Line #77 Literature/DoctorWho11Doctors11Stories


1	[[quoteright:654:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_1135.jpeg]]
2	''Doctor Who: 11 Doctors 11 Stories'' is a collection of short stories from Puffin Books that were originally published as individual e-books in 2013 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ''Series/DoctorWho''. Each story features one Doctor, and established companions are optional. With a different author handling each story, the tone of each one varies greatly.
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4	A twelfth story was added to the collection in 2014 to mark the formal debut of the Twelfth Doctor in the television series, and it was retitled ''12 Doctors 12 Stories'' accordingly. It was announced that it would be re-released in November 2018 as ''13 Doctors 13 Stories'' with a Thirteenth Doctor story.
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6	For the sake of editing, each story and its tropes has its own folder.
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8	"Literature/NothingOClock" has its own page.
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12	!!Tropes:
13
14	[[foldercontrol]]
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16	[[folder:The First Doctor: A Big Hand For The Doctor]]
17	Written by Creator/EoinColfer. In Edwardian London, the Doctor is recovering from an unseen adventure -- and waiting on a new hand, having lost it in said adventure -- while Susan is elsewhere by way of helping him investigate a string of mysterious child abductions in the city. Before his curious prosthetic substitute hand can be properly replaced by a specialist, he must spring into action when the space pirates responsible strike again, with both innocent human lives and his granddaughter's in the balance.
18	----
19	* HookHand: The inner workings of the Doctor's prosthetic hand resemble this to one of the space pirates.
20	* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: The space pirates are abducting children to ''harvest their organs to sell on the black market''.
21	* ShoutOut: The First Doctor uses '[[Literature/ArtemisFowl d'arvit]]' as a swear word.
22	* WholePlotReference: In an unconventional way -- this story is one to [[spoiler: ''Peter Pan'']], but the denouement reveals that [[spoiler: the Doctor's exploits ''inspired'' that play and novel in-universe]].
23	[[/folder]]
24
25	[[folder:The Second Doctor: The Nameless City]]
26	Written by Creator/MichaelScott. On Earth, the Doctor is busy trying to repair the TARDIS; while scouting for supplies, Jamie encounters a desperate stranger who "gifts" him with an even stranger book. By the time the Doctor realizes what it is -- the Necronomicon -- its evil masters have already used it to shanghai the TARDIS to the titular city from which they hope to escape.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:The Third Doctor: The Spear of Destiny]]
30	Written by Creator/MarcusSedgwick. A powerful extraterrestrial weapon, once sacred to the Vikings, has turned up in a museum's collection in London in TheSeventies and is being guarded ''quite'' zealously from all interested parties -- including UNIT. The Doctor and Jo's effort to swap it with a cunning forgery ends up taking them back to Viking days, where technology ahead of its time proves a sign of a cunning plot...
31	----
32	* GivingRadioToTheRomans: [[spoiler:The Master]] is giving electricity to the Vikings.
33	* TheXOfY: The first of several stories in this anthology to use this title convention, in the great ''Doctor Who'' tradition.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:The Fourth Doctor: The Roots of Evil]]
37	Written by Creator/PhilipReeve. The Doctor and Leela find themselves in a plant-based, planet-orbiting colony where he has been Public Enemy Number One for generations...wanted for the actions of a ''future'' incarnation. What will he do, how can he ensure he survives to do so -- and why is the entire structure literally growing hostile to everyone within it?
38	----
39	* IWasQuiteAFashionVictim: Or ''will be''. The Doctor is miserable upon discovering that in the future, he'll think wearing a bowtie is cool!
40	* MeaningfulName: The story takes place on a 'Heligan Structure', a plant-based ColonyShip. The Lost Gardens of Heligan, an estate garden neglected for decades and restored in the 1990s, are a well-known real-world tourist attraction in Cornwall.
41	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Most of the children seem to have those. All of them refer to what they want to do to the Doctor!
42	* TakeThatMe: The Doctor encounters a statue of his future self and does not agree with the notion that Bowties Are Cool.
