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Doctor Who review: UNIT: Dominion is an epic that both Classic and New fans should check out

By James Aggas

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Collapsing dimensions, numerous invasions…and two Doctors? We look back on the epic Doctor Who box set UNIT: Dominion, and what makes it such a brilliant listen for any fan.

2012 was a pretty strong year for Big Finish, particularly with their special releases. They adapted Love and War, Bernice Summerfield’s first ever appearance, and had the Sixth Doctor meet Jago & Litefoot and share adventures together.

But there were two special releases that particularly stood out in October and November of that year. Each of them was a box set, and each of them was four hours long. One of them was Dark Eyes, a major adventure for the Eighth Doctor in which he recovered from incredibly traumatic events and pushed his story into a new direction. The other was UNIT: Dominion.

Looking back, it’s funny to think that originally, I wasn’t majorly excited about UNIT: Dominion. Not that it looked bad, or anything like that. It was more that Dark Eyes drew all my attention, particularly as it had been eighteen months since To The Death which Dark Eyes was set to continue directly from.

So it’s very possible that I would have overlooked Dominion, if it weren’t for the fact that, along with the Sixth Doctor specials, Love and War and of course Dark Eyes, it came as part of an incredibly cheap bundle that Big Finish were offering back then.

I’m glad I didn’t miss it, because not only is it an excellent release. It also introduced some major mythology into Big Finish’s universe that would have a huge impact later on…

UNIT: Dominion begins with multiple dimensions and multiple alien races, and then just gets bigger from there…

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

A huge scale

One thing that continually impresses me about UNIT: Dominion is how, despite featuring a Classic Doctor and the fact that no New Series mythology is explicitly covered, it somehow feels like a New Series story. At least, something that feels more of the modern era than of McCoy’s, or any other Classic Doctor’s era.

One of the key reasons for this I think is the size of the story. Not just in terms of how lengthy it is. But also the sheer scale of it. Dominion is the kind of ambitious story that involves multiple dimensions and numerous alien invasions happening all at once. UNIT often has difficulty when they’re fighting just one alien invasion, but here, it’s like they’re fighting several stories’ worth in one go!

And this time, it’s not just the UK that are having problems, either. Thanks to the magic of audio, we actually get to have a story with a genuinely worldwide scope. Our main characters travel from England to Germany, Japan and America across this series, and they’re always fighting new monsters with each episode.

So we have an incredibly impressive scale, one that outdoes even the biggest finales in Doctor Who on television. But, even more importantly than that, we also have…

Dr. Elizabeth Klein is a major character in UNIT: Dominion. But why is she being stalked by “the Umbrella Man”?

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

An emotional core

One character I really love in UNIT: Dominion, and one that really adds some heart to this epic of huge alien invasions and clashing dimensions is Sergeant Pete Wilson. A happily married man with a baby on the way, he helps to add a human face to the average UNIT soldier. Even with the likes of Mike Yates or Sergeant Benton, we rarely got a glimpse of a soldier’s home life, so it’s nice that Wilson provides this.

Of course, the more major characters have their own emotional journey to go on as well, especially UNIT’s scientific adviser: Dr. Elizabeth Klein.

I’ve written before about how brilliant a character Klein is. But I’ve only written about one particular version of her, a version that’s very different to the one we see here. In this series, Klein is a brilliant and intelligent woman who doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

But she also feels haunted by the continual presence of someone watching her from a distance. Someone she sees just out of the corner of her eye before he disappears. Someone she calls “the Umbrella Man”. But we know him better as the Doctor.

I love how Klein’s story is handled in Dominion. If you have followed the character’s journey from Colditz, then you’re bound to love discovering this new version of her. But even if you haven’t, that’s OK. Because we see a lot of UNIT: Dominion from her perspective, and why the Doctor is keeping a close eye on her is eventually explained. So it works well as a jumping on point for listeners new to the character.

But Klein’s not the only person the Doctor’s familiar with who returns in this story…

Alex Macqueen plays the role of a future incarnation of the Doctor in UNIT: Dominion. Or does he…?

