Square One

"You must not kill us on sight."

Writer: John Dorney
Format: Audio
Released: November 2016
Series: UNIT: Silenced 3.02

Featuring: Kate, Osgood

Synopsis

It's business as usual at UNIT, and thankfully, Kate Stewart has no immediate threats to concern her. Or so she believes.

But when Sam Bishop returns from leave, he notices things aren't quite as they seem. Soon he and Osgood are on the trail of an elusive enemy.

Meanwhile, Kenneth LeBlanc and his controversial political movement gather momentum, and one UNIT team member isn't quite themselves...

Verdict

Square One was an outstanding audio adventure and a superb continuation of the Silenced boxset from UNIT. I thought this did exactly as it said on the tin and was just excellent from start to finish. It was almost like it was good simply because it was logical. It wasn't complex and did not have an elaborate plot but it just worked wonderfully well. It followed on nicely from House of Silents and whilst there had been some time passed since those events, a phone call from Jacqui McGee soon had UNIT questioning just what went on at the Faversham household. The return of Sam Bishop to the fold was the key and as he wasn't part of the team that visited the house, his memory was unaltered and he had not encountered the Silence. Kate and Osgood having differing accounts of what went on at Faversham's house was great and I loved how piece by piece, they were putting the puzzle together. Things didn't quite add up and whilst they weren't entirely sure why, investigations were required. They had something nagging in their mind that wanted them to stop this but that was confirmation for them that something was going on. Sam was pushing to take a closer look and I really thought he was brilliant here. Josh had an intriguing episode as he was apparently inundated with rising politician Kenneth LeBlanc. His association with the Silence was fantastic and I thought their method of advertising and politics to overturn the Doctor's message from Day of the Moon was sublime. Their plan was detailed and lengthy but slowly, the Silence would get the population to stop them from killing. The way that UNIT realised that it was the figure, a Silent, in the doorway in CCTV footage that was responsible for their forgetting was excellent and I loved the humour that came with Sam's repeated reaction every time he looked away. There was also good comical value in the fact that an alien translator was working well for Sontaran and Axon but was struggling with Welsh. This story really did have it all and it was oh so simple. The story ending with the resignation of the Prime Minister was quite a surprise and it seems that the Silence had swayed things to accommodate LeBlanc's high rise. There's a General Election pending and I have a feeling he'll come out on top. Having the Silence with control over government is a frightening prospect, but one I'm extremely excited by. Overall, a superb audio adventure!

Rating: 10/10