Frostfire (audio story)

Frostfire was the first story of the first series in The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Marc Platt and featured Vicki Pallister.

Publisher's summary
Vicki has a tale to tell.

But where does it start and when does it end?

Ancient Carthage. 1164 BC.

Lady Cressida has a secret. She keeps it deep in the cisterns below the Temple of Astarte with only one flame for warmth. And it must never get out.

Regency London, 1814 AD.

The First Doctor, Steven and Vicki go to the fair and meet the fiery Dragon, the novelist Miss Austen and the deadliest weather you ever did see.

But which comes first?

The Future or the Past?

The Phoenix or the Egg?

The Fire or the Frost?

Or will Time freeze over forever?

Part one
In ancient Carthage, Vicki opens the door of a cellar under the Main Temple and goes down into it, addressing someone living there. She carries a scroll, with the first draft of a story she had a scribe written down for her, and she wants to share it with the dweller of the cellar. It is a story of an adventure she had with the Doctor and Steven, where they landed in London, 1814, during the last Frost Fair.

Vicki had just finished describing London when a voice interrupts her, complaining about the cold. It says that it was too cold in London too to remember, and asks for more heat. Vicki, annoyed, goes on with her story.

In the past, the Doctor, Steven and Vicki go around the many attractions of the Fair. The Doctor is attracted to a poster advertising the presence of a dragon, and is very disappointed when it turns out to be just a circus fire-eating. At that moment, the three strangers are addressed by an Italian charlatan, Ippolito Valzacchi, offering himself as a guide. The three of them turned him down, but he insists, to the point of taking out a sword and threatening Steven. The fight that it could ensue is avoided thanks to the intervention of Sir Joseph Mallard, a gentleman, and his wife Georgiana, who send Valzacchi away and then offer to guide them in his stead. The Doctor accepts. It comes out that Sir Joseph is Deputy Warden of the Royal Mint.

The group comes at the end of the Fair, where a tend stands, property of a sea captain, McClavity, showing the wonders he allegedly collected on his travels. They go in to see. Most of the stuff is just fake, or rubbish. The captain then goes on to show his greatest treasure, something he acquired in Medina, in Tunis.

In the present, when hearing the name of the place, the mysterious dweller of the cellar laughs, recognising it. Vicki comments she was sure that would get his attention, and that "things come in circles".

In the past, the captain unveils his treasure: a giant egg, which he calls "the Phoenix's egg", big as a head, with something luminous and cold inside it. As it unveils, the tent gets colder, as if all the heat had been sucked off. As Vicki watches, unable to turn away, the shell of the egg breaks, and an eye lurks from the inside of it, looking directly at Vicki and Georgiana. Vicki feels sick and faints, to recover some minutes later, thanks to the intervention of another lady in the crowd: Jane Austen. The egg now is whole again. Vicki tells the Doctor and Steven what happened, and while the latter one dismisses it, the Doctor seems impressed and worried. While the Doctor congratulates Jane Austen for the success of her novels (even though, at the moment, only two had been published, and not with her name on it), Vicki sees Lady Georgiana insist with her husband to get the captain's egg. Sir Joseph leads her away, followed closely by Valzacchi. Suddenly, the circus fire-eater comes out of the crowd, running, the fire in his mouth now cold and violent. Jane Austen knocks him out, but in the confusion, the sea captain is killed and the egg is stolen.

The mysterious interlocutor of Vicki laughs again, irritating her.

The travellers and Jane Austen leave in the latter's hackney carriage; Jane also offers them lodgings at her brother's house, where she is staying during a visit to her publisher. All of them have also been invited, that evening, to Sir Joseph's house for dinner. Vicki is still troubled by what she saw, by the image of the eye in the egg, as if it was...

"Still looking for you," the interlocutor said. Vicki now is angered at the other one's intervention, and rejects his pleas to be taken outside in the heat with anger.

