UNIT: Nemesis 1: Between Two Worlds

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.