UNIT: Extinction Review
Gustaff Behr gives his spoiler-free verdict on Kate & Osgood’s first audio adventure.
It’s well documented that I am not UNIT’s biggest fan. Before the Zygon two-parter, I was no fan of Osgood and even afterwards, while I grew to like her because of her character development, Kate and the rest of UNIT still put me on the fence given how incompetent the latter seem to be portrayed. If I had to select a Big Finish title I was looking forward to the least, I would have to say UNIT: Extinction. I went in this box set with rather low expectations. I came out of it a changed man!
“Everyone wants to talk about dad today.”
I’m going to get the negatives out of the way first because there are so few of them. Big Finish makes the same mistake the TV series does every time Kate guest stars. It seems you can’t do a Kate episode without hearing about how great her dad was. We get a Brigadier mention under the six minute mark ladies and gentlemen and then another half dozen throughout the first story. Let it go people! He is dead and she is in charge. Build on that. Don’t tell us she’s stepping out of his shadow and then remind us the shadow is still there whenever you get the chance.
And now that the criticisms are out of the way, Vanguard is arguably one of the best box set openers I have ever listened to!! Notice the double exclamation mark? That’s because I cannot praise this story enough. It has fantastic pacing and does an excellent job setting up the plot and all the relevant parties. The chemistry between the characters – not just Kate and Osgood (which is one of the highlights) – is one of the things that makes this box set such a joy to listen to. Joseph Carter appears to have taken top spot for me though. He shows more recklessness in his first scene than Clara all season. Ouch!
One of the things that the TV series consistently does incorrectly is purposely dumb down UNIT’s competence in order to give other characters (like Clara for example) the spot light. In fact, an element that might alienate fans to this box set is how radically different Kate Stewart and UNIT on audio are to the television series. On television, UNIT often comes across as barely able to tie their own shoelaces, but Big Finish has given them a radical upgrade, showing that they are worthy of being called the last line of defense. They deal with obstacles in much the same manner and with the same level of expertise as a lot of popular crime dramas on TV. This element alone is such an attraction (for me personally).
“Here I am turning her on and I’m half a mile away.” Josh Carter clearly graduated from the Jack Harkness and River Song School of Innuendos and Sexually Inappropriate Dialogue.
One of my initial concerns about UNIT: Extinction was the introduction of a lot of new characters to make up the new team. This saga contains a handful of characters and I’m delighted to report that the writing for these characters is wonderful. Usually with audios, I only remember a small number of characters (those who matter or those I actually like), but here every character feels as important as the next. While Kate and Osgood are billed as the stars, James Joyce’s Josh Carter and Ramon Tikaram’s Colonel Shindi prove themselves noteworthy additions to the team. Investigative reporter Tracy Wiles’ Jacqui McGee, who plays something of an anti-villain is also utilized quite efficiently, also serving as that one character in a story the audience hopes will be turned into the butt-monkey.
Josh Carter and Osgood make an especially lovely pair, the latter sounding as though she might harbor a small crush. Whether or not this pair will evolve into something more is yet to be “seen”, though it is nice of the writers to give us some much needed foundation.
The dialogue within UNIT: Extinction is exceedingly fluid and entertaining to listen to. As mentioned, the plot is tightly spaced so no scene feels unnecessary. In fact, the four hours felt like two to me and afterwards I couldn’t help but feel sad knowing that I’ll have to wait until May for the next installment.
As for the episodes themselves, like the Zygon two-parter, UNIT: Extinction manages to split its roster up in quite an organic fashion every episode and more importantly, balance the two intertwining plots expertly. Splitting the group up allows for each of the characters to be given the attention they deserve. I do not feel as though Kate has developed much during this box set, but this can be forgiven since the narrative runs on a very tight schedule and as mentioned before, there is no room for non-exposition back story/ character development here without distracting from the story.
Earthfall feels like the weakest story of the lot, but I’d still rate it an 8/10 with all the other episodes in the box set scoring either a 9 or a perfect 10.
“The Autons have tried to invade Earth before.”
We can’t review UNIT: Extinction without mentioning the titular villains of course. It is strange to think monsters that usually have to be seen to be effective are used so sublimely here that vision is the least of listeners’ worries. The way Matt Fitton and Andrew Smith integrates the Autons, using sounds associated with them like the hand guns and the strange plastic scratching noise when they move really helps paint a clear picture of what’s happening in the scene.
While I’ve never been a fan of the Autons, even I must admit that they really come across as threatening in their own right, proving to be just the sort of formidable villain for UNIT to take on. This box set features a variety of plastic monster ideas, a callback perhaps to Terror of the Autons and Spearhead from Space.
The Autons work well on audio because their basic concept is creative and to effectively portray non-verbal monsters in a non-visual format requires vast creativity, so it’s hardly farfetched to believe that this creativity would leak into the narrative itself and imbue the Autons with different levels of clever/interesting ideas.
Rating this box set: 9.5/10. It’s almost unbelievable that this UNIT team is the same as the one we’ve been watching these past couple of years. UNIT: Extinction has completely smashed my expectations (granted they were very low to begin with), leaving me to eagerly anticipate UNIT: Shutdown next year. I can’t recommend this box set enough folks. For any New Who fans or Big Finish noobs out there, this is just the kind of box set to get you addicted.
