A signal in a Welsh mountain is calling an ancient battlefleet to Earth. Owen Harper and Ianto Jones head up into the Brecons to stop it.
The problem is – Ianto really loves camping.
A signal in a Welsh mountain is calling an ancient battlefleet to Earth. Owen Harper and Ianto Jones head up into the Brecons to stop it.
The problem is – Ianto really loves camping.
TORCHWOOD: THE LAST BEACON
“The Last Beacon” is a step into new territory as the first Torchwood audio story written by a member of the main cast, Gareth David-Lloyd. The story is simple: Ianto and Owen journey into the Welsh countryside in search of alien activity, and while Owen struggles to adapt, Ianto is in his element. Naturally, Owen is constantly irritated, while Ianto, still in the wake of “Cyberwoman,” is trying to prove his usefulness to the team. It’s somewhat difficult to review this story from an American perspective, given that so much of it turns around Welsh culture, but the script does a good job of showing Owen’s outsider perspective and how he comes to (reluctantly, quietly) put his prejudices aside. I like that there isn’t a villain: the alien “threat” is nothing more than a stranded alien survivor trying to reach out to her own people, not knowing they’ve been destroyed. And the ending is especially great: contrary to expectations, Ianto is the one who insists on resolving the matter by the book while Owen endorses empathetic rule-breaking. This is, at heart, a great Owen story: Ianto is Ianto, as one would expect with his performer writing the script, but Owen is much more complex and sympathetic than he often was on television, especially in season 1. I don’t know why high-quality stories like this are the norm in the Torchwood range, but I’m certainly not complaining – this is yet another strong production.
Highly recommended.
8/10