5.9 Poker Face by Tim Foley
Torchwood are in trouble. Terrorist attacks are rocking the city. Control of the police has been ceded to Cardiff’s alien masters. And it looks like it’s all been arranged by Captain Jack Harkness. Worse, there’s a dead woman in the cells who says that Torchwood will be hers by dawn.
5.10 Tagged by Joseph Lidster
“I know what you’ve done. I know what you’ll do.” The phrase starts appearing everywhere around Cardiff. On posters. On the internet. It’s just a prank, isn’t it? Only a wave of vigilante crime spreads through the city. People are taking revenge. Suddenly everyone knows what you’ve done. And they know what you’ll do.
5.11 Escape Room by Helen Goldwyn
Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, and the Colchester-Prices go to try out an escape room. They’ve heard a lot about them. Especially this one. People keep going into the game and not coming out. But Torchwood will be fine. After all – partners can trust each other. Can’t they?
5.12 Herald of the Dawn by James Goss
It starts normally enough: a car park full of ramblers is incinerated by a thunderbolt. But the next day it’s clear there’s something very wrong. Something’s changed. Something’s coming. It’s the end of the world. And that’s what Torchwood are best at…
TORCHWOOD: ALIENS AMONG US: VOLUME 3
After the surprise ending to the second volume, I admit I had my concerns about Aliens Among Us being able to stick the concluding set, especially given some of Big Finish’s struggles in that realm over the years. I shouldn’t have worried, as Aliens Among Us: Volume 3 is every bit as good as its predecessors and sets up even more interesting things for the future.
The set picks up where the last one left off, with Tim Foley’s “Poker Face,” a story that basically isolates the Torchwood team with Yvonne and has them interact as she tries to take control. We’ve seen how capable and ruthless Yvonne can be, both on television and in the recent Torchwood One set, and she’s no different here, using a combination of friendliness and professionalism to impress the Torchwood team. While she’s not an objectively better choice than Jack, she’s significantly more trustworthy to the team in the present moment. Jack has kept his involvement with Red Doors a secret, and Yvonne blowing that open is all it takes to topple Jack from his perch atop the organization. It’s all a setup, of course, but it’s executed so elegantly even Jack doesn’t see it coming until it’s too late. The story doesn’t leave the listener with much idea of Yvonne’s end game – she’s come from a different universe, which might be Pete’s World, but that’s not established either. But that’s all window dressing for a story that takes the characters we’ve come to know and sets them against one another with fine results.
The second story, “Tagged” by Joseph Lidster, is a much more traditional Torchwood story, except of course it features Yvonne in charge. The central idea is exactly the sort of thing that Lidster does best, with something exploiting the grief and fear of ordinary people to cause havoc. Serena (Kezrena James) is a fascinating character in that she’s utterly sympathetic and yet there’s no question that she’s guilty of various crimes. It’s also an exploration of how Torchwood is different with Yvonne in charge: she views her team as a means to an end, as an ultimately disposable tool to accomplish mission objectives. This is exactly how she treats Orr, using their unique abilities to gain access to the threat and ignoring the very real consequences. Of course, Yvonne is sympathetic to Orr after the fact, but she never apologizes and that’s the crux of the matter. Jack, for all his bluster and lack of organization, would never view a team member as disposable or view that sort of mental torture as an acceptable risk. The story of “Tagged” isn’t the most interesting, but it’s a good look into how things at Torchwood have changed.
“Escape Room” by Helen Goldwyn is the third story, and it’s also a standalone tale that takes an entertaining approach to a Torchwood story: what if the team went to an escape room as part of a team-building exercise? Well, naturally it’ll turn out to be an alien trap and their lives will be put in serious danger! If you’ve ever seen any of the Saw films, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect: a serious of deadly (and frankly ludicrous) traps designed to take advantage of relationships and personality flaws to drive the Torchwood team apart. It’s also an interesting mix of people, as it’s more of a couples night: Ng/Gwen and Rhys paired up with Colchester and Colin. Both Rhys and Colin are given opportunities to shine, and Rhys in particular is entertaining because he hasn’t had much chance in this series to be part of the team. This is probably the most disposable story of the entire series, and it’s certainly the most self-contained, but it’s still worthwhile for how it puts the characters in a tough situation and lets them work it out organically.
Lastly, the series comes to a close with “Herald of the Dawn” by James Goss. Those expecting a definitive conclusion will not get one, as it ends on a cliffhanger that practically guarantees a sixth series at some point in the future. (This is a good thing, given the quality on display here.) We’ve had references to God from the Sorvix; here, we see that same god forcing its way through the rift. We also get one of the most interesting uses of Orr in the range: as Orr copies the desires of the people around them, when they are surrounded by religious fanatics desperate to see their god’s herald, Orr becomes that herald. Whether this is Orr’s “purpose” or just a coincidence is left unclear, but it adds a fascinating dimension to the character all the same. We also get a resolution of sorts to the Ng/Gwen dilemma, but this is the most unsatisfying part of the story: Gwen has had a lot of time trapped in her own head to think, and so she has decided to… quit! Since we haven’t seen much of Gwen in this series, this comes completely out of nowhere and doesn’t have nearly the impact that it should. Still, it sets up an interesting potential dynamic for the next series – or it just gives Eve Myles a way to quit doing these. I guess we’ll find out. Overall, “Herald of the Dawn” is a fine “season finale” – but now we need to hear the next season!
I really can’t speak highly enough of Aliens Among Us. While the Torchwood range has been almost uniformly excellent, this “series five” took a step beyond the individual releases. We have new, well-developed characters in a new, well-developed Cardiff, and everything grows and changes over the course of twelve episodes. If this had been on television we’d be calling it the second-best Torchwood season behind Children of Earth. It’s mature, modern drama, and it’s one heck of a present to Torchwood fans. If the Doctor Who ranges could produce something like this I’d be over the moon.
8/10