Back in 2011, I wrote a Doctor Who story called Protect
& Survive. As I’m sure I’ve wittered on about elsewhere, the story started
out as an idea for a Sapphire & Steel story, but I don’t think I ever
submitted it. Around 2006 I reworked it as a comic strip, but that also went
nowhere (I’ve included that outline at the end of this blog). Eventually in
2011 I was asked to come up with an idea for a seventh Doctor/Ace/Hex story.
The brief was to write a story that would fit into ongoing storyline with Elder
Gods, with the proviso that the Doctor should only appear in a small number of
flashback scenes because Sylvester would be busy filming The Hobbit. And,
after a couple of ideas had been knocked back, I pitched Protect & Survive
as it seemed a good fit.
Here’s that pitch. It contains lots of spoilers so if you
haven’t heard the story, please stop reading now and go away and listen to it!
You can buy it here.
> Another idea. A
sort of Waiting For Godot - Slaughterhouse 5 - When The Wind Blows -
Bed-Sitting Room - Threads thing. Might need a third voice, as it's about a
couple, in an ordinary house, who are subjected to the outbreak of a nuclear
war (the third voice would be a radio announcer, the Protect & Survive man,
so a very small role) on a daily basis. When Ace & Hex arrive, they
discover that this dimension is one where time and space are jumbled up. The
ordinary couple are being punished for something, and it turns out the Doctor imprisoned
them in a pocket dimension as a punishment.
> It then turns out
that the couple are in fact aliens who were trying to create a timeline in
which Earth was destroyed in a nuclear war, so in order to prevent that happening,
and give the aliens a taste of their own medicine, the Doctor created a pocket
dimension for that timeline and trapped the aliens in their 'human' bodies. He
has promised the couple that eventually he will return and free them; they are
not imprisoned there for eternity. But they've grown tired of waiting,so when
Ace & Hex turn up, they think they can use them to escape.
> Something like
that. All about the 'dark' Doctor's approach backfiring on him, and shaking Ace
and Hex's faith in his methods/idea of justice. Because of all the nuclear war
stuff, it will be absolutely terrifying; that whole Protect & Survive
business still gives me nightmares, anyway. So it would have to be set in the
1980's, in the UK, but later on Ace & Hex can discover that the couple are actually
living on the moon or in the time vortex.
My main memory of writing the story back in September 2011
was that after the first two episodes, I hit a bit of a block. The problem was that
I was half-way through the story and only had enough plot left for one more
episode. I contacted the script editor (Alan Barnes) who said that Sylvester’s
availability was no longer a problem and suggested showing Albert and Peggy
bringing about the end of the world in a series of scenes with the Doctor
confronting them in their various guises; ‘Do Dr Strangelove in 12 and a half
minutes’. So that’s what I did, recalling an old story idea I’d had as a
teenager about the Doctor visiting the guy whose job it is to press the missile
button and talking him out of doing so. I was making it up as I was going along
but sometimes that’s the best way of writing (in terms of the end product; it’s
the most stressful and exhausting way of writing from my point of view). The
story went down pretty well (largely due to a fantastic cast and sound design) so
I think I just about got away with it. My only quibble with the end result is
that I wanted (and scripted) for the warning announcements to be preceded and
followed by electronic-sting type jingles (like the genuine ones) and for some
reason they weren’t included. But that’s a pretty minor quibble!
Anyway, as a result of these circumstances there aren’t that
many deleted scenes, as I wasn’t coming from the position of having too much
plot and cutting it down. But here’s a couple of bits that got cut from part
four as I was editing it down to wordcount.
I probably cut this bit because the characters were telling
each other stuff they (and we) already knew:
HEX:
Look, I just didn’t want to be burned alive, alright? While
we’re still walking around and breathing, we’ve still got a chance of stopping
them...
ACE:
How?
HEX:
I don’t know, I was hoping you might have some idea.
ACE:
You know, they were right about one thing. If only we did
have some way of calling the Doctor.
HEX:
Ace, we’re just going to face it. The Doctor’s gone. He’s
not going to come and rescue us. This is down to us.
ACE:
I know. But... (REALISING) Albert and Peggy, or whatever
they are, they managed to drag the TARDIS here, right?
HEX:
(REALISING) Yeah. So -
ACE:
So maybe we can do it too?
HEX:
But how?
ACE:
I don’t know. But we’re not going to find out hanging around
down here.
HEX:
The blast has passed, we’ve got a couple of minutes before
the fall-out warning.
ACE:
Then come on then.
And I expect this next bit was cut down for the same reason;
as I was rewriting the script I found the exposition had already been delivered
elsewhere or wasn’t needed to understand the story, so it was reduced to just a
couple of lines.
HEX:
And that’s why the Doctor didn’t tell them how long they’d
be imprisoned here. Because he didn’t know how long it’d take.
ACE:
That’s typical of the Doctor. He can’t just build a prison,
he has to build one that rehabilitates the bad guys and calls the TARDIS here
when it’s time for them to be released.
HEX:
Except Albert and Peggy weren’t rehabilitated. They’d just
been here so long they’d worked out how to control things. (BEAT) Supposing
you’re right, though, how does that help us?
ACE:
Isn’t it obvious? If we go along with the pattern, and don’t
try to resist, then this place will think we’ve learned what it’s like to be
human – and summon the TARDIS.
HEX:
You mean we give up?
ACE:
Not give up. We have to make sure we get it exactly right in
every detail.
