Big Finish Audio Dramas: UNIT - Reaction Post
A little while ago, shinyjenni recommended this series and I managed to get hold of them, and have now listened to all 4 1/2 audios (the first one's roughly 25 mins, the rest are over an hour each) in the space of three days.
The UNIT series of audio dramas from Big Finish offers a modern look at the military organisation of the Pertwee years of Doctor Who, and stars Siri O'Neal as Colonel Emily Chaudhry, Nicholas Deal as UNIT's new commanding officer, Colonel Robert Dalton and Nicholas Courtney as General Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (retired). Be warned there are spoilers below !
The series starts with The Coup (by Simon Guerrier) - which is the 25 minute drama. The Brigadier is once again called back to UNIT, although not to repel the Silurians who were apparently attacking London Bridge the night before, but to hand over the reins of UNIT as its role is taken over by the new UK government-supported military group ICIS (Internal Counter-Intelligence Service). However, it quickly becomes clear that whilst UNIT and the Brig seem to have mellowed from their rather gung-ho attitude of the Pertwee era into a more open-minded organisation (which might have been the Doctor's influence), ICIS, on the other hand, are a thoroughly nasty bunch who don't hesitate to torture citizens to protect their secrecy. This is a pretty black and white scenario, but it works within the context of the story.
The story depends on the conceit that UNIT have successfully managed to cover up every single alien attack before this point, which seems a little ludicrous, given how many aliens have marched through London over the years, but if you can suspend your disbelief, it works well. (And after all, it's not much different to the Doctor Who TV show asking us to believe that no one believes in aliens still, despite Autons, Slitheen, the Master, Daleks, Cybermen and the like being seen in modern day London).
I confess I instantly liked Emily Chaudhry and of course I adore the Brig ! Francis Currie is an interesting character, whilst Winnington and French are both rather unnerving.
The second story is Time Heals (by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett) which deals with experiments in matter transmission by ICIS, with some unfortunate time distortion side effects that lead to wholesale chaos such as downed planes, colliding trains, and a lot of innocent people being killed. Although a stolen alien spaceship is used as a power source in this story, it's actually far more concerned with the cloak-and-dagger intrigue that continues to play out between UNIT and ICIS…
Near the start of the story Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood (David Tennant's character, although he doesn't appear in this audio) has gone missing, along with the aforementioned alien spaceship, which leaves Colonel Emily Chaudhry in charge, although she is UNIT's chief press relations officer. The official replacement for Brimmicombe-Wood is the rather more military-minded Colonel Dalton who, having been transferred into UNIT, is unaware and, initially, disbelieving about their alien encounters. The only other UNIT officer we meet is Lieutenant Hoffman, an old colleague of Chaudhry's who acts as her confidante.
Chaudhry's position as press relations officer also provides the opportunity to keep reporter Francis Currie commentating on the action. Currie seems to be a typical media vampire, prone to asking stupid questions (such as "Have you any idea what's happening?" to officials who have literally just arrived at a disaster site) and wild hypothesising (thus everything is seen as a potential terrorist attack). Despite that, though, I liked him - and he proves deserving of my liking later in the series.
Unfortunately, Lethbridge-Stewart's role in this story largely consists of simply getting a mild dose of the time distortion, working out where it is coming from, and then pointing UNIT in the right direction, but he'll more than make up for this in the later stories.
By the time the story reached the climax with a submarine about to explode thereby leaking nuclear radiation into a populated area the tension was almost unbearable and I was practically on the edge of my seat.
Colonel Robert Dalton's typically military attitude was a nice reminder of the early Brigadier and his scepticism towards the paranormal events, and Dalton develops a nice Mulder/Scully relationship with Chaudhry. Her no-nonsense attitude when dealing with him is fab, particularly in the scene where she refuses to submit to him outranking her since he has yet to show her any of the respect she or UNIT deserves.
The third story is Snake Head (by Jonathan Clements) which is a much slower-paced story (which was something of a relief after the frantic race-against-time nature of "The Coup" and "Time Heals"). This story revolves around Colonels Dalton and Chaudhry heading out to the south-east coast in order to investigate a death on a Southend beach, and begins with an attack by something unexplained on an a man speaking in an as-yet unidentified language to another man on the telephone.
