Doctor Who: Time Trips

Time Trips

by Cecelia Ahern, A.L. Kennedy, Stella Duffy

Time Trips is a unique and beautifully illustrated collection of Doctor Who adventures from bestselling and award-winning writers including Joanne Harris, Trudi Canavan, Nick Harkaway, A.L. Kennedy and more. Taking you from ancient Alexandria to nameless planets in the far future, these tales are at turns funny, frightening, moving and thought-provoking - short stories that are bigger on the inside. Time Trips includes: The Anti-Hero (featuring the Second Doctor) by Stella Duffy Salt of the Earth (featuring the Third Doctor) by Trudi Canavan The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller (featuring the Third Doctor) by Joanne Harris The Death Pit (featuring the Fourth Doctor) by A.L. Kennedy A Handful of Stardust (featuring the Sixth Doctor) by Jake Arnott The Bog Warrior (featuring the Tenth Doctor) by Cecelia Ahern Keeping Up with the Joneses (featuring the Tenth Doctor) by Nick Harkaway Into the Nowhere (featuring the Eleventh Doctor) by Jenny T. Colgan.

Genres: Doctor Who, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel, Science Fiction Fantasy

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2014

About the author

Cecelia Ahern was born and grew up in Dublin. She is now published in nearly fifty countries, and has sold over twenty-five million copies of her novels worldwide. Two of her books have been adapted as films and she has created several TV series.

Reviews

[Choco Con Churros · Rating 4 out of 5]

- El pozo de la muerte (A. L. Kennedy):
Me he reído muchísimo. Pese a que la historia es teóricamente bastante terrible, está contada con un sentido del humor, tremendo. Sólo el arranque describiendo cómo se comen a un tipo, es totalmente descacharrante😂😂😂. Todo el relato es deliciosamente absurdo. Me encantó.
No conocía esta autora. Creo que voy a buscar más cosas de ella.

-  Hacia la nada (Jenny T. Colgan):
No sé... me aburrí. Hasta tenía que ir atrás y releer cada poco, porque se me iba la cabeza a otra parte. Un royo.

- Mantenerse al día con los vecinos (Nick Harkaway):
Este sí que me gustó. No tanto como el primero. También tiene cierto humor absurdo (aquí más absurdo que humor, pero hace sonreir). Empiezo a preguntarme si será posible que eso sea una carácterística propia del Doctor Who, o es sólo coincidencia. La historia estuvo bien, con átomos que encierran universos y el tiempo saltando por todas partes.

- Un puñado de polvo de estrellas (Jake Arnott):
A pesar del súcubo arácnido, me resultó aburridete. Era poco imaginativo, y eso que, como todos los relatos, no dejaba de soltar palabrejas de apariencia científica que no significan nada produciendo un efecto gracioso (a veces). Esto también es propio del Doctor Who, o es coincidencia?. Pero vamos, la trama no era más que una anécdota sosa.

- El guerrero del pantano (Cecelia Ahern):
Un cuentín de hadas particularmente poco inspirado que no sé qué pinta aquí. La excusa para incluirlo no podía ser más endeble.

- La soledad del viajero en el tiempo de larga distancia (Joanne Harris):
Otro cuento de hadas, espolvoreado de ciencia ficción. Todo el cuento de hadas sucede en un vórtice temporal, pero una vez en él, es un cuentín que al final es un sueño que también era real que se volvió pesadilla esclavizadora... a veces me recordaba a ciertos momentos de Cinder de Marissa Meyer, pero no tan bien inspirados. Entretenido. Eso sí, cuentito a cuentito voy entendiendo algunas cosas este universo, como las reencarnaciones que encajan muy bien con que existan tantas series y no se pisoteen unas a otras.

- El antihéroe (Stella Duffy):
Este fue muy divertido, con ese creador disparatado y esas musas sintéticas ¡Y qué precio!. La verdad que en esto del Doctor Who cabe prácticamente cualquier cosa, sólo es cuestión de ir al tiempo apropiado.

