Death in Geneva review [Andrew Smith]

With few people left to trust, and with assassins on their tail, Kate and Osgood race to UNIT Command in Geneva. Will General Avary be able to help them?

But when death follows UNIT all the way from the English countryside to the snowy slopes of the Alps, Captain Carter finds himself in a race against time.

As the body count rises, Kate struggles to separate friend from foe, danger circles Osgood ever closer, and, high in the mountains, Josh comes face to face with the enemy...

When and Where: In Geneva, after Power Cell and before The Battle of the Tower.

The Doctor's Case:

• On the show and in Extinction, things happen in the UK that mean that Kate and Osgood have to go out to sort it. Here, everything revolves around Osgood, making the plot that much more personal. Kate gets to worry about her and hurry to her rescue and Osgood gets to save herself.
• General Avary seems to be a good guy helping Kate, then he seems to be a bad guy helping Sir Peter. It turns out he's a slightly more complicated person, so to-the-letter that he contacts London not because he's a bad guy but because Kate has broken protocol.

The Valeyard's Case:

• Captain Carter is on the cover and Lieutenant Bishop is credited, but I can barely remember them even being in the story. The two not only have very little character but also very little in the way of plot, which was also an issue in Extinction.

This Reminds Me...:

• Osgood's psychic device shows the Eleventh Doctor arriving at the Tower of London in his TARDIS, which was presumably from The Day of the Doctor.
• Osgood remembers fighting Autons in the Gobi Desert, which was in Earthfall.
• Osgood's asthma plays up and she needs her inhaler, which was the case in The Day of the Doctor.
• The Kimishi first appeared in I Went to a Marvellous Party.

Next Time on UNIT: The Tengobushi are after an artefact in the Tower of London, where they're heading.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: This is a short review that makes me wonder if I should be doing box sets with continuous stories like these in one... Whilst the country-hopping seemed superfluous in Extinction, this trip to Geneva is great from the start. We learn a bit more about UNIT and how the government sees it, as well as finally visiting the global headquarters. We also learn who the aliens are: assassin Kimishi known as the Tengobushi, looking for a lost artefact in UNIT's hands. This story is very good and that earns it an A.

UNIT: The New Series - Shutdown

Power Cell  |  Death in Geneva  |  The Battle of the Tower