For the tenth year running, a talented writer will have their original Doctor Who story professionally produced as an audiobook, thanks to the Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity. 

This annual competition is run by Big Finish Productions in honour of our beloved friend and colleague, who suddenly passed away on 8 May 2014, and was a champion of new writing talent. 

This year, the theme was the Thirteenth Doctor, and we invited writers to pitch stories featuring the brilliant incarnation as portrayed on TV and audio by Jodie Whittaker. 

The judges chose The Wednesday that Wasn’t, a story proposed by Luke Hollands. 

The Galactic Lost Property Office is where the universe stores what it has misplaced. But instead of a scarf from Trenzalore or an umbrella from Peladon, someone has handed in a Wednesday. A whole missing day. 

The Doctor says she was keeping it safe before someone wished it away. Now it’s loose and dangerous – with a treacherous crowd who claim ownership ahead of her in the queue. 

The 2025 judging panel were Big Finish’s creative director Nicholas Briggs, voice actor and reader of the winning story Clare Corbett, producer of the Doctor Who – Short Trips range Peter Anghelides, producer of The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures range Noga Flaishon, and Big Finish producer Dominic Martin. 

Clare Corbett said: “A brilliantly paced original piece of writing with a beautifully drawn main character. My imagination immediately lit up wanting to see more of this ‘lost Wednesday’!”  

“Judging for the Paul Spragg competition was an honour,” added Noga Flaishon. “The stories we read were so full of heart, and I could have imagined the Thirteenth Doctor's voice for so many of them. It was hard to choose. As someone who grew up reading and writing Doctor Who fan fiction, this was a rare pleasure to read so many cool stories.” 

Dominic Martin said: “The Wednesday That Wasn’t is such a lovely tale that channels of all the energy of a Douglas Adams or a Terry Pratchett story while keeping it firmly within the context of Who. It’s really quite ethereal, and it's such a worthy winner in a competition with so many entries dripping with talent and passion. Beautiful!” 

And, Peter Anghelides said: “Luke’s proposal grabbed my attention immediately, and he has written a witty and exciting script that captures the Thirteenth Doctor’s character wonderfully.” 

Doctor Who – Short Trips: The Wednesday that Wasn’t, read by Clare Corbett, will be released as a free download exclusively from the Big Finish website on 29 December 2025, which would have been Paul Spragg’s fiftieth birthday. It is now available for pre-order exclusively here. 

The writer’s original proposal and studio script will also be included with the download. 

The previous winners of the Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trips Opportunity are all available to download for free:   

• 2016: Forever Fallen by Joshua Wanisko (Seventh Doctor) 
• 2017: Landbound by Selim Ulug (Third Doctor) 
• 2018: The Last Day at Work by Harry Draper (Second Doctor) 
• 2019: The Best Laid Plans by Ben Tedds (Twelfth Doctor) 
• 2020: Free Speech by Eugenie Pusenjak (Tenth Doctor) 
• 2021: The Lichyrwick Abomination by Joe Vevers (Ninth Doctor) 
• 2022: The World Tree by Nick Slawicz (Eleventh Doctor) 
• 2023: The Hoxteth Time Capsule by Paul Davis (Sixth Doctor) 
• 2024: War Stories by Patrick Ross (Twelfth Doctor) 

Additionally, two Doctor Who – Short Trips audiobooks written by Jacqueline Rayner and read by Peter Purves, Short Trips: A Forest of All Seasons and The Doctor’s Gambit, are both now available to download for free, exclusively here.