-  Sal de la tierra (Trudi Canavan):
No estoy nada enterada de esto del Doctor Who pero este relato me gustó. Una cosita pequeña y muy interesante.
GL (Autor. Trudi Canavan)

[Kribu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those times that I wish I could rate the book, as an object, separately from its contents.

Because this is one lovely hardback. Double-page opening illustrations for each story, the dark blue edges of the pages, and of course the main draw of the hardback for those, like me, who'd already bought - and read - all or most of the individual stories as they were originally released as ebooks: the wrap-around dust jacket, containing an additional, exclusive, heavily illustrated (very) short Twelve & Clara story.

It's a gorgeous book, and while it took me a while to decide to buy it, because it wasn't cheap, I'd already bought and read all but one of the inside stories, and didn't really care for most of them. But hey, pretty book and some "official" Twelve & Clara in this excruciatingly long eight-month wait between series 8 and 9? How could I resist.

Anyway. I've rated & reviewed most of the stories before, so I'm not going to bother doing it again, especially as I didn't re-read them - I'll just say that they ranged from "urgh, awful" to "pretty decent", with mostly "meh". I'm glad to say that the one I hadn't read before, Anti-Hero by Stella Duffy (a Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe story), was more towards the "pretty decent" end of that scale, being .. well, basically a rather nice short story, even though it suffered from what 99% of DW short stories I've read in the last few years suffer from - a good start, nicely building up the story, establishing the location and characters, rolling onwards at a nice pace, and then ... suddenly, the end. Blegh. I don't like short stories, really.

The dust jacket story is really very short (500 words, maybe? I didn't count - it took me too much effort to just unwrap the cover and keep turning it around to find all the bits in the right order, but that was a lot of fun really! - but yeah, it's definitely a short story, considering it has to fit inside a dust jacket with lots of illustrations) but it was a cool little vignette and I enjoyed it. You don't really lose much for not reading it, but I really don't regret getting the book for it.

[Adam James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to go on a limb here and suggest that juuusssstttt maaayyyybbbbeeee the stories in Time Trips were the reject stories that didn't make it into the 50th Anniversary Collection.
Juuuuuusssssttttt maaaaayyyyyybbbbeeeeee the BBC shockingly realized that if you publish a hardcover book with gorgeous blue-edged pages sprinkled with lovely illustrations snuggled cozily inside a dust jacket that includes ::gasp:: a hidden bonus story, people will give you money.

Pretty blue pages don't make the stories better. Ugh. Here's a breakdown:

"The Death Pit" by A.L. Kennedy (Fourth Doctor): B-
- Almost funny. Fun fact: I recently discovered that A.L. wrote a full length novel based on this short story! Neat! The short story still doesn't make me wanna read it, though...even if it had blue pages...

"Into the Nowhere" by Jenny Colgan (Eleventh Doctor): B
Creepy. Weird. Doesn't quite get the Eleventh Doctor right...

"Keeping Up With the Joneses by Nick Harkaway (Tenth Doctor): A-
- Clever and super fun to read. Anything that feels like it could be a fun episode always works well as a DW short story.

"Salt of the Earth" by Trudi Canavan (Third Doctor): D
- Trudi Canavan owes me 20 minutes of my life back. Seriously? Salt? Menacing salt? THAT was your big idea?

"A Handful of Stardust" by Jake Arnott (Sixth Doctor): C
- After "Salt of the Earth," this story felt like A Tale of Two Cities

"The Bog Warrior" by Cecelia Ahern (Tenth Doctor): D-
- Ahern somehow writes a story so uninteresting even the excitable Tenth Doctor seems like he's faking it. Blah blah evil queen blah blah Cinderella blah blah magic shoe weapon blah blah blah

"The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller" by Joanne Harris (Third Doctor): A
- The BBC should repackage this damned book with JUST this story and a sh*t-ton of illustrations with it. Harris beautifully captures the spirit in which the Doctor embraces death along with life. Unlike scary salt and bog monsters, Harris tries and succeeds in writing a fun story that actually means something.

