The Longest Night

So after a pretty middling experience out of these early UNIT stories at first, outside of The Coup, The Longest Night really took me by surprise. It's dark as all hell and reminds me of Children of Earth's sharp left turn that is firmly out of traditional Doctor Who tone. I'm not against these types of stories - clearly, based on this rating, but it does feel a little out of place with what we had gotten so far out of these audios.

Still, I like this audio. A woman commits suicide live on national television. It's dark and messed up, coupled with some pretty compelling political intrigue drawn from earlier plot points in the series. In hindsight, it gives a little bit of breathing room for Time Heals and Snakehead to feel like build-up to this, and collectively Longest Night and The Wasting do a lot to make this series worth listening to.

I really like this story's particular take on early 2000s politics. It felt novel and done in a non-specific enough way that it doesn't feel that dated, either. A firm recommendation from me, and I will have to check out some more of Joe Lidster's other works because the two I've stumbled on so far have both been pretty great and engaging. The production also did a great job at giving the audio weight and making it really feel like we were listening to a bunch of real broadcasts.