Big Finish Short Trips
The Big Finish Short Trips are a collection of short story anthologies published by Big Finish Productions based on the BBC Television series Doctor Who, beginning with the collection in December 2002 and ending with the loss of their license in 2009. The Short Trips name was inherited from similar collections published by the BBC, who decided in March 2000 that it was no longer financially viable to produce collections of short stories. Big Finish Productions negotiated a licence to continue producing these collections, publishing them in smaller runs and in hardback, thus allowing for a higher cover price and increased profit margins than on the BBC collections.
In May 2009 and after 28 collections, Big Finish announced that they were ending the Short Trips series as the BBC had not renewed it for a second licence, eventually halting sales of the books on the Big Finish Website in December 2009. Even so, the books are still available via off-site retailers and a final 29th volume collected the editor's favourite story of each of the previous volumes.
The books
The Big Finish Short Trips volumes are produced in a slightly different manner from their BBC predecessors: instead of being centrally produced, Big Finish commissions editors for the volumes, who in turn commission stories from writers for the themed collections. Because of this, each volume is produced depending on the working methods of its editor – some editors commission stories on invitation from writers, whilst others welcome unsolicited submission of stories. ' featured stories all written by previously unpublished authors. This was as a result of a competition, run by Big Finish in 2007, to seek out new talent.Each collection is conceived around a single theme, with the individual stories exploring that theme:
| Title | Editor | Published | Theme/Concept |
| ' | Jacqueline Rayner | December 2002 | The signs of the Zodiac |
| ' | Jacqueline Rayner | March 2003 | The Doctor's companions |
| ' | John Binns | June 2003 | Horror |
| ' | Jacqueline Rayner | September 2003 | The Nine Muses |
| ' | John Binns | December 2003 | Confined environments |
| ' | Ian Farrington | April 2004 | Historical settings |
| ' | John Binns | June 2004 | The nature of life |
| ' | Gary Russell | June 2004 | Unforeseen consequences |
| ' | Ian Farrington | August 2004 | Monsters |
| ' | John Binns | October 2004 | The year 2040 |
| ' | Paul Cornell | December 2004 | Christmas |
| ' | David Bailey | March 2005 | Seven deadly sins |
| ' | Ian Farrington | June 2005 | The hours of the day |
| ' | Gary Russell | September 2005 | The nine planets of Earth's solar system |
| ' | Simon Guerrier | December 2005 | Christmas past, present and future |
| ' | Jacqueline Rayner | March 2006 | Death and other kinds of loss |
| ' | Ian Farrington | July 2006 | The life of one man – Edward Grainger |
| ' | Simon Guerrier | September 2006 | Music, time and consequences |
| ' | Nicholas Briggs with Simon Guerrier | December 2006 | The Dalek Empire series |
| ' | Steven Savile | May 2007 | The city of Prague |
| ' | Joseph Lidster | June 2007 | The effect the Doctor has on people |
| ' | Cavan Scott & Mark Wright | December 2007 | Christmas: past, present and future |
| ' | Ian Farrington | March 2008 | The causes and effects of the universe |
| ' | Keith R.A. DeCandido | May 2008 | The many leaders the Doctor has met |
| ' | Richard Salter | July 2008 | The art of communication |
| ' | Simon Guerrier | September 2008 | The after effects of meeting the Doctor |
| ' | Xanna Eve Chown | December 2008 | Christmas in different countries |
| Neil Corry | March 2009 | The magical life of the Doctor | |
| Re:Collections | Various | May 2009 | The final book and a collection of the best stories from the series |
The collections have mixed established Doctor Who writers from the television series, such as Ben Aaronovitch, Ian Briggs, Andrew Cartmel, Terrance Dicks, Glen McCoy, James Moran, Marc Platt, Helen Raynor and Eric Saward with writers who made their name in other Doctor Who spin-off ranges, such as Paul Cornell, Joseph Lidster, Kate Orman, Lance Parkin, Philip Purser-Hallard, Gareth Roberts, Gary Russell and Robert Shearman, and writers from other literary spheres, including Dan Abnett, Lou Anders, Scott Andrews, Jonathan Clements, Peter David, Richard Dinnick, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Brian Dooley, Diane Duane, Nev Fountain, Lizzie Hopley, Todd McCaffrey, Juliet E. McKenna, Paul Magrs, James Moran, Gary Owen, Stel Pavlou, Steven Savile, James Swallow and Matthew Sweet.