'Short Trips': Volume IV 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 read by your favourite Big Finish actors!

'A Star is Born' by Richard Dinnick
Performed by William Russell

'Penny Wise, Pound Foolish' by Foster Marks
Performed by David Troughton

'Lost in the Wakefield Triangle' by Vin Marsden Hendrick
Performed by Katy Manning

'The Old Rogue' by John Grindrod
Performed by Louise Jameson

'The Lions of Trafalgar' by Jason Arnoff
Performed by Peter Davison

'To Cut a Blade of Grass' by Cynthia Garland
Performed by Colin Baker

'The Shadow Trader' by Charles Williams
Performed by Sophie Aldred

'Quantum Heresy' by Avril Naude
Performed by India Fisher

Notes:
*Featuring the Doctor

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'A Star is Born' by Richard Dinnick Read by William Russell

The TARDIS responds to a distress call and materialises inside a vast, spaceship adrift trapped in orbit around a nearby planet. Here they meet the last remnants of a dying race, the sea lion-like Metraxis, whose race has been all but wiped out by a virulent disease. Their leader, Provost Rowd, explains that their ship’s propulsion generators have failed and are leaking radiation, but when the Doctor and Ian help with repairs, they find that all systems are working perfectly, and there is no leak. The Doctor confronts the Provost, accusing him of sabotage; the leader admits that he has given up on their search for a new home, and sought to end it all. Rowd is arrested, and the new leader, Egrabil, evacuates the surviving crew to the planet below, leaving the ship to burn up in the atmosphere.

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan

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'Penny Wise, Pound Foolish' by Foster Marks Performed by David Troughton

Landing on the desert planet of Juno 10, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe meet a Larian named Jack, whose sole job for the last few centuries is apparently to warn travellers of a giant hole nearby. However, when the trio decide to investigate the cavernous pit, Jack deliberately triggers a series of small explosions that fracture the ground, sending the trio falling into the depths below. Returning to his cabin, Jack activates a control to launch a cargo rocket into space, only to watch in anger as the craft unexpectedly crashes back onto the planet surface. Rushing to the scene, Jack is astonished to see a number of cat-like, genetically engineered ‘halflings’ emerge, along with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. The Doctor remonstrates Jack for his exploitation of the creatures: he has been using them to mine the planet for precious minerals – an operation that will soon cause the planet to collapse and implode. By threatening to leave Jack at the mercy of his angry workforce, the Doctor forces the miner to abandon his operation; he then teleports the Larian to another of the worlds he was planning on mining – where the furious miner is left without any of his equipment…

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe

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'Lost in the Wakefield Triangle' by Vin Marsden Hendrick Performed by Katy Manning

While working on his sister Claire’s farm in Yorkshire, Martin Chisholm is attacked by something sinister in the darkness of the rhubarb forcing shed... A short while later, the Doctor and Jo stop off at Forest Farm to buy some rhubarb, and, learning of the recent incident, decide to help. Claire and her husband Brian show them Martin, now bed-bound and suffering from oxalic acid poisoning; investigating the rhubarb patch, the Doctor finds a large red, metal bug – a spaceship crewed by agoraphobic microscopic aliens who want to take over the shed. The Doctor negotiates a trade agreement between the farmers and the aliens, who are able to force-grow rhubarb as a side effect of collecting their main food source, manure. Leaving the two parties to enjoy their new commercial partnership, the Doctor then buys some rhubarb from the farmers with the intention of making himself and Jo a nice dessert.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor and Jo

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'The Old Rogue' by John Grindrod Performed by Louise Jameson

Every ten years the Doctor pays a visit to the ‘Old Rogue Café’ in Catford, where the body of the owner, Sid, has been inhabited by the mind of a deposed galactic emperor named Archanan for the last forty years. Archanan’s exile is due to the interference of the Doctor, after the Time Lord reversed the evil dictator’s energy ray and caused his mind to swap with that of Sid; meanwhile, Sid, in Archanan’s body, has since brought about a reign of peace and benevolence. Satisfied that Archanan is still safely out of harm’s way, the Doctor enjoys a moderate cup of tea and then departs with his friends. After they have gone, Archanan is surprised when his waitress, Katya, reveals that she is in fact a member of an intergalactic band of mercenaries, who has tracked him down in order to recruit him to their cause. However, despite his grumbling, Archanan has actually gotten used to running the café: insisting that his name is Sid, he turns down her offer…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor, the First Romana and K-9 MkII; and the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe

