Doctor Who: The Helliax Rift

The Doctor reluctantly becomes involved with the '80s version of UNIT as both he and they are on the trail of what seems to be an alien distress signal. Unfortunately, while this is not the worst Big Finish story I've ever listened to (that's Nekromanteia) it is certainly the weakest for some time. Hence for the first time in ages, just two stars... and this just after I gave a 1-star review to something else. What is happening to me?

Ahem.

There are no regular companions in this, with the new UNIT medical officer taking on the sidekick role. He's not terribly well-developed as a character, although he is at least a decent person, which is more than can be said for... well, anybody else in the story other than the Doctor. And this really is the main flaw in it; virtually everybody is a complete arse in one way or another. Which is made worse by the fact that, once the villain finally gets round to explaining their motivation, you're supposed to feel sympathy for them and switch your allegiance. Nope; I'm sorry, but there's no excuse for what they've been up to.

It's meant, I think, to be darkly sinister and to be (among other things) a gritty critique of the military mind. Which, fair enough, military types are often antagonists in Doctor Who and I'm okay with the Brigadier's replacement here being a fairly unredeemable gitt. But when everyone else is too, and even the medical officer isn't in a position to really show them where they're wrong there's no moral core to the story and it ends up being a critique without a message.

I could also add that there are some plot holes, not least in how a private citizen with no particular wealth manages to construct a ten-level sub-basement with a state of the art security system and have literally nobody notice. But it's the charmlessness and aimlessness of it that ends up being the real failing.