Short Trips: The Muses

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2607380.html

The fourth of the Big Finish Short Trips anthologies, and the third edited by Jac Rayner, published in 2003. At that stage we had eight canonical Doctors, so it seems in retrospect a fairly obvious idea to compile a collection of nine stories, each featuring one of them, with one more featuring them all. And while there are many cultural uses of the number nine, the Muses make a pleasing link with ancient culture.

I liked most of these stories, three in particular: (Terpsichore) "Teach Yourself Ballroom Dancing", by Robert Shearman, an unusually good Sixth Doctor story; (Thalia) "The Brain of Socrates", by Gareth Roberts, with the Fourth Doctor and Leela; and (Clio) "The Glass Princess", by Justin Richards, pulling together all eight Doctors in a rather moving story of inexorable forward time travel. Also a shout out for (Calliope) "Katarina in the Underworld", by Steve Lyons, as far as I know the only published spinoff fiction featuring Katarina, and a rare grappling with matters of the afterlife. ( )

Short Trips is a series of Doctor Who anthologies, containing short stories from various authors. This is the fourth title, and as it was published in 2003, before Doctor Who was revived, the Doctors featured only go as far as the Eighth Doctor.

Each story is tied in to the theme of the Muses, although sometimes it's hard to tell exactly how. They each have a different Doctor, different author, and as such are quite a mixed bag. Some stories I found to be a little hard to get to grips with, either because I wasn't familiar with that particular Doctor or because it just wasn't clear what was going on. A couple of the stories seemed to have a very ambiguous ending where I was left completely baffled. My favourite story is also one that's stuck with me the most and that's The Glass Princess by Justin Richards, who has written quite a few of the recent New Series Adventures. It was a very well written story and very emotional, just a shame that it wasn't longer!

All in all, I think this is pretty typical of most anthologies containing different authors. Some good stories, some bad ones, but I think that there's generally something there for everyone. ( )