Vanguard (UTNS audio story)

Vanguard was the first story in the audio anthology, Extinction, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood and introduced James Joyce as Josh Carter, Ramon Tikaram as Vikram Shindi and Tracy Wiles as Jacqui McGee.

Publisher's summary
From a state-of-the-art bunker beneath the Tower of London, Kate Stewart leads a secret army protecting the Earth from extraterrestrial threat. Crashed UFOs, strange meteors, a giant lizard in the Severn - all business as usual for UNIT.

While Scientific Advisor Osgood attends a 'skyfall' incident with Colonel Shindi and Captain Josh Carter, Kate's duties take her to visit Devlin Future Tech, and reclusive billionaire Simon Devlin.

Journalist Jacqui McGee is also on FutureTech's case, and nothing's going to get in the way of her story: a product launch that will change the world...

Plot
At the Severn Bridge, Colonel Shindi and his men, including Captain Josh Carter, shoot at a six-metre crocodilian with rubber bullets to keep it in the water before Kate arrives, telling the Colonel that they need only reunite the crocodilian with its spacecraft in a hangar in Newport. As Kate wants an end to the shooting, Josh heads to Osgood's mobile laboratory and takes the pacifier she has built, jumping into the water to use it.

Jacqui McGee of Orbit TV News continues to attempt to get an interview with Simon Devlin without success and calls Tim Stevens into her office for a talk. She gets an invitation and a security pass to the opening launch of Devlin's 3D printers with her and will be secretly filming.

Kate returns to the Tower of London after speaking with the Prime Minister and confirms with Colonel Shindi that the crocodilian has departed safely. Whilst Colonel Shindi sees little promise in Josh, Kate says that he has potential and that they could complete his training despite him having left Sandhurst prematurely. However, she tells the Colonel to do what he thinks best. She attends Devlin's launch and catches Jacqui out, knowing that the name on her badge belongs to a sixty-year-old man and recognising her from television.

Colonel Shindi scolds a sarcastic Josh and tells him to obey his orders and not to take unnecessary risks. Osgood tells the Colonel and Josh that, whilst tracking the crocodilian's departure, Pharos II spotted an approaching meteorite with strange behaviour and they head to the area that it is predicted to land. Meanwhile, Tim sneaks into one of Devlin Futuretech's warehouses and, in a storage area, encounters an Auton and leaves Jacqui a voicemail promising to send footage. Jenna Gold sees him and uses him as a target for the Autons, who kill him.

Kate joins Osgood, Shindi and Josh and is followed by Jacqui, who is stopped by Corporal Bailey at the cordon and spies on them from afar. The meteor lands and Osgood uses laser cutters to open it, confirming that it is a Nestene control sphere, before finding a micro-tracker in Kate's coat that Jacqui had planted. Kate has Shindi destroy the control sphere with Nitro-12 whilst Josh captures Jacqui after she crashes her car. Osgood administers a hypospray to erase the last twenty-four hours of Jacqui's memories and Kate has Josh take her home.

Kate receives a call from UNIT Central Control informing her that there are more control units arriving around the world in the next twenty-four hours. She has Osgood prepare to leave and calls South-East Asia Control to get in touch with Lieutenant Sam Bishop. Meanwhile, the Nestene Consciousness tells Devlin that the conquest of Earth has begun.

Cast

 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
 * Colonel Shindi - Ramon Tikaram
 * Captain Josh Carter - James Joyce
 * Simon Devlin - Steve John Shepherd
 * Jenna Gold - Karina Fernandez
 * Jacqui McGee - Tracy Wiles
 * Tim Stevens - Derek Carlyle
 * The Nestene Consciousness - Nicholas Briggs

Crew

 * Cover Art - Tom Webster
 * Director - Ken Bentley
 * Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
 * Music and Sound Design - Howard Carter
 * Producer - David Richardson
 * Script Editor - Ken Bentley
 * Writer - Matt Fitton
 * Autons and Nestene Consciousness created by Robert Holmes

Worldbuilding

 * Colonel Shindi shuts down the M4 and Annie Traffic demands an update.
 * The robot ravens are upgraded with infrared night vision.
 * Josh asks Osgood if she was part of the Girl Guides or Brownies. Osgood answers by saying she was part of chess club.
 * Kate says that Osgood could have canapes and champagne at the launch.
 * Shindi has Josh get a hold of Sergeant Kelly (Greyhound Five).
 * Josh brings Osgood's laser cutters.
 * UNIT possesses an explosive called Nitro-12.

Continuity

 * Robotic ravens are being installed at the Tower of London. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Kate wants to replicate the TARDIS language translation capabilities. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora, et al.)
 * Osgood mentions the Pharos Project. (TV: Logopolis)
 * Osgood has read the UNIT files on the Nestene and Autons. (TV: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons)