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A review by dwgradio
Doctor Who: Slipback by Eric Saward
3.0
Saward wrote a number of very good serials during the classic Doctor Who period, but this story falls short of his work on the television series. The original radio drama is very confusing and feels incomplete. The novelization fills in a lot of back story and adds a coherency originally absent, but there are still a few holes left unpatched. The first half of the book is very obviously an imitation of Douglas Adams' writing style, and although anyone familiar with the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series will undoubtedly hear Peter Jones reading these chapters in their minds, Saward simply isn't the sharp wit Adams was.
Saward's time as a writer and script editor for the television series was marred by controversy for his inclusion of graphic violence, which he has defended as a criticism of real world violence. In one scene of this book (I don't recall if it is included in the radio play), he has a policeman slapping the Doctor's companion Peri. It is completely unnecessary to plot or characterization, and rather than a critique of violence it just comes across as misogynistic. So while this is not the best Doctor Who story, despite its shortcomings it is still quite a good Doctor Who story.
Saward's time as a writer and script editor for the television series was marred by controversy for his inclusion of graphic violence, which he has defended as a criticism of real world violence. In one scene of this book (I don't recall if it is included in the radio play), he has a policeman slapping the Doctor's companion Peri. It is completely unnecessary to plot or characterization, and rather than a critique of violence it just comes across as misogynistic. So while this is not the best Doctor Who story, despite its shortcomings it is still quite a good Doctor Who story.