'Short Trips': 'Christmas Around The World' edited by Xanna Eve Chown

An anthology of brand new Doctor Who short stories for Christmas.

Christmas is a time for festivities, family and fun. It’s also a time for action, adventures... and aliens. Spend Christmas with the Doctor as he joins the celebrations around the globe, from the pagan past to the distant future, taking in the frozen waters of the Arctic, the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and even a trip to the planet Gloricious. Christmas is an interesting time of year when the Doctor’s about. In fact, it’s out of this world.

Featuring twenty new Doctor Who stories featuring the first eight Doctors and their companions

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'Planet of the Elves' by John Binns

Morose at the departure of Romana and K-9, the Doctor decides to tidy up the TARDIS. Finding a videodisc containing an advert for the Yuletide services provided by the ‘Christmas Corporation’, the Doctor is outraged to see that the elves hard at work making toys are in fact captive aliens. Taking the TARDIS to the corporation’s workshop at Earth’s North Pole, the Doctor and Adric discover that the enslaved aliens are Silostopans, who have been drugged into submission and put to work for an Andromedan disguised as Santa Claus.The Doctor and Adric are also drugged, but manage to get free and learn that the factory is actually on Silostophus, linked to Earth via a space warp. After freeing the exploited aliens from their employer’s control, the two time travellers return to Earth to confront the salesman, severing the space tunnel on arrival. The Doctor orders the Andromedan to fulfil his contractual obligations to his customers, giving the salesman a chronological dampener that will enable him to deliver all their presents on Christmas Eve.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Adric

*Time-placing: this story takes place immediately after ‘Warrior’s Gate’

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'Exclave' by Joff Brown

In the Walled City of Kowloon, at Christmas 1974, the Doctor and Peri save a monk from an attack by a gang of Triad thugs. The monk joins his saviours as they journey into the heart of the city, to where the legendary Platinum Dragon is held, only to be ambushed by the Triad gang once again. Seeing the Platinum Dragon, the leader – the monk’s brother, Bek – decides to use the monster to gain power; he and his brother fight, but in the confusion Bek is absorbed by the Platinum Dragon, forming a Composite creature with the capacity to destroy the world. The monk engages in battle with this terrible foe, eventually defeating it and freeing his brother. The Doctor explains that since he trapped the alien monster in the ground thousands of years ago, he returns every one hundred and eight years to prevent it from reawakening – a task made more difficult ever since the city was built on top of its resting place. Returning the Platinum Dragon to its prison, the Doctor leaves the monk and his brother to settle their differences.

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri

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'A Visit From Saint Nicholas' by Lisa Miles

The Doctor and Sarah sneak out of a boring U.N.I.T. Christmas party and take the TARDIS to New York, 1822. Here they meet a diminutive Saint Nicholas and his tiny sleigh and reindeer – unaware that the friendly old man has just given Clement C. Moore the inspiration for his famous poem, ‘‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’…

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor and Sarah

*Working title: 'Midnight in Manhattan'

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'Instead of You' by Laurence Donaghy

When the TARDIS is damaged by Kryian missile attack, the Doctor and Ace find that the time machine is temporally locked to Christmas Eve. After a trip to Victorian London on the 24th December in 1889, and then to Los Angeles in 2023, the Doctor decides to obtain the parts required for repairs, and takes them to Eastern Africa in 3181, where they meet a community of humans struggling to survive in the aftermath of an alien invasion. Discovering that these survivors have forgotten Christmas, Ace explains the festive season to one of the children, only to find that her telepathy has passed on the story to the rest of the community; to Ace’s dismay, everyone is filled with false hope, and, believing that Father Christmas is real and coming to save them, they set about creating their own festive decorations. Having repaired his ship, the Doctor slips off in the TARDIS and arranges for everyone to receive presents from Santa. As he and Ace leave the overjoyed community, a rescue party arrives, drawn by the light on the settlers’ Christmas Tree…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace

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'Christmas Every Day' by Jason Arnopp

