"Insects are gross!"
Writer: Chris Chapman
Format: Audio
Released: November 2018
Series: UNIT 7.02
Featuring: Kate, Osgood
Synopsis
Over the years, UNIT has faced hundreds of extra-terrestrial threats. The Black Archive holds relics of many such encounters, and UNIT's files are filled with reports of strange and dangerous aliens.
And sometimes, they come back.
After the world's strangest interview, UNIT's latest recruit, Shana Siddiqui, hits the ground running to help Osgood with her latest assignment.
The Master left UNIT a parting gift – something alien and deadly. The Wirrn have come to Earth, and now they are free...
Verdict
Hosts of the Wirrn concluded in fantastic style with this second part of the adventure! It was a very good way to start Revisitations with a bumper two-parter in a series first for UNIT, and I thought it was really effective and selling the scale of the threat of the Wirrn and the adventure as a whole. I'd definitely be in favour of that occurring again in future boxsets. We followed on immediately from the cliffhanger of part one with the babies hatching within Markus and the Wirrn taking a liking to Shana was creepy for all of the right reasons. The Wirrn Markus needing breakfast was tasteless and I liked how audibly Osgood was put off by what she was witnessing. The threat of a mass Wirrn contagion being on the loose following the egg release was excellent and I enjoyed the potential scale of the danger being nationwide. The Wirrn having absorbed everything of Markus including his personality really said a lot about their intentions and what they thought of humanity, and them trying to defend their murderous actions as mere reproduction to Kate later in the audio was quite startling. It was a little more than that! The whole concept of the Wirrn shared mind worked very well with them obtaining the knowledge of Markus and Brundle when it came to taking on UNIT. It seemed like they would always be one step ahead of the military organisation! Shana undergoing a more gradual change was good and I liked that Osgood wanted to try and take advantage of that. She felt more on the ball in this episode for sure with her wanting to use Shana's Wirrn influence on the shared mind. The moment where Shana was subjected to full metamorphosis was terrific and quite the image in my head. The infection was spreading and Windermere required immediate evacuation, something Kate was intent on already occurring but it was proving difficult! Kate feeling bad for not blowing up the base as Shindi initially advised was a good moment as I liked how her Colonel had full faith in her decision. The moment the Wirrn called Kate on the line was fun and being offered a negotiation gave us the basis for the endgame which I enjoyed. Kirsty has been a weird character throughout this story and I could have sworn Jemma Redgrave was playing her! She worked well with Shindi here on the frontline. Kate meeting the Wirrn Queen was great and I liked how it was described as being over twenty feet tall. Its use of familiar voices was eery but Kate was soon able to seek an advantage when Osgood helped discover that the Queen was the survivor of a big disaster and Shana was recruited to find out what that was and replicate it. That was a good plot conclusion to aim for amidst the need to contain the outbreak to Windermere before it wiped out the UK. Osgood deducing that they needed a virus to kill a virus was good with the Auctioneers having had the uninfected egg that spawned this Wirrn and was a gift from the Master as the last remnant of the disaster. It was quite a quick conclusion with Osgood needing to be quick to sever Shana from the link to save her, but she wouldn't be able to revert back to her original body. That would be some life! But she was sticking with the UNIT family which I liked. With the Queen infected, it spread through to the swarm in a precise and measured way to see them off. Overall, a fantastic second part of what was a great opening story for the boxset!
Rating: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment