Slipback
Novelised as:	Slipback
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Peri Brown
Main setting:	Vipod Mor
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Radio
Writer:	Eric Saward
Producer:	Paul Spencer
Release details
Release date:	25 July - 8 August 1985
ISBN 0-563-47794-6
Doctor Who - BBC Radio Dramas

Slipback by Eric Saward was the first original Doctor Who serial to be produced for radio. It was first broadcast by BBC Radio in the summer of 1985 when the televised series was on hiatus for a year. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant reprised their TV roles for the production, which also included other cast members. It, along with the earlier Doctor Who and the Pescatons, is considered a forerunner of the later Big Finish Productions audio dramas. It was followed nearly a decade later by two more radio dramas starring Jon Pertwee and in 2007 by a new made-for-radio series for BBC7 (produced by Big Finish) starring Paul McGann.

Slipback was released to cassette tape by BBC Audio, and later to CD by Silva Screen Records.

Summary Edit

This six-part radio play starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant details the Sixth Doctor and Peri's adventure on board a starship taken over by its dual personality computer. It tries to take the ship back to the dawn of the universe and start life again. Along the way the Doctor and Peri meet a couple of comedy policemen, an art thief and a captain who wants to infect his crew with one of his diseases...

Cast Edit

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant
• Computer / Inner Voice - Jane Carr
• Grant - Jon Glover
• Bates / Snatch - Nick Revell
• Mutant / Stewart - Alan Thompson
• Slarn - Valentine Dyall
• Seedle - Ron Pember

References Edit

• Peri says that she does not know the Doctor's real name, only that he has told her she couldn't pronounce it.
• Peri is believed to be a mini Migarian
• Splay-footed Hedrons are found on the planet Vigal Minor.

Notes Edit

• This story was recorded 10 June 1985 in Studio B11 at Broadcasting House. ^[1]
• This story was broadcast on BBC 4 as part of the Thursday morning magazine programme Pirate Radio Four. Two episodes were broadcast; beginning on 25 July and finishing on 8 August.^[1]
• Released as a Silva Screen Records cassette in 1988, it was reissued as part of the BBC Radio Collection in 2001, and was offered as a promotional giveaway by The Daily Telegraph in 2010.

Continuity Edit

• The placement of this story in relation to other Sixth Doctor/Peri adventures is uncertain; since it was produced between Season 22 and Season 23, however, it's generally assumed that it takes place in the gap between those two seasons.
• According to this story, the Vipod Mor is responsible for the Big Bang, yet in TV: Terminus another vessel was responsible for triggering the explosion. Whilst TV: Castrovalva states it was an "in-rush" of hydrogen.

Novelisation Edit

Main article: Slipback (novelisation)

Novelised as Slipback by Eric Saward in 1986. It was the first Target Books novelisation not based upon a televised story. The book is notable for not featuring the Doctor or Peri or directly adapting the radio play for its first fifty pages. Instead it expands upon character's backgrounds.

External links Edit

• Detailed synopsis of Slipback at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for Slipback at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
• The TARDIS Library - Slipback

Footnotes Edit