Snake Head

UNIT #2

Released: January 2005

Listened: 3/25/23

This one actually seems a bit like filler, in as much a short series can have filler. Colonels Chaudhry and Dalton head to Southend to investigate some mysterious murders. They’re in civilian clothes, and refer to each other by name without rank for most of the story, making this seem much more “private detective” than UNIT. In fact, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that the two highest-ranking UNIT officers would go out on a mission alone, but Dalton is still being a skeptic, and Chaudhry wants to convince him…or else she just wants to get out of London. There’s an archaeological dig run by a lecherous professor who won’t stop hitting on Chaudhry; his primary purpose seems to be explaining Albanian legends, specifically the Vârkolak, a kind of invisible Balkan vampire, which of course nobody but Chaudhry believes in. Issues of race and immigration get a lot of airing here, from the illegal Chinese and Kosovan refugees smuggled in by the “snake head” (what Americans would call a “coyote”), to the Kosovan vampire hunter (who doesn’t have a valid visa), to Kevin Lee and Chaudhry herself, both British citizens back several generations, but with foreign names that can result in racism. Actually finding and killing the monster isn’t that big of a deal, but it definitely makes a believer out of Dalton, after quite some time looking like it wouldn’t. The story’s fine, for what it is.