Flip-Flop (audio story): Difference between revisions

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{{real world}}

|image            = Flip Flop cover.jpg

|range            = Main Range

|enemy            = [[Slithergee]]s, Puxatornee [[Human]]s

|setting          = [[Puxatornee]], [[24 December|24]] and [[25 December]] [[3060]] and [[3090]]

|director          = [[Gary Russell]]

|producer          = [[Gary Russell]] and [[Jason Haigh-Ellery]]

|cover            = [[Lee Binding]]

|publisher        = Big Finish Productions

|production code  = [[List of production codes|7E/B]]

|prev              = Project Lazarus (audio story){{!}}Project: Lazarus

|made next        = Creatures of Beauty (audio story)

|soundcloudtrailer = https://soundcloud.com/big-finish/doctor-who-flip-flop

}}{{you may|Flip Flop|n1 = the clown}}

'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the forty-sixth story in [[Big Finish Productions|Big Finish]]'s [[Main Range|monthly range]]. It was written by [[Jonathan Morris]] and featured [[Sylvester McCoy]] as the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Bonnie Langford]] as [[Melanie Bush]].

The play was further notable for being the closest the [[Quark]]s have ever come to returning to performed ''[[Doctor Who]]'' since ''[[The War Games]]''. Though never heard, the Quarks are essentially the {{w|MacGuffin}} of the story and are mentioned at least once in each episode. From the Doctor and Mel's perspective, the events of ''Flip-Flop'' were merely a side-trip from their current "mission" to defeat the Quarks aboard the [[space yacht]] ''[[Pinto (ship)|Pinto]]''.

== Plot ==

The Doctor and Mel land on Puxatornee on Christmas Eve, 3090, in search of [[Leptonite crystal]]s. The Doctor is disturbed to find the war-ravaged colony on its last legs.

The Doctor and Mel realise that not only are there alternate versions of Potter, Stewart and Reed running around, but that their own counterparts will shortly materialise in the same place where they landed. Having secured the Leptonite crystals they need, they rush back to their TARDIS and dematerialise in the nick of time, trusting that the alternate Mel and Doctor will sort out Puxatornee.

The alternate Doctor and Mel land on Puxatornee on Christmas Eve, 3090, in search of Leptonite Crystals. Mel is disturbed to find humans enslaved to the Slithergees.

After Stewart threatens to shoot Mel, the Doctor has no choice but to take him and his associate back to 3060. Stewart and Reed kill Bailey's secretary, Clarence, then execute President Bailey for crimes she has yet to commit. Stewart leaves the gun with Clarence to make it look like a murder-suicide.

The Doctor takes Stewart and Reed forward to Christmas Day 3090, but history has now changed. Choosing to believe Clarence was a Slithergee agent, Mitchell declared war on the Slithergees in retribution. The war left Puxatornee a toxic wasteland, with starving humans eking out a miserable existence under martial law.

Mel points out that there must be another Doctor and Mel in this timeline, and the Doctor realises they need to dematerialise before their counterparts arrive. Having secured the Leptonite crystals they need, they rush back to their TARDIS and leave, trusting that the alternate Mel and Doctor will sort out Puxatornee.

== Cast ==

* [[Security guard (Flip-Flop)|Security Guard]] - [[David Darlington]]

* [[Edgar Allan Poe]] is mentioned.

* [[Pakafroon Wabster]] had their first number one hit single in [[3012]].

* The Doctor and Mel experience (and become part of) events locked in a [[time loop]].

== Notes ==

* The planet's name Puxatornee is an in-joke reference to the movie ''[[Groundhog Day]]''.

* This is another of Big Finish's experiments. A black disc and a white disc comprise the adventure. They can be listened to in either order and the story can still make sense.

* The [[anti-radiation glove]]s, which the Doctor claims were created by [[First Doctor|one of his previous incarnations]], is a reference to a so-called "[[Hartnellism]]" in the television story ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'', where [[William Hartnell]] was supposed to say "anti-radiation drugs" but instead said "anti-radiation ''gloves''."

* The first and second halves of this story take place at the same time. The same is true of the audio stories ''[[The Veiled Leopard (audio story)|The Veiled Leopard]]'' and ''[[Peri and the Piscon Paradox (audio story)|Peri and the Piscon Paradox]]''. This is the only one of the three stories not to feature [[Peri Brown]].

* On the White disc, while explaining the hazards of time travel to Mel while being transported in a vehicle for interrogation, the Doctor compares encountering effect before cause to tripping over one’s own footprints. At the equivalent point on the Black disc, while explaining the hazards of time travel to Mel as they are escorted on foot, the Doctor trips over something which is never explicitly identified.

* This audio drama was recorded on [[16 March (production)|16]] and [[17 March (production)|17 March]] [[2003 (production)|2003]] at [[The Moat Studios]].

== Continuity ==

{{bigfinish|releases/v/flip-flop-212|Flip-Flop}}; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.

{{dwrefguide|who_bf46.htm|Flip-Flop}}

{{BFA monthly}}

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