For the Girl Who Has Everything

"UNIT is all about taking the mystery apart."

Writer: Dave Sudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2020

Printed in: The Wintertime Paradox 04

Featuring: Osgood

Synopsis 

Did you Davros and the Doctor met for three Christmases, on different planets, across time and space? Have you heard the one about the time the Plasmavores came to pay a festive visit? Or when Madame Vastra fought a cyborg?

The perfect collection of the bleakest – and sometimes brightest – time of the year, these are the tales to get you halfway out of the dark...

Verdict

For the Girl Who Has Everything was another very strong story to continue my reading of The Wintertime Paradox collection! I’m liking that we move away from the Doctor here and get a full on story with just Osgood as the main character. She made such an impact on screen and even more so with the UNIT run of adventures from Big Finish, but having her here as the lead character is more than warranted. She’s brilliant from the start and I think it’s good placing to have this very early on during her time with UNIT. She’s only a month on the job and having to spend Christmas not at home was alien to her. I thought the family connection to UNIT was good although there was certainly a missed opportunity in not establishing that Osgood was the daughter, or at least a relative of some kind, to Tom Osgood of the UNIT from the Classic era. A gap in the knowledge of the show from the author, perhaps? That’s pure speculation on my part though based on this collection so far just encompassing the modern era. Still, Frank Osgood was at least aware of UNIT but hadn’t taken a job at the organisation and now our Osgood was understanding of why. It was completely full on and UNIT didn’t stop for Christmas. I loved that this was a loose sequel to The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky and having the Sontaran cloning devices feature was brilliant. I love that we get follow on from alien encounters on Earth and it’s a welcomed reminder that not all is well once the Doctor departs. I enjoyed how much Osgood was clued up on the events regarding the Sontaran Stratagem which was fun to have the episode title how it was referenced by UNIT files. It was fun to play with the idea of the cloning devices still functioning despite them not having any live DNA or bodies to replicate, so what Osgood encountered in this adventure were four very different clones literally scraped together from the dregs and remnants of those previously used. That was pretty disturbing and created quite the image! I’m not sure the Sontarans would be thrilled to find their own cloning devices creating parts of their species that were not pure. Osgood couldn’t believe what was happening to and having to tackle the threat of these clones whilst her sister was aggravating her via text regarding her lack of Christmas presents and shopping. Nora was a lovely name and I liked how Osgood associated her sister’s name with the spatial aspect she shared similarities with. It’s a beautiful name but I must say she did seem like a bit of a nag! Osgood going to sincere depths to get her dad a special present for Christmas was nice and I thought it was very true to her character that she wouldn’t cheat or use her job to get anything whacky or alien. She would go by the normal routes. Of course, by the end of her encounter here she had the means of giving him some Sontaran cloned bone! At least Nora could take credit for Osgood’s original gift. The apparent return of Luke Rattigan was a huge surprise but certainly a pleasant one! He didn’t last for long outside of clone form, but just the idea of him returning was terrific and fun to exploit. Osgood always felt in control though and she knew all about Luke and his sacrifice of the Sontarans. She regretted what she had to do to ensure the four new clones here were defeated, but with spatial folding existing in the Grey Archive, she could throw what they wanted in the form of the Sontaran power cube into the vortex which saw them jump straight after it into oblivion. The cameo appearance from Kate at the end was good stuff and I like how the events of this adventure would see Osgood actually promoted into reporting direct to Kate! That’s how we would meet her on screen so it was nice to set us up for that. The reference to The Day of the Doctor and the Black Archive nuking itself upon any thieves entering was a nice touch too. Overall, this was just a really solid adventure and a great exploration into UNIT. 

Rating: 8/10