As I wrote the second draft, I went through taking out
anything which slowed things down or got in the way of the story i.e. this:
ACE:
We have a choice. Either we stay and wait for the TARDIS to
blow up, or we land and get out of here before it blows up.
HEX:
Yeah, but what if we land somewhere with people, and the
TARDIS blows up? This thing could take out half a planet.
And this was cut from part one for giving away too much too
soon:
(FX: ACE AND HEX LEAVE)
ALBERT:
Wait too much longer? What did she mean by that?
PEGGY:
Oh, nothing love. But she was right. Now that they’ve come
here, he can’t be far behind.
The end of this scene from part three was rewritten, because
originally it just had the Doctor giving up.
ALBERT:
No, ma’am. Satellites show no signs of Soviet retreat.
(FX: PHONE RINGS. ALBERT ANSWERS IT)
ALBERT:
Ma’am, it’s the President.
(FX: PEGGY ANSWERS PHONE)
PEGGY:
General Mitchell speaking. Yes, sir... Will do, sir... Thank
you, Mr President. And God bless America.
(FX: PHONE HUNG UP)
PEGGY:
Gentlemen. The President has authorized a pre-emptive
nuclear strike. Commence missile launch.
ALBERT:
Yes, ma’am.
(FX: GENERALS BEGIN PREPARATIONS IN B/G, GIVING ORDERS)
PEGGY:
Hey, what happened to the little British guy?
ALBERT:
What little British guy?
PEGGY:
The one who was here a minute ago
This was cut because it’s waffle, repeating what people
already know:
PEGGY:
You think he imprisoned us here on purpose?
ALBERT:
That all this was created just for us?
ACE:
Well you can hardly have ended up here by accident, can you?
HEX:
Well, we did.
ACE:
Did we? Maybe something forced the TARDIS to come here. Or
someone.
ALBERT:
Someone?
ACE:
Someone who was getting a bit fed up waiting for the Doctor
to come and release them?
And more waffle:
(FX: ACE AND HEX EMERGE, PUSHING SHELTER DOOR OPEN)
HEX:
I’m never going to get over this, seeing the whole place
burned up.
ACE:
Just remember, if Albert and Peggy get out of here, it won’t
just be this house, it’ll be the whole world.
HEX:
Hey, there’s no chance of me forgetting.
(FX: THEY ENTER LIVING ROOM)
The next bit was presumably cut as it undermines the
seriousness of the situation, though it’s mildly amusing:
HEX:
Should it be dark already? The mushroom cloud... it’s filled
up the whole sky...
(FX: RUMBLES OF THUNDER)
ACE:
Impressive. I used to be into explosions, but that one’s
going to take some beating.
HEX:
You know, Ace, sometimes I think you’re not quite right in
the head. And then I remember that I hang around with you, and I think that I’m
the one who’s not quite right in the head.
ACE:
Who would you rather be stuck in a corner with? Someone who
knows their way around a rocket launcher or someone who screams and twists
their ankle?
HEX:
The first, I suppose.
(FX: STARTS PATTERING WITH RAIN)
The one other interesting thing (for me at least) is that
the scene with the Doctor at the end where he asks Ace and Hex to choose who
gets to live wasn’t in the first draft; originally it was just the fact that
they repeated the routine which made the TARDIS appear. This was done at Alan
Barnes’ suggestion, that Ace and Hex would have to prove their humanity in some
way rather than just following instructions.
And finally, here’s the comic strip pitch from 2006.
Another Doctor Who
idea:
Protect & Survive
The Doctor and Rose arrive in a sleepy, deserted Coventry
street in the 1980’s. But, within seconds of their arrival, a siren sounds and
the TARDIS vanishes. They are ushered into the house of an elderly, retired
couple, Mr Jack Fletcher and his wife Pauline. The Doctor is surprised to find
that Jack has been preparing a ‘fall out’ shelter in the living room, by
propping a door against the wall, covering it with a matress and so forth. The
radio is on, and the Doctor and Rose hear the announcer giving the ‘air attack’
warning. They take shelter, and then, to their amazement, a nuclear bomb hits.
After the first firestorm, the Doctor and Rose emerge, and
they make out several mushroom clouds in the distance. But this is wrong –
there wasn’t a nuclear war in the 1980s. It seems history has changed, because
Thatcher isn’t the Prime Minister... instead it is somebody called David
Fletcher. Jack and Pauline’s son.
The Doctor and Rose find that time in the Fletcher’s house
has become twisted, and the year is, in fact, 1941. A parade of soldiers
marches by, ready to go to war with Germany, and Jack and Pauline are a couple
in their 20s, with a toddler son, David. An air siren sounds, and the Doctor
saves David as a German bomb hits the street outside, reducing the surrounding
buildings to rubble...
What has happened – as the Doctor and Rose discover over the
course of a couple of episodes – is that some alien entity has offered Jack and
Pauline a choice. According to history, their son should have died in 1941, but
the alien has given them a chance to change that. In their grief for their dead
son, Jack and Pauline agreed for their son to live... and it turns out that
David will, 40 years later, bring about the apocalypse.
The alien entity, a sinister, little-seen creature that
communicates via the radio but which resembles a half-cybernetic
time-travelling giant woodlouse, wants Earth to become an irradiated wasteland
because it likes planets that are irradiated wastelands; it has laid eggs in
the walls of the house and its newly-hatched young will need radiation to
survive.
The Doctor has to persuade the Jack and Pauline of 1940 to
allow their son to die, to prevent the destruction of the human race.
