UNIT: Extinction

By Matt Fitton & Andrew Smith: Can someone please enlighten me as to who this set is for? Because for the first two, eventless, episodes, I found myself hoping this wasn't just going to be a retread of Spearhead from Space. Meteorite showers, Auton dummies, great tentacled Nestene Consciousness. The only thing that felt truly original was that this story was being told on a grand world-spanning stage. But in terms of creativity this is following on beat for beat what happened in the 70s (even down to the human stooge - this time with a plastic skull) and I don't see the point in creating a series around an ultra modern version of UNIT if all you are going to put out are trips down memory lane. The recent Bambera set felt precisely like a 90s series of UNIT, with all the rampant action and madcap stories that would have come with it. This just trips through one cliché after another, barely bothering to disguise that it is after fanboys cash who want to hear Auton sound effects whilst Jemma Redgrave fails to emote around them. Some positives do emerge; Ingrid Olivier has a great naturalistic presence and Warren Brown (Big Finish's Running Man) brings a lovely earthy feel to one of the episodes and generally the production is solid and easy on the ear. Jemma Redgrave sounds like this is the last thing in the world she ever wants to be doing and I cannot for the life of me imagine why nobody gave her a note to wake her up a bit. In Flux she was practically ignored but showed more emotion in two scenes of Survivors of the Flux than she does in the four hours that this plays out over. It's a baffling turn, especially when getting the regulars right is pretty much the one thing you can always guarantee on audio. After hours and hours of talk about 3D printers, action set pieces and promises of world domination, Nick Briggs shows up as the most annoying news reader you've ever heard AND the Nestene Consciousness. And it finally all ends with the laziest rip off of Rose from Series One and left me thinking what on Earth the whole thing was about. There could have been a comment on consumerism, or our reliance on plastic, or even an exploration of a military force containing alien incursions. When I saw the names Andrew Smith and Matt Fitton on this I figured it would be back to basics for UNIT but I didn't in my wildest dreams think it would be quite this bare: 4/10