*The flashback to the Second Doctor’s adventure sees him travelling with Jamie and an un-named girl; I’m choosing to take this to be Zoe, and placing the adventure after 'Penny Wise, Pound Foolish'

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'The Lions of Trafalgar' by Jason Arnoff Performed by Peter Davison

The TARDIS lands in the middle of Trafalgar Square, London, on 23rd October 1843, as the construction of Nelson’s Column nears its completion. The Doctor is puzzled to see four stone lions at the base of the columns – they shouldn’t be there yet, and no-one apart from the time-travellers can see them. Having deduced that the statues are covered by a perception filter, the Doctor climbs up the Column to confront two alien Sevakrill, who have taken over the bodies of two stonemasons. These aliens have hijacked the construction of the monument so that they can convert it into a missile, which they will later use to destroy the Earth in 2017 in order to gain a strategic advantage in an interplanetary war. Furious at being discovered, the aliens activate the stone lion endoforms, which them come to life and start attacking the tourists in the Square. However, the Doctor appeals to the minds of the stonemasons, and urges them to fight against the creatures inhabiting them; his plan works: the aliens are expelled, and the lions revert to lifeless stone statues. Having disarmed the missile inside the column, the Doctor sets a timer on the perception filter so that it will drop in two decades’ time; he then decides to check out Cleopatra’s Needle, just in case…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa

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'To Cut a Blade of Grass' by Cynthia Garland Performed by Colin Baker

Learning that his good friend, Walter Wibbley, is in hospital dying from a severe stroke, the Doctor decides to pay him a visit. With Peri’s help the Doctor bends the rules of time a little, by taking the elderly Walter on a short trip into the future so that he can see his daughter Rosie’s wedding before he dies. With Walter returned to his sick bed, the Doctor then has a quick chat with Rosie, encouraging her to write books instead of going into business as she feels she is obliged to do. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Peri that although Walter was a humble baker who made great pasties, and Rosie never went on to make any significant literary work, their lives interconnected with those of many other people – in the great scheme of life, every little action can lead to something great. Satisfied with his day’s work, the Doctor decides to have a pasty to honour Walter’s passing...

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri

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'The Shadow Trader' by Charkles Williams Performed by Sophie Aldred

Salim follows his late father’s trade in dealing in ‘shadows’, bringing a special, magical service to any builder working on their construction – which in Salim’s case, means dealing with spaceship builders. At Fraser’s Rest space shipyard, while helping with the construction of a new cargo ship, The Defiance, Salim sees a girl named Ace, who is travelling with her friend the Doctor. After beguiling Ace with a music box, Salim attempts to steal her shadow; however, he is interrupted by the arrival of the Doctor, who breaks the music box, freeing Ace from its influence. After making the trader aware of the negative repercussions of stealing his victims’ shadows, the Doctor leads Ace away; Salim remains behind in thought, now with a new perspective on his trade…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace

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'Quantum Heresy' by Avril Naude Performed by India Fisher

Working in an archive, a librarian meets a man named the Doctor, who seems to know her already; together they see an old man shuffling through the archive – but then the girl finds herself alone and back working in the archives again; once more she meets the Doctor and then sees the old man – and this happens again, and again, and again... The girl’s time-sensitivity enables her to recall seeing the Doctor each time, and she notes how his appearance gets worse on each occasion. Eventually, the Doctor explains that they are caught in an experimental time-loop created by the old man, who is actually a creature from another dimension attempting to push into the real world; the alien created the archive – and also the librarian. However, the alien’s experiment has not gone as hoped: the librarian has now become real, and by throwing off the alien’s control, she has introduced real time into the loop. Finally able to break free, the Doctor and the girl escape to the real world, destroying the alien’s experiment. The Doctor makes his departure, leaving the girl with a real life to enjoy…

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth Doctor

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Release Date:
August 2011


Notes:

*A Big Finish Audio Production