In Review: Big Finish: Unit – Encounters

Synopsis: In a new series of adventures Kate Stewart and her Unit team must protect the earth from other worlds as well as those closer to home.

Review: This series of adventures hangs on the premise of a mysterious auctioneer who is selling alien artifacts to the highest bidders.

‘The Dalek’ by Matt Fritton sees Kate Stewart and the team going undercover in order to make the purchase of a seemingly wrecked Dalek from a Central American group of rebels who have been selling artifacts to fuel their cause. This story is an awesome way to get the Encounters series started. There are some brilliant moments throughout that are both creepy and exciting.

Fritton also takes the time to reference the episode ‘Dalek’ from Christopher Eccelston’s season of Doctor Who when the Utah complex gets a brief mention. I enjoyed the idea of a group of rebels being used by a mysterious auctioneer to sell his product. It’s a believable idea that a group of rebels would be desperate enough to do anything to make money for their cause.

Karina Fernandez puts in an awesome performance as Captain Gonsalves.

‘Invocation’ by Roy Gill sees the team doing a bit of Ghost Busting on Halloween no less. But things are not as simple as that. Much of the mystery revolves around Osgood hearing mysterious incantations coming from the skies and not being able to come up with a logical or scientific explanation for what is happening.

The atmosphere is driven by some fantastic audio production, which really helps sell the idea of a mysterious ghost.

We get a great performance here from both Ingrid Oliver and James Joyce as Osgood and Captain Josh Carter.

‘The Sontaran Project’ by Andrew Smith sees Osgood being given an opportunity to get on board early with a new scientific experiment, but when she learns the truth behind it. She is forced to bring Unit into investigate. Elsewhere Colonel Shindi finds himself to be a guest of a group of Sontarans who are searching for one of their losses.

This is another fantastic performance for Ingrid Oliver who as Osgood learns that her former mentor is all too human. James Wilby puts in a solid performance as Osgood’s former university professor.

And of course, you can’t have a Sontaran story without the brilliant Dan Starkey who plays all the major Sontaran roles in this episode.

I really liked how Andrew Smith used the Sontarans in this story. It made a fun change to see a human scientist looking to clone a Sontaran for human ends as opposed to for the glory of Sontar. It was also a great way to loop back round to the mystery surrounding the mysterious auctioneer.

‘False Negative’ by John Dorney is a fantastic story to close out on and another brilliant story for Ingrid Oliver to sink her teeth into because we get to see an evil version of Osgood as well as the one that we know and love.

In fact, everyone at Unit ends up getting a somewhat nastier version to play, but it all starts with our Osgood. Dorney plays around a lot with Osgood’s romantic entanglements or lack thereof and provides some funny moments as Osgood is having to fend off amorous advances.

The use of a parallel universe in this story is cleverly done and makes complete sense.

Overall. This was a really strong set. The second story being the weakest link in the four, but that doesn’t take anything away from it. It’s just that the other three were ever so slightly better, but as we all know. These things are entirely subjective to the listener.

You can get your own copy of Unit – Encounters here at the Big Finish website. I strongly recomend that you do. The very fate of humanity maybe counting on it.