There’s some great imagery — glass coffins on beaches — but the scenes of the Doctor talking down Victoria and her colleagues are what make the story. Great stuff.
Transmissions has a respectable score of around 3.8 stars on GoodReads, and about 4.5 stars on Librarything. It only received a few reviews that I’m aware of, but they all seemed to agree that Richard Salter had crafted something a cut above the other Short Trips collections. Philip Purser-Hallard said it was “possibly the best Short Trips volume I’ve read … Most of the stories here would have been standouts in many of the Short Trips volumes”, while Stuart Douglas called it “a genuinely coherent whole, putting this book at the top of the pile of straight Short trips collections”. There was praise for Richard’s choice of theme for the book, with “communication” being broad and yet specific enough to allow authors to be inspired without being unconnected.
Dale Smith’s “Driftwood” … makes strong and sympathetic use of Mel, which is always a difficult trick to pull off, and … also showcases some of the best prose in the book.
There was some praise for “Driftwood”, my story in the collection. Stuart Douglas praised the “arresting imagery, believable characters and and an intriguing setting”, and Philip Purser-Hallard said it “showcases some of the best prose in the book”. Styre said that I “understand my favorite Doctor — the seventh — better than most, and write him perfectly”.
‘Driftwood’ is … a thoughtful and immaculately written contribution to the world of Who fiction.