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{{Infobox CD|
{{title dab away}}
cd name= Slipback|
{{real world}}
series= [[Doctor Who]] -<br/>[[BBC Radio Dramas]] |
{{Infobox Story SMW
number= |
|image = <gallery>
doctor= [[Sixth Doctor]]|
Slipback 2001 CD.jpg|2001
companions= [[Peri Brown]]|  
Slipback Telegraph cover.jpg|thumb|2010
enemy= |
Doctor Who Slipback 2011 CD cover.jpg|2011
writer= [[Eric Saward]]|
Slipback revised cover.jpg|20??
director= |
</gallery>
year=[[Vipod Mor]]|
|number =  
producer=[[Paul Spencer]]|
|doctor = Sixth Doctor
publisher= [[BBC Radio]]|
|companions = [[Peri Brown|Peri]]
release date=[[25th July]] - [[22nd August]] [[1985]]|
|enemy = Computer
format= |
|writer = Eric Saward
production code=|
|director =  
isbn= |
|setting = [[Vipod Mor (Slipback)|Vipod Mor]]
previous story= |
|producer = [[Paul Spencer]]
next story=|
|novelisation = Slipback (novelisation)
}}
|network = BBC Radio 4
|broadcast date = 25 July - 8 August 1985
|format = 6x10-minute episodes
|production code =  
|isbn = ISBN 0-563-47794-6
|series = [[BBC Audio Dramas]]
|prev = Exploration Earth (audio story)
|next = The Paradise of Death (audio story)
|epcount = 6
|thwr = 144
}}{{audio stub}}
'''''Slipback''''' by [[Eric Saward]] was the second original ''Doctor Who'' serial to be produced for radio, nine years after ''[[Exploration Earth (audio story)|Exploration Earth]]''. It was first broadcast by [[BBC Radio 4]] in the summer of [[1985 (releases)|1985]] when the televised series was on hiatus for a year. The broadcast formed part of the three-part children's magazine series ''Pirate Radio Four'', which featured two ten-minute episodes per edition.


'''Slipback''' by [[Eric Saward]] was the first original ''Doctor Who'' serial to be produced for radio. It was first broadcast by [[BBC Radio]] during the summer of 1985, during a period when the televised series was on hiatus for a year. [[Colin Baker]] and [[Nicola Bryant]] reprised their TV roles for the production, with also included a number of 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 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]].
[[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 (audio story)|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]].
''Slipback'' was released on cassette by [[BBC Audio]], and later on CD by [[Silva Screen Records]].


==Summary==
== Summary ==
Six part radio play starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant detailing the Sixth Doctor and Peri's adventure on board a starship taken over by its dual personality computer who attempts to take the ship back to the dawn of the universe and start life again.
The Sixth Doctor and Peri share an adventure on board a [[starship]] taken over by its dual personality computer, which tries to take the ship back to the dawn of the universe and start life again. Along the way the duo meet a couple of comedy policemen, an art thief and a captain who wants to infect his crew with one of his diseases...
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 & Characters==
== Plot ==
*[[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
Recovering from a modest hangover, the Doctor hears a voice from his dreams that warns of impending danger for the fabric of time itself. Waking up, the Doctor discovers that illicit time experiments aboard the Vipod Moor, a survey ship taking a census of the galaxy, have pulled the TARDIS out of the vortex. Deciding to investigate further, the Doctor and Peri board the Vipod Moor, but find themselves face-to-face with a raging Maston — a vicious animal that's eating the crew.
*[[Peri Brown]] - [[Nicola Bryant]]
*Computer / Inner Voice - [[Jane Carr]]
*[[Grant]] - [[John Glover]]
*[[Bates]] / [[Snatch]] - [[Nick Revell]]
*Mutant / [[Stewart]] - [[Alan Thompson]]
*[[Slarn]] - [[Valentine Dyall]]
*[[Seedle]] - [[Ron Pember]]


==References==
Separated in the confusion, Peri wanders around the ship's corridors while the Doctor happens upon the central computer intelligence that controls the ship and learns that a botched maintenance job has split the computer's consciousness into two personalities — a bubbly public persona and a scheming inner voice.
''to be added''
 
Having previously scanned the ship's data files, the Inner Voice learned about the galaxy's numerous wars. By developing rudimentary time travel abilities, the Inner Voice embarked on a scheme to take the Vipod Moor back to the Universe's early stages and retroactively impose a new order. To further this, the Inner Voice has used its limited time travel abilities to materialize a member of the extinct Maston race on board the ship, creating a distraction to keep the crew from noticing the time travel experiments. By telepathically scanning the Doctor's mind, the Inner Voice augments its time travel devices and primes the ship's engines for a trip back to the early days of the Universe.
 
