Armageddon

"The world is at war with an army of machines."

Writer: Matt Fitton 

Format: Audio

Released: November 2015

Series: UNIT: Extinction 04

Featuring: Kate, Osgood 

Synopsis 

As Autons swarm across the planet, the human race faces its darkest hour. Simon Devlin has helped his alien masters gain a global foothold and their scheme is almost complete.

As UNIT leads the fightback on every front, every continent, against an implacable army, Kate Stewart must look to the past for some clue to defeat the plastic menace.

The Nestene Consciousness is growing in power. It has plans for the human race, and when it achieves its ultimate form, it will be unstoppable. Only UNIT stands between humanity and total extinction...

Verdict 

Armageddon was an excellent audio to conclude the first series of UNIT adventures from the new series of Doctor Who. It was Big Finish's first foray into the post revival era and they did an excellent job with the boxset as a whole. Extinction finished in style and my wishes of a mention of the Doctor were more than met here! We had a great deal of action but I also liked that negotiation and dialogue played a big part in the story. I loved Osgood and as the boxset has gone on, she has slowly became my favourite character in this spinoff. I suspected she would be prior to listening due to her on screen adventures and my expectations have now been met. After finishing this boxset, I'm certainly now inclined to purchase the next one which is always a good sign as it shows that I'm interested in the characters and the spinoff. That isn't always the case but as with the Dalek Empire and Cyberman spinoff series, I want more. I really liked the Autons once again and the battles on the landmark bridges in London, notably Tower Bridge, were excellent. I enjoyed the focus on the Tower of London and the Nestene Consciousness directing the Autons towards UNIT HQ was great. Osgood and Jacqui made quite the combination in the relative safety of the Tower of London and I liked how superiorly intelligent the former was. She had to explain every little detail to Jacqui and I really enjoyed the humour surrounding Osgood's ray gun that wasn't actually a ray gun. She eventually gave in when it came to correcting people about that. It looked like a ray gun and when fired on the Autons it did the damage of a ray gun, even if what was actually shot was far more complex. Kate trusting Osgood to come up with a scientific solution to the Nestene invasion was terrific and I enjoyed how she voluntarily went to meet with Devlin and the Nestene Consciousness. I liked how the latter referenced Spearhead From Space and Terror of the Autons by referring to the familiarity of the Stewart bloodline. That was really good. Shindi was good once again and I also liked Sam Bishop's role in the story. Josh Carter's transition from serving the Nestenes to being a plastic UNIT operative was quite eventful and I liked the comedic value that brought, particularly with his flirting with Osgood. She seemed uncomfortable by that which was rather sweet. Kate using something the Doctor cooked up a long time ago in the form of anti-plastic was brilliant and I liked the way she managed to smuggle it into the complex where the Nestene Consciousness was housed. It was hoping to gain a physical body and whilst on the verge of doing so, Kate struck with the deadly liquid cutting off the invasion at its source. Devlin was dealt with and his memory of the past six months was quickly lost. The Autons and 3D printers simply melted and disintegrated and now UNIT was planning on feeding the memory loss retcon through the water system. Jacqui McGee wouldn't be drinking though as she remembered what happened to her in Vanguard. It was good ending to an excellent little boxset. Overall, a great audio!

Rating: 9/10