'Short Trips': Volume I edited by John Binns

Get ready for eight fantastic new adventures in space and time with the Doctor and his companions, featuring stories from many of Doctor Who’s most popular authors from the worlds of television, print, comics and audio, as well as new talent and fresh voices... and Performed by your favourite Big Finish actors!

'Rise and Fall' by George Mann
Performed by William Russell

'A Stain of Red in the Sand' by David A McEwan
Performed by David Troughton

'A True Gentleman' by Jamie Hailstone
Performed by Katy Manning

'Death-Dealer' by Damian Sawyer
Performed by Louise Jameson

'The Deep' by Ally Kennen
Performed by Peter Davison

'The Wings of a Butterfly' by Colin Baker
Performed by Colin Baker

'Police and Shreeves' by Adam Smith
Performed by Sophie Aldred

'Running Out of Time' by Dorothy Koomson
Performed by India Fisher

Notes:
*Featuring the Doctor

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'Rise and Fall' by George Mann Read by William Russell

After their escapade in France, the Doctor takes Susan, Ian and Barbara to a beautiful planet so that they can rest and relax. Leaving the girls in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Ian step outside to explore and see fleeting glimpses of long, humanoid faces flickering in and out of existence before them in the air. Unknown to them, the inhabitants of this alien world experience their lives at a different rate of time; the time-traveller’ presence has had a profound effect on the indigenous population, who base their entire civilisation upon the strangers, revering them as gods. Before the Doctor and Ian’s amazed eyes, they watch an entire culture rise and fall in just a matter of seconds…

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor, Ian and Barbara

*Time-placing: this story takes place immediately after ‘The Reign of Terror’

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'A Stain of Red in the Sand' by David A McEwan Read by David Troughton

Visiting her artist friend Roger in the council estate dubbed ‘The Slab’, Indigo is freaked out by the creepy, insect-like alien ‘caretakers’ of the block of flats. Reaching the safety of Roger’s home, Indigo gets to see his latest creation, a sculpture of a pretty girl named Zoe. After marvelling again at the view from the kitchen window, of another planet of sand heated by twin suns, Indigo is sickened to discover that instead of clay, Roger is using something called ‘Memory Meat’ to make his creation. When Indigo returns a few days later, she finds Roger’s statue complete – and somehow now alive. Looking out of the window, Indigo sees the Doctor struggling down the sand dunes towards her, only to be confronted by one of the caretakers; Indigo sends Zoe to help the Doctor, and when she next looks outside, all she sees is a stain of red on the sand. Did the Doctor win? Indigo’s answer comes when she and Roger discover that the caretakers have been banished from the Slab – the residents can live without fear once more…

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor and Zoe

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'A True Gentleman' by Jamie Hailstone Read by Katy Manning

While staying at a highland croft, the Doctor comes to the rescue of his landlord’s son, who has just had a bicycle accident. After driving the boy home in Bessie, the Doctor busies himself mending the boy’s bicycle; meanwhile, the young lad meets a huge, green-skinned lizard-man, an alien ambassador from Cobaltis V who is on a mission to retrieve a priceless lump of lead from the Doctor. Ever happy to comply, the Doctor hands over the precious element, and after seeing off the ambassador, he presents the crofter’s son with his fully repaired bike.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor

*Time-placing: the Doctor is spending his time alone, so I am placing this after ‘The Green Death’

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'Death-Dealer' by Ian Mond Damian Sawyer Performed by Louise Jameson

The Doctor takes Leela to visit an alien marketplace, where his companion’s attention is drawn to a small ornate dagger on sale from a lizard-like trader. But when Leela buys the weapon the trader stabs her with it, its poisoned blade killing her in seconds. The Doctor is appalled, but his anger quickly turns to amazement as Leela suddenly comes back to life. When Leela makes to kill her attacker she is stopped by a policeman, who then allows the trader, a ‘death-dealer’ named Jason, to explain: Jason’s service is to kill people and then bring them back to life using nanorobots, the experience of death helping to bring focus to his customers’ lives. As Leela returns to the TARDIS with the Doctor, she realises that her death has given her a new perspective on life – something the Time Lord has experienced himself once or twice too…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela

