United

"The whole of Great Britain is under siege from prehistoric monsters."

Writer: Matt Fitton
Format: Audio
Released: May 2017
Series: UNIT: Assembled 04

Featuring: Kate, Osgood, Josh, Sam, Jo, Benton, Yates

Synopsis

The Silurians hold Great Britain under siege. Grand Marshall Jastrok rules the seas and the skies with reptile forces. On the ground, Commander Kalana crushes all ape resistance.

With Kate Stewart trapped, defence of the realm falls to UNIT's old guard. Jo Jones, Mike Yates and John Benton are ready to do their duty and stand united.

Verdict

United was a great conclusion to what has been a very good and extremely consistent Assembled anthology of stories to serve as the fourth series of the modern-day UNIT's adventures! It saw everybody that we've enjoyed listening to in the three previous stories join together, and that goes for both hero and villain. I liked the immediate continuation from Retrieval and the idea of dinosaurs roaming the country was excellent. I loved the reference to Invasion of the Dinosaurs from Yates and given what went on in that story, I don't think anybody else could have brought it up with such casualness. I really liked it. The trio of Yates, Benton and Jo being reunited after all this time was wonderful and it was clear that they had changed with age, but there were still nice little nods to the past they shared together. The continued mentions of the Doctor were very good and I loved how everything Jo was doing was in a way that he would approve and be proud of. That really was lovely to hear. Whilst doing so, she was keen to put forward her environmental attitudes and I also liked how similar that was to Osgood explaining to Benton the little things had changed since his time at UNIT. The very fact that some of the soldiers were now women went under the radar for our old sergeant. With Kate stranded, the Classic trio having to take command was lovely and the readiness with which they accepted responsibility was just wonderful. They were more than up for the mission! Jastrok proved a great villain once again and I enjoyed how active he was in this adventure compared with the previous two. His entering of Westminster was superb. He wanted to initiate humanity's surrender but as time went on, Kate came to him with the terms of Silurian surrender. Kate having to think of something new because of Jastrok's control over Burmaster was fantastic and I loved how UNIT ended up using weather-controller technology. The Silurians couldn't handle the cold and it got far too close to freezing for them. The ruthlessness with which Kate ordered that Jastrok and Kalana be detained was brilliant and showed just how damage the Silurians had caused to mankind. The casualties were high and whilst they would be dealt with by the good of their own species, being contained beneath a nuclear warhead and the Black Archive was quite a perilous position to be in. The Silurians may not have got their planet back, but they had made a big impact. Overall, a great conclusion to a terrific little boxset!

Rating: 8/10