"The Anti-Hero" by Stella Duffy (Second Doctor): C+
- Sure, why not.

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure I have the words to describe home much I enjoyed reading this collection. Beautiful illustrations for the title of each story, plus a bonus story on the dustjacket, matched with blue-edged pages make this book one of those gotta read types. Some of the stories I really wished lasted longer though, that's my only complaint.

[Chris Wing · Rating 3 out of 5]

This new hardback is the collected edition of the 8 ebook only Time Trips sories, not quite novella length, but weighty for short stories.

I had previously read these as they were released individually, but really wanted them hard copy too. As it happened, I realised I had not read Stella Duffy's Anti-Hero, so it wasn't a completely indulgant purchase.

The other drtaw to buy this was the extra exclusive story, A long Way Down, by Jenny Colgan. Which, in itself is a very brief, but fun story, certainly not of the length of the other tales - what made this interesting further is that the story can only be read by removing and unfolding the dust jacket.
Totally charming and engaging!

The edition itself is nicely done. The previous collection of short stories (of the 50th Anniversary shorts) had been released in a large format collection, but felt 'by-the numbers', a swift release to sate those who couldn't (or wouldn't!) read the ebook versions.
However, when it was re-released with a new 12th Doctor story, a special little box with all the tales separately bound was released - a very charming little release.
I mention this only because the innovation behind it seems to have rubbed off, - if only a little! - to add value to this Time Trips collection.
There's a part of me that would have loved another box release, but this edition is very nice. What with new coverpiece illustrations for each story, it makes for a worthwhile purchase.

Not sure if I would recommend it for those who have already read all the stories (the thing retails at £20, as well as a few duff tales), but if you are a completist or a 'must have DW books hardcopy as well' kind of person (like I seem to be!), then I'd say go for it.

I have reviewed most of the other books individually, so I won't repeat that here!

I hope they publish more Time Trips and more collected editions (although I would request an extra full Time Trip tale as an exclusive for enxt time, to really add value to it).

[Jon Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a lot to commend the latest BBC Books roundup of their eBook output. First there’s the gorgeous, detailed design including a dustjacket which, with a little origami work, tells an amusing little short story, along with some nicely stylised frontispieces for each story. Then there’s the gender balance – I’m not certain any Doctor Who short story collection has been skewed towards female contributors before; certainly not by a three to one ratio. And of course, it’s always interesting to see what novelists who’ve earned their stripes elsewhere make of the chance to play in the Doctor Who sandbox.

With the nature of the collection the level of quality is inevitably variable. Pick of the bunch is Joanne Harris’s The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller. Whilst quoting poetry doesn’t strike me as a very Pertwee thing to do the use of the story’s chronological placement to emphasise story and theme is welcome. Only A L Kennedy’s The Death Pit has a similar virtue, mainly through being able to locate a gap for a solo fourth Doctor story (and even then it feels like it should be placed a couple of seasons later than it is). Stella Duffy and Jenny T Colgan’s contributions are also well worth reading, the former borrowing some body horror from a Steven Moffat script as part of a nicely gruesome tale and the latter having fun updating old New Adventures tropes.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally found the writing skilled and well-paced, especially from the experienced novelists, but the science fiction itself was lack lustre and, in some cases, completely overlooked.

Stories like these focused too much on the fairytale aspect of storytelling Doctor Who.

Notable Stories

• Into the Nowhere by Jenny T Colgan – the Eden twist was buried well into the plot and the bone scraping was unsettling.

• A Handful of Stardust by Jake Arnott – this unfolded like a classic episode with a bigger budget and a crafty Master.

• Loneliness of the Long Distance Time Traveller by Joanne Harris – a story about a dying Doctor hasn’t been done before and the last sentence is truly moving.

