Earthfall

"Autons... self destruct!"

Writer: Andrew Smith

Format: Audio

Released: November 2015

Series: UNIT: Extinction 02

Featuring: Kate, Osgood 

Synopsis

Lieutenant 

Verdict 

Earthfall was another good UNIT spinoff audio and continued the Extinction boxset along very nicely. Things continued on where Vanguard left off and the truth behind Devlin FutureTech really did get revealed in excellent fashion. There was more than one surprise in this audio which is always a good thing and it was brilliant to know that the Autons are present and the way their lack of speech is being tackled for an audio story is good. They didn't feature heavily here but the challenge was dealt with very well through the speech of other characters, most notably Jenna Gold. I thought she was actually a fantastic character but she'd been easily fooled by Devlin who had sold to her the lie that he was the creator of the Autons. Osgood was quick to correct that and referenced Spearhead From Space, Terror of the Autons and Rose by mentioning the more than one occasion that they have invaded Earth. This current invasion appears to be on a much wider scale as we had a lot of the story situated in Mongolia and it would appear that the next audio will be set in Puerto Rico! UNIT are certainly getting around the place that is for sure. I really liked Kate in this story and her use of holographic technology to communicate with Osgood from London was great. Jacqui McGee returning and not remembering her meeting with Kate in the previous audio was quite funny. I thought Sam Bishop was excellent and I really liked his confidence in being able to deal with any type of situation. He was not afraid and he was certainly not backing down from an alien threat. His relationship with Osgood was good and it was interesting to see her fully out on the field of battle despite it not being her place. She wasn't complaining though which was terrific. I was quite surprised at how short this audio story was at just 38 minutes long. I did think that the four stories would be closer to an hour each but with the first adventure being 48 minutes, I really didn't expect the second to be ten minutes shorter! If a story is going to be shorter than the usual length then I expect more to happen at a faster pace but that didn't happen hear. I've been happy with the content, quality and consistency of the boxset so far but I think for my ratings (which are no doubt still very good) to improve into the highest range of scores, there needs to be more excitement from the stories. Things are still being put into place which is fine but I am hoping that the third story in the collection starts to present us with a lot more action. There was a hint of that at the end of this story with the Autons self destructing themselves after obliterating Jenna in quite horrific style. UNIT were quite pleased with their work but the problem of FutureTech's 3D printers still remained large, especially given the revelation that what they printed was plastic. The Nestene Consciousness must have been having a field day with plastic being created left, right and centre. The idea is actually outstanding and I look forward to it coming into prominence in the next two audios. I'm sure things will get there following this build up as things are looking good. Overall, another good story in the boxset!

Rating: 8/10