Recruits

"Everyone who has had contact with the blue box has disappeared."

Writer: Sasha Sienna

Format: Audio

Released: May 2022

Series: Redacted 1.06

Featuring: Abby, Shawna, Cleo, Osgood

Synopsis

Welcome to UNIT: the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, home to the largest collection of alien artefacts in the British Isles. Under the competent leadership of Chief Scientific Officer Dr Petronella Osgood, UNIT is prepared for any and all eventualities – including this so-called 'blue box', and the mysterious 'Doctor' behind it.

Verdict

Recruits was another great episode to continue the Redacted podcast series! I continue to enjoy the series and I’m really impressed with how seamlessly each episode is advancing the story. The format works very well as having a podcast as the forefront of a podcast series is fun and it makes sense for it not to be released in physical form or even to charge for a digital copy. I mean, I’m not saying I want to pay and I’m already aware there’s a second series of this podcast which is delightful, but this is certainly to a standard I’d be more than happy to pay for. I think part of that is having the likes of the Thirteenth Doctor and Osgood feature! The latter was the main guest character in this episode and it was fun for her to show she admired the three podcast hosts. And of course she would be a listener of the Blue Box Files! That’s right up Osgood’s street and she definitely seems like the target audience. It’s a little bit of a shame that the title of the episodes in this series kind of gives away where things will head at the end, but having Abby, Shawna and Cleo as UNIT recruits is quite fun and very good use of the Doctor Who wider world. There’s a great deal to explore and where better than as part of UNIT? It would seem only one member of the podcast team would take that shot though. I think exploring the vaults of UNIT was very good and I love the idea of them having no idea how a big chunk of their catalogue appeared now that memory of the Doctor had been redacted. There would be so much to explain throughout history! The old UNIT recruitment video was fun to include but for me the absolute highlight of this story was the conversation between the Doctor and Cleo. She’s still trapped and trying to break through and I’m impressed that the mystery of what has caused the Doctor to be forgotten hasn’t gotten old yet. I want to know but strangely I’m not in a rush which is testament to the three main characters. Cleo and Shawna seem to have separated from Abby at the end of the episode though which was a powerful moment. Abby could accept that things were bigger than them with all of the missing people and the strangeness of the blue box, but Cleo and Shawna didn’t want to partner up with the very people they were against. That was a fun twist and I’m really intrigued to hear where things move from here with their relationship and the podcast dynamic. I loved the reference to the files containing 97 documents that were completely missing which was a rather unsubtle nod to the missing episodes of 1960s Doctor Who. I thought that was great though and I love the direct approach for things like that. In terms of the plot, there wasn’t much of one other than exploring the podcast hosts becoming part of UNIT, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable listen!

Rating: 8/10