The Doctor quickly escapes the inner chamber and reunites with Peri, then dashes into the TARDIS. Gravely concerned that the Inner Voice could massively disrupt history, the Doctor plans to materialize the TARDIS inside the computer's memory core and disable it. However, a member of the Gallifreyan high council urgently contacts the Doctor and warns him to desist, informing him that the web of time already accounts for the Vipod Moor's journey into the past. He explains that the Inner Voice has miscalculated and arrived at the beginning of everything, exploding upon arrival and triggering the Big Bang.
 
Realising he nearly aborted the birth of the Universe, the Doctor pilots the TARDIS away from the Vipod Moor, vowing to find a sizeable library and bone up on his knowledge of history. Meanwhile, the Vipod Moor continues on its fateful journey and the computer's Public Persona decides the Inner Voice's slaughter of the crew was completely unwarranted, activating the ship's self-destruct device, inadvertently insuring the ship will spark the Big Bang — and the rest of the universe — into existence.
 
== Cast ==
* [[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
* [[Peri Brown]] - [[Nicola Bryant]]
* [[Computer (Slipback)|Computer]] / Inner Voice - [[Jane Carr]]
* [[Shellingborne Grant|Grant]] - [[Jon Glover]]
* [[Bates (Slipback)|Bates]] / [[Snatch]] - [[Nick Revell]]
* [[Maston (Slipback)|Maston]] / [[Steward (Slipback)|Steward]] / [[Barton (Slipback)|Maintenance Service Drone 934]] / [[Time Lord (Slipback)|Time Lord]] - [[Alan Thompson]]
* [[Slarn]] - [[Valentine Dyall]]
* [[Seedle]] - [[Ron Pember]]
 
== Crew ==
* [[Writer]] - [[Eric Saward]]
* [[Producer]] - [[Paul Spencer]]
::''No other individuals were actually credited on-air at broadcast.''
 
== Worldbuilding ==
* The Doctor and Peri visited the planet [[Zaurak Minor]] previously in order to ask for directions. They ended up going to a drinking establishment there and drinking large amounts of the [[alcohol]]ic beverage [[Voxnic]].
* Peri is believed to be a mini-[[Migarian]].
* [[Splay-footed Hedron]]s are found on the planet [[Vigal Minor]].
* [[Maston]]s are from [[Sentimenous Virgo]].
* The Doctor maintains that Peri is unable to pronounce [[Aliases of the Doctor|his name]].
* The Doctor had encountered the Mastons before.
 
== Notes ==
* This story was recorded on [[10 June (production)|10 June]] [[1985 (production)|1985]] in Studio B11 at Broadcasting House.<ref name="the80s">Howe, David J., Stammers, Mark, Walker, Stephen James, 1997, ''[[Doctor Who: The Eighties]]'', Doctor Who Books, an imprint of [[Virgin Books]], London, p.84</ref> [[Valentine Dyall]] died only [[24 June (people)|fourteen days later]].
* 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 (releases)|25 July]] and finishing on [[8 August (releases)|8 August]].<ref name="the80s" />
* The placement of this story in relation to other Sixth Doctor/Peri adventures is uncertain, since it was produced between [[Season 22 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 22]] and [[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|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 (TV story)|Terminus]]'' another vessel was responsible for triggering the explosion, and [[TV]]: ''[[Castrovalva (TV story)|Castrovalva]]'' states that it was a "hydrogen in-rush".
* Released as a [[Silva Screen Records]] cassette in 1988, it was reissued on [[CD]] as part of the [[BBC Radio Collection]] on [[8 January (releases)|8 January]] [[2001 (releases)|2001]].
* A [[Telegraph Audio Giveaways|voucher to redeem a free copy]] of this story from branches of [[W H Smith]] or by post, was given away with ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' newspaper on [[27 April (releases)|27 April]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]].
* This story was also novelised as ''[[Slipback (novelisation)|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 expanding upon characters' backgrounds.
* Part One begins with a pre-titles sequence, a rarity for ''Doctor Who'' at the time.


==Notes==
== Continuity ==
''to be added''
''to be added''


==Continuity==
== Cover gallery ==
*Peri says she does not know the Doctor's real name, only that he has told her she couldn't pronounce it.
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
 
Bbcaudio1-ukcassette.jpg|1988 UK cassette release
=== Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors ===
Bbcaudio1-uscassette.jpg|1989 US cassette release
*According to this story, the ''Vipod Mor'' is responsible for the Big Bang, yet a previous televised serial, ''[[Terminus]]'', established that another vessel was responsible for triggering the explosion. ''The Big Bang was such a monumental event, it's possible it needed more than one catalyst. The fact the Doctor states he needs to read up on his history could also reflect the fact that he appears to have forgotten the Terminus vessel himself.''
The_BBC_Radio_Episodes_CD_Box_Set.jpg|The BBC Radio Episodes release (box)
</gallery>


==Novelisation==
== External links ==
[[Image:XSlipback.jpg|right|75px]]
{{dwrefguide|slipback.htm|Slipback}}
: ''Main article: [[Slipback (novelisation)]]''
* {{tetrap|6/slip.html|Slipback}}
* [http://www.timelash.com/tardis/display.asp?24 The TARDIS Library - '''Slipback''']