The story builds upon what has already been established about the attitudes of Chaudhry and Dalton by highlighting their differing attitudes to this particular mission and it's interesting to listen to their conflicting views since Chaudhry is certain that the man who's washed up on the beach was a victim of something inhuman, whilst Dalton tries very hard to rationalise it as something less than supernatural.
The Brig is entirely absent from this story, but I didn't miss him because Dalton's and Chaudhry's interactions proved so interesting. The secondary characters, from Dr Hendrick (an archaeologist who's in charge of a nearby dig and is even more sceptical than Dalton, Kevin (the man who was called by the man who died at the outset of the story), and Goran (the Vrkolak hunter who's been smuggled into the country in order to find the invisible vampire called a Vrkolak) are also interesting, intriguing and well fleshed out.
The next story is The Longest Night (by Joseph Lidster) - and it's by far the creepiest of the stories. The story takes place on a single evening (and picks up right after "Snake Head") which begins like so many others for the citizens of London, with people enjoying themselves and getting on with their lives. However, that peace is soon shattered when an apparent suicide bomber destroys the Vita Futura club that's been established to celebrate Brtiain's ethnic diversity. The police are quick to blame Muslim extremists, but thanks to the bravery of Lieutentant Hoffman, UNIT knows the truth - that the instigator of the carnage was white and middle-class. As UNIT begins to investigate the cover-up, reports of further attacks pour in and Colonels Dalton and Chaudhry quickly realise that someone is deliberately trying to provoke a race war that will split Britain's multi-cultural society asunder. All they have to do is work out why.
The story develops along two strands that mix Dalton's and Chaudhry's investigation with scenes showing the government formulating its response to the deepening crisis, and plenty of media scenes in between which show the scale of the attacks. This works very well in creating tension as UNIT makes slow progress and the leadership from Downing Street looks indecisive as the Prime Minister receives conflicting counsel from his deputy, Meena Cartwright, and his chief press officer, Major Philip Kirby.
It turns out that Kirby is behind the attacks as he desires to put the Great back into his country - but he's not working alone. He has somehow managed to plant "triggers" into a number of people in order to get them to carry out the murderous attacks - and amongst the people whom he triggers are Francis Currie, Meena Cartwright and Robert Dalton.
It's not all horror though. There's easy banter between Dalton and Chaudhry in their first scene which demonstrates their growing respect for each other and how they're working on their friendship, despite some rather unsubtle reminders of Dalton's temporary position due to his predecessor still being missing (more on that in the next story).
Siri O'Neal is very commanding as Chaudhry who demonstrates her great resolve as she is put through the wringer and comes out stronger than ever with real steel in the confrontation with the retuning Andrea Winnington. Nicholas Deal is equally impressive, showing Dalton's pride at being a soldier but one whose perspective has grown through his experiences with UNIT. His best scenes are during the closing moments when Dalton is forced into a deadly situation that had me staring in disbelief at the audio player as the story ended.
The final story in the series is The Wasting (also by Joseph Lidster) and here the Brig shines and David Tennant damn near scared the beejeebus out of me as the ranting Scottish Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood who really ought to be locked up... The story capitalises well on the strengths of the UNIT series: the modern day, gritty setting; the well written relationships between the regulars; and the high action content. "The Wasting" gathers all the dangling threads from each of the previous stories and weaves them together into a satisfying whole.
Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood is exposed as the power behind the throne of UNIT's enemy organisation, ICIS, and he shows what a total bastard he is. The story goes from being very good to excellent once David Tennant, unleashed and unrestrained, tears into Chaudhry with some marvellous digs and vocalising his enormous egotism. Wood makes a fantastic villain because he's just so horrible and he provides the climax with some good emotional fireworks. Chaudhry's disgusted reactions to Wood's activities are a real sucker punch, and her parting line to him: "Colonel Brimicombe-Wood I am placing under arrest, for murder, attempted murder, hijacking, treason, terrorism and being the biggest arsehole on the planet!" made me cheer and then laugh.
The Brigadier is on fine form in this story - tender and gentle with Chaudhry at the start (is it any wonder I'm shipping them, even though the Brig's married?!), and strong, brave and determined during the climax when he's facing off with the rather deranged Winnington. There are several name checks for Harry Sullivan (whom the Brig rings for assistance - Harry's apparently doing something hush-hush for NATO at this point), which made me squee and flail like the total fangirl I am !