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'The Deep' by Ally Kennen Performed by Peter Davison

The Doctor is surprised to find Nyssa at work repairing the TARDIS’ chameleon circuit. Deciding to see if she has been successful, the Doctor decides to take the ship on a test run to Earth; unfortunately the TARDIS immediately goes out of control – and the console room melts into a soft, wet mass, before jettisoning them into the middle of an ocean. Realising that the ship has transformed into a whale, the Doctor and Nyssa manage to reach the safety of a nearby island, where they hatch a plan to lure the ship to them before it can mate with another nearby cetacean. The time-travellers’ plan is successful, and they are both swallowed by the TARDIS. The Doctor convinces his ship to transform back into a Police Box – and then ensures that its chameleon circuit stays broken from now on…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa

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'The Wings of a Butterfly' by Colin Baker Performed by Colin Baker

While visiting his former tutor Duotheros on Gallifrey, the Doctor is asked by the old historian to go on a fact-finding mission to the planet Byxor, to discover why its seemingly peaceful inhabitants were recently destroyed by a cataclysmic event. Feeling obliged to agree the Doctor travels back in time to Byxor, where he discovers that its untimely destruction was due to a series of causal events triggered when a pair of trousers fell down. When Duotheros learns this he is horror-struck: Byxor’s contribution to history should have been immense, but instead it has been rudely curtailed. Deciding to go further back in time to make a small change to Byxor’s history, thereby averting its destruction, the Doctor learns that the person responsible for making the faulty trousers was distracted by the arrival of the TARDIS. Realising that his own visit inadvertently caused the planet’s destruction, the Doctor jumps back even further in history, and ensures his future arrivals remain unseen. With Byxor’s future now saved, the Doctor returns to Gallifrey to find that Duotheros now has no knowledge of recent events…

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor

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'Police and Shreeves' by Richard Salter Performed by Sophie Aldred

The Doctor and Ace are contacted by the Brigadier, who asks for their help in tracking down a shape-shifting alien Shreeve at large on Earth. Ace quickly locates the creature, an easy-going girl named San who is happily living out a humdrum life working in a hospital kitchen, and takes her to the back room of a betting shop to meet the Doctor. It transpires that San’s landlord, Steve Harper, has found out about her extraterrestrial origin, and has been blackmailing her into using her electricity-eating powers to help him steal secrets from the government. With San’s aid, the Doctor and Ace set a trap for Harper and his small-time criminal associate, Lambert, and after capturing both men, the Doctor hypnotises them into leading a life dedicated to charity. The Doctor and Ace then bid goodbye to the Brigadier – unaware that the soldier was actually San in disguise all along…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace

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'Running Out of Time' by Dorothy Koomson Performed by India Fisher

Amnesiac Jeff Smith has been working in a café in Worthing for the last two years; all he knows of his past life is that he is being hunted. One day he is confronted by a stranger calling himself the Doctor, who offers to restore Jeff’s memory: Jeff learns of an evil old man named Malcen, who, on discovering that he was dying, elicited the help of a psychic so that he could swap bodies with a young boy – that boy being Jeff. The Doctor goes on to explain that he has been trying to reverse the process, buying time by getting Jeff to erase his own memory to hold off Malcen’s influence in his mind. Learning that this is the fourth time he has wiped his memory, Jeff declares that he has had enough of running, and now just wants to give up. At that moment Malcen’s hunters arrive, holding the patrons of the café at gunpoint in order to force Jeff to give himself over to Malcen’s influence. However, Jeff snatches one of the thugs’ guns and he shoots himself in the head; as his body dies, Malcen’s ethereal form is purged, dispersing harmlessly into the air. Saddened by Jeff’s sacrifice, the Doctor departs in the TARDIS…

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth Doctor

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Release Date:
November 2010


Notes:

*A Big Finish Audio Production