Short Trips: Past Tense
Short Trips: Past Tense is a Big Finish original anthology edited by Ian Farrington and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The collection's theme is history with each story being set before the year 2000.[1]
![]() | |
Author | Ian Farrington |
---|---|
Series | Doctor Who book: Big Finish Short Trips |
Release number | 6 |
Publisher | Big Finish Productions |
Publication date | April 2004 |
Pages | 242 |
ISBN | 1-84435-046-0 |
Preceded by | Short Trips: Steel Skies |
Followed by | Short Trips: Life Science |
List of stories
Title | Author | Doctor | Featuring |
The Immortals | Simon Guerrier | 5th | Adric, Nyssa and Tegan |
Far From Home | Alison Lawson | 8th | None |
All Done with Mirrors | Christopher Bav | 4th | Sarah |
CHAOS | Eric Saward | 6th | Peri |
Ante Bellum | Stephen Hatcher | 7th | Ace |
The Thief of Sherwood | Jonathan Morris | 1st | Ian, Barbara and Susan |
Come Friendly Bombs... | Dave Owen | 3rd | Jo |
Graham Dilley Saves The World | Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett | 5th | Peri and Erimem |
Bide-a-Wee | Anthony Keetch | 1st | Susan Foreman |
Mortlake | Mark Wright | 6th | Evelyn |
White Man's Burden | John Binns | 5th | Turlough, Ian and Barbara |
Of the Mermaid and Jupiter | Ian Mond and Danny Heap | 7th | Benny |
The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up | Nev Fountain | 6th | Mel |
One Small Step... | Nicholas Briggs | 2nd | Jamie and Zoe |
To Kill a Nandi Bear | Paul Williams | 4th | Sarah and Harry |
Fixing a Hole | Samantha Baker | 6th | Tegan |
That Time I Nearly Destroyed The World Whilst Looking For a Dress | Joseph Lidster | None | Polly |
Notes:
- The story CHAOS is former script editor Eric Saward's first Doctor Who-related work since he left the series in 1986.
Bide-a-Wee
Bide-a-Wee is the 9th story in the anthology, written by Anthony Keetch, which features the First Doctor and Susan.
Plot
The Doctor is relaxing at a B&B named Bide-a-Wee in Keelmouth, 1933, while his granddaughter spends time at the beach—or so it seems until the Atkins family arrives in town. Jeff and his wife Ujwala are taken aback by the locals’ casual racism appalled reactions to the Atkins’ mixed marriage and their son, Craig—but soon, Jeff and Ujwala seem to have grown accustomed to this treatment, and Ujwala has even forgotten that she used to be a brain surgeon, which of course is just silly. The Doctor decides that the time has come to put an end to his vacation, and confronts another of the B&B's residents, Prentice. Prentice admits that he used to roam through time and space, fighting the forces of evil, but that he has since retired to Keelmouth—and, finding it a pleasant and quiet place in which to spend his retirement, he's frozen the community in the year 1933. Outside Keelmouth, it's the year 1999; a flaw in Prentice's technology caused the Atkins family to slip through the cracks, and now they are subconsciously acclimatising to the social standards of 1933. Prentice is reluctant to put an end to his peaceful retirement, but the Doctor convinces young Craig to pretend that he has whooping cough, a disease that can be easily cured in 1999 but is fatal in 1933. Prentice accepts that it's time to put things right, and the Doctor helps him to bring Keelmouth back in synch with the outside world, leaving the Atkins family in their proper time period and returning everyone else to 1933.[2]
Story chronology
The Doctor and Susan are at ease with humanity suggesting that they have had previous encounters. However, the pair have not yet established themselves in 1960's London - placing this story after Frayed and before the first TV episode 100,000 BC
Reception
Paul Clarke of the website Whoniverse.net reviewed the short story as "A charming little story that sees the Doctor taking a traditional English holiday. Hartnell's Doctor railing against racism is deeply ironic."[3]
References
- Farrington, Ian, ed. (2004-06-01). Doctor Who Short Trips: Past Tense. Big Finish. ISBN 9781844350469.
- Bide-a-Wee at the Doctor Who Reference Guide. External link in
|title=
(help) - "Discontinuity Guide - Short Trips: Past Tense". Whoniverse.net. Retrieved 2010-05-27.