N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Is there a parallel universe in which Slipback does not exist? A universe where, in the summer of 1985, the Doctor Who production team would have been preparing and shooting what later become known as the “Missing” season.

“I think I need to read up on my history.”

The Doctor, Slipback: The Final Episode

Evocative titles such as The Nightmare Fair, The Ultimate Evil and Mission to Magnus would eventually see life as Target novelisations and in the 21st century part of Big Finish’s Lost Stories range of audio plays. I was tempted to take a more tenuous sidestep here and read or listen to these stories here — to slip into that alternate timeline where season 23 was broadcast in the spring of 1986 as originally intended.

I could even add Christopher H. Bidmead’s The Hollows of Time to that trio and be at least two-thirds towards what might have been. Ultimately, I decided against it. Besides, without so much as an outline of Robert Holmes’s still-enigmatic-sounding Yellow Fever (and How to Cure It) to throw into the mix, I’d alway feel my missing season was missing something.

With the Celestial Toymaker, Ice Warriors, Sil, Autons and the Master returning, it would’ve been another season packed with old foes, so it would’ve been open to the same criticism that was levelled at season 22. Would it otherwise have courted as much controversy? We’ll never know.

Instead, with Doctor Who taking an extended break the likes of which we’ve almost become accustomed to in recent years, Eric Saward penned Slipback, a radio drama broadbast in six parts in the summer of 1985.

“I am a little naive when it comes to this sort of thing.”

The Doctor, Slipback: Episode One

I’m not sure if the edict to make the show less violent and more humourous had come down by this point but Slipback definitely feels more informed by the Douglas Adams’ brand of sci-fi than, for example, a forerunner of the types of audio stories 20 years of Big Finish productions have shown to be possible. Indeed it’s hard not to be reminded of Trillian when the ship’s computer starts speaking nor indeed of Marvin when Barton the drone is around.

In truth this tale of the Doctor’s hangover, time slippage and a mad computer all feels a little silly and inconsequential, itself an irony giving the ultimate consequence of the events in Slipback is the Big Bang.

Let’s just say I’m glad Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant subsequently got to sink their teeth into meatier audio fare, although I must admit to liking the reason the Doctor gave for not carrying a gun as not wanting to ruin the cut of his coat.