Square One (UTNS audio story)

Square One was the second story in the audio anthology, Silenced, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Warren Brown as Sam Bishop and Tracy Wiles as Jacqui McGee.

Publisher's summary
It's business as usual at UNIT, and thankfully, Kate Stewart has no immediate threats to concern her. Or so she believes.

But when Sam Bishop returns from leave, he notices things aren't quite as they seem. Soon he and Osgood are on the trail of an elusive enemy.

Meanwhile, Kenneth LeBlanc and his controversial political movement gather momentum, and one UNIT team member isn't quite themselves...

Plot
Still on leave, Sam drops by UNIT HQ and is surprised to find that Josh is watching and agreeing with Kenneth LeBlanc, a politician who he believes is incompetent, and goes to drink his tea elsewhere. Josh watches as the television programme is interrupted by a Silent telling people to trust and believe in LeBlanc.

Jacqui is exasperated by Kate having called off observation of Helena Faversham's house and reassigned Shindi elsewhere after forgetting about the Silents. She decides to investigate by herself and Kate tells her to be careful, which both of them find strange. Kate goes with Sam to see Osgood and asks her why they did not investigate Miss Faversham's house, but Osgood does not have an answer and remembers events differently. Sam drives Osgood to the house and notices evidence of breaking and entering; the house has been completely cleaned out, but he finds a UNIT-issue cartridge case.

Osgood and Sam try to call Josh but, when he fails to pick up, they instead go to Kate's house and tell her that they believe that they raided Miss Faversham's house and then had their memories wiped; Kate is sceptical but agrees to get a hold of the CCTV to get them off of her back. The CCTV proves their story and they realise that looking away from the image of a Silent makes them forget about it.

Kate speaks with Jacqui, learning that the visitors to the house were mainly bloggers and marketing executives, and sends Osgood and Sam to visit Jason Shepherd, but he has disappeared. Discovering that all those on the list who live nearby have also vanished, they drive to Enfield and meet internet video star Derek Butler, but the Silents attack and they jump out of the window.

Josh encounters a Silent in his flat and is told that his conditioning has been a success. He visits LeBlanc and offers to help him become Prime Minister before returning to work despite having called in sick. Kate updates him and the rest of the team on the Silents, after which Josh asks to be the one to debrief the Prime Minister. He calls LeBlanc and tells him to be ready.

Osgood and Sam show the footage that they recorded at Derek's house to Kate, who has them and a team look through the missing people's recent work. They find messages from the Silents in some of their videos, some of which tell the viewer that they must leave them alone and not kill them on sight and others tell them to trust and vote for LeBlanc. Sam shows Kate and Osgood the news; the Prime Minister has called for a general election, which LeBlanc celebrates. He delivers a speech with Cecil, one of the visitors to Miss Faversham's house, and Josh at his side.

Cast

 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
 * Lieutenant Sam Bishop - Warren Brown
 * Captain Josh Carter - James Joyce
 * Jacqui McGee - Tracy Wiles
 * Kenneth LeBlanc - Nicholas Day
 * Cecil / Derek - Tom Alexander
 * News Reporter / David - Aaron Neil
 * The Silence - Nicholas Briggs

Uncredited

 * Colonel Shindi - Ramon Tikaram (archive recording)

Worldbuilding

 * LeBlanc gave a press conference a week ago with his trousers inside-out.
 * LeBlanc calls for the resignation of the Prime Minister.
 * Sam drops off a report on the Valartis Incident.
 * Osgood is working on a universal translator. It knows some Sontaran and Axon but struggles with Welsh.
 * Josh chooses between curry and lasagne.
 * Osgood mentions the Shuttermen of Klarnos when Sam says that the camera never lies.
 * LeBlanc's political party has no MPs.
 * Sam says that 39 is his lucky number.
 * Sam compares Shepherd's house to the Mary Celeste.
 * Butler usually makes Let's Plays.
 * David is a private detective.
 * LeBlanc does not want to go on News Hour.
 * Osgood once watched an episode in which Peter Falk was hunting a killer who lured his victims into traps using subliminal imaging. Robert Culp played the killer, which he often did.

Continuity

 * Kate and Jacqui discuss the observation of Helena Faversham's house. (AUDIO: House of Silents)
 * The Silents remove the Doctor's message to kill them all. (TV: Day of the Moon)