Iceberg (audio story)
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Iceberg was the thirty-eighth story in the Torchwood audio series by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Grace Knight and featured Burn Gorman as Owen Harper.
Publisher's summary
Dr Owen Harper's called to the hospital. There's a ward full of remarkable coma patients and more are coming in. Each patient came in with a dead relative as their imaginary friend.
Has Owen really discovered a bridge between the living and the dead?
Plot
At 1 o'clock in the morning, Owen is called by his old friend Amira Hussein to help save the life of Lucy Sheppard at Queen Victoria Hospital. Upon arriving, he diagnoses Lucy with acute hyperkalemia and is concerned at how Amira seems to have forgotten her medical knowledge. She also forgets to tell him that Lucy hallucinates her dead sister.
to be completed
Cast
References
Individuals
- Amira Hussein used to work with Owen Harper and his fiancée, Katie Russell. She works in psychiatrics.
- Owen met Katie when he was 21 years old.
- It's been 18 months since Owen and Amira spoke at Katie's funeral, and as long since Owen left his job and joined Torchwood.
- Amira died a year ago, roughly six months after Owen left to work for Torchwood.
- Lucy's sister Ella died after falling from a balcony at a party.
- Ella's boyfriend Leon was a "total waster", according to Lucy.
- Owen calls Ella a ghost.
- Owen and Amira laugh about how much hair gel Owen wore before he met Katie.
- Amira had a bucket list, which included using her GCSE French to visit Morocco.
- Fatima Hussein had been suffering from cancer.
Entertainment
- Owen mentions 28 Days Later.
Food and beverages
- Owen and Amira drink coffee. Owen prefers cappuccino with two sugars.
Organisations
- Queen Victoria Hospital is being closed down and its resources moved to St Helen's.
- Amira asks Owen which company he went to work and suggests MI6 and GCHQ, to which Owen answers neither.
Species
- Amira Hussein is an alien spore, which uses the memories of two hosts to form its own body. Amira uses Fatima Hussein, the mother of real Amira, and Owen Harper.
- Alien Amira has been using the hospital to harvest the memories of human hosts and breed more spore creatures. Amira refers to these 'ghosts' as her 'sisters'.
- Ella's two hosts were Lucy and Lucy's mother.
- Amira compares the formation of a body to the formation of an iceberg. Just as an iceberg forms around a speck of dust, the spore uses the harvested memories to build a body.
- Harvesting the memories and delta waves of a host drains the host of their natural bodily functions, such as talking, reading and walking. The "ghosts" guilt-trip the hosts into producing delta waves, a side effect of grief, which they then use to solidify their bodies, killing the hosts.
Medicine
- Owen diagnoses Lucy with hyperkalemia.
- Owen and Amira take Lucy's blood after applying a tourniquet and then decide to do a lumbar puncture.
Technology
- Owen uses a mind-reading device, normally used to assess unconscious patients, to erase Ella's delta waves, thus killing both Ella and Lucy. He then uses it to kill the alien Amira.
Torchwood
- Owen phones Tosh to arrange a clean up at the hospital, stating there are 21 corpses and 19 coma patients caused by the alien.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Following the death of Owen's fiancée, Katie Russell, which left him devastated, he left work. Owen's co-workers disagreed on whether this loss proved to be too much, or he was recruited by a top-secret research team. In fact, this was when Owen was recruited to Torchwood Three. (TV: Fragments)
- Amira wonders if Owen works for MI5, (PROSE: The Dying Days, System Shock) MI6 (COMIC: The Fallen, TV: Spyfall) or GCHQ. (TV: Resolution)
- Owen states that "people don't come back from the dead". Owen will later go on to be resurrected following a fatal gunshot wound. (TV: Reset, Dead Man Walking)
- The real Amira Hussein was present at Katie's funeral. Jack Harkness, his future boss, was also present. (TV: Fragments)
External links
- Official Iceberg page at bigfinish.com
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