The seas of planet Earth are choked by plastic. Plastic that no-one has a use for and no-one can get rid of.
Rhys Williams finds himself stranded on a container ship in a sea of debris. People on board are dying. Because, luckily, someone’s found a solution to Earth’s polluted waters. The Nestene Consciousness can never have too much plastic.
TORCHWOOD: SARGASSO
“Sargasso,” by Christopher Cooper, is an odd Torchwood story in many ways. We have Rhys on his own, only the second time Big Finish has featured Kai Owen atop the cast list, and he’s… on a transatlantic container ship? Cooper has an interesting idea: the ship runs into calm waters in the midst of one of the massive garbage patches that build in the ocean, and the plastic debris in the water is used by the Nestene Intelligence to take over the ship and eventually convert the crew into Autons. It’s up to Rhys, fellow passenger Kaitlin (Sydney Feder), and ship’s captain Anika (Chloe Ewart) to stop the Nestene and save the world. Scott Handcock’s direction and the FoxYason Studios sound design combine to create a claustrophobic, horror movie atmosphere as the characters are stalked through the corridors of the ship by plastic creatures. What I like best about the story is that nobody actually knows what’s going on: Rhys has never heard of the Nestene Intelligence, and the other two obviously haven’t, so they must figure out what’s happening on the fly. While the characterization is good in general, I find it hard to believe that people like Kaitlin in the Torchwood universe still think that aliens do not exist, given the sheer amount of catastrophe that has visited the planet. That said, Cooper does what I thought was impossible and gives an American character American English idioms in her dialogue, so I’m not going to complain too much. Oh, and the ending is great. Overall, “Sargasso” is a solid story that doesn’t break any boundaries but keeps the listener’s attention through strong writing and sound design. It’s also a unique take on the Nestene that gets you thinking. Give it a listen.
7/10