Hosts of the Wirrn (audio story)

 was the first story in the audio anthology, Revisitations, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Chris Chapman and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter and Ramon Tikaram as Vikram Shindi.

Publisher's summary
After the world’s strangest interview, UNIT's latest recruit, Shana Siddiqui, hits the ground running to help Osgood with her latest assignment.

left UNIT a parting gift – something alien and deadly. The Wirrn have come to Earth, and now they are free...

Larvae are hatching. Grubs are mutating. The infection is spreading. As a swarm takes to the skies, UNIT struggles to contain its menace.

Kate Stewart meets the danger head-on. To rid the Earth of the Wirrn, she must now confront their Queen.

Part one
Holding a case containing an egg left behind for UNIT by, who took it from the Auctioneers' collection at the Whitehouse Gallery, Osgood flies to Kate and Shindi with Josh and Sergeant Brundle when they hit turbulence. The case opens and Brundle touches the egg, causing him great pain. The helicopter crashes and Brundle emerges from the wreck saying "Wirrn". Deeming it too late to save him from his infection, Shindi orders his men to shoot him.

Osgood surprises Shana Siddiqui by interviewing her to join UNIT as an entomologist via a remote-controlled raven and offers her the job. Shana resigns as a researcher and heads to Lake Windermere where, after mentioning the code word "Skarasen", she is directed to the Well, a secret bio-research facility beneath a hut. Josh gives her a brief tour and, after receiving a welcome from Kate, who appears from Geneva as a hologram, Shana joins Osgood and Josh in descending to the bottom of the Well in a hazard suit and is decontaminated several times.

Having survived UNIT's bullets thanks to his new hide, Brundle is at large and being hunted by Shindi, Private Sedgwick and Private Jack Evans. Evans finds him in the forest and is killed, his body later being found by Shindi and Sedgwick next to a tunnel burrowed by Brundle. Shindi informs Kate, who is heading back from Geneva.

Shana is amazed by the Wirrn egg, which Osgood is simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by and has named Elizabeth due to her belief that the egg is that of a Wirrn queen. Shana is given keys to a flat that she is to share with Kirsty Musgrave, a former UNIT field medic who now works at A&E. The following day, Kate and Osgood discuss Brundle and deduce that his purpose is not to infect others but to protect his queen. Shana analyses cell samples taken by Marcus, the tech specialist, and the sample bites its way into her hazard suit.

to be completed

Part two
to be added

Cast

 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
 * Colonel Vikram Shindi - Ramon Tikaram
 * Captain Josh Carter - James Joyce
 * Shana - Vineeta Rishi
 * Sergeant Brundle / Simon / Fisherman / Jasper / Computer / Lift - Roger May
 * Marcus / Evans / Jacob / New Fisherman - Glen McCready
 * Kirsty / Private Sedgwick - Katherine Senior

Continuity

 * left UNIT a Wirrn egg taken from the Auctioneers' collection at the Whitehouse Gallery as a parting gift. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds)
 * The Well contains strains of the Silurian plague and the Green Death. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Green Death)
 * The Skarasen under the lake is mentioned. (AUDIO: The Zygon Who Fell to Earth)
 * Osgood wears a stick of celery to warn her of Praxis gas. (TV: The Caves of Androzani) Josh mentions that it is a change from cat badges. (TV: The Twin Dilemma et al. )
 * Osgood mentions Harry Sullivan's files on the Wirrn. (TV: The Ark in Space)
 * Osgood suggests Kate could "send a raven" as a means of communication, a reference to the show Game of Thrones. (COMIC: The Dragon Lord)
 * Shana compares the robot arms in the Well's lab to the power loader manned by Ripley in the film Alien. (PROSE: Birthright, TV: Last Christmas, et al.)
 * Marcus notes Josh Carter "stinks" to the Wirrn due to his Auton physiology. (AUDIO: Bridgehead, Armageddon)