Review by Cavan Gilbey

*contains spoilers*

I’ve slowly come to realise why I like the PC Andy focused Torchwood episodes, its all down to how human and borderline slice-of-life they feel. Sure you could argue that the Ianto episodes are equally full of humanity due to how emotionally driven that character is, but the emotional stakes are always relatively high in a Ianto centric story. Whereas with Andy there’s the sense that nothing feels too dangerous, with the exception of his double-act stories with Owen that it is. This brings us to Dog Hop by Stewart Pringle, the latest outing for the beloved Cardiff copper. This time he’s on the case following a string of missing persons and rapidly appearing dogs, with some help the regulars of the Red Lion pub it is up-to Andy to solve this strange canine case. 

The strengths of Dog Hop lie squarely in the powerful chemistry between the episode’s two leads. Tom Price’s PC Andy and Zadeiah Campbell-Davies’ Nia. From the moment they first meet, Pringle does a brilliant job at drawing us in to this detective and side-kick dynamic by hinting at the romantic potential that radiates from Nia and Andy’s natural conversational flow. Nia’s dialogue always has an understated confidence to it due to her job as a bartender, but when she’s working on solving the mystery you can feel how dedicated Nia is to helping Andy and how Andy almost feels like he’s having to play the side-kick role here. In the episode’s later scenes, there’s a great emotional rift that begins to form between the two as Nia’s obsession goes too far for Andy and both performers capture exactly how much it hurts both parties perfectly. 

However it is those later scenes that I have the biggest problem with. The lead up to them is a really solid little detective comedy, but it is revealed a good ways before the end that in fact the whole thing was have been made up by Nia. Her loneliness got the better of her and it exaggerated all of her thought-processes and prejudices, using Andy as an outlet for her own imagination and sense of self-worth. It’s a really Tragic Twist that I think really suits the world of Torchwood and its focus on how alien threats effect the common person. This twist would have been fine, but the very final moments of the episode ruin it. Pringle reveals that Nia wasn’t lying all along and that the yoga studio across the road really have been doing body transfer experiments, and I genuinely felt a lot of the good faith I had for this story fall away. The tragic twist which explores the lengths we go to avoid loneliness is great, so there is no need to completely undermine it with a half-hearted attempt at an ambiguous ending just for the sake of having an ambiguous ending. 

Pringle’s Dog Hop is so close to being the perfect type of story for Andy to be popped into. The lighter tone, the more comedic script which plays into the cast’s comedic timing, the focus on exploring human relationships and problems and the hints of romance all fit this character so well and Dog Hop almost sticks the landing. But it is that ending that I just can’t get over, it is so annoyingly shackled on and fails to misunderstand the power an anti-climax can have on an audience. Had this ended where I think it should have done, with Andy and Nia simply drifting apart after the revelation, then it could been a really powerful bit of emotional work from Pringle. Dog Hop is still well worth you time, with the caveat that it has the worst type of anti-climax; a disappointing conclusion. 

7/10

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