Revisitations: Breach of Trust

"Your voice is hurting me."

Writer: David K Barnes

Format: Audio

Released: November 2018

Series: UNIT 7.03

Featuring: Kate, Osgood

Synopsis

An alien vessel arrives on Earth, its occupants seeking refuge, and Osgood takes them in.

Bt there is reason to mistrust this cry for help. The files show that UNIT has faced the Kalvyri before. What else they reveal will set Kate at odds with her most trusted friends.

Verdict

Breach of Trust was an excellent episode to continue Revisitations! I thought this was a clever use of the title in not actually having an old enemy that we had seen on screen return, but one that the Doctor and UNIT did encounter unseen from the viewers. Thing starting with Kate on an apparent date was not what I expected and it seemed like it was going to be a Kate-lite episode, but that was far from the case once she learned of the situation Osgood and Josh had found with something approaching Earth. That turned out to be a capsule headed straight for UNIT which was an exciting start. That containing singing women was not what I expected to emerge, but I quite liked it! Their description of violet skin and having two mouths certainly painted quite the picture! The two alien women being mother and daughter was a great dynamic and I loved that their language was music and vibrations was their method of communication. It proved difficult, but Osgood managed a translation which came at the right time as the music couldn't be feasible for the duration. The pair being named as Vara and Norei was good to get some identification and their warning of their species, the Kalvyri, coming to destroy the world with thousands of warships was a stark one! The capsule of Vara's honing in on technology from their own planet was intriguing with it clear they'd been on Earth before, and it was the only thing that could save humanity. Vara and Norei claiming to be refugees was good and I liked how they had troubled history with the former's husband who had denounced his own wife for going against the state. The concept of the Kalvyri using their voices to build weaponry was fantastic and that didn't seem like the best selling point to allow Vara into the Black Archive to retrieve her species' terrible weapon. It was the only hope and it was a harmonic canon which sounded fantastic as a name! It was a weapon of concentrated sound which could obliterate the impending fleet in a pulse. Well, that gave us our resolution! I also liked how it was used bus singing. Josh discovering the report from Yates of the previous encounter with the Kalvyri was fun and I liked the insinuation that they were previously in league with the Master and gained the trust of UNIT before attacking them. Thankfully, UNIT's scientific advisor was able to use the black box canon to defeat them, but humanity wasn't ready to learn how. Kate's reaction to that line in the report was amusing! The fleet arriving with just forty ships seemed underwhelming and testing Vara by getting her to use the weapon as a warning shot was a good development. Jarrack was a good villain as the husband and father of Vara and Norei with his demands that the two be turned over or face planetary destruction. I was surprised by how easily Kate and Josh were in agreement to turn them over but Osgood was very much in disagreement and wanted to think ethically which I admired. The emption that evoked between her and Kate was fantastic. Jarrack describing how the execution would involve closing Vara's mouth to ensure she was silent in death and make his daughter watch was gruesome to the extreme, so Kate called off the deal in exciting style! Osgood ensuring Vara got the weapon and embarked on a suicide mission was quite something and a thrilling conclusion. I liked that Osgood and Josh disobeyed orders on moral grounds, and now dealign with Norei being alone seemed harsh for her, especially when asking for her mum to sing a song. That was a sad way to end what was a very powerful episode! Overall, a brilliant listen.

Rating: 9/10