Big Finish Productions holds the annual Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity in tribute to our much missed colleague. The competition offers the chance to write a Doctor Who audiobook, and this year once again attracted a strong range of entries, with more than a thousand submissions. 

Prospective writers were invited to submit a story synopsis and extract featuring the Thirteenth Doctor. The judges have now deliberated and chosen a winner, who has been contacted. 

The 2025 judging panel consisted of: 

• Nicholas Briggs, Big Finish’s creative director; 

• Peter Anghelides, producer and script editor of the Doctor Who – Short Trips range; 

• Noga Flaishon, producer of The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures range; 

• Dominic Martin, Big Finish producer; 

• Clare Corbett, Audie Award-winning voice actor. 

Peter Anghelides said: “All five of us were delighted and amazed by the creativity and originality of the entrants. Our winner is being commissioned to write their complete story. Big Finish will announce who that is after it is recorded later in the year.” 

Noga Flaishon said: “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.” 

Dominic Martin added, “It's such a worthy winner, in a competition with so many entries dripping with talent and passion. Beautiful!” 

The audiobook will be read by Clare Corbett, who is also on this year’s judging panel. “The winner is a brilliantly paced original piece of writing  with a beautifully drawn main character,” she said. “My imagination immediately lit up wanting to see more.” 

The new adventure will be released as a free download in December. But Big Finish listeners eager to hear the Thirteenth Doctor don’t need to wait until then. Jodie Whittaker returns to the role, alongside Mandip Gill as Yasmin Khan, in The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures, a bimonthly full-cast audio drama series. The first episode, Vampire Weekend, is available now, with the second, The Return of the Doctor, due for release in September. 

And, there are more short Doctor Who audiobook adventures in the Short Trips range. The latest volume, Tales from the Vortex, was released in April and features brand-new journeys across time and space with Doctors and companions from both the classic and new eras of the TV show – including a Tenth Doctor story read by Clare Corbett. 

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 brand-new 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.