AustLit

“Look over there. Do you see Dayna in the shadows, instinctively pressed to the wall? Zoom in, study her: the hint of sweat, the tautness of her face, the tightness of her breath. That last moment when she can let the tension show, before she steps out and strikes. She thinks no one can see her yet.

It doesn’t really register until she stops singing, until she stops moving, until the audience erupts into noise. More people are going to see that than were living on the whole planet she grew up on. And that’s when her knees try to buckle.”

Dayna is in the spotlight as the Liberator crew infiltrate the Mediasphere, a space station which produces the Federation’s propaganda and popular entertainment. But who is really controlling the Mediasphere – and scripting a series of deadly encounters for our heroes?

Mediasphere is set between the TV episodes Powerplay and Volcano.

Blurb sourced from goodreads.com

'When the entire galaxy finds itself under attack from the Deindum - a highly advanced but aggressive and paranoid race from the future - Bernice Summerfield and her various friends and colleagues are scattered across space, doing what they can for the war effort.

Bernice makes her way home before heading back into history, searching for knowledge about their adversary and (hopefully) a weapon which might help the cause. Braxiatel, leading a coalition of civilised worlds against the attack, has cause to question his methods. An exhausted Bev runs the Braxiatel Collection as a refugee centre, fearful of an imminent attack. Adrian and Doggles must overcome their shared history and work together, whilst Hass embarks on a dangerous journey through the galaxy's war zones to the heart of the Deindum's new empire.

But will it be enough? What can they do against one of the most daunting enemies that they have ever faced?'

Source: Big Finish Productions (http://www.bigfinish.com/Bernice-Summerfield-Present-Danger). Sighted 19/5/11

This is the final anthology in the Short Trips series, and contains one work from each of Big Finish's preceding twenty-eight Short Trips anthologies. Unlike the other anthologies, it does not have a unified theme.

'The schoolboy whose twin brother vanished in the night. A woman whose house teems with alien refugees. The dad who dies every evening...

All through space and time live people, ordinary people, whose lives have been turned upside down.

People who've lost jobs and loved ones, or seen their homes destroyed, or found themselves on whole other planets. They've nothing in common with one another except that their lives can never be the same. Because they're people who've met the Doctor.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip29.htm)

Sighted 3/6/11

'If you lost the ability to communicate, what would your life be like? Messages, and the media we use to convey them, surround us every minute of every day. Some are meant for us alone, while others are intended to reach the widest possible audience. Some transmissions are intercepted by unintended recipients and never reach their destination. Others get corrupted along the way.

The Doctor knows how important it is to be understood. Whether he is striving to cure a disease that turns words into gibberish, responding to an SOS from the end of time, or unravelling secret messages encoded into the genetic sequences that make up life itself, this is one Time Lord who always knows how to make himself heard.

Listen up. Get the message. Keep this frequency clear.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip28.htm). Sighted: 20/5/11

'The known universe is home to countless trillions of lives, all interweaving with each other and affecting the line of history. When someone makes a decision, no matter how significant or seemingly irrelevant, they cause unknown effects throughout the ages ...

Perhaps other, unreachable, factors at are play too: does the universe have a destiny? Are we all predetermined to follow a particular path? Do we reap what we sow or is it a case of what will be will be? Are coincidences really just that, or do we miss their deeper meanings?

Everywhere he looks, the Doctor sees the same patterns - the same events, decisions and actions cropping up again and again. Look at the bigger picture, however, and maybe - just maybe - you'll see how the universe works. How the universe lives...

But, as the Doctor and his companions discover, are these patterns really there? Or do we, by the very nature of seeing them, define them?'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip26.htm). Sighted: 20/5/11

'Prague has its demons - a city saved from the ravages of war and the Third Reich because of its beauty, it is home to Rabi Loew's Golem, Rudolph II's obsession with finding the elixir of youth, scientific genius in the form of Kepler and Tycho Brahe, and the alchemical obsessions of Magister Kelly.

It is believed that there are magnetic energies whose lines intersect in Prague at several spots. Astronomy, astrology, numerology and magnetic forces have all played a role in building the city - but how will they influence its future?

