Torchwood: More Than This

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

Starring Eve Myles with Tom Price
Released February 2016

Featuring a member of the regular cast leading an unsuspecting outsider through a day in the bloody life of Torchwood after they're forced together, More Than This is a precursor to many of the following few years' worth of single-disc audios. And a particularly good one at that.

The story begins with Gwen, following the events of Forgotten Lives, trying to get the Hub in Cardiff Bay rebuilt, which has led her to the planning department of the council and specifically Roger Pugh. Not prepared to wait untold months, she cuts to the chase and gives him a taste of why it is so vital Torchwood has proper facilities, rather than the plot being used for a multi-storey car park.

Guy Adams gives Roger and Gwen a full run of the emotional spectrum, from the witty opening to breakneck lurching between alien incursions to a tender graveside conclusion. The pair are perfectly-matched opposites and Adams gives Roger just the right balance of awe, ability and appeal. Gwen has always come across as quite abrasive, and this is no different, but you can't argue she doesn't get results. The sequence in the University is the highlight for both characters, and the listener is left regretful that it's unlikely Roger will ever appear again.

Top marks on the production side. So immersive are the story and its realisation that, occasional interruptions from Andy Davidson aside, it's easy not to notice this is another two-hander. Exceptional direction, sound design and score complete another polished product.

Even though More Than This is essentially the answer to a question that hasn't been asked yet (how did Gwen rebuild the Hub?) it is more than entertaining enough to justify its existence. It's a storming Torchwood debut for Guy Adams, and another step up for Eve Myles. The star, though, has to be Richard Nichols as Roger. This is quite deliberately Roger's story and Nichols delivers in spades. I'm going to run out of superlatives for these soon; rest assured More Than This is another excellent addition to the series.

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.