Doctor Who Logo 'Short Trips':
'Collector’s Item'

(1 Part)

by Paul J. Salamoff
Jacket Illustration

Something causes the TARDIS to act irrationally; the ship takes over its controls and travels to the source of the problem: a jumble sale in a church hall on present-day Earth. The Doctor and Sarah investigate the various stalls, searching their wares for anything unusual. While Sarah buys an assortment of bargains, the Doctor finds a stall called the ‘Curio Imaginarium’ run by a conman named Travis Lunquist, who shows him a rare crystalline sphere he allegedly discovered in China. The Doctor recognises the object as a Xanthene node, but is out-bid by another bargain-hunter called Brock; he enlists Sarah’s help in stealing the node, using her to distract Brock while he steals the object from the man’s bag. The Doctor and Sarah pay a visit to Lunquist’s shop to question him about the node; Travis reluctantly admits that he bought the object in a storage locker auction, as a component of a strange machine that the Doctor identifies as a dimension portal banned by the Time Lords. Deducing that Lunquist has been using the device to steal extra-dimensional curios for sale in his shop, the Doctor reveals that the sphere is a secretion from an adult female Xanthene to attract a mate; he tries using the dimensional portal to return the object, but a male Xanthene bursts through and attacks. As the monster destroys Lunquist’s shop in its efforts to seize the node, the Doctor uses a cricket bat to hit the sphere through the portal; the creature follows it through the gateway, which Lunquist promptly deactivates. After confiscating the node and portal machine to return to Gallifrey, the Doctor buys a coatrack from Lunquist, then sets off with Sarah for the TARDIS…

Stephen Critchlow (Narrator)

Release Date:
March 2017

Notes:

*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah

*A Big Finish Audio Production

Time-placing: This story takes place directly after ‘Planet of Evil’