Torchwood: Forgotten Lives

Writer: Emma Reeves
Director: Scott Handcock
Script Editor: Steve Tribe
Cover Illustration: Lee Binding
Music: Blair Mowat
Sound Design: Neil Gardner
Producer: James Goss

Starring Eve Myles & Kai Owen
Released November 2015

The third entry in Big Finish Productions' Torchwood audio series picks up with husband and wife Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams, five years after the events of final TV series Miracle Day.

Forgotten Lives feels like it wants to be intimate and thoughtful as it lines up a care home of elderly dementia sufferers as the targets of a mind-swapping species. The story as executed is too broad for that, however, and is more memorable for scenes of an old man snogging both Gwen and Rhys than it is for any deeper commentary.

On TV, Rhys was the everyman to the exaggerated, unhinged world of Torchwood. He was treated appallingly by Gwen as she lied to him and cheated on him but he stood by her and it seems to have paid off, with this older Gwen much more stable and mature. Catching up with the pair at this point in their timeline was a good decision and allows them some breathing space to reflect on their old lives for the first time in a while. The fact that even Rhys is up for revisiting Torchwood on a more permanent basis at the end of the story says a lot, and leaves an intriguing question mark over what happens next. It turned out that the superb Aliens Among Us was what.

The guest cast, particularly Sean Carlsen as care worker Gary, support the leads ably but the real star of the show is Kai Owen as Rhys. He doesn't miss a beat and huge credit to him for his credible, measured performance when Rhys is possessed. As Gwen, Eve Myles is on slightly shakier ground but manages to capture a recognisable snapshot of the character. Later stories, including More Than This and Believe, will see her much more at ease with the role, but it's great an actor in such high demand can still find the time to do these stories.

In the end, Forgotten Lives tries to pull in too many directions and ends up feeling unfocused. Perhaps it's just a consequence of following two such tight scripts in The Conspiracy and Fall to Earth but as a reintroduction to the mad world of Torchwood for Gwen and Rhys it arguably succeeds. However while the larger cast and variety of locations might suggest a bigger scale, it loses some of the impact of its predecessors and feels like it's treading water around the halfway mark. For another hour in the company of Rhys (and Gwen I suppose) though, Forgotten Lives balances out as a fairly average release.