Torchwood: Ghost Mission

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

Starring Tom Price & Samuel Barnett
Released May 2016

On my first few listens to the Torchwood audio series, Ghost Mission stood head-and-shoulders above other early releases. The fact that it now simply maintains the expected standard shows just how much my estimations of the series as a whole have risen. Ghost Mission has a great premise: at long last Andy Davidson has the chance to prove he's good enough to join Torchwood and his assessor is from the Soho branch in 1953. And a ghost.

It's another brilliant twist on the ride along format these audios are settling into, and writer/producer James Goss wastes no time jumping right in. Despite a few welcome breathers, this is an extremely busy story, both in terms of there being a lot of story to pack in and there being a lot for Goss to get done. Just as Andy's validity is being assessed by Norton Folgate within the story, so it is by fans without, Goss working hard to justify Andy's inclusion in this series rather than another story for Jack, Gwen or Ianto, or a first outing for Owen. If you were in any doubt he pulls it off, as of July 2020, Andy is now a regular in Big Finish's flagship series, and the first round of his and Norton's own spin-off is about to be released. And this is where it began.

Goss' slight remodelling of the character still fits with what we saw in the TV series, but four lonely years have passed and PC Andy is now Sgt Andy. Tom Price slips back into the role effortlessly, imbuing Andy with all the nervy energy you'd expect while clearly relishing the chance to solve a case by himself (almost). Goss credits the character with a lot of intelligence and, nudged along by Norton, is surprisingly good in a crisis. This isn't an easy day for Andy and he stares death in the face several times but comes out of it stronger. It's nothing compared to what he'll go through in the phenomenal Aliens Among Us and God Among Us though.

Written especially for Samuel Barnett, Norton Folgate is another quality character. On the strength of Ghost Mission it seems inevitable that he'd be back. While his extremely camp exterior could have become somewhat grating, it's quickly established that this is just a front and Norton is actually much more sensitive than it would first appear. Crucially, he's shown to be highly competent but even he doesn't have all the answers. He offsets Andy well and it's easy to see why this has become a winning pairing, revived time and again. This is also possibly the deepest insight we've got into the character yet, with mentions of his parents and brother. Torchwood is so frenetic that there's often little time for looking beyond the bluster and bravado, but it's rewarding when the effort is made.

Although the plot of this is fairly straightforward, moving from one location to the next as the investigation progresses, it only becomes more interesting at each stage. The sequence in the church towards the end is the most impressive, and it is this that draws out the best of the sound design and music to create a really beautiful soundscape. Even though it turns out to be a computer-gone-wrong type story, the twist that it's all because of some interfering Welshman trying to cut a few corners is extremely entertaining.

Ghost Mission is remarkable. Torchwood is making good use of the opportunity to create an anthology series with these audios, completely changing the cast, locations and genre with every release (much like parent show Doctor Who) but establishing the ongoing threads of the rebuilding of Torchwood and the history of the Committee, both of which Ghost Mission ties into. Despite only being introduced in preceding story Zone 10, the Red Key is quickly resolved, being handed over to the Committee as they make another intriguing appearance, although the listener gets the sense that the character played by David Warner is at the very top of the pile, rather than being one of their foot soldiers as we've previously encountered.

If Ghost Mission was a test for Torchwood, it's safe to say it passed with flying colours.