Survival (Doctor Who)

155 – Survival
Doctor Who serial
Karra and Ace on the cheetah planet.
Cast
Doctor Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor)
Companion Sophie Aldred (Ace)
Others Anthony Ainley — The Master Lisa Bowerman — Karra Julian Holloway — Paterson David John — Derek Will Barton — Midge Sean Oliver — Stuart Sakuntala Ramanee — Shreela Gareth Hale — Len Norman Pace — Harvey Kate Eaton — Ange Kathleen Bidmead — Woman Adele Silva — Squeak Michelle Martin — Neighbour
Production
Directed by	Alan Wareing
Written by	Rona Munro
Script editor	Andrew Cartmel
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Incidental music composer	Dominic Glynn
Production code	7P
Series	Season 26
Length	3 episodes, 25 minutes each
Date started	22 November 1989
Date ended	6 December 1989
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Curse of Fenric Dimensions in Time (special) Doctor Who (TV movie)

Survival

Author	Rona Munro
Cover artist	Alister Pearson
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	150
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	18 October 1990
ISBN

Survival is the final serial of the 26th season and also the final story of the original 26-year run in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in three parts, weekly, from 22 November to 6 December 1989. It marks the final regular television appearance of Anthony Ainley as the Master and of Sophie Aldred as Ace. It is also the last to entirely feature Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, although he would return briefly in the 1996 TV movie.

The Seventh Doctor brings Ace back home to Perivale in west London. The suburb is not as it should be: a mysterious black cat is wandering around, somehow creating a situation in which humans are hunted down and made to disappear to another dimension. Ace becomes worried when most of her old friends seem to have disappeared, but the Doctor is more preoccupied with the behaviour of the strange cat. It becomes apparent the black cat is being controlled by a strange being in the other dimension, viewing the scenes in Perivale through the cat's eyes and choosing which humans to chase and transport. An unhappy young man called Stuart becomes his next victim. Ace follows soon afterwards, hunted down by a Cheetah Person on horseback, which seems to have a hunting affinity with the curious cat. Later the Doctor and a keep-fit instructor called Paterson are chosen and teleported to another world, bathed in a blood-red sky, where the Doctor is greeted by his nemesis the Master.

The renegade is evidently unwell, his eyes and mouth displaying feline characteristics, and is using the black cat (or kitling) to create a dimensional bridge for the Cheetah People to hunt prey on Earth. Quite why he is doing this is unclear, other than he seems keen to keep the Cheetah People occupied somehow. He tells the Doctor that the planet is alive and has a bewitching influence; the indigenous population bred the kitlings and had a great civilisation, but they regressed into animals through the power of the planet. He too is beginning to show changes and needs the Doctor's help to escape from the planet.