Sick of the Doctor’s penchant for taking them only to places where it is Christmas, Leela is annoyed to find the next planet is no better. Arriving on Gloricious in 2172, the two time travellers find an Earth colony under the control of three tyrannical alien ‘kings’, who keep the community in a perpetual state of Christmas. The Doctor and Leela learn from an escaped prisoner named Kamble that the aliens saved the colonists by stabilising the planet, and now maintain their rule through blackmail. When the Doctor confronts the three kings he is immediately overpowered, dressed in a Santa’s outfit and then tied to the top of the kings’ lair, a giant Christmas Tree. Realising that the baubles on the tree contain power converters that keep the planet stable, the Doctor exposes kings as frauds; faced with the truth, the colonists rise up against their oppressors – and to the Doctor’s disgust, the three aliens are slaughtered.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela

*Time-placing: this takes place after 'Image of the Fendahl'

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'Mirth, or Walking Spirits' by Gareth Wigmore

Arriving in Antarctica in 1909, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe meet William Cuthbertson, apparently the last surviving member of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. When William explains that his fellow explorers have been taken by the ghost of their team-mate Ramsey, who died six months ago, the Doctor reassures him that history reports that the mission was a success, and that everyone bar Ramsey returned home safely. The Doctor persuades William to enjoy the Christmas spirit, and with Jamie playing his bagpipes, they begin a rousing sing-song. As William’s sprits lift, he is delighted to see all of his friends return unharmed; the lonely ghost of Ramsey appears one last time, before heading off into the cold night to find peace...

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe

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'Do you Smell Carrots?' by Simon Guerrier

The Doctor and Steven battle a giant mosquito, destroying the creature with deadly washing-up liquid sprayed from a helicopter. But as the creature explodes, some of its goo falls into a snowy garden below, where two boys and their mother are building snowmen; as the alien goop reacts with the snow, it also absorbs the DNA from one of the boys – and that night, the two snowmen come alive. Leaving the confines of the garden, the two creatures explore their surroundings; they have a wonderful time, but soon come to realise the threat that the sun poses to them. However, the snowmen then meet the Doctor, who has been tracking their radiation signature, and realised that their animation is a result of his earlier incarnation’s actions. To the snowmen’s joy, the Doctor takes them to a new home at the North Pole.

Notes:
*Featuring the First and Fifth Doctors, and Steven

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'The Doctor’s Cross Word' by JJ Secker

In ancient Bethlehem, the Doctor meets the fourth Wise Man, a time-traveller named Nayigeren, who has come to meet the baby Jesus; however, the man is out of luck, due to the fact that the changeover from BC to AD actually took place four years after Christ’s birth. As Nayigeren leaves, the Doctor sees two stars in the sky go out; investigating, he discovers a space vacuole – a void inhabited by a god-like entity. Trapped inside the vacuole, the Doctor is forced to solve a crossword puzzle, his answers allowing the entity to access his mind. But the wily Doctor easily solves the cryptic clues, outwitting the creature, and escaping from its clutches.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor

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'Dateline to Deadline' by Ian Farrington

Chronicling his journey around the world, travel writer Ben Anderson boards the vessel Neptune to take him across the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo. Never one for celebrations, Ben is pleased to learn he and the crew will skip Christmas Day, when the date changes from 24th December 1988 to the 26th as the ship crosses the international dateline. However, as they approach the dateline, a crewman is murdered and the ship’s engines are sabotaged, effectively slowing down the journey. As suspicions rise, the captain receives an unexpected visit from a man called the Doctor, who has been sent by the company to investigate the murder. After the Doctor fixes the engines, he confides to an incredulous Ben that “his people” have sent him to stop the saboteurs, aliens who want to slow down the ship so they can make a rendezvous with a rescue spaceship. The captain and a crewmember reveal themselves as the culprits, but they are unable to stop the ship’s progress, as the Doctor has locked its engines. After the Doctor overpowers the imposters and locks them up for the authorities to deal with, he leaves as quickly as he arrived. Ben decides to pitch a new idea to his editor: a book about alien sightings…

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor

*Time-placing: the Doctor is carrying out a mission for the Time-Lords, travelling alone, so I’m choosing to place this towards the end of Season Seven

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'Autaia Pipipi Pia' by Beverley Allen

