Torchwood - Aliens Among Us 1

Starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Kai Owen, Paul Clayton, Alexandria Riley, Jonny Green, Stephen Critchlow, Rachel Atkins, Ruth Lloyd, Sophie Colquhoun, Rhian Marston-Jones, Lu Corfield, Rhys Whomsley, Sharon Morgan, David Sibley, Sam Beart, Anthony Boyle, Sam Jones & Wilf Scolding.

Features the episodes:
-Changes Everything by James Goss.
-Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy by James Goss.
-Orr by Juno Dawson.
-Superiority Complex by AK Benedict.

Directed by Scott Handcock.

Torchwood is back!

After securing the Torchwood licence in 2015, Big Finish have quickly proven themselves adept at producing new and interesting Torchwood material. After successfully celebrating Torchwood's 10th anniversary last year, Big Finish have now gone one step further: producing an official continuation, an official fifth series, to follow on from Miracle Day. And, despite several people bemoaning the fact that 'it's not on TV', this has gone down a storm. After the abject failure of Class last year, I wouldn't be surprised if the BBC won't be permanently put off doing another spin-off series, and even if they do, it will probably be with characters and elements from the Chibnall era, as opposed to anything pre-Chibnall, even if it has an existing fanbase. Therefore, Big Finish is the perfect home for Torchwood, and, if this first box set is anything to go by, then we might be in for the best series of Torchwood yet. Aliens Among Us (the umbrella title for the whole series) has the 'story of the week' feel of the first two series, and yet also has elements of the previous long-series stories Children Of Earth, Miracle Day and Outbreak. And yes, there are a couple of little snags and flaws. But Aliens Among Us 1 is perhaps one of, if not the, strongest thing Big Finish has brought out so far this year.

The first episode, Changes Everything, does everything you would want a season opener to do. It re-establishes the set-up for those new to Torchwood, introduces us to the new regular characters, and tells an engaging and action packed tale to boot. The tale focuses around Tyler Steele, a disgraced, washed-up journalist who's found himself in Cardiff on the trail of the Red Doors movement. I love Tyler: simply because he's the total antitheses of what Gwen was in the very first Torchwood episode, Everything Changes. This is basically that first episode totally flipped on it's head, and that includes our audience identification figure. In Everything Changes, Gwen was someone the audience could understand, and her reactions to everything going on around her were perfectly normal. She acted just like we would in a situation like that. In Changes Everything, Tyler is someone the audience can understand, and his reactions to everything going on around him are perfectly normal. He acts just like we would in a situation like that. But here's the rub: it's totally different to what Gwen was. Tyler is a total sleezbag. He's the sort of crap, gutter journalist that we all hate, the sort that will do anything for a story about celebrities fucking each other to put across the front page. He's vain, opinionated, arrogant and thinks very highly of himself. And yet, despite all that, he's likeable. In many ways, he's the Owen of the new team: a character with a moral complexity that will confound and irritate you, but who you'll ultimately respect for being so believable. Changes Everything devotes most of it's time to setting up who Tyler is, as well as Mr Colchester and re-introducing Gwen and Jack. It's also heavily concerned with establishing the season arc, so perhaps doesn't tell it's own story as much as the three instalments that follow it do. However, it makes sure that it's character work is front and centre, so that there's no accusations that it's simply an expository episode. And the plot that it does tell is interesting enough: taking the real world refugee crisis, and translating it into a science fiction context is a great idea, and one writer James Goss sensitively handles. The whole concept could just turn out to be a sounding board for the writer and producers views on the issue, but Goss (and both Dawson and Benedict) avoid falling into that trap by creating a balanced argument, and also by making sure that, front and centre, the episodes are actually telling a story, as opposed to just issuing preachy arguments. I love Changes Everything: simply because it reintroduces Torchwood in a fun and enjoyable way, yet with the same levels of darkness that made the best of Torchwood so enjoyable. It's a great jumping on-point too, but with enough to please the fans and make them smile. It's one of the best introductory episodes to a box set that Big Finish has ever produced, and it sets the tone and the arc for the set magnificently.

The second episode, Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy, continues to focus on it's new characters by placing heavy emphasis on the wonderful Mr Colchester. If Tyler is the Owen of the new team, then Mr Colchester is definitely the Ianto: someone who's determined to do things by the book, to make sure all the boxes are ticked and is generally the fussy one who drives around in a Volvo. And he's hilarious, possibly one of the funniest characters that Torchwood has ever created. For every situation, he has a line in dry, sarcastic wit that makes you howl with laughter. What helps, of course, is Paul Clayton's magnificent performance, because he just totally embodies that part, completely and utterly. Out of all the new regulars, he's the one that makes the instant impression, and the reason is simply because he gets how this part is meant to be played. He totally understands where the character of Mr Colchester is coming from, and he's totally determined to make sure the audience knows. Of course, eagle-eared listeners to the Torchwood range will have already heard Colchester in a previous audio: he appears in a section of celebratory release The Torchwood Archive from last year. Here, however, he gets the chance to make much more of an impression in this set, and we really see how much of a joy the character is, even if you feel like a dark raincloud has just walked into the room every time he appears. Out of the four episodes, Colchester gets the most to do here: partnered off with Gwen to investigate a suspicious hen night, the pair soon find themselves lugging a pissed alien bride-to-be, as they are chased through the city, all the while trying to work out what the hell is going on. It's a wonderfully fun instalment, filled to the brim with comedy and humour, but also it's fair share of darker moments. What happens to the stripper that the hen night have booked is pretty gruesome, and the whole reason why Madrigal (the bride-to-be) is getting married has a tragic bent to it than the initial 'spoilt princess' that comes across. That's a really 'Torchwood' thing: to merge the light and the dark together, to create something wonderful. That being said, however, Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy does have a couple of small flaws: the first being that the pace does sag somewhat in the middle of the episode, which is a bit of a problem for a tale like this. A story like this needs to keep the pace up, something that this doesn't quite manage. The second is that I think there's a few too many 'quirky' characters in this: sure, Torchwood has always featured off-beat creations and wild characters, but this story does stretch it a bit. Overall, though, Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy is a great second episode that shines a light on the second new Torchwood team member, while, at the same time, telling an interesting, funny and tragic story, and advancing the season plot forwards.

