UNIT: The New
Series: Assembled #1
Call To Arms
written by
Matt Fitton
The thing
about Big Finish is that it is always fanservice, that's the nature
of it. That having been said, there are levels of fanservice and the
more the idea of story seems more geared towards it than having an
interesting high concept, the more wary I become.
Take this
box set, for example, which promises a team-up between Big Finish's
modern UNIT and the surviving members of the 1970s “UNIT family”.
On the plus side BF waited to do three box sets before pulling the
trigger on this idea so I have at least as much of a grip on the
voices and character of the new guys as the familiar old faces. Matt
Fitton starts us off with a very traditional story as not only do we
hve old UNIT foes the Silurians but the format of Call To Arms
is the “traditional base under siege”.
In
this case the base under siege is the pub run by retired UNIT
sergeant John Benton the night after his retirement party. Kate,
Osgood and a six pack of soldiers have been checking up on a known
Silurian hibernation base in the area which turns out to be something
modern UNIT does routinely to make sure the inhabitants are safe and
asleep. There's even references later to other bases where the
inhabitants woke up too find the world overrun by talking apes and
decided just to go back to sleep and wake up later. The fact that
we've never had a Silurian story with a peaceful resolution is
largely down to the fact it wouldn't be that interesting but having
some confirmation that it can happen helps with the idea that these
are an intelligent race of individuals and not a series of
interchangeable monsters.
Giving
this impression through dialogue does help because the actual
Silurian antagonist, a military type by the name of Jastrok, is about
as stereotypical a made alien general as it gets. Osgood tries to
open negotiations with him using Silurian formalities but he responds
by laughing and shooting people regardless. He's not without depth
but its clear he's not going to be a vehicle for intelligent and
rational dialogue any time soon.
Anyway,
Jastrok and his soldiers wake up and ambush the UNIT team. The
soldiers cover Kate and Osgood as they escape and the two important
characters take shelter in Benton's pub where Mike Yates happens to
have just arrived. On the subject of Mike, its interesting to see
someone who actually holds a grudge against him even if the grudge
less about the whole massive betrayal thing (though it gets
mentioned) and more about jealousy over a woman. Benton, of course,
can't help but fall into the habit of saying “sir” and “captain”
which is both sweet and a sad reminder of his undeservedly low
position on the UNIT food chain of old.
The story
unfolds much as you might expect with a few interesting details that
lend some flavour like Kate being the only person in the pub who's
armed. Osgood and Benton get to replicate the old Doctor/Benton
relationship of sciency explanation followed by polite bewilderment
which is nice but I do hope that later in the set we get some
reminder of the fact that as baffled as he often is Benton is a smart
guy.
There were
also a couple of references to the wilderness years novels including
calling UNIT's observation of the hibernation bases “The Earth
Reptile Initiative” (the “politically correct” name the
Silurians were given in the New Adventures novels that was later
changed to “Indigenous Terrans”) and Benton's past as a used car
salesman.
It was a fun
time but, much as I don't want to play favourites, next episode has
Katy Manning on the cover and I am rather looking forward to that a
little more.
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