When Jacqui McGee makes an unusual find, she knows she needs to contact Kate Stewart…

UNIT’s under new management – and further down the timeline within the fiction. By the point this story starts, Kate Stewart and her team have encountered Missy (something mentioned casually in passing when Kate’s establishing her bona fides), and have worked out a lot of routines ready for the sorts of situations they find themselves in. Off camera Emily Cook has come on board as producer alongside David Richardson, with Andrew Smith both starting and finishing this first box set, Between Worlds.

Now, whether the Nemesis referred to in the title is the foe they encounter in this story has yet to be properly established. Given his presence on the cover, there’s no spoiler in revealing that Mark Bonnar’s The Eleven comes up against Kate and co. but quite why and how he is where we first locate him doesn’t form part of this episode – there’s a lot more to come out. What this episode does do very successfully is re-establish the team dynamic, and how well they work together when faced with both potential new allies as well as enemies – and those whose category they’re not sure of (looking at you James MacCullum’s Adam Merchant).

It feels as if Jemma Redgrave, Ingrid Oliver and James Joyce haven’t been away, and Ken Bentley’s direction and Howard Carter’s sound design and score pick up on all the tension inherent in Smith’s script.

Verdict: Tantalising questions and some taut scenes for the return of 21st century UNIT. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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