43	* TheXOfY: The second story in this collection to use this trope.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:The Fifth Doctor: Tip of the Tongue]]
47	Written by Creator/PatrickNess, who went on to write the televised ''Doctor Who'' spinoff ''Series/Class2016''. In a small New England town in 1945 the latest must-have trendy item among the local teenagers, popularized by RichBitch Annabelle Acklin, is a "Truth Teller". It's a furry creature one wears like a necktie and hooks up to their tongue, whereupon the creature will speaks whatever truths lie in the person's mind and heart. The resultant revelations are causing strife, bullying, and angst among the teens -- and the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are in town to investigate.
48	----
49	* BigFancyHouse: The wealthy Acklin family lives in one -- which stands out even more than it normally would in a time of rationing for Americans.
50	* BrutalHonesty: Truth Tellers can make anyone speak only in this manner, no matter how much it hurts themselves or others. [[spoiler: The Doctor reveals that in fact they only reveal what the wearer ''believes'' to be true, not what is objectively true. Big difference.]]
51	* GingerbreadHouse: Discussed by Nyssa; [[spoiler: Dipthodat houses]] may have inspired the trope in Earth stories due to their unique construction.
52	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Justified; although his prejudice against Jonny (Jewish) and Nettie (black) isn't out of place in 1940s America, wealthy Mr. Acklin's cruel and condescending attitude towards the lower-class kids marks him out as just as bad as his daughter. [[spoiler: As it turns out, he and other Dipthodats have this attitude towards ''anyone'' who isn't their kind!]]
53	* RefusalOfTheCall: Jonny and Nettie are offered a chance to be companions, but turn it down.
54	* RichBitch: Annabelle Acklin is this to a T.
55	* TeensAreMonsters: The Truth Teller craze is encouraging this behavior in the local teens under the guise of mere BrutalHonesty. [[spoiler: And Annabelle turns out to be an actual monster!]]
56	* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: The temporal setting.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:The Sixth Doctor: Something Borrowed]]
60	Written by Creator/RichelleMead. The Doctor and Peri Brown (the latter of whom narrates) are on the gaudy planet of Koturia for a royal wedding -- but why have they arrived to find miniaturized pterodactyls hassling the locals? And does the foreign bride-to-be have an ulterior motive for her rush to the altar?
61	----
62	* FirstPersonPerspective: Peri Brown.
63	* PlanetOfHats: Koturia has romance as its hat. Its culture is inspired by the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas, Nevada -- a city famous for the sheer number of weddings that take place there.
64	* ThePowerOfLove: Koturians shapeshift into their final, locked form through this power, which is focused via a special stone used in the marriage ceremony. If the love between a couple does not prove true, the change won't happen.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:The Seventh Doctor: The Ripple Effect]]
68	Written by Creator/MalorieBlackman, who subsequently co-wrote the Thirteenth Doctor episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]] with Chris Chibnall. A narrow escape from becoming trapped in the wilds of the space-time continuum sees the Doctor and Ace emerge into a universe where the Daleks are a peaceful, noble race that has become a shining example for all other sentient lifeforms. The doubtful Doctor eventually must accept that it is no trick -- but is it meant to be?
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70	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The Doctor realizes, to his sadness, that he has to figure out how to restore the original timeline that their escape disrupted -- the ideal universe they are now in simply cannot hold.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:The Eighth Doctor: Spore]]
74	Written by Creator/AlexScarrow. A small Nevada town has fallen to an alien lifeform that is consuming all organic life, both animal and vegetable, in search of an answer to a question -- if it can be answered, the lives not yet consumed will be spared. But humanity is not yet ready to answer this question, so it's up to the Doctor, traveling solo, to turn back the menace if he can.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:The Ninth Doctor: The Beast of Babylon]]
78	Written by Creator/CharlieHigson. Again traveling solo, the Doctor manages to temporarily defeat an EldritchAbomination on a faraway planet in the future, but now must chase it to Earth and into the past to destroy it for good. Along with Ali, whose family picnic was interrupted by his first confrontation, he ends up in ancient Babylon, where he's believed to be a harbinger of an impending catastrophe and sentenced to be executed...
79	----
80	* EldritchAbomination: The Starman.
81	* GiantEnemyCrab: It is revealed [[spoiler: Ali's species is this]]!
82	* MeaningfulName: An obvious-in-hindsight example with Ali, who [[spoiler: is genuinely '''ali'''en]].