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Alex Macqueen is…the Doctor?

One of the things that was heavily advertised about this box set was, in addition to the return of Klein, UNIT: Dominion would also feature Alex Macqueen in a very special role. Because this story was so big that it didn’t need just one Doctor – it needed two! And so, Macqueen appears as a previously unknown future incarnation of the Doctor!

Now, we will get to the twist that I’m sure you’re all aware of by now in a minute. But before we do, the role that Macqueen plays for the majority of the story is definitely a convincing one. His “Doctor” is funny, eccentric, but also hinted to be a little bit darker than what we’re used to. He’s less focused on solving more immediate problems than he is on the bigger picture. Or at least, that’s what he claims. But is he working towards another agenda entirely?

Some of my favorite scenes from UNIT: Dominion are of McCoy and Macqueen together. It takes a while to get there, as initially, the Seventh and Other Doctor’s storylines are heavily seperate.

But once they meet up in part three, we get some fantastic dialogue. What’s really great is that the writers really play up the whole “multi-Doctor” aspect before the big reveal, so we have McCoy’s and Macqueen’s Doctors bickering like you’d expect to hear in a multi-Doctor story. And it’s really enjoyable, too.

So Macqueen works well as another Doctor for the story. Then the reveal happens, and we get something even better…

After Dominion, Macqueen’s Master would appear over a year later in the Eighth Doctor series, Dark Eyes.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Alex Macqueen is…the Master!

"The Doctor: You’re not me. You’re….the Master.The Master: Hello you!"

That cliffhanger is still one of my favorite Master reveals ever. It’s up there with Utopia, in fact. It just works so brilliantly. While everyone knows about Macqueen being the Master now, back then, this was a huge moment for Big Finish. It seemed like a major step for them to suddenly create their own brand new incarnation of one of Doctor Who‘s most iconic enemies.

This was also something else that helped to make UNIT: Dominion feel that much closer to New Series era. Because we suddenly had a Master who we hadn’t encountered before. We weren’t even given much of a clue about where he came from, not at first. And it wasn’t for a long while until we learned more about his Master in Dark Eyes 2.

But we did learn what his character was like. And it was glorious. In some ways, it was rather similar to his Doctor impersonation. He was eccentric, over the top, and he had quite the sense of humor.

But he was also very psychopathic. In the opening scenes of part four, he instantly kills two Time Lords ruthlessly and without remorse. In fact, he even has fun while doing it. And he’s as insane in his schemes as ever.

A major moment

UNIT: Dominion established Macqueen’s Master so brilliantly and so spectacularly. And it only really did that in the last hour, when the Master’s villainy and even identity was out in the open. Before that, we had Macqueen playing the Doctor, which was definitely fun. But it’s impressive just how much his Master really stands out. It’s similar to Simm’s in its eccentricness, but still more restrained.

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And, just as a reminder of how big this moment was: this was back in 2012. John Simm’s Master hadn’t been seen in almost three years. We were still two years away from Missy. So getting a brand new Master, even in audio form, was incredibly exciting stuff, and helped to ease the Master-less void we had on the TV series during that time.

Even from his first appearance, Macqueen’s Master really impressed me, and he continued to do so across both Dark Eyes and The Two Masters trilogy. I hope we eventually get to hear more from this particular incarnation, as he’s absolutely brilliant and, along with Derek Jacobi’s War Master, one of my favorite incarnations from the twenty-first century.

As I’ve written here, he’s just one of many reasons why UNIT: Dominion is such a brilliant box set. It’s one of those key times when Big Finish aimed to capture some of the freshness and huge scale of the New Series, while not having any of the continuity due to rights, and getting that mix absolutely perfectly. Dominion is an excellent story, and one I’d recommend to any fan of Doctor Who, regardless of whether Classic or New Who is their preference.

Next. Why the War Master has the most awesome theme tune ever. dark

Have you listened to UNIT: Dominion? Are you a fan of the epic box set? Were you surprised by that reveal? Let us know in the comments below.

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