Written by Robert Valentine Alfie Shaw Mark Wright

Starring Angela Bruce and Alex Jordan

Originally released : June 2025

Listened to: April 2026

Context: I decided to go ahead and do this box set, weather has been dire so no gardening listens however i have had a fair few long trips up north etc so this boxset was perfect.

Episodes

3.1 Kaiju by Robert Valentine
3.2 Debrief by Alfie Shaw 

3.3 Shatterpoint by Mark Wright

THE REVIEW

What I thought

Kaiju is exactly what i hoped it would be, UNIT versus Godzilla/alien monster-thing. Well not quite, but a crazy alternative universe alien. Turns out its come through a rift type thing/event, which has also brought through parallel versions of the UNIT team! The alterante Rix is cool, and ends up carping it at the end in order to defeat the big baddie. The stuff between our Rix and her boyfried, corporal whatsit is affecting, especially as it doesn’t all end very well for our heroic young fellow. An exciting episode that, on listening to the rest of the boxset now, sets the context for what is to follow (these unit BNW boxsets seem to hadle these connections/arcs particularly well in my opinion).

Debrief sees the return of Tomasz Zbrigniev! with a terribly exciting episode in which Zbrigniev and his new scietific advisor (Dr Hazal Wayward) investigate some crashed craft in the woods. So far so standard, however it quickly starts getting very intersting as fast forward to an interview/court martial type affair between Bambara and these two, both of which aggressively dispute each others story about what happened. Then it seems likley there is a shape changing alien which is in the mix, which could be either of these two, and as time goes on maybe Bambara is the alien…all gets very tricksy and angry, all really really well acted and the sound/music significantly adds to the tension. It’s brilliant and there is a true shock moment at the end of this one (SPOILERS lay ahead) when it turns out that Bambara AND Wayward are aliens albeit differnt species, and then Bamabara shoots, and kills, Zbrigniev! What an ending!

Shatter Point follows on directly, with the alternative Bambara and Jean-Paul going hell for leather to destroy this version of the world (why? not sure to be honest but that’s is ok with me). Whatever the plot exactly is it’s fun to see Rix with Wayward aka shape chaging alien, Bambara with her boss lady, and the fight against the alternate versions of themselves. There is a very ‘bang heavy/action heavy’ ending, with Bambara sorting out evil Bambara. The really cool thing is the ‘rift thingy’ returns and there is a sighting of a knight! Bambara certainly thinks it is Ancolyn (and we know he returns in the most recent BNW boxset). That can wait for the next boxset listen, but overall a story that is great great fun.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5 Berets: I only gave this .2 less due to my rather scant understanding of what actually happened at the end of episode 3 of the set (probably more me not paying attention enough than problems with the story). That aside the boxset is great fun, great stuff and I love this UNIT team. Fantastic.

What am I left thinking?

• Now the whole Dame Lidia Arc is resolved where do the team go next?
• Are we looking at more alien invasions going forward?
• Will we ever see more explicit main Who cross overs in BNW adventures?

Memorable bits

• Easter egg – psychotic penguin!
• Ancolyn!