United (audio story)
United was the fourth and final story in the audio anthology, Assembled, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Warren Brown as Sam Bishop, Katy Manning as Jo Jones, Richard Franklin as Mike Yates and John Levene as John Benton.
Publisher's summary
The Silurians hold Great Britain under siege. Grand Marshal 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.
Plot
In addition to isolated attacks by Silurians on human military bases, the seas around the United Kingdom are plagued by Krelix's sea-beasts and genetically-modified pterosaurs control the skies. The monsters take out several RAF planes and UNIT, stranded at sea, rescue the survivors and take them to the Bay of Biscay. Osgood lacks the resources to block the Silurians' control signal and Sam's reports indicate that conventional weapons cannot harm the creatures.
Yates joins Jo and Benton in UNIT HQ and Kate puts the three of them in command of local operations whilst she is away due to their experience with the Silurians and Sea Devils. Jastrok has been spotted at Regent's Park with land hybrids, heading to London with an escort whilst his scientists work on replicating the fear trigger. Osgood and Josh transmat to them, getting within the required distance in a mini-submersible before an allosaurus ate it, and Osgood starts adapting a directed psionic beam emitter to jam the reptiles brains.
Jastrok enters Westminster Abbey with his escort and calls for a meeting with the leaders of humanity under truce. As Jo and Benton are assisting Osgood, Yates and Josh answer the call and meet with him, but he refuses to negotiate and demands humanity's surrender and enslavement. They are given until sunrise tomorrow to consider it. Whilst Yates and Josh are away, Kalana uses a fear trigger to aid her and her soldiers as she captures a nuclear base and locates the warheads as a contingency. Jastrok takes residence in the Houses of Parliament and makes it his council chamber, declaring the ushering in of the New Silurian Epoch and renaming Great Britain as Nova Siluria.
Jo takes the Sontaran transmat technology to transmat to the Houses of Parliament and attempts to negotiate with Jastrok, but he intends on holding the British people hostage and has her sent to Kalana on a pterosaur upon realising that she is with UNIT. UNIT uses alien technology and the Lyme Industries weather station to make it snow, promising to allow the Silurians to return to their hibernation unobstructed. The cold slows down the sea creatures, allowing UNIT's fleet to get past them and override their control signal. Jastrok refuses to surrender and orders Kalana to use the nuclear weapons to destroy Britain.
Many of the Silurians return to hibernation beneath St James's Park and some let Yates know where Jo is being held. He, Benton and Josh travel there with Osgood, kill the creatures guarding the building and confront Kalana. Josh challenges her to single combat to buy Yates, Benton and Osgood time to save Jo and the prisoners and stop the launch. Kalana tries to use the psionic beam emitter that she took from Jo but it reflects the fear trigger and makes Kalana terrified of the humans. Meanwhile, Kate and her soldiers enter the Houses of Parliament and arrest Jastrok as he hides behind the speaker's chair.
Osgood uploads a report on everything that has happened to the Silurians' systems and Kate has Jastrok and Kalana frozen half a mile beneath the Black Archive until the Silurians see fit to release them. Benton takes the pterosaurs to their nests in the Scottish Highlands before going back to his wife and Osgood and Jo sail to South America with Sam to relocate the sea creatures. Yates tells Kate, who needs to speak with Felicity Lyme about fuel subsidies during the artificial cold snap, that they will answer the call whenever UNIT needs them.
Cast
- Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
- Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
- Sam Bishop - Warren Brown
- Josh Carter - James Joyce
- Jo Jones - Katy Manning
- Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
- John Benton - John Levene
- Jastrok - Richard Hope
- Kalana - Neve McIntosh
Worldbuilding
- Colonel Shindi is with the Prime Minister in Geneva.
- The Air Force try to kill the sea-beasts.
- Gibraltar have experimental supplies.
- Osgood uses a Sontaran transmat device.
- When describing the siege of Britain, General Bambera is said to be in Peru, Mace in Japan and Professor Klein is at a summit in Geneva with Shindi.
- Portsmouth and Southampton Docks have been wrecked by the sea creatures.
- UNIT work with the Deputy Prime Minister to maintain a curfew, claiming that there is an outbreak of bird flu.
- The Silurian steeds devoured London Zoo en route to Westminster.
- Josh calls Osgood's mobile phone.
- The Anthropocene era is a human-dominated era.
- Kate mentions Terry Waring, Anne Thompson and Anthony Burmaster as victims of the Silurians, as well as the Sea Devils.
- Jo and the Third Doctor once found Ogrons marooned in the Outer Hebrides. Their adventure was not recorded in any UNIT file.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Kate and Osgood talk about Captain Burmaster. (AUDIO: Call to Arms, Tidal Wave)
- Osgood mentions Project Charybdis. (AUDIO: Tidal Wave)
- Benton says that Yates is late to the party again. (AUDIO: Call to Arms)
- Yates and Benton remember the last time dinosaurs walked down Lewisham. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
- Yates recalls the Silurians' attempt to wipe humanity with a plague. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
- Jo refers to Santiago Jones keeping her up with all the latest technology. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
- Benton uses the command "Chap with wings there, five round rapid". (TV: The Dæmons)
- Jastrok bemoans Eldane, (TV: Cold Blood) Icthar and the Triads. (TV: Warriors of the Deep)
- Kate uses Lyme Industries to create a cold spell in the weather and to create some fuel subsidies. (AUDIO: Power Cell et al.)
- Josh and Kalana mention Tryska. (AUDIO: Retrieval)
External links
- Official United page at bigfinish.com
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