6.5 Flight 405 by Lou Morgan
Flight 405 went missing over 60 years ago, but tonight the plane finally lands. Norton Folgate’s a Torchwood agent from the 1950 and he swears Flight 405 contains the secret to the end of the world, but can Torchwood trust him?
6.6 Hostile Environment by Ash Darby
An app’s been launched that allows you to tag the homeless. People thinks they’re doing a good thing and helping out. It does seem a remarkable success. After all, since it’s launched, there are a lot less homeless people on the streets – so it must be doing some good, mustn’t it?
6.7 Another Man’s Shoes by Tim Foley
Yvonne wakes up in Andy’s body – and both have difficult days ahead of them.
Meanwhile, Norton’s making himself very much at home in Tyler’s body, much to Tyler’s alarm, and Ng is worried she knows what’s going on.
Someone’s playing a terrible trick on Torchwood. But who will win?
6.8 Eye of the Storm by David Llewellyn
An alien power station is sending out waves of lethal energy, people are turning to stone and the water levels are rising. As Torchwood set out on a desperate mission, God takes tea with someone who has been playing a very long game. Has the time come for Norton Folgate to save the world?
TORCHWOOD: GOD AMONG US, VOLUME TWO
Picking up right where its predecessor left off, the second volume of “series six” of Torchwood also picks up the same level of quality. I’m continually impressed with these Torchwood stories, how they capture a modern storytelling sense while simultaneously staying true to the characters we know – and this “new” Torchwood team now feels every bit as natural and believable as the originals.
The latest set kicks off with “Flight 405” by Lou Morgan, an interesting little story that reintroduces Norton Folgate to the Torchwood team and makes Samuel Barnett a member of the regular cast. An airplane vanished from the sky over 60 years ago, but now it’s coming back thanks to the Rift, and the alien technology aboard will destroy a good chunk of Earth if the plane crashes. Naturally, it’s up to Norton and Andy to save the day, and this time Yvonne is along for the ride as well. There’s a lot going on in this story that sets up the rest of the set, but the draw here is the interplay between the characters. It’s great to have Norton back, and Morgan’s script wisely brings back his dynamic with Andy – and Andy’s “it’s complicated” relationship with Yvonne leads to some fantastic dialogue. “Flight 405” is a slight story, and the resolution doesn’t entirely make sense, but it’s still a strong way to start off the set while reacquainting the audience with old friends.
The second story, “Hostile Environment” by Ash Darby, is one of the darkest, most affecting Torchwood stories ever told. Tyler’s life has fallen apart, to the point that he has become homeless, and though he insists to himself that his homelessness will only last for a few days, days rapidly become weeks and weeks rapidly become months. Early on, he meets a homeless woman, Kirsty (Jessica Hayles), who takes him under her wing and teaches him how to survive on the streets. All of this is played completely straight, with a haunting sense of realism – Tyler spirals into depression as he learns that more fortunate people barely even notice the existence of the homeless and nobody has any desire to help him. Of course, there’s a sci-fi twist: someone has invented an app that scans homeless people and sends converted Sorvix drones after them, giving them the choice of being a pharmaceutical test subject or death by fire. Tyler is constantly scanned by well-meaning people, and the drugs keep him in a constant haze, unable to think clearly to find a way out of his situation. The comparison to street drugs is painfully obvious, yes, but it’s no less effective as a result. But the most effective moment comes at the end, when Tyler’s life is finally back in order and he has the opportunity to return Kirsty’s kindness. His decision leaves you feeling sick, but it’s thematically perfect. This is a masterpiece.
The third story, “Another Man’s Shoes” by Tim Foley, is a complete departure from the second, and an old standby for science fiction television: the body swap episode! Andy and Yvonne swap bodies, which leads to Yvonne taking a performance review on Andy’s behalf and botching it horribly, while Andy learns the secrets Yvonne has been hiding from Torchwood. Jack and Colchester switch places, which doesn’t come off quite as well: John Barrowman adopts an English accent but Paul Clayton doesn’t adopt an American accent and the questions of intimacy between Jack and Colin feel repetitive after the previous set. But when Norton and Tyler switch bodies, it completely makes up for any deficiencies in the other pairings – while I’ve seen this idea in other sci-fi properties, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a body-swap story in which two people that swapped bodies have sex with each other. It’s raunchy, it’s hilarious, and Samuel Barnett and Jonny Green mimic each other so well you forget the body swap even happened. There’s some important information in this story, but it’s mostly a pleasant palate cleanser after its predecessor.
And that leads to the conclusion, “Eye of the Storm” by David Llewellyn. It’s full to bursting with plot, and it’s probably too convoluted, but it flies along on its own confidence so well that it’s hard to notice. There’s an abandoned Sorvix power station at the bottom of the ocean leaking energy, people are turning to stone, the airplane from “Flight 405” is back, the Committee is reintroduced, we get to learn more about God, and there’s also a massive action set piece in the sunken power station in which our heroes fight to save the world. Llewellyn keeps almost all of the balls in the air successfully, and the cast is clearly having a great time: this is one of the first times we’ve heard this new Torchwood team actually working together as a cohesive unit and it’s delightful, even if one of them ends up betraying the others and the Committee’s tentacles are visible in every part of the story. All of that leads to a fantastic cliffhanger: a massive tsunami is about to hit Cardiff, destroy most of the city, and kill countless thousands of people. I genuinely have no idea how this is going to wrap up but I’m very excited to find out.
Overall, volume 2 of “God Among Us” isn’t quite as strong as volume 1, but it’s still an excellent listen featuring one of the best Torchwood stories in Big Finish history. The production team is running on all cylinders and I expect a fantastic conclusion in the third volume. I’ve often complained about Big Finish oversaturating the market with mediocre stories; if they can keep this level of quality up they can do as much Torchwood as they want.
9/10