The Doctor takes the TARDIS to New Zealand, 1980, to shop for the ingredients for a Christmas cake. Visiting a nearby supermarket, Sarah learns of a turkey shortage, and is caught up in a stampede as frantic shoppers fight over a delivery of the scarce birds. But when the turkeys are pulled into the sky through a hole in the roof, the shoppers are taken too, and Sarah soon finds herself a prisoner aboard an alien spaceship. Searching for his lost companion, the Doctor learns that the culprits are a party of Hazoodians, who are using the turkeys to brew their ale; the aliens have now gained a taste for ‘apes’, after a human was accidently fed into the machine that makes their drink. Having informed the captain that he has been imbibing sentient humans, the Doctor is allowed to take Sarah home, along with the shoppers and the remaining turkeys.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah

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'No Room' by Rebecca Levene

On Christmas Day, 1814, the Doctor deliberately strands himself and Chris in the middle of the Indian Ocean, as part of his plan to get aboard a particular ship. Rescued by a jollyboat and brought aboard the vessel, the two travellers find that several of the crew are lizard men, alien Melanesians that the captain pulled from a shipwreck. Through a ruse, the Doctor persuades the captain and his alien crew to retrieve the TARDIS from the sea depths. As the Doctor makes plans to take the aliens home, to everyone’s surprise, one of these ‘crewmen’ gives birth…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Chris

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'Interesting Times' by Eddie Robson

The Doctor and Sarah arrive in Vietnam, 1969, during the Christmas ceasefire. Sarah eagerly sets off for the Continental Palace in the hope of meeting some of the famous reporters staying there, only to learn from U.S. soldiers that the hotel is under siege by several of its guests. Meanwhile, the Doctor investigates a newspaper report of a crashed plane, and talks his way into joining the local military force’s handling of a downed alien spacecraft. Learning of the strange events at the Continental Palace, the Doctor joins Sarah and finds that one of the journalists, Charles Stanford, is in a catatonic state. After deducing that the alien pilot has sought refuge inside the hotel, and is compelling the guests to protect it, the Doctor realises that the creature’s influence is being disrupted by the news reports broadcast on the BBC’s World Service. Using a portable radio to incapacitate the alien’s unwitting guards, the Doctor and Sarah make their way inside the building and locate the pilot, a creature affected by history, which finds the concept of news painful. As the Doctor offers to help the alien, he is interrupted by the arrival of another of the journalists, who instantly sees the existence of the creature as an important news story. To the Doctor’s dismay, the journalist’s thoughts trigger an adverse reaction in the alien, and in its terror it commits suicide by compelling it the journalist to shoot it.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor and Sarah

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'The Christmas Party' by Matthew Griffiths

When the TARDIS lands inside a cave system, the Doctor and Evelyn are surprised to meet a man dressed in burned rags, who talks of going to a Christmas party thrown by someone called ‘Nick’. The trio are soon separated: while Evelyn encounters a disgruntled worker named Libby, the Doctor and his new friend, Bob, make their way to a huge dome inside a cavern bedecked with Christmas decorations and filled with excited partygoers. Having no invites, the Doctor and Bob are classed as ‘gatecrashers’ and offered the chance to work their way over the Twelve Days of Christmas, with the promise of attending a party at the end. Bob readily agrees, explaining to the Doctor that the surface of the planet is boiling from solar flares. The Doctor is taken to see his host, Nicholas Santana, give a speech to the partycomers, and is horrified when everyone’s presents suddenly explode – Libby has swapped the gifts for explosives. Amid the resulting carnage, Nick informs the Doctor that he is about to make it snow inside the cavern, by dropping the temperature of the air-conditioning and venting the heat into a nearby pocket of magma; realising that the surrounding caves will flood with lava, killing the workers and Evelyn, the Doctor is furious, and he instructs Evelyn to drop Libby’s bombs into the air ducts to block the flow. Forced to abandon his plans for fear of being killed by the back-flow of lava, Nick has no option but to open the base and mingle with the non-partycomers on the surface…

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn

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'Lost and Founded' by Andrew Pidoux