[LadyNymm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy reading some of these Short Stories, there were a few which really stood out for me. Most of them felt a little rushed towards the end which is a bit disappointing. One that stood out for this was the story with Three and Jo in Aussie I really would have like to read more of that story but it ended quite quickly.
I would have loved to have seen a First Doctor short story though as he never seems to get enough love. It's good fun for any avid Doctor Who fan and I was glad it wasn't just stories for the recent Doctors.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far more entertaining than most collections of short stories, even Doctor Who short stories. Featuring 2 Tens, 2 Threes, a Four, a Six, an Eleven and a Two, (so don't be taken in by the suggestion that there's a Twelve in here) these seem to be somewhat centered on themes of control and mock-realities, and were long enough to be fairly in depth, with arguably two exceptions. Quite worth the read.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real mix in story quality, but always nice to see the more fantastical Who stories they're able to spin with words, rather than with a limited FX budget.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories missed their mark for me unfortunately. They just didn't seem to capture the essence of the Doctor in my opinion. Only 2 of the stories rang true in my ears/head.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't really like this set of short stories and found them too long which meant that I was bored quite quickly and that is why it took me so long to finish.

[Richard Bush · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Some stories are better than others.

[Shadowsword · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my reviews for the single stories. Some are good, some not so much. But overall a good read for Doctor Who fans.

[black-eyes-black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich bin schon seit Jahren Fan der Serie „Doctor Who“, kenne diverse Inkarnationen und war sehr gespannt auf die jeweiligen Geschichten. Einige Autoren kannte ich bereits vom Namen, habe teilweise auch schön Bücher von ihnen gelesen. Andere Namen waren mir bisher vollkommen unbekannt, umso gespannter war ich auf dessen Kurzgeschichten. Ich würde dem Leser von diesem Buch empfehlen, dass man sich bereits ein wenig im Doctor- Who- Universum auskennt, damit man dieses Buch besser genießen und auch verstehen kann.

Klappentext:
Eine Zeitreise kreuz und quer durch die Galaxie. Vom alten Alexandria bis hin zu namenlosen Planeten in der fernen Zukunft entführen diese Geschichten aus dem beliebten Science-Fiction-Universum den Leser. Die Highlights dieser Kurzgeschichtensammlung stammen von keinen Geringeren als Trudi Canavan und Cecilia Ahern. In Trudi Canavans Geschichte gönnen sich der dritte Doktor und Jo Grant einen wohlverdienten Urlaub im Australien des Jahres 2028 und treffen dort auf merkwürdige Salzkreaturen. Cecilia Ahern schickt den zehnten Doktor auf den Planeten Cashel, um dort einem verschrobenen Maskenball beizuwohnen, während welchem sie Prinz Zircon bei der Wahl seiner Braut helfen müssen.

