UNIT: THE COUP

UNIT: The Coup, from 2004 when UNIT still stood for the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, opens with a battle on London’s Tower Bridge against an unknown foe.  It’s the eve of UNIT’s final hour which sees them cede authority and responsible to the Internal Counter Intelligence Service (somewhat awkwardly shortened “ICIS” which sounds embarrassingly similar to “ISIS”).

Former Brigadier, now General, Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) is temporarily wheeled out of his retirement to give the handover speech.  Security means that, although he’s aware of the attack on Tower Bridge, he doesn’t know who’s involved – that is until his preparation for the press conference is interrupted by a Silurian.

Lethbridge-Stewart has a potted history with the Silurians, not least of which was his eagerness to blow them up at the end of the televised adventure Doctor Who and the Silurians, so meeting one face-to-face at this time is not something that he would have put on his bucket list.  The years have made Lethbridge-Stewart wiser and more patient but, while UNIT has evolved under his stewardship, the newly formed I.C.I.S. are far more gung-ho – something that doesn’t sit well with the Silurians.

It’s not long before Lethbridge-Stewart and I.C.I.S. clash, and the press conference doesn’t go quite as originally planned.

UNIT: The Coup is a short (under 25-minute) Big Finish adventure written by Simon Guerrier and featuring the late Nicholas Courtney as the former Brigadier and Siri O’Neal as Colonel Emily Chaudhry.

As a short adventure, it doesn’t have a huge amount of depth but, as a taster for the upcoming series (there would be four further adventures in this range) it is what it is.  It’s effectively 25-minutes of gunfire, with short scenes cut together swapping between what the Brigadier is doing and the attacks.  The later adventures would be longer affairs, the first and last of which would again feature Nicholas Courtney.

There’s not too much that can be said about it.  If you like chaotic short-burst scenes of action, then this is for you.  As a Brigadier story, it’s always good to hear Nicholas Courtney but it can’t actually be said to be a good Brigadier story.  There are better such stories, even from the few I’ve listened to such as Sympathy for the Devil, Masters of War, and Old Soldiers.  However, the range must start somewhere and this won’t take up a lot of your time so it’s worth a listen.