The Doctor takes Jo to a small island in the Bermuda Triangle so that she can catch up on her sunbathing. The two travellers are unaware that they are being watched by the survivor of a shipwreck, a man named John whose predicament has driven him into madness. When the Doctor finds a crudely-fashioned Christmas tree and an angel-shaped outlined from rocks, he and Jo scour the island for signs of life; but John stays in hiding, believing the new arrivals to be mirages sent by God and Santa for his Christmas celebrations, and so he fails to get rescued…

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor and Jo

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'The Best of Days' by David Cromarty

The Doctor takes Ace to Rome, on December 17th 47 BC, to experience the holiday of Saturnalia, a time when slaves are given equal status to their masters, and everyone gives each other gifts fashioned after the god Saturn. After Ace receives a gift of a pebble by a small girl named Rhea, the Doctor becomes concerned at the energy build-up in the Temple of Saturn. After the two time-travellers break up a disagreement between a slave named Marcus and his master, Aullus, they are invited to a feast at their house; but the party is soon disrupted when Marcus reveals that he wants to reinstate Saturn to power: at Marcus’ command, stone statues of the god come to life and kill Aullus. Ace heads for the temple, but a statue of Saturn comes to life and orders Marcus to kill Rhea. The Doctor explains that Rhea is really Saturn’s wife, who once substituted a stone for her child to stop her husband from eating it, and when the child grew up, he led an uprising against his father. When Ace tries using Rhea’s pebble Saturn destroys it, but the Doctor has better luck, and manages to poison the errant god, who reverts back to a statue. Rhea vanishes and the Doctor and Ace depart, leaving Marcus to be dealt with by the authorities.

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace

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'Conscription' by William Potter

After a perilous visit to an alien museum, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS and receives a Christmas present from Sarah. Explaining that he needs to deliver a present too, the Doctor takes the ship to Papua New Guinea in 2012, where he and Sarah brave the hostile jungle and cannibal tribesmen to locate a crashed alien space pod. They soon encounter the ship’s occupant: a sentient suit of Nervoid armour, which has taken over a crocodile and converted it into a deadly warrior, who has been waging war on the natives. The Doctor deactivates the armour using a control device taken from the museum, and the crocodile returns to normal; the Doctor and Sarah then take the armour back to the TARDIS, but en route it falls into a waterfall during another confrontation with the tribesmen. The time travellers manage to reach the safety of the TARDIS, and while Sarah enjoys the last few remaining minutes of Christmas, the Doctor produces a Christmas tree and crowns it with the alien control device.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah

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'Christmas in Toronto' by Andrew Cartmel

Jasmine Deering is an illustrator working for Brockley and Campbell, an advertising company whose latest commission is for Blackstone soft drinks, a high profile campaign involving Santa, reindeer, and an elf named Jolnir. While attending the office party with her husband, Shep, and son, Caspar, Jasmine meets Tobias and Kristianna, the sinister siblings in charge of Blackstone, who tell her how much they want to make Christmas synonymous with their company, particularly with regards to the number of turkeys that will be slaughtered for food, referring to them as “many deaths for Jolnir”. After the Blackstones have left to hold a party on the frozen waters of Lake Ontario, taking with them a huge, black stone resembling a Nordic hammer, Jasmine then meets a strange man named the Doctor, who to her astonishment, tells her that Jolnir is in fact an alien creature that has been stranded on Earth for millennia. The Doctor explains that the Blackstones plan to resurrect this terrible being using the psychic energy from people’s infatuation with the cartoon image of Jolnir and the fear of the turkeys, focusing it through their black stone, which is part of the alien’s spaceship. Refusing to listen to the Doctor’s claims of an impending apocalypse, Jasmine leaves the building with her family, braving the snowstorm now raging outside. As the weather continues to worsen, the people on the streets become ferocious beasts, and Jasmine, Shep and Caspar soon come under attack. Saved by the Doctor, Jasmine and her family become convinced that the little man’s claims are true; they immediately return to the office building, where they create a new advert that ridicules the elf Jolnir, and by persuading the television company based on the floors above to transmit the advert, they ensure that everyone’s opinion of Jolnir changes. As Jolnir’s power wanes his hold over everyone is broken, and as the weather dissipates, the Lake thaws, and the Blackstones drown in its depths. By Christmas morning, everyone has forgotten all about Jolnir, much to the delight of the Doctor and Jasmine.

