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A deadly flu-like infection is sweeping the planet, and there
is no sign of a cure. Under attack from all sides, the British
division of UNIT faces a stark choice: close its doors and
concede defeat, or fight back, whatever the cost. The injured
Colonel Chaudhry knows that UNIT has never backed down from
a battle...
SPOILER
ALERT! The following dossier contains classified information
about plot developments in this audio recording.
The
delayed final instalment of the UNIT mini-series is
upon us at last, and it features not only the Brigadier (Nicholas
Courtney) but also the Tenth Doctor! OK then, that's not quite
true, but it does mark the return of Doctor Who actor,
David Tennant, as UNIT's commanding officer, Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood,
a role he previously played in the Doctor Who Unbound
story Sympathy for the Devil. I wonder whether Tennant's
Doctor will ever meet Brimmicombe-Wood in some future television
or audio adventure - that would prove rather interesting!
There's
no chance of you mistaking the colonel for any of Tennant's
other characters from the worlds of Who (which also
include Galanar in Dalek Empire III) because his Brimmicombe-Wood
voice has a Scottish accent. Very Scottish. In fact, I had
forgotten just how Scottish. I almost expected him to say
"Och aye the noo" at some point!
Welcome
though it is, the return of Brimmicombe-Wood, following an
absence - presumed kidnapped or killed - over recent instalments,
does pose a problem. It is all too similar to the treatment
of Andred's character in Big Finish's first series of Gallifrey,
even down to the fact that he turns out to be a bad guy. There's
a very slight difference here in that the colonel proves to
have been bad all along, whereas Andred was changed by the
twin traumas of his regeneration and his undercover mission.
A
more trivial complaint is that the title reminds me of the
Withering, the non-specific global catastrophe that affected
the world of Mark Gatiss's sci-fi comedy radio series Nebulous,
which undermines the drama a little for me!
On
a more positive note, it's always good to hear Nicholas Courtney
in his familiar role as Lethbridge-Stewart.
This
is an enjoyable episode, worth wasting some time with, but
it falls short of the standard of the previous one, The
Longest Night. In general, I have not found
this series as engaging as the Gallifrey saga.
Richard
McGinlay
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