Protect and Survive

Main Range #162

Released: 23 July 2012

Listened: 1/8/21

On one level, this story is significant because it’s the return of Ace and Hex after an absence of several stories (and a couple of years, in production time). They’re still in the White TARDIS, and in this case, without the Doctor, which leads to a resolution in the next story. On an entirely different level, it’s a deeply unsettling story, because Ace and Hex have landed in an alternate 1989, in a world that’s much closer to nuclear war than the real one ever got. They end up sheltering with an elderly couple, Albert and Peggy, which is a straight reference to the 1986 animated film When the Wind Blows. This is one of the stories that hits me personally: As a child of the 1980s, I remember the threat of nuclear war, and the absurd futility of trying to do anything about it. I saw When the Wind Blows by accident while in high school (I was originally attracted to the soundtrack), and was disturbed by it, which was the intent. So listening to this story for the first time, and having the gradual realization that yes, it is a deliberate reference to that film you saw once but didn’t think anybody else knew about, along with remembering how the film ends (hint: not happily), produced a sense of creeping dread that’s unmatched by any other Big Finish I’ve listened to. Ace is just the right age to be properly terrified, and while Hex is slightly too young, he knows from history. An actual nuclear strike makes a hell of a first-act cliffhanger. That part of the story doesn’t actually last too long, after which we’re dealing with more Elder Gods again, but the nuclear threat continues to hang over the whole story, so the creepy feeling never really fades. This is one of my favorites from this stretch.