Ice Station Alpha was the fourth and final story in the audio anthology, Shutdown, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter and Warren Brown as Sam Bishop.

Publisher's summary[]

Caught between human greed and an unstoppable alien power, Kate Stewart leads her closest allies on one final, desperate mission. This could be the very last chance for the human race.

But the UNIT team has been declared rogue, and ruthless military forces are in pursuit as they race across the globe. Kate calls Lieutenant Sam Bishop to their aid, while Josh and Osgood head out across the frozen Antarctic plains to try and prevent a disaster no-one else knows is coming.

Plot[]

Pretending to work for a power company, Sam joins a tour of a Lyme Industries facility in Antarctica. Lyme welcomes him and all of the other personnel and invites them inside, showing them their ability to produce unlimited energy.

In a UNIT base beneath the Rock of Gibraltar, Kate is appalled to learn of Lyme's generator from Sir Peter, who has had everybody contained pending a full debrief and, with the UNIT chiefs' permission, has taken over. Osgood and Josh are locked in a supply cupboard and access a message sent by Sam before his arrival at Ice Station Alpha as well as an alert of a spacecraft less than a day from Earth.

Osgood manages to make contact with Kate through a door intercom and releases knockout gas across the base. She and Josh put on gas masks and rescue Kate, escaping on the Peregrine One jet to Port Stanley to regroup with Sam. When Sir Peter awakens, he alerts Lyme, who calls for Cerberus Global Solutions to prepare to fight UNIT, and has Major Disanto destroy Peregrine One in Port Stanley in the hopes that UNIT were still inside. Kate, Osgood, Sam and Josh take a mini-submarine to Antarctica and Kate and Sam enter Ice Station Alpha using Sam's pass.

Lyme separates Kate and Sam, but Sam uses a camouflage field and escapes his guard, demanding that Cerberus leave per the Antarctic Treaty. Osgood and Josh are captured, first by Cerberus and then by Dokan and his Tengobushi, and learn that Dokan's Kamishi masters intend on destroying Earth due to Lyme Industries having knowledge of their technology. They work with Dokan to safely destroy the energy cell and Dokan calls off the Tengobushi as his masters arrive and kill Commander Bergem and his men. Josh stays with Dokan to destroy the cell as a show of good faith, kissing Osgood before she escapes.

The Kamishi Masters transmat Kate, Osgood and Sam aboard their ship, the first alien ship that Osgood has boarded, and order them to kill Lyme. Kate instead uses a memory agent on her to remove her knowledge of Kamishi secrets and the Kamishi decide to use it to erase everybody else's memories of them. They present Josh to them and return them home. Osgood, Sam and Josh oversee the rebuilding of the Tower of London and Kate uses the memory agent on Sir Peter.

Cast[]

• Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
• Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
• Captain Josh Carter - James Joyce
• Sam Bishop - Warren Brown
• Felicity Lyme - Alice Krige
• Sir Peter Latcham - Nigel Carrington
• Dokan / Alien Leader - Dan Li
• Chiso / Tengobushi Assassins - Akira Koieyama
• Commander Bergem - Stephen Billington
• Major Disanto - Jot Davies

Worldbuilding[]

• Sam claims to be from Northern Powerhouse.
• Wilkins and Stephens are UNIT soldiers.
• Pharos II flags an image taken by the Hubble space telescope of a craft moving through Neptune's orbit which was spotted by New Horizons.
• Kate says that sonic lockpicks should be standard issue.
• Peregrine One is four times the speed of Concorde.
• Osgood recovers Kate's phone.
• Sam uses a camo-field to hide the buggies.
• Josh says that his Colonel would love Dokan.
• Osgood asks Josh to hand her a sonic wrench.
• The Antarctic Treaty makes Antarctica a non-military zone.
• Kate drinks Sir Peter's brandy.
• Sam goes to the Bahamas to give the Bermuda Triangle a check-up.
• Malcolm sets up a hologram of the Tower of London while it undergoes reconstruction.
• The damage to the Tower is covered up by claiming that it was a trick by Dynamo.

Notes[]

• The story's title is a play on that of the novel Ice Station Zebra and its film adaptation.

Continuity[]

• Lyme mentions "poor old Kenton". (AUDIO: Power Cell)
• Osgood tells Sam about Jay Roy's death. (AUDIO: Power Cell)
• The Tower of London is undergoing reconstruction. (AUDIO: The Battle of the Tower)
• Josh notes that they cannot blame everything on Derren Brown. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

External links[]

• Official Shutdown page at bigfinish.com