The Face in the Storm (audio story)

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The Face in the Storm was the sixth story of the thirteenth series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Sarah Grochala and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan and Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

1916 and the TARDIS has landed in the cargo hold of the SS Maycrest, a ship transporting soldiers across the Atlantic.

Except that's not all that’s being transported across the ocean. Because the Doctor and his friends find a strange crate in the hold, a crate that's unnaturally cold.

But the contents of the crate are not the ship's biggest secret. Nor it's deadliest threat...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

In 1916, Captain Sackville-Smythe of SS Maycrest requests assistance from Carnarvon Station after having Sam thrown in the brig for requesting that the British West Indies Regiment be given access to the stove in the officers' quarters and intimating that there would be unrest otherwise. Assistance is rejected, however, as Carnarvon Station are interested only in the safety of the cargo. The TARDIS arrives in the hold of its own accord and the Doctor, Harry and Naomi, leaving it to reboot, come across the cargo: an armoured crate which freezes the sonic screwdriver when the Doctor tries to open up a hairline fracture in it. The three of them are caught by Sackville-Smythe and interrogated as he believes them to be German spies.

The Doctor, Harry and Naomi are locked in the brig with Sam, whom Naomi recognises as her grandfather whose career at a precursor to UNIT inspired her choice of career. She also recognises Arnold Dacres as her Uncle Arnold, but the ship is attacked by a U-boat before she can tell the Doctor any of this and the ship starts to take on water. Carnarvon Station, however, does nothing but thank Sackville-Smythe for his service. The Doctor reboots the screwdriver, seals the hole in the brig and heads to the armoured crate after Arnold lets them out to assist in the emergency. He and Arnold find that whatever was inside has exited and frozen Wilson, who falls and shatters into pieces.

Harry, Naomi and Sam attempt to bail water out of the ship with limited success until the sea around them freezes solid, keeping the ship afloat. An angelic face appears in the clouds and lures Sam off of the ship and onto the ice where he freezes solid. The face disappears and Harry checks Sam over, but he is unable to find a heartbeat. Finally, Naomi tells Harry that Sam was her grandfather.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Learning that Sam is Naomi's grandfather, the Doctor surmises that he is not dead and can be revived if they keep him from being frozen in seawater. He and Harry get him below deck as the creature which escaped the armoured crate attacks other members of the crew, whom Dacres lets into the officers' mess despite Sackville-Smythe's protestations. The creature breaks in, however, and draws the heat from the stove, forcing the crew to flee to the hold. The Doctor believes that Sackville-Smythe is familiar with the creature, as does Dacres, and he and Harry learn from him that it is a Yukionna, an alien that feeds on thermal energy and was supplied by the Japanese as a weapon against the Germans.

Assuming that the Yukionna is capable of absorbing an infinite amount of heat, the Doctor realises that they will have to take it to somewhere completely without thermal energy and Sackville-Smyth admits that there is a second crate with a second Yukionna inside. He then plans to get the Yukionna to feed off of one another and get the crew off of the ship in the TARDIS. Meanwhile, Dacres stays with Naomi to protect Sam and admits to her that he impregnated Sam's now-fiancée, Grace, whilst he was in England, thus making him Naomi's biological grandfather and not Sam. Released by the Doctor, the second Yukionna joins forces with her sister until the temperature drops, at which point they kill one another and Sam is thawed.

Although Naomi wants to stay longer, the Doctor decides after helping Sackville-Smythe with the cracks in the ship that it is time to leave. Naomi says farewell to Arnold and Sam, assuring the former that she would be proud to have him as her father, and leaves with the Doctor and Harry. Impressed by the two soldiers, Sackville-Smythe invites Arnold and Sam to join his investigative unit and they accept.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Face in the Storm was based on an incident in 1916 when SS Verdala, renamed Maycrest in 1940, was ordered to travel to Halifax, Nova Scotia to avoid enemy activity as it was transporting the Third Jamaica Contingent to Europe. The ship was trapped in a blizzard and the voyage abandoned after many of the soldiers got frostbite and several died. (BFX: The Face in the Storm)
  • Sarah Grochala chose to give Naomi a relative who worked for a precursor to UNIT as a tribute to the contributions that black people had made to the United Kingdom and to avoid the stereotype of Naomi being a pioneer by joining UNIT. (BFX: The Face in the Storm)

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

v • e
Big Finish Fourth Doctor Adventures
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Series 6
Series 7
Series 8
Series 9
Series 10
Series 11
Series 12
Series 13
Specials
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