UNIT: Silenced Synopsis

Big Finish has released details on the third story in their UNIT: The New Series range. Silenced is written by Matt Fitton and John Dorney and is directed by Ken Bentley. It will be released in November priced US$29.13 for a CD and $20 for digital.

Kate Stewart faces a forgotten invasion in Big Finish' upcoming New Series box-set. Silence Will Rise!

This Autumn, the Earth will once again come under threat from the arch-enemies of the Eleventh Doctor, the Silence. These alien parasites have been trapped on Earth since the events of The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon, but Big Finish's new box-set will see them breaking through the Time Lord's trap, leaving the world defenceless!

Commanding the defence against the extraterrestrial invaders is Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), the daughter of legendary UNIT leader Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Kate will once again be supported by her loyal technical advisor Petronella Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) and heroic UNIT Captain Josh Carter (James Joyce).

Reinforcing the UK team is international troubleshooter Lieutenant Sam Bishop (Warren Brown). Returning to duty after the apocalyptic events of UNIT: Extinction is Colonel Shindi (Ramon Tikaram), whose battle against the Autons has taken a heavy toll.

Together, the UNIT team will have to take on the resurgent threat of the Silence, now voiced by master-of-monsters and Big Finish Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs.

Keeping a close eye on both sides of the conflict is journalist Jacqui McGee (Tracy Wiles), desperate to uncover UNIT's activities to the public after her encounter with the Nestene Consciousness. But Jacqui's investigation uncovers a far greater conspiracy...

Second Season of UNIT Stories Announced

Big Finish has released details on the second season of UNIT audio adventures, titled UNIT: Shutdown. The box set will be released in May for US$28.68 for CD and $20 for digital. Read the synopsis below.

Kate Stewart and her UNIT team investigate and confront alien attacks on the planet Earth in the new 5 disc boxset.

2.1 Power Cell by Matt Fitton
On the trail of missing alien technology, Kate Stewart encounters the ambitious Felicity Lyme. Who are Cerberus – and what are they doing in the London Docklands?

2.2 Death in Geneva by Andrew Smith
With Tengobushi assassins on their tail, Kate and Osgood retreat to UNIT Command in Geneva. High in the mountains, Captain Josh Carter comes face to face with the enemy...

2.3 The Battle of the Tower by Andrew Smith
As London sleeps, an alien horde rises from the shadows. The Tower has been infiltrated – and UNIT must hold the line. At any cost. Lock and load...

2.4 Ice Station Alpha by Matt Fitton
Caught between human greed and an unstoppable alien power, Kate Stewart leads her forces on one last mission to the Antarctic. It's UNIT against the world....

In the Forest of the Night Review

What caused the solar storm? The Doctor said it was never meant to happen in the original timeline, even the TARDIS didn't warn him until it was too late. I'm guessing it was something to do with Missy; her people at 3W tried to destroy the Earth with a solar storm. This was either the precursor to the Cyberman invasion or some sort of alternate plan. Perhaps they just wanted to destroy the human race and the solar storm was the easier option. When that didn't work, the planned to upgrade the dead and destroy the living.

What was Missy surprised about at the end of the episode? Perhaps she was expecting the Doctor to try to stop the solar storm. She might have been surprised that he just let it happen. Or maybe she was referring to the plants stopping it. Alternatively, she wasn't behind the freak storm and there are larger forces at work. I've always thought that a one-season arc for the return of Gallifrey is too short. It could be that the 3W arc ties into a larger one about the Time Lords, one that spans the entire 12th Doctor.

This light people sorta of remind me of the fairies from Torchwood. They're little people who have been around since the dawn of time. Except I think the ones in Torchwood didn't glow. But then again, this show has like two special effects, so they're probably going to be glowing amber things. Alternatively, they could be the spirit of the trees a la The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe. Whatever they were, they obviously have some sort of connection to nature, as well as an interest in protecting the Earth. Based on that and their past exploits, they seem to be on the Doctor's (or at least humanity's) side.

