Slipback (audio story)

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, which 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 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
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. 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

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * 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

Continuity

 * Peri says she does not know the Doctor's real name, only that he has told her she couldn't pronounce it.
 * 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.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, and Errors

 * 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.

Novelisation

 * 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 for its first half, as Saward expands the radio story to include background on the various characters.