Short hop
A short hop, sometimes referred to as a short trip, (PROSE: Five Card Draw [+]Loading...["Five Card Draw (short story)"]) was a manoeuvre in TARDIS-piloting which involved dematerialising the ship and rematerialising a short distance from the original location, without a change in temporal coordinates. (AUDIO: The Roof of the World [+]Loading...["The Roof of the World (audio story)"], Grand Theft Cosmos [+]Loading...["Grand Theft Cosmos (audio story)"], Patient Zero [+]Loading...["Patient Zero (audio story)"], et al.) Occasionally it was also used to refer to short traversals in time while remaining at the same spatial coordinates, (AUDIO: 100 BC [+]Loading...["100 BC (audio story)"]) or to journeys only involving a small change in both. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion [+]Loading...["The Eye of the Scorpion (audio story)"])
In the early days of piloting their TARDIS, the Doctor had minimal control, and so short hops and precise long-distance travel alike were always difficult. The First Doctor's first ever attempt at a short hop, however, was successful, involving a movement from the bottom of the ocean of Kandalinga to an artificial causeway several thousand miles away. (PROSE: The Fishmen of Kandalinga [+]Loading...["The Fishmen of Kandalinga (short story)"]) Later, the First Doctor was able to pilot the TARDIS precisely from a forest to a clearing to save one Lady Mary from a gang of bandits. The Second Doctor was particularly surprised at this, noting that he has trouble with short trips. The First Doctor assured him, however, that he too usually struggles, but that on this one occasion he "somehow" knew the precise coordinates he needed to make the jump. (PROSE: Five Card Draw [+]Loading...["Five Card Draw (short story)"]) In another account, by chance, Polly Wright was able to pilot the TARDIS a short distance to save the Second Doctor and Ben Jackson, though she claimed to have no recollection of exactly what she had done to achieve this. The Doctor himself was astounded, claiming to have never done it himself. (PROSE: When Starlight Grows Cold [+]Loading...["When Starlight Grows Cold (short story)"])
On the Darkheart colony, Jamie McCrimmon reminded the Second Doctor that he had once said that the TARDIS wasn't built for short hops. The Doctor, however, told him of a safety override of sorts which allowed a completely random jump of less than a mile from the TARDIS's present location, something which he pulled off successfully. (PROSE: The Dark Path [+]Loading...["The Dark Path (novel)"])
Later, the Doctor became more adept at piloting his ship, however short trips still required a degree of skill to achieve. (AUDIO: Grand Theft Cosmos [+]Loading...["Grand Theft Cosmos (audio story)"], The Lure of the Nomad [+]Loading...["The Lure of the Nomad (audio story)"], TV: The Bells of Saint John [+]Loading...["The Bells of Saint John (TV story)"]) The Sixth Doctor boasted that he was "extremely good" at short hops. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy [+]Loading...["The Marian Conspiracy (audio story)"]) Although on some occasions a short hop was all the TARDIS could manage after being badly damaged, (AUDIO: Patient Zero [+]Loading...["Patient Zero (audio story)"]) and was typically considered an easier journey to pull off. (AUDIO: The Burning Prince [+]Loading...["The Burning Prince (audio story)"])
The term was also used by Rassilon in the Divergent Universe (AUDIO: The Next Life [+]Loading...["The Next Life (audio story)"]) and Rasmus. (AUDIO: Deeptime Frontier [+]Loading...["Deeptime Frontier (audio story)"])