In the past, while the Doctor and Steven look for suitable clothes, Jane Austen asks Vicki whether she has come to London to find a husband. Initially startled by her negative response, she then guesses Vicki is interested in Steven. Although it's not the case, Vicki starts, for fun, to enumerate all the qualities of the man, impressing Jane. Then all of them drive in the carriage to Sir Joseph's house, in the bitter cold of the evening. When they arrive, they see a man, in filthy clothes, arguing with Sir Joseph: he wants his boy back, a chimney sweep who has disappeared while cleaning Sir Joseph's chimney. Seeing them arrive, Sir Joseph has a servant pay him and send him away. Once again, Vicki spots for a moment Valzacchi, looking at the house.

At the party, the travellers are the attention of the other guests (Steven particularly for the ladies), who are talking about many things, but mostly about the bitter cold. Sir Joseph suggests Vicki talk to Lady Georgiana: she is not herself, he said, since the fair. Vicki finds her sitting by the fire, shivering, but refusing to go away from the party. Georgiana shares with Vicki her vision of the eye, similar to that of the girl, and insists she has to find the egg. Vicki leaves to find the Doctor, but he is dancing a gavotte with Jane Austen; she then sees Georgiana leaving the room after talking with someone, with a seemingly happy expression.

The interlocutor interrupts again, saying that Georgiana was also scared, just as Vicki. He insists she moves closer to the fire to warm herself, but Vicki refuses, preferring the cold, and goes on.

Vicki follows Georgiana in another room and sees her talking with Valzacchi. He has the egg, he says, and promises to take her to it, even now. Vicki moves to come back into the room, but she bumps into Steven: he too heard the conversation. While he moves to catch Valzacchi, Vicki warns the Doctor and Sir Joseph. Valzacchi is thrown out of the house, while Georgiana, in a frenzy, starts to feed the fire in the chimney with everything she can put her hands on. A huge tongue of fire rises from the chimney, and the missing chimney boy falls down from the chimney into the room, muttering about the "frostfire", a creature on the rooftop. In the colder and colder room, the tongues of the fire seem to have a life of their own, to search for heat; and while the Doctor ushers everyone out, Georgiana instead advances towards it, and gets swept away in the chimney by the cold flames.

Part two
to be added

Cast

 * Vicki Pallister - Maureen O'Brien
 * The Cinder - Keith Drinkel

Biology

 * The Cinder mentions the Doctor's hearts.

Books

 * Jane Austen says that, at this date, she wrote only two novels (Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice) and not with her name on it.

Buildings

 * Vicki notes that St Paul's Cathedral is still standing in the 25th century, after the Dalek invasion in the 22nd century and four World Wars.

History

 * At Sir Joseph's party, the guests talk about the war with France.

Individuals

 * The Doctor, Vicki, Steven and Jane met a beadle in London.

Locations

 * The TARDIS crew attend the 1814 frost fair on the River Thames.

Music

 * The Doctor dances a gavotte with Jane Austen.

Continuity

 * Vicki is telling this story as an ageing woman in 1164 B.C., many years after she left the TARDIS in ancient Troy to marry Troilus. (TV: The Myth Makers)
 * Vicki recalls rescuing Steven Taylor from the Mechanoids (TV: The Chase) and the "trouble with the Monk". (TV: The Time Meddler)
 * The Doctor provides Vicki and Steven with invernal clothes of Russian origin. He and Steven will later visit Russia in 1812 together with Dodo Chaplet. (AUDIO: Mother Russia)
 * The Doctor says he once saw "a dragon the size of London bridge". (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice)
 * The Second Doctor, Ben Jackson, Polly Wright and Jamie McCrimmon would later visit another frost fair in December 1648. (PROSE: The Roundheads)
 * River Song and the Eleventh Doctor would later ice skate on the frozen River Thames at around the same time during "the last of the great frost fairs". (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * The Doctor also visited the 1814 frost fair during both his tenth and twelfth incarnations. (PROSE: The Frozen; TV: Thin Ice)
 * Clara Oswald would later strike up a relationship with Jane Austen, and stated that she was a good kisser. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice, Face the Raven)