UNIT: Nemesis 1: Between Two Worlds by Andrew Smith and Lisa McMullin and John Dorney

An ancient artefact, a stone arch anachronistically embedded with electronic circuitry, is recovered following a rupture in an undersea stretch of the Mull lava group in North West Scotland, a geological feature dating from tens of millions of years ago.

UNIT's investigation will unlock a link to another world and bring them face to face with a new and powerful threat...

1.1 The Enemy Beyond by Andrew Smith

In a UNIT facility beneath Edinburgh Castle, Kate and Osgood work to unlock the mystery of a stone arch discovered buried in a prehistoric rock formation.

When the arch takes one of their number away to a strange, bleak world, it leads to an encounter with a Time Lord. One with multiple personalities. Soon the Eleven is loose on the streets of Edinburgh and plotting to seize the arch from UNIT by any means necessary.

1.2 Fire and Ice by John Dorney

When Kate needs Harry Sullivan’s help with a threat from the Eleven, she and Osgood travel to Australia to meet him. He’s there with Naomi Cross, investigating footage of an apparent UFO crash that turned up on social media.

They find themselves caught in the middle of a conflict between Ice Warriors. And one Ice Warrior isn’t so icy - in fact, he's red hot. And getting hotter...

1.3 Eleven’s Eleven by Lisa McMullin

A series of jewel robberies in London and the Home Counties draws the attention of UNIT when it’s discovered that some of the stolen gems are alien in origin. The robberies are the work of an organised criminal gang led by East End villain Ava Drake. But Ava has a new, ruthless partner. The Eleven has promised her riches, and for him the gems are a means to defeat UNIT and regain the arch.

1.4 The Curator’s Gambit by Andrew Smith

The arch is taken to the Under Gallery for safekeeping, under the protection of the Curator. When the Eleven penetrates the Gallery’s security, the Curator initiates an emergency plan. He and UNIT play a game of cat and mouse with their pursuers within the Under Gallery’s original location, Hampton Court Palace.

This volume contains the first four episodes of a 16-episode “season” featuring the modern version of UNIT - and, if rumours about a 2025 UNIT mini-series from the BBC are true, it may be the last for a while, at least with this particular cast lineup. The plot concerns an alien artefact uncovered from Palaeocene deposits off the coast of Scotland which, for reasons as yet unclear, renegade Time Lord the Eleven is trying to get his hands on.

The second episode, “Fire and Ice” is something of a peculiarity. That's not because it's largely unconnected with the larger plot arc, concerning instead Ice Warriors in the Australian Outback - that helps break things up and works well. The oddity is that it features Harry Sullivan, apparently transported from the original UNIT era into the present day. We're told that this was due to an “incident” but no further information is forthcoming, as if we're expected to already know about it. I thought perhaps I'd skipped an earlier release, but nope... perhaps it's in a later one intended to come out before this one but delayed for some reason. This leaves Harry's companion, Naomi Cross, similarly unexplained, introduced as if she's a familiar character when she's entirely new and not receiving much in the way of development or anything in the way of background here.

That peculiarity aside (and, in contrast, The Eleven gets to explain who he is no fewer than three times for the benefit of listeners who haven't encountered him before) it's an action-packed storyline full of UNIT helicopters and soldiers dashing about across various parts of the UK. The Eleven is suitably menacing, Osgood is clever, Kate gets to be suitably noble, and there's a significant guest spot for the Curator. The last episode of the four is particularly inventive, building on Day of the Doctor and using both the National Gallery and Hampton Court Palace to good effect.

The set ends on a cliffhanger for one of the supporting characters, and with several questions left unanswered, but otherwise this collection of episodes forms a neat little arc of its own within the larger season.