AustLit

'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

'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

'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

There are monsters everywhere. Sometimes, they are barbaric creatures -- all fangs and claws and teeth. Sometimes, they are surreptitious, subtle, sneaky. They aim to destroy, to scare, to create havoc, to kill.

Monsters can be found in unusual places -- a museum in turn-of-the-century Rome, a convalescence home deep in the English countryside, media organisations -- and in a variety of forms. They're not all slobbering, rampaging beasts -- most attack their prey with means more cunning than violence.

The Doctor and his companions come up against them constantly: they help the victims and defeat the monsters. Most of the time.

Monsters features eleven stories that look at the concept of 'monster'. In this collection, we meet aliens who take delight in manipulating the populace, a creature who lives for eternity, a monster who lives inside marble and monsters who live inside our heroes...

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip12.htm). Sighted: 19/5/11

'Doctor Who began in 1963 with a remit to teach its audience about the past. One of the regular characters was a history teacher -- and the intention was that the series would regularly explore bygone centuries, meet historical figures and interact with our ancestors.

Soon, the TARDIS was making visits to the Roman era, the time of the French Revolution and the pre-Cortez Aztec culture; the Doctor and his companions met cavemen, Marco Polo, Richard the Lionheart and Wyatt Earp.

But just as the Doctor is an alien visitor, so other interlopers from other worlds have found themselves in Earth's past -- some with the intention of changing history.

Past Tense features seventeen tales set on Earth in days gone by. The Doctor finds himself and his fellow travellers in a variety of times and places: involved in international espionage with British and German spies, at the annexation of the Transvaal, watching an Ashes cricket match and mixing with the late-Sixteenth Century theatrical set.

Seeing history happen, learning about its nuances, trying to prevent its corruption, or simply enjoying its atmosphere, our heroes find themselves in exciting adventures wherever -- or whenever -- they go.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip9.htm). Sighted 19/5/11