All in all, this is a fantastic series of stories that I cannnot recommend highly enough - just don't listen to them before sleeping because the tension and drama will probably stop you from dropping off !
The UNIT series of audio dramas from Big Finish offers a modern look at the military organisation of the Pertwee years of Doctor Who, and stars Siri O'Neal as Colonel Emily Chaudhry, Nicholas Deal as UNIT's new commanding officer, Colonel Robert Dalton and Nicholas Courtney as General Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (retired). Be warned there are spoilers below !
The series starts with The Coup (by Simon Guerrier) - which is the 25 minute drama. The Brigadier is once again called back to UNIT, although not to repel the Silurians who were apparently attacking London Bridge the night before, but to hand over the reins of UNIT as its role is taken over by the new UK government-supported military group ICIS (Internal Counter-Intelligence Service). However, it quickly becomes clear that whilst UNIT and the Brig seem to have mellowed from their rather gung-ho attitude of the Pertwee era into a more open-minded organisation (which might have been the Doctor's influence), ICIS, on the other hand, are a thoroughly nasty bunch who don't hesitate to torture citizens to protect their secrecy. This is a pretty black and white scenario, but it works within the context of the story.
The story depends on the conceit that UNIT have successfully managed to cover up every single alien attack before this point, which seems a little ludicrous, given how many aliens have marched through London over the years, but if you can suspend your disbelief, it works well. (And after all, it's not much different to the Doctor Who TV show asking us to believe that no one believes in aliens still, despite Autons, Slitheen, the Master, Daleks, Cybermen and the like being seen in modern day London).
I confess I instantly liked Emily Chaudhry and of course I adore the Brig ! Francis Currie is an interesting character, whilst Winnington and French are both rather unnerving.
The second story is Time Heals (by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett) which deals with experiments in matter transmission by ICIS, with some unfortunate time distortion side effects that lead to wholesale chaos such as downed planes, colliding trains, and a lot of innocent people being killed. Although a stolen alien spaceship is used as a power source in this story, it's actually far more concerned with the cloak-and-dagger intrigue that continues to play out between UNIT and ICIS…
Near the start of the story Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood (David Tennant's character, although he doesn't appear in this audio) has gone missing, along with the aforementioned alien spaceship, which leaves Colonel Emily Chaudhry in charge, although she is UNIT's chief press relations officer. The official replacement for Brimmicombe-Wood is the rather more military-minded Colonel Dalton who, having been transferred into UNIT, is unaware and, initially, disbelieving about their alien encounters. The only other UNIT officer we meet is Lieutenant Hoffman, an old colleague of Chaudhry's who acts as her confidante.
Chaudhry's position as press relations officer also provides the opportunity to keep reporter Francis Currie commentating on the action. Currie seems to be a typical media vampire, prone to asking stupid questions (such as "Have you any idea what's happening?" to officials who have literally just arrived at a disaster site) and wild hypothesising (thus everything is seen as a potential terrorist attack). Despite that, though, I liked him - and he proves deserving of my liking later in the series.
Unfortunately, Lethbridge-Stewart's role in this story largely consists of simply getting a mild dose of the time distortion, working out where it is coming from, and then pointing UNIT in the right direction, but he'll more than make up for this in the later stories.
By the time the story reached the climax with a submarine about to explode thereby leaking nuclear radiation into a populated area the tension was almost unbearable and I was practically on the edge of my seat.
Colonel Robert Dalton's typically military attitude was a nice reminder of the early Brigadier and his scepticism towards the paranormal events, and Dalton develops a nice Mulder/Scully relationship with Chaudhry. Her no-nonsense attitude when dealing with him is fab, particularly in the scene where she refuses to submit to him outranking her since he has yet to show her any of the respect she or UNIT deserves.
The third story is Snake Head (by Jonathan Clements) which is a much slower-paced story (which was something of a relief after the frantic race-against-time nature of "The Coup" and "Time Heals"). This story revolves around Colonels Dalton and Chaudhry heading out to the south-east coast in order to investigate a death on a Southend beach, and begins with an attack by something unexplained on an a man speaking in an as-yet unidentified language to another man on the telephone.
The story builds upon what has already been established about the attitudes of Chaudhry and Dalton by highlighting their differing attitudes to this particular mission and it's interesting to listen to their conflicting views since Chaudhry is certain that the man who's washed up on the beach was a victim of something inhuman, whilst Dalton tries very hard to rationalise it as something less than supernatural.