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor

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'Companion' by James Moran

Yarah de Sliva is a little girl living in Avelar, Brazil, whose allergic reaction to animals prevents her from ever having a pet; her father is a prominent scientist working for Positron Incorporated, a company that creates robotic soldier for the military. One Christmas, in 2672, Yarah delighted to receive a present from her father: a robot puppy. When Yarah takes her new pet to play in the garden, she accidentally hurts herself on a rosebush – and to Yarah’s surprise, and that of her father, the puppy promptly digs up the offending plant. After the puppy – Digger – becomes so overprotective that it digs up all the plants in the garden, Yarah’s father concretes over the area, much to the robot’s frustration. In an attempt to find something to dig up the concrete, Digger breaks into Positron Incorporated and begins looking for weapons; Yarah and her father try to stop their pet, but it arms itself with a gun and then makes for the military’s new combat device, a giant robot. Just then a strange man called the Doctor arrives on the scene, and tells Yarah that unless it is stopped, Digger will go on to protect her from everything on the planet. With no choice, Yarah allows the Doctor to introduce a paradox loop into her robot’s systems, which disables not just Digger, but all of the robots in the facility. Yarah is sad at Digger’s ‘death’, but soon cheers up when the Doctor returns with a present of a small creature, an alien shape-shifter that has no effect on her allergies – and after reading its new mistress’ mind, the alien transforms into Patch, the puppy Yarah has always wanted…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor

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'Illumination' by David Bailey

Arriving in a vast frozen pine forest in Sweden, in 1070, the Doctor and Izzy are captured by a band of hunters. Taken to the hunters’ camp and imprisoned in a pen, the Doctor is annoyed to learn that a third prisoner is Adam of Bremen, an infamous priest whose promotion of Christianity involves a smear campaign against the Scandinavians and their gods; however, Adam defends his actions, pointing out the hunters’ slaughter of members of their own families. The Doctor manages to free himself and Izzy, and together they discover that the surrounding area is infested by Noxmycota, a luminescent alien fungus that has come to Earth on a meteorite; the mood-altering side-effects of the fungus increase aggressive tendencies, explaining the behaviour of the hunters and the animals they keep. Recalling that the Noxmycota thrives in the dark, the Doctor realises that the imminent Midwinter’s Night will provide it with a whole day without sun, the perfect conditions in which to spore and contaminate the entire world. With Izzy’s lighter and Adam’s vodka, the two time travellers build a huge bonfire that lights up the woods, and as its flames spread, the fungus dies, relinquishing its hold on its victims. After the Doctor has doused the area with weedkiller from the TARDIS, he tries to dissuade Adam from continuing to spread his lies – but the belligerent priest is resolute, and the Doctor’s pleas fall on deaf ears…

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth Doctor and Izzy

*Seeing as Izzy is a companion from the 'Doctor Who Magazine' comic strip, this story is not considered canon

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'White on White' by Kate Orman

While single-handedly crossing the Antarctic using only a sled and a power-kite, Sari Martinez is surprised to crash into a tall, blue box. Putting the experience down to her fatigue, Sari continues on her course for Snowcap base, but becomes concerned when the base fails to respond to her calls. After seeing two powerful aircraft fly overhead, Sari then discovers a wreckage of strange metal, and is shocked when the sky temporarily turns black, despite the presence of the sun. Sari then makes contact with a man called the Doctor, who tells her that he and his friend Steven have just thwarted an attack by the Gelidons, a race of giant, lobster-like aliens, who wanted to destroy Earth’s ozone layer. Learning that the Doctor is now stranded after his snowcat ran out of fuel, Sari immediately turns round and sets off to find him. Sari arrives in the nick of time, rescuing the Doctor with the aid of her sled, seconds before two angry Gelidons can attack him. The Doctor takes Sari back to the blue box, the TARDIS, and while he contacts his friends for help, the explorer marvels at the miracles inside his vessel.

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor and Steven

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Publication Date:
December 2008


Notes:
*Published by Big Finish