Protect and Survive: A Timeline

Join the fucking cowboys, especially if they've got a fucking tank.

Protect and Survive: A Timeline is an Alternate History timeline written by "Macragge1" on AlternateHistory.com. Taking inspiration from the Protect and Survive PSAs created by the British government during the 1980s, the timeline asks what would have happened had nuclear war broken out between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in 1984. Despite lasting a relatively short time, the conflict plunges the world into utter chaos where basic survival is a major struggle. Protect and Survive focuses mainly on the fate of the United Kingdom, with the occasional update on other regions of the globe.

Due to the style and concept, the original thread was immensely well-received by the AlternateHistory.com community. With the permission of Macragge1, several spin-offs have been created centering around other communities in the post-war world. It has been said that such a positive response is unprecedented on the website.


You can read it here.

Tropes used in Protect and Survive: A Timeline include:
  • After the End: Very much so.
  • Allohistorical Allusion: Although not mentioned by name, it's clear that the guitar playing rebel soldier who "doesn't want to change the world" is meant to be Billy Bragg. Also Operation Prospero finds that the US is being run from Columbine, CO
  • Atomic Hate : Virtually every larger urban or industrial centre on the face of the world is showered by nukes. Even some of the smaller cities recieve at least one.
  • Cold War: The setting, specifically The Eighties version. Needless to say, in this alternate universe, it went hot.
  • Cozy Catastrophe: Averted. Big time.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: After the War, Britain sends a expedition to the Falkland Islands which is attacked by the Argentine Navy, killing three sailors. Britain's response: nuking Buenos Aires.
  • Driven to Suicide: The Queen, no less.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Happens in chapter five.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: During Operation Prospero, the American "cowboy" guy when he mouths to the pilot to shoot the Commando through him, also averting Bulletproof Human Shield in the process. It turns out that the Commando is Not Quite Dead though.

(mouthed)"Do it, Son."

  • Hope Spot: The nuke meant for Portsmouth misses and detonates in the channel, which at least gives the UK a de facto capital.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: How The Controller rationalises not feeding babies because they can't work. Later, he reevaluates his decision.
  • Infant Immortality: Brutally averted. Possibly even inverted, given how many babies and children die in this story.
  • Literary Allusion Title : To the 1970s-1980s British nuclear war survival program.
  • No Name Given: Most of the main fictional characters are referred to only by their occupations.
  • Stream of Consciousness : The inner monologue of the characters is usualy presented like this.
  • Spin-Off: Has already received at least ten spinoff series, which is unusual even for great AlternateHistory.com timelines. Duck and Cover is an American version done in a similar style, Land of Flatwater is a more character driven piece set in Nebraska, Noi Non Ci Saremo is set in Italy and The Land of Sad Songs focuses on Finland, while The Last Flight of XM594 focuses on the RAF and one Vulcan V-Bomber. A version set in the former USSR has been suggested but has yet to materialise.
  • Spiritual Successor: To Threads, one of its sources of inspiration.
  • Tank Goodness: One Chieftain tank is more than enough, at the Battle of Felton.
  • Taking You with Me: The Commando with President Reagan.
  • The Eighties: The War begins in early 1984. Which is the same year that Threads was broadcast, and presumably set in. Unsurprisingly, the timeline references a lot of 1980s popculture.
  • The Last DJ: John Peel, rather more literally than he was in real life.
  • Undefeatable Little Village: Subverted by Felton, which tries to be this, but fails massively and is implied to have been basically levelled.
  • Wham! Line: At the end of part 4 there is a single solitary line that seems insignificant but is the most important line up to this point:

Attack Warning Red

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