"The Big Freeze" is a comic-strip story originally published in TV Century 21 Issues 99 to 104, 10th December 2066 to 14th January 2067. It was written by Alan Fennell and illustrated by Frank Bellamy.
Story[]
Part One[]
At the North Pole, a joint weapons test - conducted by the World Navy carrier Greenland and the World Army polar base Camp 21st Century - has unforeseen consequences, resulting in the destruction of the underground base's nuclear power plant! A standby generator will keep the staff alive for two weeks, but worsening weather conditions make getting that replacement generator to its destination, via conventional means - and, in time - impossible...
And before long, the imperiled encampment faces a new danger: if the cold doesn't kill them, radiation leaking from their now-smashed power plant will!
Working in a deadly sub-zero environment, the combined might of three Thunderbird machines will be put to the their greatest test ever...
Part Two[]
On top of the world, at the World Army base called Camp 21st Century - located fifty feet beneath the ice cap surrounding the North Pole - a top-level conference is underway. A laser missile destructor test is to be conducted the following day (Wednesday) at 14:00 hours; and in aid of this, maximum-security conditions are to be declared - and enforced - within Polar Regions 7, 8 and 9.
Out in space, aboard Thunderbird 5 - the listening-post of International Rescue - John Tracy is monitoring the broadcast from the polar base, and informs Tracy Island. It turns out IR has some polar plans of its own: Brains has installed special polar-region navigation equipment aboard Thunderbird 1, which Scott can now proceed to test out under Arctic conditions. Eighteen hours later, all is prepared; and Scott launches Thunderbird 1, bound for the Arctic Circle...
Elsewhere, Camp 21st Century is in radio contact with the World Navy missile carrier Greenland - which launches a missile as part of the planned exercise. From under the ice, two laser rays arc skyward to make contact with the missile, hitting it dead on target. But after that, the missile goes out of control - crashing into the base's nuclear power plant, and destroying its reactor!
Part Three[]
Forced to switch over to its standby generator - which will only last a fortnight - Camp 21st Century must obtain a new reactor within that time; and it can only come from Baffin Island...
Aboard TB5, John is listening to the urgent stream of messages flashing back and forth. Sizing up the situation, he reports his findings to his father, Jeff: worsening weather conditions will ground any rescue attempt by conventional aircraft, leaving the sea as the only hope...
Enter the World Navy ice-breaker Shackleton - Captain Terence, commanding - which sets off from Cape Adair, Baffin Island, headed five hundred miles northwards with the new reactor safely loaded aboard. She must not fail! Yet, all too soon, ship and crew find themselves stopped by very thick and strong ice...
Part Four[]
Elsewhere in the perpetual cold of the far north, a certain decidedly unconventional aircraft is in the air: Thunderbird 1 is engaged in its own Arctic trials, and Scott is pleased with how well the new cold-weather equipment is functioning - declaring he could set TB1 down on a dollar note at the North Pole! But Jeff now has a new and urgent mission for his son - investigating the Baffin Bay sea conditions, which have closed down on the stranded Shackleton...
Back at Camp 21st Century - where only seven days' fuel remains - things are about to go from already-bad to even-worse: army scientists realise that part of the reactor chamber's shields is weakening, due to leaking radiation! Once inside the command sector, one scientist collapses from radiation sickness. Outside, the raging blizzard sweeps up sparks from the reactor waste-shafts...sending cinders into an air-intake shaft - where sparks ignite the diesel-generator fuel stores. The base is now in darkness, and at the mercy of the cold...
Part Five[]
...but, as yet unknown to them, help is coming: Thunderbird 2 - with Virgil, Alan, Gordon, Thunderbird 4 and Firefly - is in the air, bound for the far north. First step: help the Shackleton!
A low-yield missile, fired from TB2, breaks up the ice, enabling the launch of TB4. Once the yellow mini-sub has submerged, Gordon uses the laser beam to melt the ice, allowing the World Navy ice-breaker with its all-important cargo to move forward once more...
Next, TB2 moves on, to rendezvous with TB1; but now, as the two ships move in close formation in the harsh conditions, Scott feels TB1 wavering...
"Get below me," he instructs Virgil, "see if you can spot the trouble," and Virgil quickly does so: TB1's fuselage heating systems have failed, and the rocket plane is icing up! A crash is only moments away...
Part Six[]
Quickly positioning his larger craft over his brother's, Virgil uses TB2's downward thrusts to "de-ice" the paralyzed wings of TB1. Scott quickly recovers control...and reaches Camp 21st Century, where he collects and then evacuates the sickened scientist to Baffin Hospital...
Alan and Virgil, meanwhile, hook up TB2 to the army base, to supply it with emergency power. Then, with Alan at the controls, Firefly tackles putting out the reactor fire: venturing deep inside the reactor tunnel, Firefly reaches the raging inferno and Alan takes aim with a nitro-glycerine shell. But, it blows back - forcing Firefly backwards with tremendous force! Despite Firefly's dented exterior, and being bruised himself, Alan carries on until the fire is finally extinguished...
At last, Thunderbird 4 and Shackleton also arrive at the beleaguered polar camp; and the final stage of the rescue begins: transporter vehicles are deployed by Thunderbird 2, and Virgil utilizes his ship's massive lifting capability to very carefully load the replacement reactor into position, and its journey to its new home begins...
Twenty-four hours' hard labor later, the new reactor is successfully installed; and Camp 21st Century is again under full power. As International Rescue prepares to depart - having packed up all of its own gear, and all four Tracy brothers reunited - the camp general thanks them for all their help. Scott acknowledges the difficulty of the multi-pronged endeavor they've all been through - and, that "our job is never easy..."
Characters[]
(In order of appearance)
- Jeff Tracy
- Brains
- Base General (Camp 21st Century)
- John Tracy
- Radio Operator (Unnamed)
- Lieutenant (Camp 21st Century)
- Sergeant (Camp 21st Century)
- Scott Tracy
- World Navy Admiral
- Captain Terence
- Lieutenant (World Navy)
- Frank (Army Scientist)
- Unnamed Army Scientists
- Virgil Tracy
- Alan Tracy
- Gordon Tracy
International Rescue Equipment Used[]
- Thunderbird 1
- Thunderbird 2
- Thunderbird 4
- Thunderbird 5
- Firefly
- Transporters
Non-International Rescue Equipment Used[]
- World Army Polar Base Camp 21st Century
- World Navy Missile Carrier Greenland (call-sign Target Mother Greenland)
- World Navy Ice-breaker Shackleton
Trivia[]
- More IR polar adventures: at the bottom of the world, IR discovers - to its cost, and those they're trying to rescue - that there's far more to the White Continent than meets the eye, in the aptly-named The Antarctic Menace; and, responding to a distress-call from an imperiled military research vessel in Antarctic waters, Thunderbirds 2 and 4 find themselves under attack from - of all things - a bizarre and powerful heat-ray blast (and that's only the beginning), in The Space Mirror.
- The story would later be adapted for audio in Danger and Deception.
Cover Tie-In[]
Although all six covers from issue 99 to 104 focused on a Thunderbirds adventure, only one focused on this one. The other five promoted the concurrently-published adaptation of Thunderbirds Are Go.
