Short Trips (series)

Short Trips was initially a series of short story anthologies published by BBC Books in the late 1990s, following on from Virgin Publishing's Decalog anthology series. These first three books were published in conjunction with the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures book series, with each book containing stories featuring each of the first eight incarnations of the Doctor. After publishing ST: Short Trips and Side Steps in March 2000, BBC Books abandoned this format and focused only on full-length novels thereafter (until the publication of NSA: The Story of Martha years later).

In 2002, Big Finish Productions expanded its production of Doctor Who audio dramas to include publishing, and obtained the rights to the Short Trips series. The Big Finish Short Trips books, like the Decalog series, are built around themes, including an annual volume dedicated to Christmas-related tales, and one volume dedicated to Dalek stories. A total of 28 volumes of new material -- featuring several hundred stories featuring the first eight Doctors -- were published up to March 2009.

On 17th April 2009, Big Finish announced it was ending the Short Trips line, due to the BBC not renewing the company's licence to publish prose stories featuring the Doctor (although its licence to produce audio dramas was renewed). A final Short Trips volume, a "best-of" collection, subsequently appeared in May 2009, coinciding with Big Finish briefly making its back stock of earlier Short Trips books available at a discounted rate.

With the decision by BBC Books to focus on publishing fiction related to the current television Doctor after 2005, the Short Trips series became the only licensed venue to publish prose stories featuring past Doctors, although the Ninth Doctor was never featured in the books, and the line was terminated before the Tenth Doctor made his final bow on TV. It remains to be seen if the end of the Short Trips series marks the final appearance of the first eight Doctors in officially licensed prose. Since 2006 there have been recurring rumors of BBC Books possibly returning to past Doctors, but as of 2010 nothing has been announced.

Big Finish Short Trips
From 2002 onwards, Big Finish Productions obtained the rights to continue the series.

Big Finish Short Trips Audio Dramas
In 2009, Big Finish Productions lost the rights to publish prose fiction based on Doctor Who. In 2010 Big Finish revived the Short Trip concept as a series of short audio dramas.