83	* SherlockScan: Ali works out that the Doctor is a Time Lord from the fact he is chasing someone. The Doctor even calls her "Sherlock Holmes".
84	* TomatoSurprise: The Doctor's new companion Ali [[spoiler: isn't human]].
85	* TheXOfY: Third story in this collection to use this trope.
86	* YearInsideHourOutside: It is revealed this story takes place during the ending of "Rose". After he first dematerialises, the Doctor has further adventures before returning for Rose a few seconds later from her perspective.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:The Tenth Doctor: The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage]]
90	Written by Creator/DerekLandy. The Doctor and Martha Jones find themselves in a world that's almost literally out of the pages of a book -- specifically an entry in ''The Troubleseekers'' series of children's novels about a group of {{Kid Detective}}s. But the real mystery has nothing to do with smuggled loot and everything to do with whatever conjured up this world...
91	----
92	* CallBack: The Doctor is reminded of his journey in the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber Land of Fiction]] when he first realizes that this world is based on a book Martha read, and thinks back on this while trying to figure out how to stop this different threat. Literature/{{Rapunzel}} turns up in both worlds as it happens.
93	* ContinuityNod: The Dracula the Doctor and Martha encounter here is not the only one he's met -- he notes that one of the others was [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho099SonOfTheDragon Vlad the Impaler]].
94	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The Doctor is not impressed when he learns that the overweight kid who follows the Troublemakers around is picked on by ''everybody'', even his relatives, and correctly guesses that he is only known by the name "Fatty". Martha points out that the books were written in a less sensitive time.
95	* {{Expy}}: The Troubleseekers are this to Literature/TheFamousFive and similar kidlit characters, and are explicitly described as a rip-off of such in-story. Avoided with the other stories and books that turn up later.
96	* TrappedInTVLand: The main premise. In the climactic stretch, they wind up traveling through ''several'' lands extrapolated from Martha's memories:
97	** Martha comments to Literature/{{Rapunzel}}, while stuck on her tower, that she loves her story -- and via time-travel she's seen [[WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}} the movie too]]. (Martha is from 2008 Earth; said movie wasn't released until 2011.)
98	** [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Dracula]] gets punched by the Doctor! Bonus points for being book-accurate (bearded, for one thing).
99	** [[Literature/GreatExpectations Miss Havisham]] gets chewed out by Martha, who struggled through her story as MediaNotes/SchoolStudyMedia. Martha wonders if she can't give Estella what for, too...
100	** The Doctor and Martha narrowly escape being zapped by wizards in [[Literature/HarryPotter Hogwarts]]. Doubles as a ContinuityNod to "The Shakespeare Code".
101	** [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga An encounter with "a nervous girl" and a sparkly boy]] in the woods forces Martha to ask the Doctor not to judge her...(also a TakeThat).
102	* TheXOfY: The fourth and last story in this collection to use this trope. Moreover, the title of the story is also the title of the novel the Doctor and Martha end up in in-universe.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:The Eleventh Doctor: Nothing O'Clock]]
106
107	Written by Creator/NeilGaiman. In TheEighties, animal mask-wearing strangers who ''always'' ask people to ask them what time it is are buying up all the houses in a small English town for ridiculous amounts of money. In TheNewTens, the Doctor and Amy are puzzled upon returning to Earth to discover humanity has vanished...This story also appears in ''Trigger Warning'', a 2015 collection of Gaiman short stories.
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109	Has its [[Literature/NothingOClock own page]].
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111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:The Twelfth Doctor: Lights Out]]
114	Written by Creator/HollyBlack. 78351, the narrator, is a spaceship pilot employed by the fabled Planet of the Coffee Shops, delivering coffee bean shipments to other worlds. Preparing for another long haul, he stops at a cafe to pick up some coffee; right ahead of him in the line is the Doctor, who's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath out to prove he's the fetching type after all]]. Suddenly, the coffee supply runs out -- then the lights go out for a moment -- and when they come up, a solider standing ''behind'' 78351 has been murdered. As panic spreads over both the murder ''and'' the coffee crisis and the killer strikes again, the Doctor and the reluctant, anxious "Fifty-One" investigate...
