Protect and Survive (audio drama)

Protect and Survive is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was released on CD and download in July 2012, and was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 17 November 2013 as part of the Doctor Who 50th-anniversary celebrations.[1]

Protect and Survive
Big Finish Productions audio drama
SeriesDoctor Who
Release no.162
FeaturingSeventh Doctor
Ace
Hex
Written byJonathan Morris
Directed byKen Bentley
Production code7W/AA
Release dateJuly 2012

Plot

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The Doctor has disappeared, and the TARDIS is out of control. Ace and Hex find themselves marooned on Earth in the 1980s at the height of the Cold War.

Cast

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Continuity

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Notes

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  • In the Whovian timeline, this story takes place between Project: Nirvana and Black and White
  • The Doctor is absent for most of the adventure. This was due to Sylvester McCoy appearing in the feature-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit at the time of Protect and Survive's recording.
  • Ian Hogg played Josiah Samuel Smith in the 1989 Seventh Doctor television story, Ghost Light.
  • Peter Egan recreates the late Patrick Allen's original voice-over for the real-life Protect and Survive public information announcements, which form a key part of the plot.
  • The commander of the Russian missile base is named Petrov. On 26 Sept 1983, Lt Col Stanislav Petrov averted a nuclear exchange by reasoning that an apparent American pre-emptive strike was a false alarm.

Critical reception

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Doctor Who Magazine reviewer Matt Michael strongly praised the play, noting that it was "one of the bleakest" made by Big Finish.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "BBC Radio 4 Extra - Doctor Who, Protect and Survive, Episode 1".
  2. ^ Michael, Matt (October 2012). "The DWM Review: Protect and Survive". Doctor Who Magazine (451). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 74–75.
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