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Slipback Format Reviewed: CDReview Slipback is something of an oddity in that it is a full cast audio adventure for Radio 4, and comprises six ten minute episodes. It also filled a gap in the TV broadcast schedule when the future of Doctor Who was very uncertain. Indeed, Doctor Who at the BBC looked to be doomed when Slipback was made. That said, we have Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Valentine Dyall providing familiar voices from the world of Doctor WHo, and Eric Saward pens the script. Valentine Dyall does not reprise his role as the Black Guardian, but instead plays a bizarre ships captain who vents his displeasure at his crew by gestating various illnesses and passing them on. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant give typical performances given their on-screen personas in the form of the Doctor and Peri respectively. We also have a schizophrenic computer played by Jane Carr. Her performance is fairly strong given the fact that she plays both the outwardly dizzy computer and the concealed strong controlling personality of the shipboard computer. The production is fairly typical of the times, with the synthesised version of the theme tune, albeit shortened, and reprises at the start of each episode. Given the shotness of each episode, this would seem rather a strange decision, but it does give a more polished feel to the production. Sound effects are well realised and sound very much in-keeping with the production values of the time, and the incidental music is very typical of the era, with synthesised music providing the dramatic edge that music can give. The story however seems to me to be a very bizarre one, and one that smacks of being rushed together at the last moment. Whether or not this is true I don't know, but the way that the solution is found by Time Lord Council intervention rather brings to a full-stop any real merit to an otherwise shaky story. The format doesn't help, six ten minute episodes, perhaps four 15 minutes would have been better or ideally two half hours. The plot line with the Captains illnesses is largely irrelevant as nothing ever really comes of it, and the Captain only ever speaks to one crew member and the computer anyway. The computer is also a bizarre story element. The way the adventure is produced, the presence of the computer makes the episodes sound like a bad rip off of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Again, whether this story was written with an influence of Douglas Adams I do not know, but given the whole way the computer acts out the scenes it would surprise me if Saward didn't draw upon Adams greatest work for this script. The rest of the plot lines are rather disjointed, with the Shellingbourne Grant storyline again being rather pointless as it doesn't really go anywhere. Overall, the feeling when I listened to Slipback was more one of 'Oh, it's over then', rather than being pleased that the BBC had filled a Doctor Who void with a radio drama. The disjointed script and poor likeness to Douglas Adams work show this story in a bad light, and the short length of the episodes doesn't give anything a real chance to develop. This is therefore a very disappointing chapter in the history of Doctor Who, and one that could be missed willingly by any connoisseur. Rating:  Back to BBC Audio Index |