A great tremendous noise wakes up Hex! (Like a Steam engine giving birth.) the Cloister bell rings! (Bad news!) And ... the Doctor's not responding to it. Which means he's not in the TARDIS, so Hex and Ace are by themselves. (Worse news!)
Ace and Hex land in 1989, during World War III. .... Oh dear. Even worse news. But, when the world is heading straight for complete and utter fallout, there is something far worse that decides the fate of mankind.
The first part of the Elder Gods trilogy.
Protect and Survive has examples of the following tropes:
- Alternate Timeline: It's 1989, and the Russians and the West are involved in World War III, and it's nuclear. Also, Vladimir Kryuchkov is the Russian president and not Gorbachev.
- Anachronic Order: The second part starts off with the Doctor, prior to Ace and Hex's involvement.
- As the Good Book Says...: LET THERE BE LIGHT
- Batman Gambit: The Doctor claims he's stopped the Elder Gods. They decide to move their consciousness towards the future to see if he has. They end up in human bodies without their powers.
- Bigger on the Inside: Namedropped by Hex.
- Blinded by the Light: Hex looks at the bomb strike, and sees his arm (X-Ray Sparks 's skeleton more like) and he loses his sight.
- Call-Back: The Cloister bell goes off.
- The TARDIS that the Doctor uses to get to Peggy and Albert is black.
- Hex still holds a grudge against the Doctor for not telling him about his mother.
- Cold Open: The TARDIS in bad form! The Cloister bell ringing... And where's the Doctor!?
- Continuity Nod: Ace mentions having a baseball bat in her bedroom, if Hex continues being so snarky.
- Hex at one point mentions Antartica.
- Deadpan Snarker: Hex is on form, especially in the Cold Open.
- Demonic Possession: The Elder Gods can do this to humans.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Elder Gods.
- Evil Gloating: Albert and Peggy to Ace and Hex when they figure a way out.
- Evil Sounds Deep: The Elder gods. But especially Moloch.
- Equivalent Exchange: In order for Peggy and Albert to escape they need Ace and Hex.
- Fallout Shelter Fail: While staying with Albert and Peggy Marsden, Ace and Hex help them build a fallout room in their cellar using boxes of soil to absorb radiation - all in accordance with leaflets provided by the local government. Hex reflects that these are largely there to keep people calm and they probably won't be much help in the event of a real nuclear blast. Sure enough, when a nuclear ICBM wipes out the local RAF base, the radioactivity of the strike zone renders all their preparations completely useless and all four of them end up being exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. Thankfully, the "Groundhog Day" Loop manages to undo this.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- Ace and Hex are in the fallout shelter for nine days, but during that time, they don't notice anything amiss about the fact that the radio is still working. It's not until after Albert and Peggy have died for the first time that they remember the EMP and wonder how they can be receiving radio reports...
- When the TARDIS appears, Hex is so anxious to get the hell out of the prison dimension that he stars up the dematerialization sequence without even noticing the two other people in the TARDIS.
- Fleeing for the Fallout Shelter: Given that Albert and Peggy aren't up to moving quickly, Ace and Hex are stuck helping them down the stairs to the fallout room - during which Hex is blinded by the flash from the bomb. All four of them barely get to the shelter in time, surviving mostly unharmed... but unfortunately, the shelter was too close to the strike zone, and they begin experiencing the effects of acute radiation sickness soon after. Fortunately, the time loop means that everyone's soon alive again; less fortunately, the apocalypse cannot be stopped, and the sprint for the shelter is essential unless you feel like burning alive this time around.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the story, Ace and Hex split up so they can help Albert and Peggy get the fallout shelter in working order. During this time, Albert tells Hex that he's been living in the countryside since he retired, but Peggy later contradicts this by saying that she remembers her son playing Cowboys and Indians in the garden when he was a little boy. This is the first hint that the two of them aren't who they say they are - and aren't even human at all.
- Go-to Alias: Doctor John Smith, par for the course.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Albert and Peggy are stuck in a loop that begins on the day of the war, continues through the post-apocalyptic days that follow, until they die of radiation sickness a week later and the loop begins all over again.
- He Who Fights Monsters:Ace: You make him (The Doctor) sound like a monster.Hex: Sometimes he gets so close to the monsters it's hard to keep them apart.
- Headache of Doom: After the bombing, Ace, Hex, Albert and Peggy appear to have escaped the cataclysm mostly unharmed... but then Peggy begins experiencing a painkiller-resistant headache, followed closely by bleeding gums - a sure sign that they've all sustained a lethal dose of radiation.
- Hologram: A recording of the Doctor when the right conditions have been met.
- Mutually Assured Destruction: A false alarm triggers the Russians into firing unto innocent people, which would kickstart a global nuclear war.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The “Protect and Survive” radio announcements are (initially) based on the real life campaign voiceovers by Patrick Allen.
- Nuke 'em: Russia to the UK.
- Ominous Hair Loss: Not long after they find that they've been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, Ace admits to the blinded Hex that she found a lot of hair on her pillow that morning, gloomily remarking that "the skinhead look" doesn't suit her.
- Out of Time, Out of Mind: Albert and Peggy don't act any different, despite being stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop where they're cursed to die from radiation poisoning every 10 days for over 100 years. This is actually one of many hints that the two of them aren't human...
- Pocket Dimension: Pocket Timeline, but still. Constitutes about 5 miles around the house.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The Volga Boat Men
song is used in the background for when the Russians enter the scene. - Read the Freaking Manual: Peggy and Albert have been following the instructions on the radio to the letter for hundreds of years. Ace suggests to Hex they should do the opposite. Seeing as the voice is the Doctor's.
- Resurrection/Death Loop: Peggy and Albert are stuck in an infinite loop of suffering, death and resurrection... and eventually, so are Ace and Hex.
- Secret Test of Character / Sadistic Choice: Ace and Hex have to make a decision. Leave, and leave the other behind, or stay and let the other leave. The right answer is; both stay. So both can go.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Peggy asks Hex if he and Ace are ... ? He replies "No. She'd have me for breakfast."
- Shout-Out: Albert mentions the reason why he remembered Vladimir Kryuchkov's name so well is because he sounds like a James Bond villain.
- Hex quite literally calls out to Groundhog Day.
- Take That!: Peggy doesn't want to be called "Margaret" because it reminds her of that woman.
- To Be Continued: Ace and Hex enter the story with a white TARDIS, and exit in a black one, with two other people. Ending in a blatant Sequel Hook.
- To the Pain:We can make you feel the pain of burning to death from the strength of a nuclear explosion a hundred times... a thousand times over and over again...
- Wham Line:The Doctor: Find out what it feels like the way a human feels it, find it the way to suffer the way a human does it, find out what it's like to die.
- X-Ray Sparks: The Nuclear blast that hits causes the people hit by it to see their own skeletal structure through their flesh first. Then comes the heat blast.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside
- You Are Too Late: Inverted Trope, the Doctor pulls this on the Elder Gods.
