‘TRANSMISSION ENDS’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Alex and George on Floronia with the Eighth Doctor
This story is by Richard Salter, who is the editor of the ‘Short Trips: Transmissions’ collection. It features the Eighth Doctor, who attempts to save the life of a young boy called Alex in telepathic contact with George, who is an unusual alien being that thrives on sending messages in outer space.
There are several references to previous Short Trip stories featured in the ‘Short Trips: Transmissions’ collection. These are in the form of flashback memories the Doctor has when he’s trying to communicate with George. They were quite intriguing to check out whilst reading this story.
Mind you, they’re not as fluid as I would have liked. One of the memories happens to feature the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, but Tegan is with them too, and I find that odd since Tegan wasn’t in ‘Tweaker’. She was in ‘Gudok’ with Turlough. The story’s memory-message aspect should be better.
At least it would help to understand why the references to previous Short Trips stories that were built up in ‘Transmission Ends’ were important. It also turns out that Bazima, who was in ‘Nettles’, isn’t that important in the story. She’s just in one of the Doctor’s memories when communicating with George.
The story’s ending was unsatisfying for me. Just when I thought Alex was going to survive, despite having a terminal illness, he ends up dying in order to help the Doctor overcome George. His dad Brent is angry and his mum Elena is upset. Not how I would have ended ‘Short Trips: Transmissions’.
At the end of ‘Short Trips: Transmissions’, there are biographies of the seventeen authors for this ‘Doctor Who’ collection, including Dan Abnett, Lou Anders, Graeme Burk, Kelly Hale, Mags L. Halliday, Dave Hoskin, Pete Kempshall, Andy Lane, Steve Lyons, George Mann, James Milton, Ian Mond, James Moran, Richard Salter, Dale Smith, Mark Stevens and Richard Wright. There’s a preview of the next Short Trips anthology collection by Big Finish called ‘Short Trips: How The Doctor Changed My Life’ with the first lines from the 25 stories featured in the collection. There are also blurbs advertising available Short Trips collections by Big Finish including ‘Short Trips: Defining Patterns’, ‘Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership’, ‘Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors’; ‘Short Trips: Farewells’ and ‘Short Trips: Dalek Empire’.
‘Short Trips: Transmissions’ has been an interesting collection of ‘Doctor Who’ short stories by Big Finish to read and check out. It’s not the best collection of short stories I’ve come across compared to ‘Short Trips: Companions’, but it’s enjoyable enough and there are some good stories featured. 🙂
Upon revisiting the collection in 2022, I’ve enjoyed reading and hearing the four Short Trips with Big Finish audiobook narrations by John Banks. These include ‘Only Connect’, ‘Tweaker’, ‘Methuselah’ and ‘Breadcrumbs’. ‘Tweaker’ has to be my favourite story, since the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are in it.
‘Transmission Ends’ rating – 5/10
‘Short Trips: Transmissions’ (Book) rating – 7/10
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