The Wasting

UNIT #4

Released: June 2005

Listened: 3/25/23

Why, look – it’s that David Tennant bloke! He’s playing Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood, and while I’d like to call this his only recurring role in pre-2005 Big Finish, in fact the only other appearance of this character is in an Unbound story, so it’s technically not the same character. If you only knew him from his various Big Finish appearances (and Harry Potter, really), you’d probably think of him as the guy who yells a lot, because he certainly does that here. In fact, it’s not really clear why the rest of UNIT think so highly of him, even though we’re told that they do, repeatedly. Plot-wise, there’s a pandemic, which has spread rather quickly around the world, with nations all pointing fingers at each other. (Which, in 2023, gives a chill.) Of course, it’s actually alien, spread by ICIS, so UNIT need to fix the problem and track down the baddies, which means finding Brimmicombe-Wood. Fortunately, Sir Alistair has resurfaced to help out. He keeps insisting that he’s retired, and Chaudhry is in charge, but then he turns around and gives orders, keeps everybody calm, and provides moral support. In fact, he’s wearing some pretty hefty plot armor, because he succeeds in just about everything he does. Which takes some of the suspense out of the plot. The only big twist is that (Spoiler: Brimmicombe-Wood turns out to be the bad guy. Which might be a shock if we’d ever heard him before, or had any reason to be sympathetic towards him.) Once again we have a huge body count, and characters who can’t seem to stop being offensive toward Chaudhry. Less swearing, though, which is odd. On the whole, the boxed set is a bit of an odd artifact, being made in a distinctly “wilderness years” style, but terminated before it got any further. Still, it’s great to hear Nicholas Courtney in the role.