Brief Encounter

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Each story in the series was labelled with a masthead that clearly marked it as a "Brief Encounter"

Brief Encounter was the umbrella title for an occasional series of vignettes that appeared in the Doctor Who Magazine Family of publications from 1990 to 1994. The series tried to investigate characterisation and mood more than plot. Towards this end, it combined characters who had not been paired on television. While many of the stories featured the Doctor, a number did not, preferring to examine the lives of companions or villains at a time other than known adventures with the Doctor.

Overview

Brief Encounter's Mandate was to ask "what if?" questions.

  • What if this companion met that companion?
  • What if this incarnation of the Doctor met another incarnation's assistant?
  • What if this villain met that monster?
  • What if we explored a tiny emotional beat in the life of a known character?

Examples of stories resulting from asking these sorts of questions included: a pedestrian collision between Sarah Jane Smith and Dodo Chaplet, a chess match between the Celestial Toymaker and Fenric and a wedding anniversary of the Brigadier and Doris Lethbridge-Stewart.

A largely forgotten corner of the DWU

Brief Encounter's "what if?" format was meant to challenge reader's perceptions of the then-fledgling "Doctor Who universe". At the time, original, professional Doctor Who prose fiction had only just begun to be published on a regular basis. However, its publication in the pages of a physical magazine posed obvious problems of access. As time went on, it was increasingly difficult for later writers to even read these vignettes —much less incorporate their content into later works. Some of the concepts were thus later contradicted. For instance, according to the Brief Encounter Down to Earth, Liz Shaw's first trip in the TARDIS was with the Fourth Doctor, who had deliberately found Liz to apologise for not saying goodbye to her. The later novel The Wages of Sin clearly states the Third Doctor did indeed give Liz a trip in the TARDIS with Jo Grant and that there would have been no need for the apology the Fourth Doctor offered in Down to Earth.

Further frustrating the series' longterm impact on DWU fiction was the fact that many of them were simply whimsical. Amongst the more imaginative ideas covered in the series were:

Beyond anomalies of content are questions of style. It's not unusual to find Brief Encounter stories which were written in the first person. Though not completely unknown in other prose work, it's still generally rare to find stories in the DWU which give such a personal perspective. Even the Doctor occasionally narrated proceedings — as in An Unfulfilled Dream — which is almost never the case in longer-form prose material.

Writers

The stories were quite often written by professional writers. They notably included the final work of television writer John Lucarotti and the first of Paul Cornell. On at least one occasion in 1991, however, the series was the focus of a DWM competition, in which amateur writers were encouraged to submit their own "brief encounter" for possible publication. Andrew Cartmel, the Seventh Doctor's then-recently-disemployed script editor, judged the competition. He pronounced a Seventh Doctor/K9 story the winner of the under-15 category and a poignant meeting between the Doctor and a six-year-old Katarina, the winner of the all-age group.

History of the format

The series began in DWM 167 with a very deliberate nod to the anniversary of Doctor Who. Since issue 167 was the November 1990 edition, Brief Encounter launched with a story by John Lucarotti, someone who had written during the First Doctor's era. The one-page, illustrated story became the norm for the series as seen in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, clearly distinguishing it from other, longer stories that the magazine occasionally published. Future instalments would stick to this format, or perhaps add a second page.

The series would also travel to a few of the DWM specials and the first couple of editions of the Doctor Who Yearbook series. However, the series was over by July 1994 in DWM proper and it didn't extend past the DWMS Holiday 1992 special issue and the 1993 yearbook.

Nevertheless, short stories by the same calibre of professional author continued in the Yearbook series well after Brief Encounter died. Therefore, some reference works have lumped stories in, say, the 1995 yearbook with the Brief Encounter series. Such grouping is unjustified. These later Yearbook stories never got the Brief Encounter masthead. Moreover, they were far longer than the typical entry in the series — often extending to five or six pages. They also used combinations of characters that would be expected from watching the Television series; they were just another adventure for a particular TARDIS crew. Indeed, short stories after the 1993 Yearbook had much more in common with stories in the annuals of the 21st century than they did with the Brief Encounter series.

