Bye Bye Short Trips

[Jon Masters]

As Mr McCow had hinted

Linky

Big Finish regrets to announce that Short Trips, its collected works of Doctor Who short stories, is coming to an end this year, as its licence to publish the books sadly expires. The final release will be Re:Collections, a bumper edition containing the very best stories from the previous 28 publications, which will be out in May priced £19.99.

Big Finish first acquired the rights to Short Trips in 2002, and contributing writers over the last seven years have included Andrew Cartmel, Nicholas Briggs, Paul Cornell, Nev Fountain, Joseph Lidster, Paul Magrs, Jonathan Morris, Marc Platt, Justin Richards, Gareth Roberts, Eddie Robson Gary Russell, Eric Saward and Robert Shearman.

“The Short Trips range has been a popular and exciting way to publish new authors and give our readership the chance to enjoy some truly outstanding work by old favourites,” says Big Finish executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery. “Big Finish will now be concentrating its efforts on audio productions of Doctor Who and a number of exciting new franchises.”

A small silver lining

From May 1 2009 all previous Short Trips (with the exclusion of Re:Collections) will be on sale for the specially reduced price of £7.50 from bigfinish.com. Catch them while stocks last - we have very limited numbers of some titles!
Meanwhile, the Short Trips brand will live on in the audio format only, with occasional readings available for download from this website.

So there goes the last bit of DW published fiction aimed at anyone over 10 years old

[Rob McCow]

The final branch of original old series writing as well, ending the run that started with Timewyrm: Genesys in 1991!

[SiHart]

It's sad news.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I'm amazed they've done so many. I wonder if they didn't want to renew the licence or if it was refused, in which case maybe someone else has got it?

Si.

[Rob McCow]

It's these guys, I reckon.

[Mr BHT]

It is sad news but looking forward to the sale next week when hopefully I can pick up a few - Snapshots mainly, but others as well.

[Pip Madeley]

I assume it's something to do with the plans Justin Richards mentioned in DWM a while back - we'll get past Doctor books back in some form...

[Simon R]

I wish someone would re-issue the Target novelizations either with modern covers to get the kids interested or retro ones ala the audio versions. And the novelize the new series. They seem like obvious money spinners to me.

[shada pavlova]

Nah, most of the new series episodes are too short for a proper novel.

[Mr BHT]

Nah, most of the new series episodes are too short for a proper novel.

Pity Terrance Dudley isn't still alive - he could make a 50 minute story into a novel of epic proportions. I have the Black Orchid audio book and it's a fascinating listen simply due to way Dudley plays for time at every possible moment. The audio book lasts 5 hours!

[Si Hunt]

Nah, most of the new series episodes are too short for a proper novel.

Surely they're about the same length as all the two-part Classic Series stories, all of which got novelised?! Plus more happens, as new Who is so much faster paced.

Come to think of it, they novelised all the Sarah Jane stories.

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

Plus surely that's the joy of the book form, you can flesh the stories out a bit - without the need to keep up quite such a hectic pace, there's a bit more space to breathe.

Alternatively, do a couple of episodes per book! I'd really love the new series to be, erm, Targeted.

[Simon R]

I ordered a couple of the christmas books from the BF website last weekend and they haven't arrived yet. Am I being impatient or is that normal? Amazon things have arrived within a few days even with free P&P. I wouldn't normally be bothered but I want the books to read before christmas.

[Jon Masters]

I wouldn't panic yet, Simon. They were quite slow getting the orders out when the sale happened , and I expect they may have started to get a pre-Christmas rush of orders about now too (there's at least 4 on my Christmas list).

[Lissa]

The advert on the back of the new BF magazine implies the Short Trips books will be in the sale that starts tomorrow so they should be even cheaper than they are now.

[Simon R]

Annoyingly I didn't know about the sale when I ordered last week. Typical, we've had mllions of copies of Big Finish Magazine but not that one!

[Lissa]

Each volume now costs the same as Sir Watkyn Bassett fined Bertie Wooster for being drunk and disorderly on boat race night (£5).

[Rob McCow]

That's a frightening price. Frightening because it makes them seem almost tempting.

[kevinwho]

The completist in me says "gimme, gimme, gimme", but since I haven't bought any of the BF Short Trips, we're talking 28 books, and that's an awful lot of short story collection to wade through. If there were 3 to 5 of them, I'm sure I would jump on this, but if I'm not looking at getting the full set, it's easier to say no.

[Simon R]

I might get the other two christmas ones just in case I regret it in twenty years.

[Lissa]

I gave in and bought the last 7 I needed. I keep telling myself they'll be worth RRP in five years and I'll pat myself on the back.

[stuartdg]

Got a stack of these for Christmas

All the Christmas vols
Zodiac
Snapshots
Companions
Seven Deadly Sins
Farewells
The Solar System

plus Love Songs For The Shy And Cynical and Wildthyme On Top

A Christmas Treasury which I'm about half way through(despite some dodgy poetry) is pretty fantastic all told,well worth a fiver of anyone's money!

[Lissa]

Just in case anyone cares, a quite reminder that BF stop selling the Short Trips books tomorrow so it's your last chance to grab them.

[Rob McCow]

You never know which one might be the next 'Lungbarrow'!

[SiHart]

I've got the set you know.

Si xx