Slipback

1985 Doctor Who radio play

Slipback

Doctor Who radio play

Cover of the CD release

Cast

Doctor

* Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor)

Companion

* Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown)

Others

* Computer/Inner Voice — Jane Carr
* Shellingbourne Grant — Jon Glover
* Bates/Snatch — Nick Revell
* Mutant/Stewart — Alan Thompson
* Slarn — Valentine Dyall
* Seedle — Ron Pember

Production
Written by| Eric Saward
Produced by| Paul Spencer
Executive producer(s)| Jonathan James-Moore
Production code| N/A
Series| N/A (aired between Series 22 and 23)
Running time| 6 episodes, 10 minutes each
First broadcast| 25 July–8 August 1985

Slipback is a radio audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in six episodes on BBC Radio 4 from 25 July to 8 August 1985, as part of a children's magazine show called Pirate Radio Four. It was later released on cassette and CD, most recently by BBC Audio and free with the 27 April 2010 edition of The Daily Telegraph newspaper via WHSmith.

## Synopsis

[edit]

The Sixth Doctor and Peri arrive on a mysterious space liner, where intergalactic policemen are investigating art thefts, a computer is suffering from a split personality and the Captain's disease threatens every living thing on the ship.

## Production

[edit]

Slipback was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, four months after the final episode of Doctor Who's twenty-second season, during the programme's enforced hiatus, the next season not airing for another a year and a half. It was the first Doctor Who serial produced as a radio play (an earlier audio production, The Pescatons, was released as a story record). No further radio productions were mounted until the mid-1990s when Jon Pertwee reprised his role as the Third Doctor in two productions, The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space.

### Writing

[edit]

The story was written by series script writer Eric Saward, whose writing credits include The Visitation, Earthshock, Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks.

### Cast note

[edit]

Valentine Dyall played the Black Guardian in the television series. Dyall died on 24 June 1985, just 14 days after Slipback was recorded, and a month before Slipback aired.

## In print

[edit]

Slipback Author| Eric Saward

|

Cover artist| Paul Mark Tams
Series| Doctor Who book:
Target novelisations
Publisher| Target Books

Publication date

| 21 August 1986 (Hardback)
15 January 1987 (Paperback)
Pages| 144
ISBN| 0-426-20263-5

A novelisation by Eric Saward was published by Target Books in April 1986, the first novelisation of a non-televised Doctor Who story. Saward's novelisation expands on the radio play greatly, with an extensive prologue running about a third of the book before the Doctor appears and the adaptation of the radio play storyline begins.

## Audio releases

[edit]

Slipback was released on 7 November 1988 on a double audio cassette along with the 1978 LP version of Genesis of the Daleks.[1] It was subsequently released as a standalone CD on 8 January 2001.[2]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Genesis of the Daleks & Slipback". Timelash - The TARDIS Library. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
2. ^ "Slipback". Timelash - The TARDIS Library. Retrieved 11 April 2013.

## External links

[edit]

### Target novelisation

[edit]

* On Target — Slipback
* The Cloister Library - Slipback

* v
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Doctor Who: Sixth Doctor stories

Television

| Season 21|

The Twin Dilemma

|

Season 22|

* Attack of the Cybermen
* Vengeance on Varos
* The Mark of the Rani
* The Two Doctors
* Timelash
* Revelation of the Daleks

Season 23|

* The Mysterious Planet / Mindwarp / Terror of the Vervoids / The Ultimate Foe

Minor appearances|

* The Caves of Androzani
* Time and the Rani
* "The Name of the Doctor"
* "The Day of the Doctor"
* "The Power of the Doctor"

See also|

* Arc of Infinity
* "A Fix with Sontarans"
* Dimensions in Time

Audio

| The Monthly Adventures|

* The Sirens of Time
* Whispers of Terror
* The Marian Conspiracy
* The Spectre of Lanyon Moor
* The Apocalypse Element
* The Holy Terror
* The One Doctor
* ...ish
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* Thicker than Water
* 100
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* Brotherhood of the Daleks
* The Raincloud Man
* Legend of the Cybermen
* Recorded Time and Other Stories
* The Acheron Pulse
* The Brood of Erys

|

The Sixth Doctor Adventures|

* The Last Adventure

The Lost Stories|

* The Nightmare Fair
* Mission to Magnus
* The Hollows of Time
* The Ultimate Evil

Other|

* Slipback
* Excelis Rising
* The Companion Chronicles
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* Trouble in Paradise
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* The Tenth Doctor Adventures
* River Song

Books

| Missing Adventures|

* State of Change
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* Burning Heart

|

Past Doctor Adventures|

* Players
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* Instruments of Darkness
* Palace of the Red Sun
* Blue Box
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Novellas|

* Shell Shock

Video games

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