Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing arm ...

's '' Decalog'' collections. Three volumes were published between March 1998 and March 2000, before the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

decided to stop publishing the books. The ''Short Trips'' name was later adopted for hardback collections published by

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...

and licensed from the BBC.

The books

Short Trips

The first volume of stories is ''Short Trips'' (BBC Books, 1998), edited by Stephen Cole. It contains the following stories:

More Short Trips

The next volume is ''More Short Trips'' (BBC Books, 1999), again edited by Stephen Cole. It contains the stories:

Short Trips and Sidesteps

The final Short Trips collection is ''Short Trips and Sidesteps'' (BBC Books, 2000), and was joint edited by Jacqueline Rayner and Stephen Cole. It was intended to show a variety of stories of Doctors and companions that had not necessarily existed in the prime continuity of ''Doctor Who''. Several of the stories were written under

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

s, including Tara Samms (Stephen Cole), David Agnew and Norman Ashby.

Lawrence Miles Lawrence Miles (born 15 March 1972 in Middlesex) is a science fiction author known for his work on original ''Doctor Who'' novels (for both the Virgin New Adventures and BBC Books series) and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox. He is also ...

wrote two pieces for the collection, one under his own name and one under a pseudonym. It contains the following stories: Following the publication of this book, the BBC announced that they were no longer going to produce volumes of short stories, due to the cost and amount of work involved in producing them.

Audio books

In 1998, the original ''Short Trips'' book was also released on a double cassette as an audio book, featuring five stories from the book (''Freedom'', ''Model Train Set'', ''Glass'', ''Stop the Pigeon'' and ''Old Flames'') read by

Sophie Aldred Sophie Aldred (born 20 August 1962) is an English actress and television presenter. She has worked extensively in children's television as a presenter and voice artist. She played the Seventh Doctor's companion, Ace, in the television series ''D ...

and

Nicholas Courtney William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011) was an Egyptian-born British actor. He was best known for his long-running role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. ...

. An additional story (''Degrees of Truth'' by David A. McIntee, featuring the Third Doctor and the Brigadier) is also on the release. ''Model Train Set'' was also released on CD as a BBC Audio. Two further audio book short story collections were released later that year. '' Earth and Beyond'' was read by

Paul McGann Paul John McGann ( ; born 14 November 1959) is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial '' The Monocled Mutineer'' (1986), then starred in the dark comedy '' Withnail and I'' (1987), which wa ...

, featuring "Dead Time" from ''More Short Trips'', "The People's Temple" from ''Short Trips'' and original story "Bounty." ''Out of the Darkness'' was read by

Colin Baker Colin Charles Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor. He played Paul Merroney in the BBC television drama series ''The Brothers (1972 TV series), The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the Sixth Doctor, sixth incarnation of The Doctor (Do ...

and Nicola Bryant, and features "Moon Graffiti" from ''More Short Trips'', "Wish You Were Here" from ''Short Trips'' and original story "Vigil". ''Earth and Beyond'' was released on double cassette, whilst ''Out of the Darkness'' was released on CD. Those readings were reissued in 2004 as part of the MP3-CD releases ''Tales from the TARDIS'' volumes 1 and 2. These were in turn re-released as box sets of standard audio CDs in 2016 and 2017.

References

{{Master stories Novels based on Doctor Who Audio plays based on Doctor Who Book series introduced in 1998