cmncm0103_thephoenixstrain_1417The Counter-Measures team have a problem with flying pests…

Christopher Hatherall’s debut script for the Counter-Measures line demonstrates why he’s been hailed as such a find by Big Finish: it’s a good blend of characterisation, slightly outlandish ideas and tight plotting. There’s still this inherent problem that the team actually vanished for some years (so how did Sebastian manage to keep tabs on Rachel’s progress during this time?) but the story builds from various character-based situations and gradually the plotlines intertwine.

There’s a Quatermass – or rather, Nigel Kneale – feel to this: rather than go for big expansive sequences showing the effects of the birds attacking, Hatherall focuses on ordinary people going about their business and being affected, sometimes very seriously. It’s a trick that’s harder to pull off successfully than you might think – the members of the public have to come across as rounded people and not just “redshirt” cannon fodder – but between Hatherall’s dialogue, Ken Bentley’s direction and the various performances, it works here.

There’s also something of the New Avengers about it – indeed about the whole set. Whereas the 1960s Avengers stories took their ludicrous situations at face value, the 1970s revival tried to be a bit more serious (which led to some real tonal oddities at times) and that’s the same here. The team all play to their strengths, and it all comes together to form the best story of the set.

Verdict: Hitchcock meets Nigel Kneale in a tense tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson