Review by Cavan Gilbey
Among Us is back for another set, exploring Torchwood’s battle with the idea of altered perceptions and false knowledge. Much like the previous set we’ve got a Story about the modern problem of fake news, but also a look at influencer culture, memory implants and finally a story focusing on racial profiling and targeted hate. I’m a big fan of this more social commentary focused approach to Torchwood but this set is really giving the themes room to breathe and are giving us more conceptually experimental stories for those thematic studies. I sincerely hope that the next, and final, set in this series is as good as these previous two because we are currently dealing with the best Torchwood series yet on audio.
The first story in the set is Propaganda by Ash Darby. After her plane is shot down, Orr is the only survivor of a vessel full of researchers heading out to a Russian satellite state to lend humanitarian aid. All Orr has to go on are videos by Robert Wilson, the only evidence she has that something is happening in the town of Voloshnik. Teaming up with a pathologist, Orr makes her way towards the town, however the situation is far from what it has been made to look like.
Propaganda is a story that does exactly what it says on the tin. It explores the reach and power of state media and the way it can completely change the narrative for war-zones or crisis areas. The methods of propaganda are kept mostly quiet until the very end of the story, instead Darby chooses to solely focus on the affects it has on the individual. Tania, the aforementioned pathologist, gets some great moments of cynicism as she slowly discovers and uncovers the true face of her home, however I don’t think Darby quite goes as far as they could with this premise. Much of this story’s DNA can be seen in Among Us 1’s bookending stories, which both dealt with fake news and propaganda, but Propaganda lacks the specific commentary that Aliens Next Door (also by Darby) and Moderation. This story is a broader take on how propaganda is seen, but it can’t quite get over this problem of simply going “oh this thing has been lied about, isn’t bad it was lied about?” I feel like this and Aliens Next Door might have benefitted from being swapped around in the running order since this story could be viewed more favourably as an introduction to the series’ overarching thematic study.
As for the cast, well they all do a good job with their performances but the core issue is that their characters are just not particularly interesting. Samantha Béart’s Orr still lacks a lot of what could make her a compelling character in this series, admittedly they haven’t had a hell of a lot of screen time but here Béart feels somewhat wasted as her character doesn’t match the skill of the actor. The same can be said about Amy Beth Hayes as Tania, she gives a charismatic performance but the thing holding her character back is the script not really doing anything with her. There is also a large issue with this episode in particular where the majority of the cast are doing slightly dodgy Russian accents, its quite immersion breaking at points but the actors are clearly trying their best.
Propaganda is Among Us’ first dud of a story, the foundations are clearly there for something much more nuanced when it comes to the social commentary but it never quite comes to the surface. I still strongly think this should have opened the whole series as the more stripped back approach to the thematic commentary would suit a series opener more so than a middle of the series world builder.
6/10
Tim Foley’s At Her Majesty’s Pleasure picks up directly from the ending of Gods Among Us. Yvonne Hartman is under arrest and is being taken in by PC Andy Davidson, begrudgingly but he has to do what he has to do. Yvonne is placed in a solitary confinement wing of a state of the art prison facility where she will live out the rest of her days, however she wants out and Yvonne tends to get exactly what she wants.
Much like Misty Eyes, also penned by Foley, this story picks up and explores many of the lingering plot threads from Gods Among Us, chiefly giving us some further exploration of the relationship between Yvonne and Andy that was explored within that series. Bearing in mind that I haven’t heard either of the previous two series, I can say fairly confidently that this gives you enough information to just pick it up.
Andy really gets to take centre stage here as we get an emotional exploration of where he is now, having brought in a woman he loved. There’s always sense of wanting to prove the prison staff wrong when it comes to Yvonne by keeping to his promise of defending her when he can, although it doesn’t portray Andy as totally naïve so he gets some really well done moments of cynicism when he discovers how Yvonne has been manipulating him from the very moment that they met. The Andy and Yvonne dynamic throughout is really quite interesting, especially because we get to see this very romanticised image of Yvonne that ultimately becomes more sinister as we see the level of her callous intelligence, especially when it comes to her bargain for getting out of prison where she puts an innocent government inspector in her place with agreement from the governor.