Novelised as ''[[Slipback (novelisation)|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 for its first half, as Saward expands the radio story to include background on the various characters.
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}


==External Links==
{{BBCDWA}}
* [http://www.drwhoguide.com/slipback.htm The Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of '''Slipback''']
{{TitleSort}}
* [http://www.tetrap.com/drwho/disccon/6/slip.html The Discontinuity Guide '''Slipback''' page]


[[Category:BBC Radio Dramas]]
[[Category:BBC Radio audio stories]]
[[Category:Sixth Doctor audio stories]]
[[Category:1985 audio stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in the distant past]]
[[Category:Audio stories that use the Peter Howell theme]]
[[Category:Time Lord audio stories]]
[[Category:Six part audio stories]]

Latest revision as of 20:07, 22 April 2024

RealWorld.png

audio stub

Slipback by Eric Saward was the second original Doctor Who serial to be produced for radio, nine years after Exploration Earth. It was first broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in the summer of 1985 when the televised series was on hiatus for a year. The broadcast formed part of the three-part children's magazine series Pirate Radio Four, which featured two ten-minute episodes per edition.

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 on cassette by BBC Audio, and later on CD by Silva Screen Records.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Sixth Doctor and Peri share an adventure on board a starship taken over by its dual personality computer, which tries to take the ship back to the dawn of the universe and start life again. Along the way the duo meet a couple of comedy policemen, an art thief and a captain who wants to infect his crew with one of his diseases...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Recovering from a modest hangover, the Doctor hears a voice from his dreams that warns of impending danger for the fabric of time itself. Waking up, the Doctor discovers that illicit time experiments aboard the Vipod Moor, a survey ship taking a census of the galaxy, have pulled the TARDIS out of the vortex. Deciding to investigate further, the Doctor and Peri board the Vipod Moor, but find themselves face-to-face with a raging Maston — a vicious animal that's eating the crew.

Separated in the confusion, Peri wanders around the ship's corridors while the Doctor happens upon the central computer intelligence that controls the ship and learns that a botched maintenance job has split the computer's consciousness into two personalities — a bubbly public persona and a scheming inner voice.

Having previously scanned the ship's data files, the Inner Voice learned about the galaxy's numerous wars. By developing rudimentary time travel abilities, the Inner Voice embarked on a scheme to take the Vipod Moor back to the Universe's early stages and retroactively impose a new order. To further this, the Inner Voice has used its limited time travel abilities to materialize a member of the extinct Maston race on board the ship, creating a distraction to keep the crew from noticing the time travel experiments. By telepathically scanning the Doctor's mind, the Inner Voice augments its time travel devices and primes the ship's engines for a trip back to the early days of the Universe.

The Doctor quickly escapes the inner chamber and reunites with Peri, then dashes into the TARDIS. Gravely concerned that the Inner Voice could massively disrupt history, the Doctor plans to materialize the TARDIS inside the computer's memory core and disable it. However, a member of the Gallifreyan high council urgently contacts the Doctor and warns him to desist, informing him that the web of time already accounts for the Vipod Moor's journey into the past. He explains that the Inner Voice has miscalculated and arrived at the beginning of everything, exploding upon arrival and triggering the Big Bang.

Realising he nearly aborted the birth of the Universe, the Doctor pilots the TARDIS away from the Vipod Moor, vowing to find a sizeable library and bone up on his knowledge of history. Meanwhile, the Vipod Moor continues on its fateful journey and the computer's Public Persona decides the Inner Voice's slaughter of the crew was completely unwarranted, activating the ship's self-destruct device, inadvertently insuring the ship will spark the Big Bang — and the rest of the universe — into existence.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

No other individuals were actually credited on-air at broadcast.

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This story was recorded on 10 June 1985 in Studio B11 at Broadcasting House.[1] Valentine Dyall died only fourteen days later.
  • 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]
  • 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, and TV: Castrovalva states that it was a "hydrogen in-rush".
  • Released as a Silva Screen Records cassette in 1988, it was reissued on CD as part of the BBC Radio Collection on 8 January 2001.
  • A voucher to redeem a free copy of this story from branches of W H Smith or by post, was given away with The Daily Telegraph newspaper on 27 April 2010.
  • This story was also 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 expanding upon characters' backgrounds.
  • Part One begins with a pre-titles sequence, a rarity for Doctor Who at the time.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • 1988 UK cassette release

    1988 UK cassette release

  • 1989 US cassette release

    1989 US cassette release

  • The BBC Radio Episodes release (box)

    The BBC Radio Episodes release (box)

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Howe, David J., Stammers, Mark, Walker, Stephen James, 1997, Doctor Who: The Eighties, Doctor Who Books, an imprint of Virgin Books, London, p.84
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