Doctor Who review: UNIT: Silenced takes things back to Square One
By James Aggas
The second episode of Doctor Who spin-off box set UNIT: Silenced takes things back to Square One, with UNIT completely unaware of the threat that faces them…
Having recently re-listened to House of Silents – the first episode of audio box set UNIT: Silenced, which was free to listen to until yesterday – I thought it was worth continuing the story. The opening episode reintroduced Doctor Who monsters the Silence extremely well. But what do they get up to next?
As the title implies, things are back to Square One in this episode. While in the previous story, UNIT confronted the Silence pretty quickly, when this episode starts, they’ve completely forgotten about them. In fact, unlike in House of Silents, they currently believe that there’s no threat at all. How can they fight an enemy that they’ve already completely forgotten about?
So Square One feels like a soft reset of the story, which is a risky move when you’re only two episodes in. However, as mentioned, it is only a “soft” reset. While everyone’s completely forgotten about events from House of Silents, one person that has yet to meet the Silence is Lieutenant Sam Bishop – who’s discovers something very strange going on at UNIT…
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Stronger threat
Bringing in an outsider into the mix is a neat way of refreshing the story after everyone else has been affected by the Silence. It’s a way of getting to see how everything’s wrong at UNIT through someone else’s eyes. On the surface, everything appears to be normal. But, after coming back from leave, it’s not long before Sam starts to notice that something is definitely off with everyone.
As such, while the previous episode was almost a typical UNIT story – with the team kicking down doors and facing the Silence at the end – this episode takes a slower approach. Writer John Dorney also builds the Silence up into something even more threatening than before. There’s a strong feeling of fear and paranoia, as no one’s quite sure what’s going on.
There’s also a nice layer of commentary and satire too with the political figure of Kenneth LeBlanc. A man with big dreams but small intelligence, he’s clearly more of a joke than a natural leader. So why is he rapidly becoming so popular?
Unsurprisingly, there were clearly one or two real-world influences on LeBlanc. (One thing to consider is that this box set was originally released in late 2016 – I’ll let you decide how much of an influence current events were on the story.) But LeBlanc thankfully avoids being a direct parody, coming across as a politician who offers his own unique brand of ineptitude. He only has a few key scenes in this particular episode, but Nicholas Day still has plenty of fun with the part.
Of course, by the very end of Square One, it’s clear that LeBlanc’s story – and UNIT’s troubles – are only just beginning…
Next. Jago & Litefoot – Celebrating ten years of the greatest spin-off ever. dark
What stories can you think of that take things back to square one? Do you think the Silence should return to the Doctor Who universe? Let us know in the comments below.