This is the city rich in history, and full of potential - how will it adapt over the centuries to come? Will it have a glamorous rebirth or wallow in a dystopic nightmare? And what will be the role of the old superstitions in the new world?

For the Doctor and his companions, the answers to these questions are only just the start of further mysteries...'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip23.htm). Sighted: 20/5/11

'There is nothing special about Edward Grainger.

His life is much like any other - full of family and friends, love and passion, incidents and turning points. He travels, works, laughs and cries. He has parents, a wife, a child, a grandchild. He lives life to the full.

There is nothing special about Edward Grainger.

Except... from the day he was born, until the day he will die, he keeps meeting the Doctor. Sometimes a different Doctor, sometimes the same Doctor.

There is nothing special about Edward Grainger.'

Source: Publisher's summary, via TARDIS Index File (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Short_Trips:_The_Centenarian). Sighted: 20/5/11

'"It might be your name on the deeds, but you don't belong here any more. This is our home, our collection."

'The Braxiatel Collection. It's a museum, art gallery and academic institute. A home for renowned archaeologists, runaway art thieves and galactic waifs and strays. It's been a private playground and the battlefield in the fight against tyranny. And now things are changing again.

'With the Collection's founder missing, it's up to those left behind to make this place their own. Amidst the chaos of visitors from the far future, dark secrets, old friends and new enemies, Bernice Summerfield must do whatever's necessary to keep the doors open and her family safe. Yet through it all, there's one truth she cannot escape. Braxiatel is gone. And nature abhors a vacuum.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/bs_n16.htm). Sighted: 19/5/11

'Everybody dies.

'There's a fresh grave on planetoid KS-159, but only Bernice Summerfield seems to have noticed. Her friends on the Braxiatel Collection are too busy with their own affairs to see how distraught she is, how keenly she feels this loss.

'There's no time to grieve. Life must carry on, different and strange as it may be. Benny has a son and a bloke to look after, and a feud with Bev Tarrant to keep up. And she's also got dumped with a new assignment, babysitting some daft experiment.

'Doggles claims his "history machine" will change everything. And the worst thing is that he's right.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/bs_n14.htm). Sighted: 19/5/11

'Iris is an enigma... She's an enigma wrapped in a mystery. With a shapeless, tasteless hat clamped to her head. She's an enigma wrapped in a mystery, with a shapeless, tasteless hat clamped her head and she's puffing on a gold-tipped black Sobranie. And she drives a big red double-decker bus, ostensibly bound for Putney Common.

Except it's not. She's been to Putney Common precisely once, and that was by accident. There she picked up Tom, who is now her best friend. Together they journey through the multiverse: boozing and fighting; righting wrongs and buggering things up again. Here, in their first exciting anthology of ludicrous adventures, they meet monsters, klllers, ambassadors, insect-things, detectives, weirdos, psychics, fiends and sundry perverts.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/nw_n01.htm). Sighted 20/5/11

'Christmas is a time for festivities, family and fun. It's also a time for action, adventures... and aliens. Spend Christmas with the Doctor as he joins the celebrations around the globe, from the pagan past to the distant future, taking in the frozen waters of the Arctic, the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and even a trip to the planet Gloricious. Christmas is an interesting time of year when the Doctor's about. In fact, it's out of this world.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip30.htm).Sighted: 20/5/11

'Christmas is a time for many things. For family and old acquaintances. For giving, for receiving, for feasts and celebration. For huddling round the warmth of the fire, sheltered from the dark and the cold outside.

And the monsters.

It's also the busiest time of year for the mysterious Doctor, whether he's caught-up in the violence of ancient Rome, taking Leonardo da Vinci on a day-trip to the stars, or popping in on the very first Christmas on the moon.

Spend Christmas with the Doctor. If you dare.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip18.htm). Sighted 20/5/11

'In the early hours of the morning, a rock star gives a one-off comeback performance within a virtual-reality dreamscape... Over breakfast, a woman waits for the love of her life to walk through the doors of a café... The afternoon sees vital peace talks between two warring factors... A new UNIT recruit faces a terror at dusk on his first day on the job...

