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Doctor Who: 2020’s final four Short Trips are revealed

By James Aggas

Christopher Eccleston reveals what he enjoys about playing the Doctor on audio.Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.Image obtained from: BBC Press.
Christopher Eccleston reveals what he enjoys about playing the Doctor on audio.Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.Image obtained from: BBC Press. /
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Big Finish have announced 2020’s final four stories for Doctor Who: Short Trips – and we can exclusively reveal the cover to one of those stories!

The final four stories in Big Finish’s range of Short Trips have been revealed for 2020. For those of you unfamiliar with the range, they’re short, purely narrated stories. Usually over half an hour long and priced at £2.99 each, they’re always a simple but enjoyable listen.

Many stories planned for 2020 have been revealed already, but at last, Big Finish have announced exactly what we can expect in the final months of the year. Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot to look forward to, beginning with another Short Trip for the Ninth Doctor in September.

Her Own Bootstraps

"Extracting a dangerous Time War weapon from an irresponsible scientist, the Doctor arrives on Krakatoa in 1883 to destroy it. Problematically, the scientist is also in Krakatoa to steal the weapon. This is where she found it before the Doctor stole it from her. Trapped in a paradox, the Doctor must overcome a future he cannot change.A future that has already happened."

I’m glad that more stories are being told with the Ninth Doctor, especially post-Time War but before we met him in Rose. Last year’s Battle Scars was a rather beautiful story of the Doctor befriending a family, while at the same time, revealing more about an event only hinted at in the TV series. Her Own Bootstraps looks set to do the same, and on top of that, we’ve got the talented impressionist Jacob Dudman on narration duties. So this should definitely be a great listen.

And for October’s release, check out the exclusive cover reveal below.

Nicola Bryant narrates October’s Short Trip The Meaning of Red.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Production

The Meaning of Red

"The TARDIS accidentally strands Peri alone on the inhospitable world of Calleto. Taking refuge with the planet’s only colonists, she waits and waits, but the Doctor doesn’t return. Her only hope lies in discovering the secrets of this planet.It’s that, or she dies."

The Meaning of Red features an unusual Doctor/companion pairing, at least for Big Finish. While we had many audio stories featuring the Fifth Doctor and Peri during their early years, Big Finish have mostly shied away from telling stories of these two together. Possibly because of how they hardly seemed to know each other in The Caves of Androzani – Peter Davison’s final story as the Fifth Doctor.

Of course, it sounds like even The Meaning of Red will avoid it, with a heavy focus on Peri on her own. Which should work very nicely for the story, especially with Nicola Bryant narrating it. Along with knowing Peri better than anyone, she’s proved herself to be an excellent narrator, too. So this should be a strong story for the companion.

Blue Boxes

"Death stalks the phone lines.UNIT’s been inundated with prank calls. Bored, the Doctor agrees to help Liz investigate. Quickly immersed in the world of phone line hackers, it is revealed that they’re being killed, one-by-one. With the death toll rising, the Doctor will have to use all his cunning and wits to defeat a foe he can’t even talk to.He’ll also have to use a blue box. Just not the one you’re expecting."

A story set during Season 7 already sounds exciting, so November’s release should be a great listen. It also sounds like Blue Boxes will match the tone of Jon Pertwee’s first season very nicely, featuring some of the darkness and paranoia seen in stories such as The Ambassadors of Death. Also, it’s great to get more stories featuring Liz, as she was a particularly underdeveloped companion, in my opinion.

Lastly, the final story of the year focuses on the Tenth Doctor against an organization that’s been mentioned, but rarely explored: the Time Agency!

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The Shattered Hourglass

"The Time Agency has been meddling with time ever since its inception. Of all the days in history, today is a day that will define the agency forever.Today is the day of their greatest achievement. Today is the day they removed an entire galaxy from the timeline.Today is the day the Doctor’s shutting them down."

The Shattered Hourglass sounds like a fantastic idea. In the TV series, we’ve only had a few mentions of the Time Agency, going all the way back to 1977 in Fourth Doctor story The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The New Series has also brought it up, particularly in Captain Jack Harkness’s introduction story, The Empty Child. It’s also been explored elsewhere in the expanded universe – perhaps most noticeably in The Lives of Captain Jack: Volume 1 – but it’s nice to see what happens when the Doctor decides to deal with it directly.

2020 was already looking set to be an exciting year for Big Finish, based on the previously announced Short Trips alone. These freshly announced stories have proved that even further.

Next. Captain Jack Harkness and River Song finally meet in March!. dark

Which Short Trip has grabbed your interest? Which do you think sounds the most exciting? Let us know in the comments below.

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