UNIT: Shutdown (Big Finish)Bookmark and Share

Wednesday, 13 July 2016 - Reviewed by Richard Brinck-Johnsen
UNIT: Shutdown (Credit: Big Finish)
Written by Matt Fitton and Andrew Smith
Directed by Ken Bentley

Cast: Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Ingrid Oliver (Osgood), Warren Brown (Sam Bishop), James Joyce (Captain Josh Carter), Alice Krige (Felicity Lyme), Asif Khan (Jay Roy) Tyrone Huggins (Dr Kenton Eastwood), Nigel Carrington (Sir Peter Latcham), Beth Chalmers (Anna/Radio Announcer/Quizmaster), Harry Ditson (General Grant Avary), Dan Li (Dokan/Alien Leader), Akira Koieyama (Chiso/Tengobushi Assassins), Stephen Billington (Commander Bergam), Jot Davies (Sebastien/Major Disanto)

Big Finish Productions – Released June 2016

This is the second boxset of adventures featuring the new generation of UNIT headed up by Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and Ingrid Oliver as her scientist sidekick Osgood. As with the first box set, this story is set at an indeterminate time at some point before Osgood was killed in the TV series as all the signs point to the audio incarnation being the human version of the character who first appeared in The Day of the Doctor. One thing that can said with certainty is that this set follows on from Big Finish’s first foray into the New Series, UNIT – Extinction, and sees the return of new team members Warren Brown as international troubleshooter Sam Bishop and James Joyce as Captain Josh Carter. Josh in particular is an extremely likeable character whose continuing character arc proves central to this box set (although anyone who hasn’t heard Extinction may find themselves at a slight loss to understand his apparent super-strength whose origin is only fleetingly alluded to). As much as Joyce is at risk of becoming another member of the rep company of overused Big Finish actors, this reviewer is a self-confessed member of the club that would wish to see Captain Carter remain a regular feature of this ongoing spin-off series given Big Finish’s tendency to kill off some of their best loved original characters.

It would be remiss of this reviewer not to acknowledge the action-packed opening and closing themes composed by Howard Carter which are probably one of the most successful for any of Big Finish’s many Doctor Who spin-offs and will hopefully remain in place for all future UNIT series (as opposed to the frequently altered theme variations of the Bernice Summerfield range over the years).

The four-part story itself was written is another excellent collaboration between Matt Fitton who penned the opening and closing instalments and Andrew Smith who penned the middle two episodes. For this reviewer the highlight was probably the third episode, The Battle of the Tower in which Smith made great efficacy of the regular Tower of London setting for UNIT’s base of operations. By a quirk of fate, an exciting scene which saw a pursuit into Tower Hill underground station unfolded whilst this reviewer was actually travelling on the district line to that very station. This story manages to take a different path to the more traditional UNIT vs alien conquest of the planet story which was told in Extinction and not fall in the trap of allowing the series to get stuck in a repeated formula as is wont to happen with some Big Finish box sets (Survivors please take note). The conspiracy-thriller opening chapter introduces the story’s human antagonist Felicity Lyme, a ruthless businesswoman portrayed by former Borg Queen Alice Krige. The gradual realisation that Lyme was not in league with aliens and instead acting to secure her own business interests was a very pleasing development. In terms of the story’s alien characters, the ninja style warriors known as Tengobushi and their Comishi masters are generally well realised if a little uncomfortably close to human Samurai, especially when their leaders speak with Oriental accents which might be perceived as a racial stereotype. The Behind-the-scenes discs suggests that the inspiration was linked to the idea that ancient culture such as that of Japan could potentially have alien origins but these wasn’t drawn out especially clearly in the play itself. However, this is possibly nit-picking at what is otherwise another very fine box set and overall the decision to not include any recurring aliens from the television series has paid off and allowed more space for the development of both Kate’s and Osgood’s characters and their new team. It’s only a shame that a couple of the more promising characters in the story didn’t survive until the end but UNIT has always had a high mortality rate so perhaps unsurprising. In any case this reviewer will be looking forward to the team’s next outing this November, in  which they will encounter the Silence.





FILTER: - Big Finish - Audio - UNIT