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 focused on characterisation and mood more than plot, to this end often combining characters who had not been paired on television. While many of the stories featured the Doctor, a number did not, instead examining the lives of companions or villains at a time other than known adventures with the Doctor.
== Overview ==
Brief Encounters 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 four dimensional chess match between the Toymaker and Fenric, and a wedding anniversary of the Brigadier and Doris Lethbridge-Stewart.
This format was meant to challenge readers' 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, removing the need for the Fourth Doctor's apology in Down to Earth.
== 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 the issue 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, clearly distinguishing it from other, longer stories that the magazine occasionally published, although some future instalments would sometimes include a second page.
Brief Encounter stories also appeared in a few of the DWM specials and the first 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, for instance, the 1995 yearbook with the Brief Encounter series, despite the fact that they lacked the Brief Encounter masthead and were far longer 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 21st century annuals than they did with the Brief Encounter series.
== List of stories ==
Issue 	Title 	Author 	Featuring
DWM 167 	The Meeting 	John Lucarotti 	First Doctor, John Lucarotti
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
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
Doctor Who Yearbook 1992	The Meeting (reprint) 	John Lucarotti 	First Doctor, John Lucarotti
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
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, The Doctor
DWM 190 	A Visit to the Cinema 	Vanessa Bishop 	Third Doctor
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 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
DWM 191 	Reunion 	David Carroll 	Peri Brown
DWM 192 	Games 	Warwick Gray 	The Mandarin, the Entity
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
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 	
DWM 213 	The Gallery 	Paul D. Smith 	Seventh Doctor
DWM 214 	Roses 	Robert Mammone 	First Doctor, Steven Taylor
== External links ==
Category:Prose fiction overviews
Category:Doctor Who Magazine
Category:Tie-in book series