The third episode, Orr, introduces the final new Torchwood team member. Orr is possibly one of the most immediately interesting Torchwood regular of all time because, unlike every previous member before her, she's an alien. She has the ability to morph into the physical shape that is most desirable to any onlooker, which leads to some very awkward scenes between her, Tyler and Colchester! Orr is a wonderful creation, which should be a given, seen as the character was virtually created by Russell T Davies. One thing you can tell right from the off is that Russell has had a hand in this: he was Torchwood's founder, and knows the show better than anyone. There are just little ideas in each of the characters that are so clearly Russell that you can see them a mile off. That's not to say they don't fit with the characters: quite the contrary. But they just enrich the characters enormously, and, more often than not, those little details are the best bits of the characters. While Orr is the title of the episode, and, for the second half of the episode, the story becomes all about her, the first half mostly concerns Torchwood's continuing interest in the burgeoning alien population in Cardiff. I love the character of Vincent Parry: a man who thinks he's got a good deal off Ro-Jedda, but then quickly finds himself in over his head. At first, you think he's the standard collaborator type character, but, in actual fact, turns out to be something a little more complex. What helps is a rock solid performance from David Sibley, who is wonderful as the nervy property developer. At this point in the story, we're also introduced to Ro-Jedda, who (from the sounds of the trailer for the second set) is set to become the big villain of the series. She's superb: coldly menacing, but with a reasonableness that is almost infuriating. It also helps that Rachel Atkins is possibly the best guest actor out of the four stories: her cool, collected manner is a shield for the true nastiness bubbling away beneath. This is contrasted with the total innocence of Orr: I genuinely thought that she was going to turn out to be more of a villain than she actually was, and I was delighted when that turned out not to be the case. Juno Dawson is a great writer here, and I love the way that she makes Orr a genuinely interesting character beyond the initial twist is fantastic. I think that, while Orr seems like a filler episode, the fact that it's so skilfully written, so ridiculously enjoyable, and features a lovely ending with two powerful performances from Sam Beart and John Barrowman easily makes it one of my favourite things that Big Finish has put out under the Torchwood banner.

The final episode in this set, Superiority Complex, is a bit of a step down from the previous three episodes. Now, that's not to say that it's bad, or even average, but I just found that after three episodes of high-quality, this wasn't quite up to the same standard. I love the central idea: a new, fancy hotel has opened in Cardiff, that only the alien immigrants to the city can afford to live in. It's the kind of loaded commentary that Big Finish thrive on, and it has the potential to make for a very interesting story. Added to that that the guests are starting to die, and you have the makings of a perfect Torchwood episode. Sadly, however, I don't feel like Superiority Complex quite lives up to the strength of that idea, and mostly ends up being a quirky Agatha Christie murder mystery, with red herrings and dead end clues all the way. Sure, it's enjoyable, but I feel like it could have gone a lot further with the idea. I also feel like constantly having the human citizens of Cardiff banging at the gates was, perhaps, a mistake. Sure, it's good to have that constant presence in the background, as you know there will be people pleased that the aliens staying at the hotel are dying off, but it feels like AK Benedict has envisioned this as a full-scale riot, despite the previous three episodes not doing anything to set this up. Sure, we know there's bad feeling between native Cardiff citizens, immigrants to the city and the aliens who are flocking there, but this episode ramps up the tension massively with no real inciting incident. That said, there's plenty to like: I love what Orr finds her, well, sexual organs metamorphosing into (and trust me, you'll be just as baffled as I was), and there are certainly some very good performances from all involved in the production. I love the end as well: the stage is really set for the next set here, with a killer cliffhanger that makes me desperate to hear the continuation. Across the set, we've had Scott Handcock directing, and he's done a stellar job of getting the best performances out of his cast. On the post production side, we've had Steve Foxon on sound design and Blair Mowat on music, and the pair have combined to create some wonderful work. Mowat's music, in particular, is wonderful, featuring some of the elements he used in his scores for Class, but mixed into the audio field much better, so they don't drown out the dialogue. Certainly, I couldn't deny that, out of the four stories, Superiority Complex was the weakest, but it's still a decent little story that takes an interesting idea, and, while not doing quite what it could have done with it, still manages to be entertaining and fun, in very much a standard 'dark-pulp' sci-fi way.

Overall, this first set of stories for Torchwood's fifth season have been phenomenal. Each story has been separate enough to tell it's own complete narrative, but also has been part of an arc that seems well-focused and developed. While there have been niggles (one of which I can't talk about with spoiling the whole thing, and this is a twist you need to enjoy blind), Aliens Among Us 1 was a fantastic box set that has got me highly anticipating the second set, released in October, with a vengeance. Torchwood is back, and it rarely been finer than this.