Hear the Dominators come to Earth. ++Command accepted++

Kenneth Grant accepts the command to pen this taut tale that works as a strong ensemble piece, highlighting the strengths of the UNIT team and their out-of-time members, Naomi Cross and Harry Sullivan. This is picking up on an as yet unheard adventure featuring the latter two and the Dominators, as created by “Norman Ashby” for Patrick Troughton’s Doctor. The key aspects of the Dominators’ regime are brought to the fore, and Beth Chalmers captures the unearthly tones of their robotic servants, the Quarks.

The main plot – with the Vulpreen and the Eleven – takes a back seat this time around, emphasizing that UNIT never gets the chance to simply focus on one problem at a time, and for the second story on the trot, we get an outsider’s view of UNIT, courtesy this time of Homer Todiwala’s Junaid. However, unlike last episode’s Jimmy Tan, I hope he’s a one-off – there are enough non-regulation people in this series alongside the UNIT regulars for it to be difficult for the stories to service them all. Jemma Redgrave’s Kate and Christopher Naylor’s Harry make a good team, as do Ingrid Oliver’s Osgood and Eleanor Crooks’ Naomi, and there’s certainly a hint at the end of this episode that we’ve not seen the last of Gareth Armstrong’s Director Prast and Andrew James Spooner’s Engineer Sabo.

Verdict: An enjoyable tale that sees Kate leading from the front like her father. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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