The Unzal Incursion (audio story)

Under the supervision of the Doctor, the Brigadier and Dr Liz Shaw, UNIT are getting ready to activate Hotspur: their new, advanced early warning system.

But something goes wrong. Can it be that UNIT has been betrayed from within? Suddenly bases are falling across the globe, and only the Doctor and his friends are able to escape.

Not knowing how far the conspiracy goes, the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier become fugitives. Their investigations lead them to the Fulcrum military training facility. And something beyond the Earth.

Plot[]

Part I[]

Sergeant Nicola Attah and her squad, including Private Robbins, undergoing a high-intensity combat simulation at The Fulcrum, a cutting-edge military training facility. The exercise pits them against drone soldiers, testing their tactical efficiency and stress responses. Despite Attah’s leadership, the squad is ultimately "killed" in the simulation. Afterward, Director Dankworth and her assistant Harper review the results with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, emphasizing The Fulcrum’s role in psychological conditioning and performance analysis. The Brigadier remains skeptical of the drones’ realism compared to human enemies, but Dankworth insists the program is essential for UNIT’s readiness.

Unbeknownst to the Brigadier, Dankworth and Harper are secretly working with an alien force called the Unzal. That night, they gas the soldiers in their barracks, inducing a forced REM sleep to deepen their mental conditioning. When the Unzal demand a status update, Dankworth assures them the plan is on track—UNIT personnel are being prepped for an impending "incursion."

Meanwhile, at UNIT HQ, Liz Shaw prepares to launch the Hotspur Network, a global early-warning radar system designed to detect extraterrestrial threats. The Doctor, ever the eccentric, interrupts her work with tea and banter before assisting in a systems test. Later, at Hotspur’s official launch ceremony, Liz delivers a speech highlighting its strategic importance. Sergeant Attah, now assigned to UNIT, observes the event and bonds with the Doctor and Liz.

However, the Fulcrum’s conditioning soon activates. Attah and her squad—now sleeper agents—seize control of UNIT HQ, capturing the Doctor, Liz, and the Brigadier. Dankworth orders Attah to secure the Hotspur Network, but Liz refuses to divulge the access codes. When threats fail, Dankworth demands the prisoners be brought to The Fulcrum for "persuasion."

The Doctor, Liz, and the Brigadier stage a daring escape during transport, barricading themselves in the lab. With Attah’s squad breaching the door, the Doctor improvises a last-ditch plan using the TARDIS console—despite Liz’s protests that it’s nonfunctional. As explosions rock the door, the trio clings to the console, and the Doctor triggers an emergency dematerialization sequence. The scene ends on a cliffhanger, leaving their fate uncertain.

Meanwhile, Dankworth reports to the Unzal that UNIT is neutralized—but the Unzal warn that the Doctor remains a threat. The story sets up a looming confrontation: the Fulcrum’s conditioning is spreading globally, and the Unzal’s incursion is imminent. The Doctor’s survival and the fate of Hotspur hang in the balance.

Part II[]

With UNIT HQ overrun by brainwashed soldiers led by Sergeant Attah, the Doctor, Liz Shaw, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart barely escape by using the TARDIS console to teleport to a garage. They commandeer Bessie, the Doctor’s iconic yellow car, but are pursued by Attah’s troops. After a high-speed chase, they flee to a UNIT airfield, where the Brigadier commandeers a Hercules transport plane. As they take off, Attah’s forces—now reinforced by combat drones—launch an aerial assault.

Mid-flight, the trio pieces together the truth: The Fulcrum, a military training facility, has been brainwashing soldiers via an auditory conditioning signal (which the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver accidentally disrupted earlier). The signal’s source is traced to the Fulcrum’s director, Cherilyn Dankworth, who is secretly working with alien entities called the Unzal. Their goal: seize control of the Hotspur Network (a global defense system) to facilitate an impending alien incursion.

Dankworth, realizing the Doctor is a threat, orders the drones to shoot down the Hercules. Despite the Brigadier’s skilled piloting, the plane is critically damaged. As the drones close in, Dankworth demands their surrender, but the Brigadier defiantly refuses. With engines failing, the Hercules goes into a crash descent, leaving the trio’s fate uncertain as the episode ends on a cliffhanger.

Part III[]

After their plane is shot down, the Doctor, Brigadier and Liz are separated in the crash. Liz is captured by Attah's forces and taken to the Fulcrum facility, while the Doctor and Brigadier evade capture in an abandoned industrial park. They manage to subdue Private Robbins and acquire his weapon.