There’s some good writing throughout in terms of how the detective narrative is allowed to play out. Foley perfectly controls the twists and turns of the mystery as we slowly have memories given to us at the same pace of Andy discovering them, making for a listen that is really rewarding to go back to because you can see where the dramatic irony works to create a more hostile atmosphere. There’s also a great final twist when it is shown how Yvonne actually breaks out, that feels suitably Torchwood with how they exploit alien technologies.
This is easily one of Tom Price’s best Andy performances, it really captures the intelligence that is often hidden behind Andy’s naivety. Price has great chemistry with Oberman’s Yvonne, who really does a great job at getting exactly how Yvonne’s conniving mind works and emotionless she can be. Natalie Grady is the unsung hero of the cast though with her performance as Charlotte, the governor of the prison. It’s a great match for Yvonne as Grady captures that same calm callousness but comes across as more openly harsh which does keep her feeling more real as she always seems willing to give in to her own desires and biases.
One of the highlights of the series as a whole so far, and easily a must listen for all Yvonne and Andy fans. Just a really solid detective story with a great Black Mirror feeling twist and sci-fi concept at its core.
10/10
Next is Cuckoo by Tim Foley. When a team of urban explorers head down into the rubble of the Torchwood Hub to make a new documentary, they encounter a world of alien investigation that has been left to rot. However there’s a mysterious figure in the morgue and a ghost from the past both fighting for the future of Torchwood, and Bilis Manger intends to win.
Going to talk very briefly about this entry because it a story that is best experienced completely fresh. This is hands down one of the best audio stories we’ve had for Bilis, if not the best. As a final performance for Murray Melvin in this role it is a tour de force of horror and tragedy that is made all the better for his performance. There are moments in here that really sell the callousness of Bilis and the extents he will go to destroy Torchwood, it adds a level of pettiness to him that makes him so frightening. The new characters we get to view this story from are all perfectly drawn by Foley and each one gets a fate that makes you really understand the collateral damage Torchwood can cause, there is a deeply tragic twinge to where they end up that is best not spoilt here. As for the implementation of Ianto, a selling point I’m sure people are curious about, its done really well and it actually allows for Gareth David-Lloyd to bring a sinister edge out in his performance.
This story had me hooked from the word go and is not just the stand out story for Among Us but also in Foley’s entire Torchwood output to date; and Foley has written some of Torchwood’s best audios.
10/10
Pariahs by James Goss rounds of the set by pitting the Torchwood team against a sinister pharmaceutical company which is facing an inquiry regarding its harvesting of DNA data from its clients. While Ng and Tyler work from the inside, it is up to Orr and Mr Colchester to make sure a whistleblower and disgraced politician make it there alive so they can give testimonies. Phlobos holds the secret to what was behind the disasters at Voloshnik and a Cardiff cul-de-sac, and Torchwood are going to figure it out.
This final entry is the closest we’ve had to a classic Torchwood story, one where all the team are working together to bring down a threat. It’s a type of story we haven’t heard in a while due to the nature of the Monthly Range and the stories in these sets focusing on expanding the world through singular character focused stories. As a result Pariahs has a bit of a finale feel to it as the stakes are high and the action comes fast, especially in the case of Colchester and Graham (aforementioned disgraced politician) as they spend a lot of their sections in disguise and dodging assassins. Honestly the team get it all pretty good except for Ng and Tyler who don’t really get to do much in this, Tyler briefly impersonates a police officer but other than that the story focuses on Orr and Colchester’s escort missions.
This is another one I don’t particularly want to spoil because of the ending and what it implies for the third set, but there is some really well done audio body horror that is realised really well by Meiners and O’Byrne’s sound design and a suitably tense suite of music from Blair Mowat. I think the ending does leave us in an interesting place and the way it does tie the threads from Aliens Next Door, Colin Alone, Moderation and Propaganda together is good, especially in how horrific the sci-fi concept is at the heart of the story. Considering that James Goss is also writing the finale of the next set, I can’t wait to see how well he ties all this together.
9/10
Part 2 of the Among Us trilogy gets off to a rough start but very quickly settles in for some of the range’s strongest material. Those middle two stories are great showcases for the range of Tim Foley as a writer as he handles both detective and horror narratives deftly. The boxset as a whole does a great job of furthering the narrative while still offering one the range’s best stand alone stories to date, if Among Us 3 is half as good as this then I think this Jack-free iteration of the series will be a proven success.
9/10
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