Attack of the Snowmen (short story)

Attack of the Snowmen was a December 2011 online short story published on the BBC's Doctor Who Website as part of the 2011 Adventure Calendar.

Summary
A missing businessman, odd snow, and a strange man in a bowler hat drag the Doctor and his snowbound friends into an alien mystery.

Part One
Businessman Geoff Bluth is caught in a snowstorm and can't find his hotel. While on the line he stops to ask a mysterious man in a bowler hat and grey pinstriped suit what street they are on. He screams...

Over a week later, the town is still snowed in and the power and all phone service is out. The roads across Europe are blocked and the petrol stations are out of fuel. Louie Rollins has borrowed his neighbour's daughter's snowboard and is using it to make his way into town. As he reaches his Aunt Rachael's house, he zigzags around the numerous snowmen outside, clipping one and careening, narrowly managing to reach the door to crash into the kitchen, amusing Aunty Rachael. Millie comes in and the three chat until Millie's phone rings. It takes a moment for all three to realise that the battery is dead and there's no reception. Millie answers, then rushes to the door to let in the Eleventh Doctor. They catch up, and he tells them that he was on the way to visit the creation of the Salcreyan Nebula when the TARDIS was dragged off course by something alien and powerful. His scans didn't find anything, so he asks them if they'd noticed anything unusual since the beginning of the storm. Rachael mentions the missing businessman, and Millie has noticed that the snow is still light and fluffy and hasn't melted even though daytime temperatures have been above freezing.

The Doctor examines the snow, which looks and smells like snow, but he says he has a very sensitive tongue that can tell by taste that there are trace amounts of phosidium, a substance that shouldn't exist on Earth or in this solar system. The Doctor bids them goodbye, planning to use the TARDIS to track down any more concentrations of phosidium, but Rachael doesn't care to just sit and worry. She declares they're coming with him, and the Doctor just smiles. They head off, but Millie drags behind, thinking she saw something odd about a snowman. The Doctor catches sight of his TARDIS and a man in a bowler hat and pin-striped suit. A power line falls to the ground, sparking. As the trio backs away, Millie screams as a snowman with glowing red eyes rises and glides toward her.

Part Two
to be added

Part Three
to be added

Characters

 * Eleventh Doctor
 * Louie Rollins
 * Millie Peterson
 * Aunty Rachael
 * Geoff Bluth
 * Fasheith
 * Hazneer

Continuity

 * Louie Rollins and Millie Peterson from The Night After Hallowe'en and Snowfall reappear.
 * The villains are the Council of Dead from Snowfall.
 * The Judoon, introduced in Smith and Jones, are mentioned as a threat to the Council of Dead.