A Day in the Life features seventeen stories whose total 'running time' adds up to a single twenty-four-hour period: a fictional 'day in the life of the universe' made up of fragments from throughout time and space.

As we leave one story and join the next, we switch location and era - but not the hands on the clock...'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip16.htm). Sighted: 19/5/11

'All across the universe, the Doctor is hailed as a hero, a benevolent force, the man who fights the monsters, topples the dictators and frees the oppressed. Repercussions demonstrates an alternative side to this. What if, whilst doing these good, even great, deeds, the Doctor is unwittingly changing the Web of Time. Giving people knowledge they're not supposed to have. Empowering races that should have remained in the dark ages. Overthrowing the evil that, had it continued to flourish, might ultimately have brought together a greater force of good to eradicate itself.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip11.htm)

'Late 2562. Bernice Summerfield is 22 and en route to the ruin of Earth. She's young, she's single, she's just got an MA in archaeology. There's a life of adventure in front of her.

And then she meets the half-human, half-lemur Ivo, whose life she'll completely knock sideways.

Late 2607. Professor Bernice Summerfield is... well, she looks nearly 40, but it's difficult to tell what with all the time travel. She's on her way to a funeral, and to meet up with people she's not seen since her 20s.

Ex-husband / current-beau Jason is keen to go with her. Benny never talks about that period of her life -- what she did to keep out of the war, where she travelled, how she survived or who it was broke her heart. She's run through all time and space to avoid this reunion. But the best-selling author of Down Among The Dead Men must finally uncover her own past.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/bs_n17.htm). Sighted 27/5/11

'The world is changing for the better, so we're told, and we must change to keep up with it. In 2040, the human race has broken out of Earth's confines, with bases on the moon and manned missions to the furthest planets of our solar system. The terrorist threat is being contained by ever-larger military alliances, crossing the old national boundaries. Wars are fought increasingly without the risk of human error, as military vehicles and weapons learn to think for themselves. Large corporations are increasingly working as the partners of government; the largest of them, Perseus, is leading mankind's struggle to find new sources of energy, and its expansion into outer space.

Meanwhile, though, there are individuals and communities who find their own ways of living through this uncertain age. An artificial intelligence that doesn't want to fight the war it was built for; a special agent with a penchant for catsuits and old-fashioned cars; an isolated community who find meaning in advanced mathematics; an ageing conservationist who lives for his memories of Antarctica. Still worse, there are dissidents and extremist groups intent on sabotaging the cause of expansion, urging governments to "pull back to Earth," and spreading bizarre rumours that Perseus is the advance guard of an alien invasion.

For the most part, these two worlds can coexist in 2040. But there are times and places where they come into conflict, and it's here that the real interest lies. It's also, of course, where we find the Doctor: a frequent visitor, in various guises and with various companions. But is there any pattern or purpose to his visits? And is he here just to observe our future, or to change it?'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip13.htm). Sighted 20/5/11

'From the very beginnings of DNA itself, the essence of life has been renewal and change. As genetic data mutates, replicates, replaces its forerunners and adapts to its environment, the diversity of life is ever-changing, ever-growing. And as we discover more about the processes that make us what we are, so we also gain the power to change them -- and even to create life in new and unfamiliar ways.

With the Doctor, this new world of scientific frontiers opens up into a whole universe of possibilities -- some horrific, some mysterious, some beautiful. A robot discovering its capacity to dream. A living language, expanding to control and subjugate the human population. A life form that connects one universe and another, lurking in the London Underground. Virtual-reality people, living a not-so-virtual life of their own. An auctioneer of body parts, developing his own new life forms from the remains of others. A sentient android, whose form and thoughts have grown from a telepathic link with the occupants of the TARDIS.

The Doctor himself, of course, is not immune to change, and the passage of time takes its toll on his body and his soul. But even as he sees his friends and enemies age and die beside him, his own life is somewhat different -- and every now and again, he becomes an entirely new man...'