Die Serie „Doctor Who“ schaue ich schon seit Jahren, fiebere neuen Staffeln entgegen. Ein Buch zu der Serie hatte ich bisher noch nicht gelesen, ich war sehr darauf gespannt, wie die Umsetzung der einzelnen Inkarnationen gelingt, ob der Geist der Serie erhalten bleibt. Leider konnten meine Erwartungen an dieses Buch nicht vollkommen erfüllt werden.
Positiv möchte ich die jeweiligen Illustrationen zu Beginn der Kurzgeschichte hervorheben. So bekommt man einen Eindruck von der jeweiligen Inkarnation des Doktors, was bestimmt besonders für neue Fans der Serie vorteilhaft ist.
Ich war sehr gespannt auf die jeweiligen Kurzgeschichten und ich muss sagen, es war ein bunter Mix. Unterschiedliche Inkarnationen werden behandelt, sowohl die älteren als auch die neueren Gesichter des Doktors werden thematisiert, was mir persönlich gut gefallen hat. Hier kommt sowohl der alteingesessene Fan der Serie, als auch ein Neuling auf seine Kosten. Vom Niveau fand ich die einzelnen Storys recht unterschiedlich. Manche konnten mich echt überzeugen. Sie hatten eine spannende Geschichte, ein überzeugendes Setting oder auch originelle Ideen und Gegenspieler. Manche Erzählungen dagegen haben mich nicht so gut unterhalten. Teilweise lag dies an der Geschichte an sich, manchmal auch ein bisschen am Erzählstil, nicht alle konnten mich gleichermaßen in den Bann ziehen.
Gefallen hat mir, dass der besondere Geist, das gewisse Etwas der Serie in dem Buch konsequent gut umgesetzt wurde. Die einzelnen, doch recht unterschiedlichen Charaktere des jeweiligen Doktors werden gut in Szene gesetzt. Seine ganz besonderen Eigenheiten, seine Ecken und Kanten werden gekonnt in den Verlauf der Handlung eingebaut und machen dieses Buch eigentlich besonders. Dies hat mir gefallen, dass auf die einzelnen Inkarnationen eingegangen wird und man den eigenen Charakter erkennen kann.
Ein gekonnter Mix aus Spannung, Abenteuern, aber auch sozialen Interaktionen wird dem Leser hier vorgesetzt. Gut hat mir auch der Umgang mit den Begleitern gefallen, dieser wird im Sinne der Serie weitergeführt und man erkennt oftmals den ganz speziellen Umgang mit seinen engen Vertrauten. Aber auch die Neugier auf Rätseln und das besondere Lösen dieser hat mir zugesagt, sodass ich oftmals ein Bild vor meinem geistigen Auge hatte, mit den speziellen Eigenarten des Doktors.
Jedoch habe ich nicht alle Kurzgeschichten mit dem gleichen Genuss gelesen. Ein paar konnten mich leider nicht vollständig überzeugen, was teilweise recht unterschiedliche Gründe hatte. Für mich war es ein bisschen wie eine Achterbahnfahrt. Manche fand ich vom Konzept her nicht so gelungen, bei manchen konnte mich das Setting nicht ganz überzeugen, andere fand ich vom Erzählstil etwas unglücklich.

Leider konnte mich „Doctor Who – Zeitreisen“ nicht vollständig überzeugen. Manche Geschichten konnten mich komplett in ihren Bann ziehen, andere haben dagegen dies nicht vollständig schaffen können. Dies war jedoch relativ ausgewogen. Gefallen hat mir vor allem, dass das besondere Etwas der Serie gut in diesem Buch transportiert wird. Dennoch kann ich leider nur 3,5 Sterne für die Kurzgeschichtensammlung vergeben.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big range in quality here. I thought about half ("Into the Unknown", "Keeping Up With the Joneses", "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller", "The Death Pit") were good to great, succeeding on the level of tone, concept, or both; that "A Handful of Stardust" had some interesting ideas but was a bit messy and unfocused in its execution (which if nothing else is accurate to how I experience the Sixth Doctor's era on TV!), that "Salt of the Earth" was a straightforward and serviceable but unexciting take on the Third Doctor's era and its concerns, that "The Anti-Hero's" concept was let down by a perfunctory resolution and a shaky explanation of its premise, and that "The Bog Warrior" was an abysmal slog to get through.

[Robin Tompkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any Doctor Who fan. I have been watching the show since the first episode in 1963, (not that I remember much about that one). I love the way the individual writers seem to effortlessly catch the spirit of the various Doctors and their companions. (It actually made me write a little piece of fan fiction as a writing exercise, which has been seen by very few people and will stay that way). In particular, I loved the two Third Doctor stories, Trudi Canavan’s ‘Salt of the Earth,’ and the beautiful prose of Joanne Harris’s ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveler.’ Highly recommended to Whovians everywhere.

[Charity · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of short stories about the Doctor and his adventures. The variety of authors gave each story its own voice and feeling. It was also great to get a sampling of several different incarnations of the Doctor with different companions.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Doctor Who Time Trips” is a nicely illustrated very pleasant anthology of stories featuring various incarnations of The Doctor. While the various items can be purchased and downloaded individually, this ebook anthology is excellent value and should give great pleasure to all fans of The Doctor.

[Cait ♡ MintedReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the peak of my love for Dr Who I had to pick this up from the library. It was a great book that I read with my partner - I feel some of my star rating may also be due to the experience and memory reading a book with my partner but the reading was smooth, nothing too jarring.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not always a big fan of short stories , but these were good to read after a very big slump in reading .
I felt the authors truly captured the doctor they were writing about.
Good for doctor who fans .

