Doctor Who Short Trips: Solar System

Big Finish Short Trips #14

by Gary Russell (Editor), Andy Russell, Alison Lawson

Doctor Who Short Trips is a series of themed short story anthologies of new Doctor Who fiction, featuring the Doctor in all of his first eight incarnations. They feature stories written by some of the leading names in Doctor Who, past and present, including Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts, Christopher H. Bidmead, and Paul Magrs. There is a star like many others in the western spire of the Milky Way galaxy. Its planets orbit around it, with each one having its own environment and circumstances. The third planet is the most-densely populated, and over time, its inhabitants have reached out to the other worlds, where they find surprises, wonders, and danger. Welcome to the solar system.

Genres: Doctor Who, Short Stories, Science Fiction

226 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Gary Russell is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media. As an actor, he is best known for playing Dick Kirrin in the British 1978 television series The Famous Five.

Reviews

[Mark Higginbottom · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of stories based on the planets in our solar system.I.dont think there was one bad story,they were all interesting in their own ways.My only grumble is that because they are set on other planets there weren't really any historical stories which I always find I enjoy the most.Oh well,onto the next one.....

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2740652.html

dates from the far-off time of 2005 when Pluto was still regarded as a planet, so there are 10 stories (including the recently discovered Sedna). A number of them are standard space romps, but I thought the Jim Mortimore story set on Earth with the lone Fourth Doctor brought a new perspective to the far future, and Craig Hinton's Uranus story, the last he wrote before his untimely death, with the Seventh Doctor and Mel, nicely ties into The Daleks' Master Plan. There's also a fun pairing of the Neptune and Sedna stories, by Richard Dinnick and Andrew Frankham respectively, both featuring the Third Doctor and linked by an unlikely companion from outside the TV series. Actually worth getting if you want to test your tolerance for the Short Trips series.

[Billy Martel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mars: exciting and engaging story, but bit of a weak ending. Alien suddenly develops super-powers to save the day at the last second. And the Doctor expresses a level of emotion that this version of the character would never (in my opinion) have done. 3/5

Pluto: really spooky fun stuff. Shades of Forbidden Planet didn’t understand the button on the end but that’s ok. 4/5

Mercury: fun base under siege stuff to start with that rapidly disintegrates into silly nonsense. 2.5/5

Neptune: It’s fine. I guess. Didn’t really capture my interest. 2.5/5

Sedna: The other half of the Neptune story and the last in the book (though I’m not reading them in order.) It’s neat that Jeremy did actually get to travel in the TARDIS, and he performs surprisingly well as a companion. Extremely Harry Sullivan coded, yet a bit more rubbish at everything. The story itself is just fine. 3.5/5

[Kristina Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The benefit of a book of short stories is that if one story doesn't win you over, another will. This book is almost guaranteed to be popular with any fan of Doctor Who [assuming the fan in question remembers there were Doctors before Christopher Eccelston].