1963: The Space Race (audio story)

1963: The Space Race was the one hundred and seventy-ninth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

This was the second story in the 1963 audio trilogy celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Publisher's summary
November 1963, and the Soviet space programme reigns supreme. Having sent the first animals, then the first men beyond Earth's atmosphere, now they're sending a manned capsule into orbit around the Moon.

Just as Vostok Seven passes over into the dark side, however, its life support system fails. Only the intervention of the Sixth Doctor and Peri, adopting the identities of scientists from Moscow University, means that contact with the capsule is regained.

But something has happened to the cosmonaut on board. She appears to have lost her memory, and developed extreme claustrophobia. Maybe she's not quite as human as she used to be...

Part one
The TARDIS materialises in a desert and is unable to leave because of the broken temperature circuit, upon which the navigational circuits depend. The Doctor and Peri investigate a crashed Jeep a mile away and find the bodies of three Soviets with gunshot wounds inside; their ID papers identify two of them as physician Khristina Pushkin and astrophysicist Grigori Kalashnikov of Moscow University, but the third, a woman, does not have any papers. The Doctor takes two of their coats and he and Peri avoid the explosion of a bomb hidden beneath one of the seats, apparently put there to cover up the shootings.

When Sergeant Kurakin finds the Doctor and Peri and mistakes them for Pushkin and Kalashnikov, whom Captain Kozlov is expecting, the two travellers take on their identities and claim that they were the only two in the Jeep when it caught fire. The Doctor realises that they are in 1960s Kazakhstan when he learns of their destination, the secret Baikonur Cosmodrome, where General Leonov and Larisa Petrov have lost contact with Marinka Talanov since Vostok 7's orbit took it to the dark side of the Moon. Baikonur is receiving transceiver feedback, however, so the Doctor recommends sending high-pitched feedback to stir Marinka from unconsciousness.

Marinka awakens, but she has no memory of her identity or where she is because of what the Doctor presumes is a stress-related dissociative disorder. The Doctor tries to calm her down, and requests that she get returned to Earth.

Three days later, Leonid Kurakin is doing what Peri calls fishing. He's relieved to find out she and the Doctor are not a couple — "he's not my type" — and lets her know he's single too. Leonid remarks on her accent, which sounds more "western", and lists some countries she might have come from. Peri goes with Latvia, and they're interrupted by a bell; it's his shift for guard duty. He leaves behind a paper, though, which piques Peri's interest.

Back at the research station, Lerisa Petrov tries to explain to Marinka to use the red button to replenish her oxygen supply — she can't even remember colours. They activate remote guidance system, but it won't respond. The Doctor fixes their system, which he says was sabotaged, and it finally starts responding. The capsule is due to come down in just under an hour's time.

Peri, following what she read on the paper, goes to Research Area 4, authorised personnel only. There, she finds empty space suits. They've also secretly built a lunar landing module. A man reveals that he knows they're imposters, and that he sent for her and "Kalashnikov" to find a rat. This traitor, Valentina, with whom he was in love, disappeared just before they arrived — and fits the description that Peri gave of the woman in the back of the jeep.

Finally, Vostok 7 is coming down to Earth. They get there, and open the capsule.

...But they don't find Marinka in there. Instead, there's a dog inside her spacesuit. The Doctor notes that it's not just any dog, either — it's Laika!

Part two
to be added

Part three
to be added

Part four
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant
 * Larisa Petrov - Karen Henson
 * General Mikhail Leonov / General Paterson - David Shaw-Parker
 * Captain Alexei Kozlov / Captain Andrews - Tom Alexander
 * Sergeant Leonid Kurakin / Scientist - Stuart Denman
 * Marinka Talanov / Female Worker / Laika - Samantha Béart

Crew

 * Cover Art - Anthony Lamb
 * Director - Nicholas Briggs
 * Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - Howard Carter
 * Producer - David Richardson
 * Script Editor - Alan Barnes
 * Writer - Jonathan Morris

Worldbuilding

 * Kalashnikov was born in 1919 while Pushkin was born in 1940.
 * Peri refers to the Baikonur Cosmodrome as "the Soviet Cape Canaveral."
 * Before travelling to the Moon on the Soviet lunar capsule, the Doctor tells Peri that he is far more qualified for space travel than Yuri Gagarin.
 * The United States government has built a moonbase on the far side of the Moon. It was named after former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
 * Moonbase Eisenhower was designed to contain a viable minimum population. In the event of a nuclear war, the plan was for its inhabitants to eventually return to Earth and rebuild human civilisation.
 * The Doctor refers to Stephen Hawking.
 * The Doctor considers the 1960s to be one of Earth's "most turbulent periods."

Continuity

 * The Doctor mentions that he once spent several months travelling across China with Marco Polo in 1289 after heating in the TARDIS broke down. (TV: Marco Polo)
 * Peri tells Sgt. Kurakin that she is a vegetarian. (TV: The Two Doctors, AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion)
 * Dr Petrov refers to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS; AUDIO: 1963)
 * According to another account, Laika died in space. The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith buried her on Quiescia. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
 * The Doctor refers to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963. He tells Petrov that he has always intended to travel back and witness the assassination. He would later do so during his ninth incarnation. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy, TV: Rose) The Eighth Doctor once claimed that he had been accused of the assassination. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
 * Peri refers to the Apollo 11 moon landing on 20 July 1969. (TV: Blink, The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon) During a previous visit to Earth's moon, the Doctor rejected the idea of visiting the landing site in 1872, due to the historical damage a previous expedition would cause. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans)
 * While the Doctor was returning to the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the US Rocket Lincoln on 23 November 1963, eight other versions of him were present in England on the same day. One of these was another version of the Sixth Doctor, who was likewise travelling with Peri. Over the course of two hours, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors and their respective companions Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot, Sarah Jane Smith, Leela, Nyssa, Peri, Ace and Charley Pollard all visited Bob Dovie at 59A Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire, much to his annoyance. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
 * Aside from visiting Bob Dovie in Hampshire, the Seventh Doctor would return to November 1963 on three subsequent occasions. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks; PROSE: The Algebra of Ice; AUDIO: 1963: The Assassination Games)