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good read, even the not so good stories had something to recommend them. It was nice to have different incarnations of the Doctor, though we did get 2 10th Doctor ones. I liked the Time War and the Australia one most of all. But all of them were decent reads. A very good read.

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this one from the library, so I didn't think of unwrapping the jacket until I read a review here. Neat!

[Reggie Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little collection of short stories. Great for fans of the show; though a little bit hard to follow at times.

[Kath · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 - The Death Pit
4/5 - Into the Nowhere
3/5 - Keeping up with the Joneses
3/5 - Salt of the Earth
3/5 - A Handful of Stardust
3/5 - The Bog Warrior
4/5 - The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller
4/5 - The Anti-Hero

[Alex Sarll]

In the anniversary year, the BBC commissioned a series of Doctor Who ebooks from children's and YA authors; they followed that up with this series by reasonably well-regarded writers for grown-ups. None of whose other work I've read, beyond Jenny Colgan's previous, excellent Who book. Which was clearly no fluke, though sadly both of her contributions here feature Clara, who's no more palatable on page than screen. The duds include Trudi Canavan's flimsy yet exposition-laden Pertwee tale, and a mess of fairytale riffs and unresolved allegory from Cecelia Ahern; the latter signals early, with the bold claim "The Doctor had never seen a woman so beautiful", the degree to which it'll read like bad fanfic. Joanne Harris also starts badly, bolting a Toy Story/Prisoner hybrid on to the already over-long Planet of Spiders, but then finesses it into something beautiful. AL Kennedy does a nice Tom Baker story about a killer golf course, Stella Duffy a rather baffling tale of Troughton in Alexandria, and Jake Arnott the second-best Whoniverse story about the School of Night I read last week. The highlight by some distance was Nick Harkaway's 'Keeping up with the Joneses' which, despite positioning itself as a sequel to that dreary episode with the bus, ends up perfectly catching the fizzy mind and maddening charm of David Tennant's Doctor at his best.

[Kristina Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The editor should have rearranged the order of these stories since the first offering doesn't introduce the Doctor until about halfway in and he then seems superfluous. Also, Cecilia Ahern's story should have been rejected outright. It's blatantly Cinderella - which could work if she'd at least had the Doctor recognise the fairytale and she'd made an effort to explain the 'magic'.
That said, Jake Arnott and Joanne Haris' tales are both well written and show understanding of the Doctor. I enjoyed the interweaving of historical fact with Arnott's story and the fantastical yet emotional nature of Harris' offering.

[Tanabrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo libro raccoglie diversi racconti sul Dottore (anzi, sui Dottori, visto che spazia dal secondo al dodicesimo) commissionati dalla BBC a autori di successo.

Le storie in sé sono di qualità altalenante, mediamente discrete (ed è piacevole vedere le differenze tra i Dottori, o capire con chi si abbia a che fare) ma spesso difettose nei finali.

Ma il punto di forza del libro è... il libro.
Bordi delle pagine neri, illustrazioni a doppia pagina prima di ogni storia, e la copertina - origami con una storiella brevissima da ricostruire e leggere.
Nell'epoca degli ebook, questi per me devono essere i valori aggiunti dei libri cartacei...

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an impressive collection of stories, all of them showcasing a great command of different eras, Doctors, companions, and characterizations. There's a depth to many of these stories that outshines full length novels, especially "Into the Nowhere" by Jenny Colgan...which might have a claim on the title of "best Doctor Who short story ever". In these pages you will find melancholy, surrealism, madness, and poignancy. All of these are handled with great skill by the authors, who are all writing for Doctors and companions they clearly love and (more importantly) clearly understand. A deep delight from start to finish.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection by some really interesting authors. A few small editorial errors suggest it went to press quickly. I missed having an introduction or some indication of the intent or theme of the collection. But the stories themselves are a fantastic bunch. Highly recommended for fans of the show and of the contributing authors as well.