Square One

UNIT #3.2

Released: 23 November 2016

Listened: 4/8/23

John Dorney takes over the writing duties for parts 2 and 3 this time, instead of Andrew Smith. Although you might expect a twisty story from Dorney, the Silence are twisty enough on their own. The title is an accurate one, because UNIT has clean forgotten what they discovered in part 1. Fortunately, Sam Bishop is in town while on leave, and he’s worried that folks are acting funny. Specifically, Osgood and Kate are both very dismissive of the raid on Mrs. Faversham’s house, although they remember it differently. Fortunately, Sam is persistent, and technology has advanced since 1969, because UNIT can review CCTV footage and see a Silent. This leads to an honestly comedic scene in which Kate, Sam, and Osgood all learn the hard way that looking away from the image causes you to forget about it. Sam and Osgood follow up a lead in a scene that has an abrupt jump cut indicating a Silent encounter, just like the TV show did. And then there’s the part that hurts: There’s a politician, Kenneth LeBlanc, who’s making a name for himself being loud and criticizing the Prime Minister, but offering nothing constructive, just empty slogans. He’s portrayed as a complete moron, and he’s only getting attention because the Silence are using their subliminal abilities to influence the public to trust him. This was recorded in early 2016 and released just after the US election, and it’s a sharp reminder that nobody thought Trump was going to win in 2016, and most of the world thought him a moron. Portraying a candidate who was so clearly idiotic that he’d need alien intervention to get support was probably a lot more amusing before the real-world idiot actually won. And oh yeah, the Silence have brainwashed Josh into helping them, and specifically supporting LeBlanc. While his friends have noticed his abrupt change in politics, they aren’t connecting it with the Silence yet.