Review: Stranded 2 – UNIT Dating (2/4)

Still locked down on Earth in 2020, the Doctor, Helen and Liv face an easing of restrictions in this month’s Stranded 2. The TARDIS is slowly coming back to life, allowing for visits to the planet’s past and its doomed future. But does this newfound freedom enhance or detract from Stranded’s unique premise?

After a trip to the far future, the Doctor and Andy take the TARDIS on a test flight to the recent past, with a visit to UNIT HQ. He plans to borrow a few TARDIS parts from his earlier self, but this trip could have a disastrous impact on two of his tenants.

Roy Gill’s UNIT Dating is a love story told across time zones, with an angry Ogron thrown in for good measure. We meet the young Ron and Tony in a UNIT lab within the Tower of London, post-Day of the Daleks, where Ron, the young soldier is dithering over asking out Tony, the new lab assistant. Meanwhile, in the present day, Tony’s memory is failing, and Ron asks Helen and Liv for help, worried that his partner will soon forget him. We soon realise that the memory loss is connected to the Doctor and Andy’s exploits in the 70s (or 80s) messing up his personal timeline. This posits some interesting moral questions about the Doctor’s actions, how many other people’s memories have been changed by his flagrant approach to the laws of time? It’s something we rarely see in the show, with A Christmas Carol being the stand-out example. Helen is horrified by this possibility, and once again the listener is reminded of the Doctor’s impact on others, perhaps he will become the feared tyrant he was feared to be in Divine Intervention?

They don’t linger on this thought for too long, however, as UNIT Dating is really a story about Ron and Tony. As I mentioned in the review of Dead Time, I was sceptical of allowing the Doctor to use the TARDIS again after only four episodes of being grounded. However, what this does is it allows writers to tell in-depth stories about the other Baker Street residents. Restoring the Doctor’s ability to travel in time means we can experience their backstories first-hand rather than be subjected to long scenes of exposition delivered over cups of tea in one of the flats. It also remains true to the intention of Stranded to tell more character-driven and contemporary stories. It’s simmering underneath, but the decriminalisation of homosexuality was still very recent in those UNIT days and it’s clear that the continuing homophobia in wider society plays a small role in Ron’s nervousness over asking out Tony. They also work for a military organisation and the armed forces don’t have the best track record for progressive views. However, Gill beautifully subverts these notions of repressive toxic masculinity in two wonderful scenes involving Jon Culshaw as the Brigadier, neither of which I’ll spoil here.  

Ron and Tony’s story also makes quite an impact on Helen, and we’re reminded of the fact that she’s a historical companion, something I feel often gets forgotten. On visits to the future, companions are usually dazzled by spectacular technology or architecture but rarely do we get a sense of their viewpoint on the social strides made. The scene towards the end where Helen reflects on the effects of 1967’s Sexual Offences Act is a quietly heartbreaking performance by Hattie Morahan and one of the few times I’ve come close to tears when listening to a Big Finish.  

This is a real highlight of the Stranded series, which confronts the Eighth Doctor with the time of his previous exile, engages in temporal shenanigans with an angry Ogron, discusses the recent history and delivers a moving story about love. What more could you possibly want from an episode of Doctor Who? 

You can buy Stranded 2 here or purchase the whole series here.