115	----
116	* AlienCatnip: Many alien races MustHaveCaffeine. Not all of them have the same reaction to it as humans.
117	* BusmansHoliday: The Doctor's just trying to fetch coffee, and ''this'' happens! [[spoiler: Or so it seems. He's using the excuse of fetching Clara coffee to ''continue'' his investigation of the killings on Choris.]]
118	* ContinuityNod
119	** This is set on the Planet of the Coffee Shops (aka Choris), which the Doctor briefly mentioned in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited The Girl Who Waited]]".
120	** This takes place while the Doctor is picking up coffee for Clara -- possibly between the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]" and him turning up in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E2IntoTheDalek Into the Dalek]]" three weeks later. (Black said in an interview that she was given the first four Twelfth Doctor scripts to reference in writing this story, and those episodes are the first two.)
121	** The Doctor regards the wares of this planet as the third-best coffee in the universe. His old UNIT colleague Sergeant Benton made the second best, and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders Elisabeth Pepys]] the absolute best.
122	** Apparently quite a few Whoniverse species frequent Choris; background characters here include a Terileptil, a Silurian, a Graske, and a Vinvocci. See also HeinzHybrid below.
123	** The Doctor explains to 78351 that sometimes a person wants to tell themselves something important, but does not do it directly -- [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath they might do it by way of a different face, for example, one they don't like...]]
124	* CreepyGood: The Twelfth Doctor's embodiment of this trope is played up in this story. 78351 is almost as frightened of ''him'' as of the dark and whatever it is that's killing people.
125	* EveryoneIsASuspect: But especially the Doctor and 78351, seeing as the victims were standing near them at the time and the killer has to strike ''very'' quickly...
126	* EvilutionaryBiologist: 78351 and his two friends were prisoners -- and the only survivors -- of a group of these trying to come up with an UltimateLifeForm with which to colonize/conquer the universe until the Doctor freed them. And one of them appears to be around on the Planet of the Coffee Shops, right near 78351 in the line...
127	* FaceYourFears: 78351 is terrified by the situation he and the Doctor are in, as it punches all of his PrimalFear buttons -- and then some when TheReveal is made. The compassionate Doctor tells him that, often, admitting to one's self that they are afraid can be the hardest thing in the world, but it ''must'' be done if those fears are to be faced and conquered...and 78351 rises to those challenges in the end.
128	* FirstPersonPerspective: Told from 78351's point-of-view.
129	* FunWithAcronyms: A serious, subtle example that turns out to be {{Foreshadowing}}. The Intergalactic Coffee Roasting Station is known as ICRS for short, pronounced "[[Myth/ClassicalMythology Icarus]]". [[spoiler: Icarus flew too close to the sun on wings of feathers and wax and ended up drowning in the sea below him. 78351 pilots his ship in the direction of a sun to obtain the energy he needs for his final transformation, even though the act may kill him. As he changes, he sprouts wings.]]
130	* GentleGiant: 78351 is a hulking, hunched-over humanoid with grey skin and a bare pate, almost as tall as the Doctor, kind, and extremely timid.
131	* HaveWeMetYet: Another incarnation of the Doctor saved 78351 and his fellow prisoners/subjects from the sadistic experiments years before. 78351 remembers the name and recognizes a similar enthusiasm, but Twelve, who is forgetful even by Doctor standards, initially doesn't remember this and it's left unclear which Doctor was the rescuer.
132	* HeinzHybrid: 78351 is "a pinch of Axon, a bit of Ogron, and a dash of Pyrovile."
133	* HeroicSacrifice: Possibly, given that the story has NoEnding, the fate of [[spoiler: poor, poor 78351]], who points out that the Doctor himself was ready to do this in his efforts to stop the killer.
134	* IncrediblyObviousBomb: The killer planted one of these in the room where the lighting ''and'' coffee dispensing systems are operated from to cause the blackouts; the disruption of the coffee supply may or may not have been intentional. The past tense is important -- this was a time bomb, and to make sure it wasn't deactivated before it went off, the two technicians who were in the control room were killed...which means there are now '''four''' victims of the murderer.
135	* LightsOffSomebodyDies: The nature of the killings. The Doctor must figure out how they're being pulled off -- ''why'' are the lights going on and off, and ''how'' can the killer strike so quickly?