The Brig is entirely absent from this story, but I didn't miss him because Dalton's and Chaudhry's interactions proved so interesting. The secondary characters, from Dr Hendrick (an archaeologist who's in charge of a nearby dig and is even more sceptical than Dalton, Kevin (the man who was called by the man who died at the outset of the story), and Goran (the Vrkolak hunter who's been smuggled into the country in order to find the invisible vampire called a Vrkolak) are also interesting, intriguing and well fleshed out.
The next story is The Longest Night (by Joseph Lidster) - and it's by far the creepiest of the stories. The story takes place on a single evening (and picks up right after "Snake Head") which begins like so many others for the citizens of London, with people enjoying themselves and getting on with their lives. However, that peace is soon shattered when an apparent suicide bomber destroys the Vita Futura club that's been established to celebrate Brtiain's ethnic diversity. The police are quick to blame Muslim extremists, but thanks to the bravery of Lieutentant Hoffman, UNIT knows the truth - that the instigator of the carnage was white and middle-class. As UNIT begins to investigate the cover-up, reports of further attacks pour in and Colonels Dalton and Chaudhry quickly realise that someone is deliberately trying to provoke a race war that will split Britain's multi-cultural society asunder. All they have to do is work out why.
The story develops along two strands that mix Dalton's and Chaudhry's investigation with scenes showing the government formulating its response to the deepening crisis, and plenty of media scenes in between which show the scale of the attacks. This works very well in creating tension as UNIT makes slow progress and the leadership from Downing Street looks indecisive as the Prime Minister receives conflicting counsel from his deputy, Meena Cartwright, and his chief press officer, Major Philip Kirby.
It turns out that Kirby is behind the attacks as he desires to put the Great back into his country - but he's not working alone. He has somehow managed to plant "triggers" into a number of people in order to get them to carry out the murderous attacks - and amongst the people whom he triggers are Francis Currie, Meena Cartwright and Robert Dalton.
It's not all horror though. There's easy banter between Dalton and Chaudhry in their first scene which demonstrates their growing respect for each other and how they're working on their friendship, despite some rather unsubtle reminders of Dalton's temporary position due to his predecessor still being missing (more on that in the next story).
Siri O'Neal is very commanding as Chaudhry who demonstrates her great resolve as she is put through the wringer and comes out stronger than ever with real steel in the confrontation with the retuning Andrea Winnington. Nicholas Deal is equally impressive, showing Dalton's pride at being a soldier but one whose perspective has grown through his experiences with UNIT. His best scenes are during the closing moments when Dalton is forced into a deadly situation that had me staring in disbelief at the audio player as the story ended.
The final story in the series is The Wasting (also by Joseph Lidster) and here the Brig shines and David Tennant damn near scared the beejeebus out of me as the ranting Scottish Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood who really ought to be locked up... The story capitalises well on the strengths of the UNIT series: the modern day, gritty setting; the well written relationships between the regulars; and the high action content. "The Wasting" gathers all the dangling threads from each of the previous stories and weaves them together into a satisfying whole.
Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood is exposed as the power behind the throne of UNIT's enemy organisation, ICIS, and he shows what a total bastard he is. The story goes from being very good to excellent once David Tennant, unleashed and unrestrained, tears into Chaudhry with some marvellous digs and vocalising his enormous egotism. Wood makes a fantastic villain because he's just so horrible and he provides the climax with some good emotional fireworks. Chaudhry's disgusted reactions to Wood's activities are a real sucker punch, and her parting line to him: "Colonel Brimicombe-Wood I am placing under arrest, for murder, attempted murder, hijacking, treason, terrorism and being the biggest arsehole on the planet!" made me cheer and then laugh.
The Brigadier is on fine form in this story - tender and gentle with Chaudhry at the start (is it any wonder I'm shipping them, even though the Brig's married?!), and strong, brave and determined during the climax when he's facing off with the rather deranged Winnington. There are several name checks for Harry Sullivan (whom the Brig rings for assistance - Harry's apparently doing something hush-hush for NATO at this point), which made me squee and flail like the total fangirl I am !
All in all, this is a fantastic series of stories that I cannnot recommend highly enough - just don't listen to them before sleeping because the tension and drama will probably stop you from dropping off !