Ice Station Alpha

"The whole energy industry is going to change overnight."

Writer: Matt Fitton
Format: Audio
Released: 30th June 2016
Series: UNIT: Shutdown 04

Featuring: Kate, Osgood, Josh, Sam

Synopsis

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.

Verdict

Ice Station Alpha was a great audio adventure and a very good way to conclude Shutdown! This second series of UNIT's new era spinoff has been terrific and a nice extension to Extinction. I now look forward to the rest of the boxsets that have followed but for now this was a good conclusion to the series. It went how I kind of expected and I liked how Felicity Lyme was back in a prominent role following a quiet spell in the previous two stories. Kate turning the tables on her was excellent and I really liked how they continued to stand off in dialogue. They really have had an interesting relationship during this series. Sir Peter having talked to the higher ups and keeping UNIT out of the Alpha station was good but he really didn't seem the most intelligent of people so Kate could easily put UNIT in the driving seat. Hearing Sam back again was good and I liked how he was leading the UNIT soldiers in command. Josh was brilliant once again and I really liked how he was taking prominence when it came to sorting things with Dokan. I thought he was excellent once again and his appreciation of the human race and how they had been able to thwart the Tengobushi up to this point. His communicating with the Kamishi masters was intriguing and I rather liked the change in style of this story with the aliens actually not appearing to be too evil. They had gotten their power cell and were now just hoping to eliminate all trace of Kamishi science. Lyme was the problem and Kate understood that. Her generator being able to produce energy from out of nearly nothing was good but Kate really wasn't sure if the human race was ready for such a power. It would put all of the energy companies worldwide out of business and create a deadly monopoly. The standoff at the setting of the Antarctic was excellent and I really enjoyed the battle between UNIT and Cerberus. The third party being Dokan and the Tengobushi was good and I liked how the concluding moments saw Josh kiss Osgood. She clearly liked that which was intriguing and I do wonder whether anything will come of it in the next series. Josh's emergence at the ending was a nice touch and the conversation between the Kamishi master and Kate was a real highlight. She was defending the human race and assured the master that their secrets would be kept. Osgood provided them with the memory loss trace and the Kamishi saw that it was spread across all those who had learned of their science. It was a nice way to wrap things up and I liked the end meeting between Kate and Sir Peter. She saw that he forgot also which was a great finish. Overall, a great ending to a brilliant little boxset!

Rating: 8/10