An accident transporting a potentially lethal object results in the threat of the Wirrn being felt on Earth…

If you were trying to put together the ideal new UNIT story, then you’ve got a great template in Chris Chapman’s excellent opener. With the exception of Sam Bishop, it’s all here: Kate evoking the spirit of her father, Osgood’s enthusiasm running away with her, Josh Carter and Colonel Shindi caught between their devotion to duty and their natural concern for colleagues, a new secret underground UNIT base, an alien threat that by the strict rules of Doctor Who chronology shouldn’t be here, reference back to former UNIT personnel (couldn’t Jon Culshaw be persuaded to lend a tribute to Ian Marter for a future story perhaps?), doing the right thing turning out to be the worst that could be done… and a new take on all of the above to ensure that those of us who’ve loved audio UNIT don’t feel that we’ve heard it all before.

It’s one of those odd coincidences that The Ark in Space touches on many of the same story ideas as Alien – the Doctor Who story preceded Ridley Scott’s masterpiece by over four years – and Chapman has played up to that in this story, adding some of the elements of the Alien mythos that weren’t as front and centre in Robert Holmes’ tale. There’s also a lovely little tribute to another story about fusion of insect and man in the name of the sergeant who’s first infected!

And we get a new recruit to the UNIT ranks, although I’m seriously wondering how long she’ll last, given events in part 1…

Verdict: Archetypal UNIT in all the right ways, an excellent start to this set. 10/10

Paul Simpson