Playback ( short story ) Playback was the first story in the anthology " Decalog " . It was written by Stephen James Walker . It featured the Seventh Doctor . Summary . Bart Addison is sitting in his office afternoon when a stranger enters . The man claims to have lost his memory , and thinks he was brainwashed or hypnotised . He does remember that he needs to find a cylinder of some importance . Addison suggests he check his wallet . The man searches through his pockets , bringing out dozens of items , but no wallet . Addison has an idea . The two head for the home of Silverman . The gate is locked , so they climb over . As they make their way into the house , Addison is attacked by a large man . The stranger is about to hit the man with a rock , but Addison stops him . The man is Ramon , Silverman ' s guard , and he apologises profusely to Addison for attacking him , as he did not recognise him . They enter the house . Addison explains his client ' s problem to Silverman . Silverman is a psychic who can use psychometry on the stranger ' s possessions to determine information about them . He chooses one item after another and tells Addison and the stranger the history behind each . One after another , Silverman examines a mechanical duck , a phial of mercury , a pamphlet with a drawing on it , a crystal scarab and a nugget of gold , and tells a story connected with each one . The stranger seems to be a person , called the Doctor , who can apparently change his appearance . When Addison suggests a newspaper with a headline about UFOs , the stranger objects , and Silverman chooses a piece of chalk instead . He then examines , against the stranger ' s wishes , something that looks like a lightbulb , followed by a computer disk and a saxophone mouthpiece . At this point , Addison has had enough , even though the stranger wants to continue . They leave , with Addison driving and the stranger becoming more and more agitated . When they stop , Addison confronts the stranger , accusing him of being Mykloz , a Malean that the Doctor encountered in one of the stories . Mykloz admits it and wonders how Addison knew . Addison claims that the Doctor he has learned about from the stories would never kill someone as the stranger tried to do to Ramon . Suddenly a spaceship appears , and Mykloz grabs Addison ' s gun while he is distracted . They drive to an abandoned house and go down an elevator into a control room . Mykloz puts Addison into a locked room in which there is another prisoner — the real Doctor . He has the cylinder that Mykloz wants . It ' s a genetic stabiliser . There is a screen on which the two prisoners can watch events in the control room . Two " men " come down the elevator and confront Mykloz for not completing his mission of clearing the humans from Earth . They decide it needs to be destroyed , but Mykloz protests . They accuse him of having compassion for aliens , something forbidden by their species . The Doctor sets controls to blow up the house . Addison breaks them out of their prison , and after a brief skirmish with the three Maleans , the Doctor and Addison escape . They put some distance between themselves and the house , which explodes , taking the Malean spaceship with it . The Doctor and Addison return to the site , where nothing is left but the TARDIS , undamaged by the explosion . The Doctor gives Addison the cylinder as a souvenir and departs .