136	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The Doctor regards ''himself'' as having done this by [[spoiler: rescuing and freeing 78351, not realizing what he would become upon maturing]]. He also clearly regrets [[spoiler: inspiring him to make a Heroic Sacrifice]].
137	* NoEnding: The story closes with [[spoiler: 78351 in his burning-up ship, having sent the Doctor away. With the ship and its coffee bean shipment vaporized, the resultant energy surge allows him to make a final, permanent transformation. Whether he dies or not, his threat is stopped and he is no longer scared]]...
138	* PlanetOfHats: The Planet of the Coffee Shops! The original reference in-series could have been the Eleventh Doctor sardonically describing a tourist trap with a lot of coffee shops on it, but it turns out that it really is a planet ''dedicated'' to coffee shops, and that's what it's called.
139	* PlayingWithSyringes: The scientists who tormented 78351 and his fellow prisoners did a lot of this, and he has a fear of needles as a result. Finding out that the murder victims have puncture wounds that could have been caused by needles does nothing for his nerves.
140	* PrimalFear: 78351 is desperate to stay awake as much as is possible due to a paralyzing fear of the dark. This fear stems from [[spoiler: the sadistic things the scientists did to him and his fellow prisoners in the dark, claiming that whatever was done then ''didn't matter''...]]. He also is deathly afraid of needles.
141	* PubertySuperpower: What 78351 and his fellow prisoners originally were is never specified, but it's strongly implied they were human or at least humanoid. They were operated upon from birth, were freed by the Doctor, and have all effectively hit puberty by the time this story begins; a female he's attracted to just had her antennae grow in. He came out a bit differently and actually has this trope going for him: [[spoiler: His unconscious efforts to complete the process of becoming a winged beast have turned him into a killer in a deconstruction of this trope]].
142	* RedHerring: The masked scientist 78351 notices, fears, and suspects is ''not'' the murderer, but rather [[spoiler: a hallucination that he, the REAL killer, is having by way of denying his darker self]].
143	* TheReveal: The mysterious killer who strikes in the dark is [[spoiler: 78351. He takes on a monstrous, energy-hungry form in darkness, and denies its existence]]. The Doctor realizes that [[spoiler: he is simply scared and needs to accept and transform into his adult form]]. Related tropes include [[spoiler: Anti-Villain, Energy Absorption, Halluncinations (single character -- the scientist), Jekyll And Hyde, The Killer In Me (Amnesiac), Power Gives You Wings, Reluctant Monster, Super-Powered Evil Side (reconstructed), Sympathetic Murder Backstory, Tomato In The Mirror]].
144	* SaveTheVillain: The Doctor has a great deal of compassion for the killer once he realizes who and what it is, and tries not only to stop them, but save them if he can.
145	* SeriousBusiness: Coffee for those who come to Choris -- when it's first announced that the coffee's suddenly run out in the cafe, it causes a panic that's only intensified by the blackout and murder that follows. For some of the patrons, their need for coffee remains more of a concern than the fact that there's a killer on the loose!
146	* SingleBiomePlanet: Choris, which is dedicated to ''growing'' coffee.
147	* ThirtySecondBlackout: A near-literal application of this trope, twice over at that, as the Doctor and co. are waiting in line for their coffee -- and those seconds are all that the killer needs to strike and go undetected.
148	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In-universe, 78351 wonders what became of the scientists after the Doctor rescued him and his friends from them. As it happens, there is a scientist in a respirator mask in line with them as the killings begin...
149	* WouldHurtAChild: The scientists began operating on 78351 and other innocents as soon as they were ''born''.
150	* YouAreNumberSix: 78351, nicknamed "Fifty-One" by the Doctor, who was raised in a laboratory where all the "subjects" had numbers rather than names.
151	* YoungerThanTheyLook: 78351 is a GentleGiant (about the Doctor's height and much bulkier), but he and his friends are still in the process of becoming full-fledged adults physically; effectively, they're teenagers.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:The Thirteenth Doctor: Time Lapse]]
155	Written by Creator/NaomiAlderman.
156	[[/folder]]

Context Literature / DoctorWho11Doctors11Stories