Written by various authors (edited by Stephen Cole)

Starring doctors 1-8

Originally released : March 1998

Read: November – December 2024

Context: Although I hadn’t planned reading the short trips series on this mega dr who reading journey it occurred to me it was daft not to include these collections in the ‘reading every who book (sort of) challenge’, so I went for it with this one, having never really read short stories of any genre, ever before. It took me a good while to get into it but managed to finish it, and got quicker reading it as I got through the stories. More on that below

THE REVIEW

What I thought: it took me a while to get into the groove of short stories, I was missing the time for a narrative to develop, and some of the stories lost me, the one with the fifth doctor and Nyssa on the private ship thing, sort of, was plain weird and I really struggled to follow that one. I liked Model Train Set with the 8th doctor and the 2nd doctor story by the seaside, the very short story with Ben and Polly was poignant and there were good aspects of all the others as well. A bit hit and miss for me but some positive aspects of all the stories here. It will take me a while to get my head around ‘how’ to read short story collections. Maybe seeing them more like one off big finish stories, one CD release kinda vibe. Will take this forward when I get to the next short story collection.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Daleks -solid, but not all the stories were good/my cup of chai

What I felt: a little confused at times, and not as gripped as I am with a novel but amusing and good fun, maybe I should have a short story collection on the go alongside original novels? I’ll muse on this.

What am I left thinking?

• Do any short story collections have ‘new’ who doctors?
• If there are stories that have significant things to say, are short stories by their very format less ‘meaty’

Memorable bits

• The talking pigeon
• Ben and Polly nearly getting it on
• My first first doctor story, of any format!