Tidal Wave

UNIT #4.2

Released: 23 May 2017

Listened: 4/10/23

Following the law of conservation of characters, this story is mostly Osgood and Jo Grant-Jones, with a side of Kate. Katy Manning is a familiar voice around Big Finish, playing both a younger Jo and Iris Wildthyme, and even an older Jo on occasion, but this is really the first time she’s played the older Jo, post “Death of the Doctor,” and the story really leans into her eco-warrior status. Which is why she’s called in as an expert to help test an eco-friendly submarine, which is a terribly flimsy excuse, but it gets her there. Osgood, of course, fangoobers all over Jo, to the point where Kate has to rein her in. We know Osgood’s a fan, but it’s fairly unprofessional. Of course, the whole submarine plotline is an excuse to bring in the Sea Devils. Captain Burmeister was brainwashed by the Silurians in the last story and is now using the sub to awaken a Sea Devil base, specifically one where some monster dinosaur hybrids are stored, and pin the blame on the humans. (An opportunity to mention the events of “Bloodtide,” but that doesn’t happen.) Which works pretty well, so that Kate and UNIT are forced to defend themselves. Of course, Jo wants to see if she can negotiate, to honor the Doctor, if nothing else, and naturally Osgood is going to help, even if that means going behind Kate’s back. Despite the contrived setup, what follows is exactly what Jo, Kate, and Osgood would do, so credit to Guy Adams for that. And the Jo / Osgood combo just sparkles every time they’re in a scene together. You can see why they were willing to go back to that later. So far, we’ve had two entirely self-contained stories, but it’s clear this is building to something.