Seabird One: Rogue State

"With you in charge, the world's a safer place already."

Writer: Robert Valentine

Format: Audio

Released: July 2022

Series: UNIT: Brave New Worlds 1.01

Featuring: Bambera

Synopsis

In the war-torn republic of Valge Maja, Brigadier Bambera is hot on the trail of arms-dealing terrorist, Roman Krojac, when she's ordered back to Geneva. Her old sponsor, Dame Lydia Kingsley, offers her a job as the new head of UNIT. Reluctant to accept, she nevertheless teams up with sarcastic UNIT officer Sergeant Jean-Paul Savarin to prevent a monstrous Soviet-era weapon from falling into Krojac's hands.

Verdict

Rogue State was a really strong episode to kick off the Seabird One first series of UNIT’s Brave New World. This is a fascinating idea for a series with it essentially being a UNIT spinoff from the 1990s, and I think it has the potential of being a hidden gem. Big Finish rarely fail with any of their spin-offs and let’s face it they’ve done some rather whacky ones. We’ve had the likes of Lady Christina, Jenny and Graceless so it’s not a massive surprise to have a series focused on Brigadier Bambera as part of UNIT. This episode and the setting of the series as a whole felt a little dystopian which was pretty cool and I definitely had vibes of Blade Runner throughout. I liked how we didn’t mess around and firmly got into the throws of the episode. There was no time to stop and have introductions, we were straight into proceedings with Bambera on the hunt for Krojac. He was a really good villain and I love the idea of a Soviet enemy. Tapping into politics and a post-Cold War world was excellent and the tension on display was impressive. I loved how he was taunting Bambera and whilst I’d have liked a little more information about why she was involved with him from the UNIT side of things - he hardly seemed extraterrestrial at first - the emotional story hinted at was very interesting. I’d certainly like to know more about Bambera’s failed marriage and just her private life in general. It’s certainly something she didn’t want to discuss so there’s definitely something there and it’s quite nice to hint at exploring her background. I’m sure things will come out as the series goes on. I thought Savarin was a really good character and I’m delighted that it appears he will be sticking around as Bambera’s number two. The humour she had with him about being able to read despite being a part of the security was very fun and I think he will offer a lot. I also thought Dame Lydia was a strong character despite her only appearing on the phone and the humour that came from Bambera continuing to ignore her instructions of not using her title was a nice touch. I’m sure that’s going to continue throughout. Her offering to Bambera to head up UNIT UK was good and I think that will help bring her closer to home and familiar surroundings moving forward. I thought the threat of the Chuchuna was decent if not a little silly in parts. I think a bit more description and motive would have been good, but thankfully their buyer in the form of Krojac filled that villain role. These were more like the monster henchmen. Bambera wanting them alive was good but it was amusing how quickly that changed when life was threatened! Using sound to control them was good and I was surprised that Krojac didn’t see out the episode. I figured he was going to be around for at least the series and that made his sudden death all the more impactful. It was well done. Overall, a very good start to the series and I’m certainly now looking forward to hear more!

Rating: 8/10