One thing that's intrigued me about this episode and The Power of Three is the time zones. The invasions are depicted as overnight, but that's only in Britain. In the US or China it's going to happen in broad daylight. People are going to see this happen. It could be the Asian UNIT bases warned Kate about the cubes and ran all those tests that got done surprisingly early in the morning. On the other hand, UNIT could just be ready for an invasion at all hours of the night and day. In this week's episode, the director could have shown video of the forest growing in daylight during the news segment, but she instead showed a clip of a newscaster talking about a soccer pitch. It's times like this that the show becomes a bit Britain-focused.

Jemma Redgrave to Return for 50th

The BBC has announced that star Jemma Redgrave will reprise her role as Kate Stewart for the 50th anniversary. She will be starring alongside Matt, Jenna, David Tennant, and Billie Piper as well as John Hurt and Joanna Page.

The Bells of Saint John Review

May contain spoilers. Read ahead at your own risk if you haven't watched the episode yet.

Amazing. Just amazing. Not quite the urban thriller we were told about, but otherwise lived up to my expectations.

Not quite sure how we didn't all get the part about the bells of St. John before. It should have been rather obvious. I mean, the St. John's Ambulance logo has been there for two and a half seasons now. Come to think of it, I think someone did mention it, but only briefly. It really should have been picked up on more, I mean, it's staring us in the face.

I was actually surprised to learn that Oswin was not Clara's middle name. I thought all three of them were named Clara Oswin Oswald. Raises the question of whether Clara is any part of Oswin's name. So maybe they're not all that similar in that respect.

Also, in Asylum of the Daleks, the Doctor asks Oswin why she's such a good hacker, and she says that it's a bit of a long story. It's like she remembered the whole thing about the Wi-Fi, but forgot that the Doctor was there. Maybe they're all derivative works of the same girl, only with their memories of the Doctor edited out. That still doesn't answer the bit about dying twice, though.

We very quickly learn that "run you clever boy and remember" is more than just something she says when she dies. In this episode, it's something that could very easily have been made up by this family (the Mayfields) and may not originate with Clara at all. This just heightens the question of "where did this phrase come from?" and makes it all the more mysterious.

As for the bit about the woman in the shop, I'm rather hesitant to speculate. It could be River, it could be Rose (seeing as we now know she's going to be back, she could already be in the Doctor's universe), I doubt it's Martha (she's not very likely to be working in a shop), could even be Rani from the Sarah Jane Adventures, or someone from the classic series. There's too many women with the Doctor's phone number, I'm not really going to guess. Hell, it could even be someone we haven't met yet (Doctor #12 anyone?).

There were of course, the numerous similarities between what the Great Intelligence was doing in this episode, and what it was up to in the past (which you can read about here). I do like how the Great Intelligence referenced the Doctor and UNIT being old friends. This is especially awesome seeing as UNIT and the Brig are introduced in the Great Intelligence's second appearance, the 1968 episode, The Web of Fear.

Steven Moffat promised us an urban thriller, and while it was very urban, it wasn't really what I would call a thriller. A thriller should be fast paced throughout. This didn't really get going all that fast until the part where the Doctor discovers Clara in the cafe with her mind drained. The bit about the motorbike was very good, but not quite enough to qualify it as a thriller.

One littler thing that kinda bothered me was that in the scene where the Doctor and Clara got on the motorbike, two things happened A) the perception filter didn't work and B) the TARDIS doors closed on their own. Maybe the Doctor just deactivated the perception filter so he could get money for breakfast, but it could also be a malfunction in the TARDIS that is foreshadowing larger failures later on. As for the doors, either the Doctor snapped he fingers when I wasn't looking, or Sexy is smarter than she looks and closed the doors on her own.

Also are they preparing us for WhoLock? I mean, those special effects are very Sherlock and there was the Sherlock theme music in The Snowmen. I mean if the director for this episode was someone who had worked on Sherlock, I could understand, but as far as I can tell, Colm McCarthy has never directed an episode of Sherlock. Maybe Moffat is just merging the shows, maybe we'll get orange glowy stuff in Season 3.