God Among Us 2
Torchwood Series 6 Episodes 5-8
Torchwood: God Among Us was heavy on character, but now it’s heavy on action as Norton Folgate shakes apart the team and Big Finish delivers the Torchwood epic we’ve been waiting for.
The Review
Flight 405 is only 45 minutes long, but is a thrill ride. I enjoy a good character story, but three of the four stories last boxset were, and the fourth one was bad, so I was ready for some action. Oh, this one delivered. Norton is delightfully charismatic and evil, and takes Andy and Yvonne into a high stakes mission. A plane from the 1950s has been stuck phasing in and out of time above Cardiff which is a delicious idea, and they have to recover an artifact that will blow up the world if it crashes. Of course, something is very much not right with Norton, as God visits him and notes there’s a skeleton wearing his suit on board. It’s a thrill ride, develops Andy and Yvonne’s relationship, and gives us a whopper of a cliffhanger as Norton and Yvonne are part of some shadowy Committee. 10/10. It’s exactly the kind of story I love, full marks. (Also, I loved the fake in-universe podcast Cardiff Unknown included on this disk, I felt like I was being skewered for a podcast with my friend I haven’t even started yet. Just a ton of fun and one of my favorite bits of Big Finish. I’ll watch it again faster than it takes me to mention my new girlfriend).
There are a lot of uncomfortable scenes and storylines in Torchwood, but few are as depressing a listen as Hostile Environment. The plot centers on Tyler, who is now homeless begging for change on the streets of Cardiff. A new program ostensibly helping get homeless people off the streets is actually running drug tests and offering people to take them or get burnt to death. Tyler can’r seem to be seen by anybody, he meets Ng, Andy, Colchester, but they all fail to grasp the severity of situation. It’s a depressing rinse and repeat of Tyler trying to live and getting tracked down by a drone. Thankfully, revenge is had as Tyler finally leverages Ng and Colchester by faking an emergency call, getting them tagged by the drones, and killing the man behind it. There’s a touching scene of Jack being vulnerable with Tyler, but it doesn’t undo the painful ending where Tyler refuses to see the woman who helped him on the streets, perpetuating the cycle. It’s an almost too brutal look at modern society, but can’t argue with its relevance. 8.75/10, Tyler’s genuine happiness to see Colchester is muted by Colchester assuming he didn’t mourn his death, another depressing moment.
Another Man’s Shoes keeps up a very enjoyable Torchwood tradition: making sure that we’re having fun saving Cardiff. In this story Andy and Yvonne swap bodies, and so do Jack and Colchester. Jack starts to come clean to Colin but learns it his birthday, so Jack pretends to be Colchester to not ruin it. The moment when we finally get Colchester arriving, furious in Jack’s body, is gold. The more intriguing swap is Yvonne and Andy, as Yvonne tries multiple times (through wiping the assessor’s memory) to get Andy to pass a performance review with the police force. Meanwhile, Andy discovers Yvonne working for the Committee (man I love David Warner’s voice, RIP). It does lean a bit hard on a random monthly audio which is annoying. Finally we get Tyler and Norton switching bodies, which Norton uses to have tons of sex before depressingly admitting to Tyler how down he feels, especially with the world ending. Finally, Ng learns this was all set up by God as She continues to learn about Torchwood. This is a delightfully fun story, no small part due to the amazing vocal work. I really thought Tom Price was Yvonne there, that guy is more talented than he’s been allowed to show. 9/10, it’s another ‘learn about the team’ story, but with a delightfully fun twist. It has been raining a lot…
Eye of the Storm is the one that I have been waiting for since Season 5. A massive proper climatic adventure, and it cements this boxset as a classic in my mind. A massive storm has been building, and now it is affecting a Sorvix power station out in the ocean. What follows is a series of twists so shocking that even God doesn’t see them coming. The Committee’s plan has arrived, and Norton betrays Torchwood to lead to the end of the world. Thankfully for the world, he realizes he got played and in a great performance Samuel Barnett he sacrifices himself ending up back on Flight 405. The drama is immense, with Jack, Ng, and Colchester all unsure if they can trust each other. An unlikely pairing of Tyler and Yvonne is excellent, as Tyler snaps Yvonne out of her devotion to the Committee. The whole time the Committee (played by an always great David Warner) used God to get Norton to supposedly stray from the plan as he inadvertently creates a biblical tsunami heading toward Cardiff. God is horrified and Yvonne can only blubber as the wave hits. It’s big, epic, gives great closure to Norton and sets up a true status quo change for the finale. 9.75/10: a big epic that finally feels like it delivered on Torchwood’s disparate plots.
God Among Us 2 introduces the Committee to the series, which admittedly is clunky, but I understood everything well enough. Really, who exactly they are is less relevant than the character arcs for Norton and Yvonne in this boxset and how they choose Torchwood and Cardiff over their shadowy benefactors. We also get a dark examination of how society treats the homeless focusing on Tyler in Hostile Environment. Overall, the promise of Torchwood on audio feels fully realized.
9.375/10 A great boxset with some wonderful performances, evocative design, and finally a dramatic climax leaving me guessing where we’re going next! Still though, what happened to Orr?
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 