UNIT : Extinction, part 1 – Vanguard

Having just finished listening to Big Finish‘s original five UNIT adventures from 2004/2005, it seems appropriate to next listen to the first of their “New UNIT” adventures based on the version of UNIT created by the modern TV series with Kate Stewart in charge and Osgood as her scientific genius.

The first episode of UNIT : Extinction, entitled Vanguard is available for free from the Big Finish website.  Written by Matt Fitton, it stars Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Osgood, Tracey Wiles as Jacqui McGee, Karina Fernandez as Jenna Gold and, oh yes, there are some men in it too but I shouldn’t worry yourself about them.

If this first episode is any judge of the rest of the series, then I shan’t be bothering any more.  It’s as though they’ve taken the usual tired “triumvirate of women” trope from the likes of Charlie’s Angels, Charmed, Buffy, etc, to give us a bunch of very similar women bossing around the men.  The women are all top of their game, independent, infallible, powerful, authoritarian, bossing around the vulnerable, fallible, thicky, male foot soldiers.

At one point one of the male soldiers even says he didn’t think that Stewart wants the UNIT troops to be just attack dogs, but that’s exactly what she wants.  That’s all that’s required of the male characters – to do what they’re told by the female ones.

This tedious story-telling filled with Mary-Sue women and caricature yes-men was old years ago, and it’s not getting any better. Count me out.