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]

Short Trips: Past Tense
AuthorIan Farrington
SeriesDoctor Who book:
Big Finish Short Trips
Release number
6
PublisherBig Finish Productions
Publication date
April 2004
Pages242
ISBN1-84435-046-0
Preceded byShort Trips: Steel Skies 
Followed byShort Trips: Life Science 

List of stories
TitleAuthorFeaturingPlot
The ImmortalsSimon Guerrier5th Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan
Far From HomeAlison Lawson8thNone
All Done with MirrorsChristopher Bav4thSarah
CHAOSEric Saward6thPeri
Ante BellumStephen Hatcher7thAce
The Thief of SherwoodJonathan Morris1stIan, Barbara and Susan
Come Friendly Bombs...Dave Owen3rdJo
Graham Dilley Saves The WorldIain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett5thPeri and Erimem
Bide-a-WeeAnthony Keetch1stSusan Foreman
MortlakeMark Wright6thEvelyn
White Man's BurdenJohn Binns5thTurlough, Ian and Barbara
Of the Mermaid and JupiterIan Mond and Danny Heap7thBenny
The Man Who Wouldn't Give UpNev Fountain6thMel
One Small Step...Nicholas Briggs2ndJamie and Zoe
To Kill a Nandi BearPaul Williams4thSarah and Harry
Fixing a HoleSamantha Baker6thTegan
That Time I Nearly Destroyed The World Whilst Looking For a DressJoseph LidsterNonePolly

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
  1. Farrington, Ian, ed. (2004-06-01). Doctor Who Short Trips: Past Tense. Big Finish. ISBN 9781844350469.
  2. Bide-a-Wee at the Doctor Who Reference Guide. External link in |title= (help)
  3. "Discontinuity Guide - Short Trips: Past Tense". Whoniverse.net. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
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