The Fifth Doctor gets caught in a UNIT operation – but this isn’t the happy family he once knew…

Scott Handcock’s introductory story for this trilogy featuring a very different set up for UNIT isn’t the first time the Fifth Doctor’s encountered the organisation in the spin-off media – Mark Morris’ novel Deep Blue got there nearly twenty years earlier – but it’s the first occasion certainly that he’s not had any familiar faces around. There’s not even a whiff of a mention of Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart or any of the replacements that we know of from the TV series or the other media, and we get to know the new team – complete with perhaps less than stellar first impressions for some – at the same time as the Doctor. (I’m sure quite deliberately we’re not told if this is the United or Unified version of the Task Force!)

Handcock’s script plays with our expectations at every turn, and director Jamie Anderson has cast a strong group as the new UNIT personnel – Blake Harrison’s Daniel finds himself caught between the Doctor and his boss, played by Russ Bain, while Genevieve Gaunt’s Corporal Maxwell has a fun verbal battle with the Time Lord that neatly counterpoints the classic and new styles of the series.

Joe Kraemer’s music and sound design (with Josh Arakelian) are as cinematic as ever – it really does feel as if you’re listening to the audio track from a movie complete with musical moments to cover scene changes where appropriate and hard cuts at others.

Verdict: A different sort of UNIT story that  gives a new perspective on the organisation and the Doctor. 8/10

Paul Simpson