Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity

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Since 2016, Big Finish have annually held a competition for a writer to pen a Short Trip in memory of Paul who worked at Big Finish. So far there have been 8 winners, 8 free Short Trips and several non-winners have gone on to write other stories due to impressing the judging panel.

I thought with the competition due next month it may be nice to have a thread to discuss the stories, and entries you may or may not have entered.

What do you make of these stories and have you entered yourself or want to enter?

I’ve entered once I believe, a long, long time ago. I think I may try this year!

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I considered entering once about a decade ago, and I can’t remember my idea but it was probably bad and probably wouldn’t have worked on audio. But I abandoned it before submitting because it was gonna be so much work lol

I dunno if I’ll ever enter, I’m too much of a serial procrastinator

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I tried entering twice but only completed one last year. I wrote most of my entry on the final week which didn’t help

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I have recently listened to all of these after constantly putting it off. They were all very good, especially Forever Fallen, Last Day at Work, Free Speech and War Stories.

I’d say the only one I didn’t enjoy much was The Hoxteth Time Capsule.

These are all my ratings:

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I always think about entering each year but never seem to get around to it. Now I’ve actually listened to the winners, I might give it a go this year.

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I love the short trips from what I’ve listened to so far. It’s interesting to see what they do with the theme. To make a good story in that amount of words is hard to do coming from someone who writes around that length.

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The World Tree is probably my favourite one; I got so emotional at the ending

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I’ve entered pretty much every year since 2019 - I might not this year because I forgot to think about it. Generally the winner stories are decent enough to listen to though some are definitely better than others

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With the exception of Hoxteth (which I thought was pretty run of the mill) I could definitely see why the winners were chosen.

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I’ve been jotting down my ideas, which focuses on one central idea. However, I can’t decide whether I want there to be a villain or not :sob: On one hand, subverting expectations where its not an evil plot - ala Twice Upon a Time, or making it an evil plot…

Also, is anyone else having trouble what Doctor to write for? I was going to write for 12, and kinda want to, but last years winner was 12.

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I’ve listened to them all except War Stories (never heard of it until now) and Hoxteth (which I refuse to listen to), and Lichyrwick (also never heard of). The rest were all enjoyable listens except “Free Speech” and “Best-Laid Plans”.

I’ve submitted stories three times, and each time it was a struggle trying to formulate an idea. I’m just not into writing science fiction.

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Why do you refuse to listen to Hoxteth? I would’ve thought it would be the only one that you did listen to as it features the Sixth Doctor and is actually read by Colin.

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I kind of pre-emptively made a plot, and backstory for my villain, written as if an archive entry, as I haven’t actually started the story itself yet. But I love it so far, even if it loses. Depending on the guidelines this year (which Doctors you’re allowed to use), I may not submit it though. If I change the Doctor and that Doctor is excluded this year, the story would lose it’s thematic value. Which is how I know I’ve made something I love :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I submitted last year, like the day before, but the concept was definitely too much for 5k words. So I ended up putting down all my notes into a folder. The folder now contains original mythos, lore, planets, and creatures from the front, and from the back is where I store all my Doctor Who ideas.

I wanted to enter in 2023, with a similar concept to the one I have now, but that was when they only accepted Classic Doctors. I also had a lot of exams, and didn’t have the time to understand how to write any certain Doctor, or know how to properly give them a voice, etc. I still wrote down a basic plot, creatures, lore- but I adapted it into my own canon, separate from Doctor Who. It was just too cool of an idea not to make it something original :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Ngl, I personally found most of these winners pretty dull, or average. Written expertly for the word count, but quite standard stories. My favourite are Last Day at Work, and Free Speech. I rate these both the highest. Feel bad saying that though because we need more writers in the Whoniverse, and there are plenty more official stories by actual Whoniverse writers which have elicited the same boredness from me.

And I don’t think we’ve had a female winner at all-(?). Which is kind of surprising to me and a lil sad. Gonna guess more men submit ideas, in terms of a gender ratio. Not a bad thing ofc.

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I did submit a few back when this started. I’ll see if I can dig them out.

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I’m planning on entering this year. Although after listening to all the previous winners, and looking through their original submissions and final scripts, I’m quite intimidated as the finished audios are all really damn good (some more than others, admittedly, but they’re all good in my view).

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Because I submitted an entry that year and Hoxteth beat it. I’m not interested in listening to a story that’s supposed to be “better” than mine, especially when they’re both about Six. :person_shrugging:

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Okay, fair enough.

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… dammit, I’m pretty sure this is going to be me this December, lol

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Okay so interestingly, the opportunity hasn’t been running as long as that so either Big Finish did something else beforehand that I had an idea for, or I was older than I thought when I came up with my pitch :sob:

I do vaguely remember the pitch though now after thinking on it. Bare in mind I never got far on working on it, and had never heard of the winners before then: something to do with 5 on a space station and a planet sized alien wanting to eat the station being the threat. No clue how he’d have won or what the smaller scale threat was, or how I’d have fit it in here if I developed it more lmao

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Even if your concept was better in your opinion, I won’t lie to say that I think winners are usually average stories, adaptable for the word count, rather than anything too ambitious. Or “made to win” in the judge’s eyes.

Which imo kind of stifles my enjoyment of the range too. Less experimental, it’s literally Doctor Who.

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It might have been for when they were accepting submissions for the Short Trips in book format, rather than audio?

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