List of stories

Issue Title Author
DWM 167 The Meeting John Lucarotti First Doctor, John Lucarotti (as character)
DWM 168 An Incident Concerning the Continual Bombardment of the Phobos Colony Paul Cornell Davros
DWM 169 Untitled David Bishop Seventh Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
DWM 171 Untitled Michael Bonner Berenyi
DWM 172 A Victorian Interlude Andy Lane Henry Gordon Jago, Dr. Litefoot, Fifth Doctor
DWM 174 Under Reykjavik Warren Ellis Magnus Greel, Romana II
DWM 176 Mistaken Identity Gary Russell Lytton, Cast of EastEnders
DWM 178 Affirmative Daniel Read Seventh Doctor, Leela, K9 Mark I
DWM 178 An Unfulfilled Dream Karen Dunn Seventh Doctor, Katarina
DWM 181 Echoes of Future Past John Summerfield First Doctor, Seventh Doctor
DWM 184 Untitled Paul Ferry Duggan, Seventh Doctor, Ace
DWM 185 Ships Jamie Woolley Dodo Chaplet, Sarah Jane Smith
DWM 186 Cathedral Heart Paul Cornell Seventh Doctor, Ace
DWM 187 A Romantic Evening Alex Fowles The Brigadier, Doris Lethbridge-Stewart, Seventh Doctor
DWM 188 The Useful Pile Kate Orman Seventh Doctor
DWM 189 Time, Love and TARDIS Ron Plath The TARDIS (as a character), The Doctor (uncertain incarnation)
DWM 190 A Visit to the Cinema Vanessa Bishop Third Doctor
DWM 191 Reunion David Carroll Peri Brown
DWM 192 Games Warwick Gray The Celestial Toymaker, Fenric
DWM 193 Toy Colin Varney Shardovan, The Portreeve
DWM 194 Tautology Glenn Langford Marius, K9 Mark III, K9 Mark I
DWM 195 In the Community Paul Beardsley Ace, Judith Winters ("the Girl" from Remembrance of the Daleks)
DWM 196 The Stranger, The Writer, His Wife and the Mixed Metaphor Graham Cox Fourth Doctor, William Shakespeare
DWM 197 A Time & a Place Una McCormack Seventh Doctor, Barbara Campbell
DWM 198 Three Steps to the Left Glenn Langford Seventh Doctor
DWM 199 Anti-Matter with Fries Gareth Roberts Ace, The Ergon, Seventh Doctor
DWM 205 Missing in Action Tim Pieraccini Mike Yates
DWM 206 One Minute Fourteen Seconds Kate Orman Seventh Doctor, Ace
DWM 208 Front Line Paul Smith Seventh Doctor
DWM 210 Down to Earth David Jackson Liz Shaw, Fourth Doctor
DWM 212 Useless Things David Carroll None
DWM 213 The Gallery Paul D. Smith Seventh Doctor
DWM 214 Roses Robert Mammone First Doctor, Steven Taylor
DWMS Winter 1991 Listening Watch Dan Abnett John Benton, Mike Yates, The Brigadier
DWMS Winter 1991 A Wee Deoch an ...? Colin Baker Sixth Doctor, Mel, The Brigadier
DWMS Holiday 1992 Girls' Night In Mike Tucker and Robert Perry Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith, Liz Shaw, Tegan, Ace
DWMS Holiday 1992 Playtime Vanessa Bishop Sarah Jane Smith, Lavinia Smith, Susan
DWMS Holiday 1992 Fond Memories Nicholas Courtney The Brigadier
Doctor Who Yearbook 1992 Future Imperfect Marc Platt Second Doctor, Third Doctor
Doctor Who Yearbook (1992) Time on a Vine John Lydecker Fifth Doctor
Doctor Who Yearbook (1992) The Deal Colin Baker Sixth Doctor, Mel
Doctor Who Yearbook 1993 Cambridge Previsited Karen Dunn First Doctor
Doctor Who Yearbook 1993 Dream a Little Dream For Me Nigel Robinson Second Doctor, Seventh Doctor
Doctor Who Yearbook 1993 Country of the Blind Paul Cornell Third Doctor, Liz Shaw
Doctor Who Yearbook 1993 Farewells Terrance Dicks Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, K9
Doctor Who Yearbook 1993 Encounter on Burnt Snake Flat Marc Platt Fifth Doctor, Tegan
Doctor Who Yearbook 1993 A Tourist Invasion Colin Baker Sixth Doctor, Mel

External links