At the Fulcrum, Dankworth and the alien Unzal subject Liz to brutal mental conditioning to extract the Hotspur access codes. Despite intense pain and psychological pressure, Liz initially resists. The Unzal reveal their invasion fleet is waiting at the edge of the solar system, needing Hotspur's control to mask their approach.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Brigadier lure Attah into a trap. Using the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and appeals to Attah's memories of her family, they break through her conditioning. As Attah begins to regain her true self, they prepare to storm the Fulcrum.

Under maximum conditioning, Liz finally cracks and reveals the access codes. Dankworth triumphantly links Hotspur to the Unzal fleet, allowing the aliens to begin their invasion undetected. The episode ends with the Unzal vanguard preparing to attack Earth, Liz broken by torture, and the Doctor's team racing against time to stop the invasion.

Part IV[]

Liz Shaw unwittingly aiding Cherilyn Dankworth and Harper in uploading access codes to the Hotspur defense system, allowing the Unzal to mask their fleet’s approach to Earth. Dankworth, seemingly a traitor working with the Unzal, reassures Liz she had no choice. The Unzal’s primary vanguard fleet prepares to invade, using the compromised Hotspur system to remain undetected. Liz, horrified, insists the Doctor will stop them, but Dankworth dismisses her faith in him. Meanwhile, the Brigadier and the Doctor are captured and brought to The Fulcrum where Dankworth reveals her alliance with the Unzal.

The Doctor deduces the Unzal’s plan isn’t a full-scale planetary invasion but a targeted takeover of Great Britain, using pre-positioned drone armies and conditioned human agents like Sergeant Attah. The Unzal fleet, now unmasked thanks to Liz’s efforts, faces Earth’s defenses while the Doctor confronts the Unzal leader. The aliens attempt to condition the Doctor, but he resists and overloads their system, breaking their control over Dankworth and the troops. In a moment of clarity, Dankworth turns against the Unzal, shooting one of them before collapsing under the strain of her conditioning.

With the Unzal’s conditioning web destroyed, their fleet retreats under fire from Earth’s forces. The Brigadier and Attah lead a counterattack against the drones, while Liz and the Doctor ensure Hotspur is back under human control. In the aftermath, Dankworth is left mentally broken, unable to remember her actions. The Brigadier commends Attah for his bravery, and UNIT begins assessing the damage. However, the Doctor suspects the Unzal were merely pawns in a larger scheme, hinting at a more powerful, unseen enemy behind the incursion. The story ends ominously, with Dankworth whispering cryptic commands in her journal, suggesting the true threat is far from over.

The final scene implies Dankworth may still be under some form of external control, leaving the door open for future conflict. The Doctor warns that the Unzal invasion was just the first wave, setting the stage for a greater battle to come.

Cast[]

The Doctor - Tim Treloar
Liz Shaw - Daisy Ashford
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Jon Culshaw
Sergeant Nicola 'Nicki' Attah - Misha Malcolm
Private Robbins - Sam Benjamin
Cherilyn Dankworth - Clare Corbett
Harper - Avita Jay
Unzal / Unzal 2 - Gary Martin

Crew[]

Cover Art - Tom Webster
Music & Director - Nicholas Briggs
Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
Producer - David Richardson
Script Editor - John Dorney
Sound Design - Benji Clifford
Writer - Mark Wright
Creative Director for the Haisman Estate - Andy Frankham-Allen

Worldbuilding[]

to be added

Notes[]

The same technique for repeating the last episode's cliffhanger as used in The Ambassadors of Death is used in this story, where the sting is heard after the repeat.
The story contains a post-credits scene after the theme tune finishes at the end of Part Four. The same technique was previously used in Across the Darkened City. In both cases, the scenes highlight how the stories relate to plot developments in the TV series.
Daisy Ashford returns to the role of Liz Shaw, originally played by her mother, Caroline John. Ashford first voiced Liz in Primord in The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume Five.

Continuity[]

Liz mentions how she was skeptical about the existence of aliens when she first joined UNIT. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
The Brigadier pilots the C-130 Hercules which the Doctor remembers from the Cyberman invasion. (TV: The Invasion)
John Benton is mentioned as having been recently promoted to sergeant. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death)
The guests at reception for the opening of Hotspur include Sir John Sudbury and Lord Rowlands. (TV: Time-Flight et al, Terror of the Autons)
The security doors at UNIT HQ are reinforced using Dynastreem. (TV: Robot)
The Doctor believes that the Unzal Incursion required outside assistance from someone capable of hypnosis and interstellar travel. He calls the incident a "stress test" designed to gauge the effectiveness of UNIT and Earth's defenses against extraterrestrial invasion, with further waves to come. While he remains unsure of the identity of the party involved, elsewhere Dankworth is drawn into a trance, repeatedly writing "You will obey me" in her journal. (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, et al.)
The Brigadier asks for Corporal Bell. (TV: The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos)

External links[]

Official The Unzal Incursion page at bigfinish.com