Rogue State

UNIT: Brave New World #1.1

Released: 13 July 2022

Listened: 3/26/23

This story sets up the premise for the entire series, and opens the box entitled “Seabird One,” which is Bambera’s call sign. Getting some background details out of the way: At the time of “Battlefield” (1997), Bambera was one of several officers in UNIT, assigned all over the world. As a result of her performance in that story, she’s now offered the leadership of UNIT’s UK division. She apparently got together with Ancelyn, but that ended because they couldn’t reconcile their respective duties. Also, UNIT seems to be used as a generic global peacekeeping force (again, in accord with “Battlefield”), but also with a specialization in what Bambera calls “the woo-woo stuff,” which she doesn’t care for. As the story opens, Bambera has just narrowly missed capturing an arms dealer she’s been tracking, and is considering resigning. Dame Lydia Kingsley is introduced as Bambera’s boss at UNIT, and assigns her a new second, Sgt. Jean-Paul Savarin, a French soldier. He’s played by Alex Jordan, but his French sounds quite good to me. According to Rob Valentine and Emily Cook, the aim of the story is to create “a 2020s version of what the 1980s thought the 1990s would be like.” The technology level seems historically accurate, but the primary concerns seem to be global terrorism and rogue states getting their hands on former Soviet weapons (see also: 90s James Bond). The story moves at a rapid pace, which can make it hard to discern exactly what’s going on. Bambera does an awful lot of shouting, which Angela Bruce is admittedly very good at. She’s not as directly insulting as Brimmicombe-Wood, but it does sound like she’s unhappy all the time. Savarin is her foil, generally keeping a cool head and pointing out when she’s wrong. The soundtrack is extremely energetic, with a lot of electric guitars, and seems kind of over the top. That extends to the new theme as well. It’s a decent start, but I don’t think they can maintain this pace.