Retrieval

"Please don't let me have to kill dinosaurs."

Writer: Guy Adams 

Format: Audio

Released: May 2017

Series: UNIT: Assembled 03

Featuring: Kate, Osgood

Synopsis

As Earth's primeval rulers reclaim their birthright, UNIT must stand against them. And Kate Stewart and Osgood must venture into a Mediterranean stronghold to retrieve a means to fight back.

But a Silurian warrior is on their trail. Once she has the humans' scent, Commander Tryska will never give up the hunt.

Verdict

Retrieval was a very good continuation of the Assembled anthology of UNIT adventures. This fourth series really has been consistent and I quite liked how this story just focused on the modern team with Kate and Osgood deservedly taking the centre of attention. They were wonderful together as a pair and the cave setting worked really well. I thought the humour between the pair was fantastic and I loved how Osgood knew she was one of UNIT's greatest scientific minds that Kate was referring to when deciding who would go on the retrieval mission, but she didn't know that her superior also meant herself. Osgood meddling with different Silurian technology was a lot of fun and I really liked how what she thought might be a life scanner actually turned out to be something that attracted reptiles. Not quite what she had in mind. The continuation of Jastrok pulling the strings from afar was excellent and I am looking forward to him hopefully taking the centre of attention in the series finale. It is bound to be explosive! Commander Tryska was a brilliant enemy in this story and the speed with which she poisoned Kate and sent Osgood running with a psychic imprint was fantastic. She was very impressive. Osgood dealing with the psychological threat to her mind was really intriguing with her inner self almost talking her actual self into calming down. She had to imagine Sam naked but she was okay once he arrived in full uniform. Josh played a good role in the story too, especially when he violently got the better of Tryska. Her devotion to the Silurian cause was impressive, even more so when she let herself plummet into the depths of the cave than be saved by a 'primitive ape.' Her distain for humanity was a brilliant theme throughout and the chase and battle of wits between her and UNIT for the weaponry was very good. The appearance of dinosaurs was an unexpected bonus in the audio and Kate's reaction to it really was brilliantly comical. She didn't want to have to kill the amazing creatures! The ending was quite surprising with Tryska being washed up on the shores but a new female Silurian figure in the form of Kalana would pick up the reigns and try to bring the Silurians back onto the surface as rulers. I look forward to what is bound to be a fantastic finale! But for now, this was a very good story.

Rating: 8/10