Time Heals

UNIT #1

Released: December 2004

Listened: 3/21/23

Now we’re into the series proper, and it’s clear it was planned as four parts, because this is basically all setup. We’ve got several plot threads that don’t intersect until the very end, and even then, there’s more going on than anyone knows. In plot 1, UNIT is moving an alien spacecraft to storage under secrecy, but it gets stolen, and Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood is taken as well. Although he doesn’t appear in the story, we hear repeatedly how devoted the troops are to him. That leaves Colonel Chaudhry in charge, until she’s told to call off the search for Brimmicombe-Wood, and Colonel Dalton is assigned as a temporary replacement. Dalton knows squat about UNIT, and of course doesn’t accept any sci-fi explanations, because he’s doomed to be that kind of character, and that puts him in conflict with Chaudhry. Plot 2 involves some scientists working on a matter transporter. It’s all very shady, and they never say directly who they’re working for, only that they’ve crossed ethical lines by working with a military group. Except they think their tech will end world hunger, so it’s worth it. Unless it isn’t. Both scientists flip-flop continuously on whether they’re being noble or criminal, whether their project will be helpful or harmful, and whether they’re justified or not. The project itself seems to have time-related side-effects, like causing a train to jump forward 30 minutes, so it collides with another train that occupies the same spot, or causing a plane to crash (into Windsor Castle!), or causing a nuclear submarine to go into meltdown. And like all good scientists, once they learn the project is killing people, they go right on with it. Plot 3 involves the Brigadier, back to being retired, noticing the time-blips, although he’s somehow the only one who does, investigating on his own, and passing the info to Chaudhry, enabling her to track down the scientists. This is a pre-new-series story, so it tries a little too hard to be “adult.” The body count is extraordinary, including at least one member of the royal family. There are also several references to a UNIT lieutenant's romantic conquests, and the scientists banter about how famous scientists still don’t get the girls. The dialog is amazingly strained, and would have been awkward in the 1970s, much less 2004. I also have to make special note of the soundtrack, or lack thereof. Big Finish was likely operating on a smaller budget back then, but the only music is a repetitive bass line that seems to have been lifted from Excellis, and some occasional drums, neither of which seem appropriate to the story. It’s nice to see UNIT operating on their own, and competently, but as a story, this has an awful lot of rough edges.