Pier Pressure (audio drama)

Pier Pressure
Big Finish Productions audio drama
Series	Doctor Who
Release number	78
Featuring	Sixth Doctor Evelyn Smythe
Writer	Robert Ross
Director	Gary Russell
Producer	Gary Russell Jason Haigh-Ellery
Production code	7CMA
Length	2 hrs 4 mins
Release date	January 2006

Pier Pressure is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Plot

In 1936 Brighton, strange lights and terrible sounds are coming from beneath the pier, and the dead are unusually ambulatory. The only hope is the Doctor and Evelyn and — Max Miller?

Cast

• The Doctor — Colin Baker
• Evelyn Smythe — Maggie Stables
• Professor Talbot — Doug Bradley
• Emily Bung — Sally Ann Curran
• Max Miller — Roy Hudd
• Billy — Martin Parsons
• Albert Potter — Chris Simmons

Notes

1. One of the characters in this story is a young actor called Billy, who has just made a film called While Parents Sleep^[1] and also starred in I'm an Explosive.^[2] These 1930s films do exist, and contain early appearances by "Billy Hartnell", who (as William Hartnell) would later play the First Doctor.
2. At the beginning of the story, Evelyn suggests a trip to Blackpool, but the Doctor refuses because of what happened to him last time he visited that town. This is a reference to the unmade Sixth Doctor serial The Nightmare Fair, which was to be the first serial in season 23 - the show went on hiatus for a year instead. This story has since been made by Big Finish as a part of their Lost Stories.
3. The story ends with an alien energy becoming trapped in the metal structure of the West Pier, which will corrode the structure in "60 to 70 years." This refers to the fact that the Pier suffered several collapses throughout the 1990s and 2000s (decade), eventually destroying the structure beyond repair.
4. The aliens in this story return in Assassin in the Limelight.
5. Comedian Max Miller is portrayed in this story by actor Roy Hudd, who is an authority on and biographer of the real Max Miller and president of the Max Miller Appreciation Society.
6. The character names Albert Potter and Emily Bung are taken from the names of characters in Carry On Screaming.

References

1. While Parents Sleep at the Internet Movie Database
2. I'm an Explosive at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• Big Finish Productions - Pier Pressure
• Pier Pressure at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

Reviews

• Pier Pressure reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• Pier Pressure reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide