Torchwood: Among Us Volume 2 from Big Finish – Review

I was really impressed with the opening series to Torchwood Among Us, which saw a sentient social network beginning to take over Cardiff and then the world. Whereas previous Torchwood sets have gone for action and spectacle over story and substance. Luckily Among Us Volume 2 is going a long way to change that, focusing on character and building up the threat of a sentient social network using character and exploring the dark side of humanity as opposed to just blowing things up!

Things kick off with Ash Darby’s Propaganda which sees Orr travelling to Voloshnick to find out what has been going on in this mysteriously abandoned country. Of course, things go from bad to worse when the plane Orr is travelling on gets blown up and she is then captured and threatened with gruesome torture before she actually gets to the country luckily Darby doesn’t wait too long before getting into the main action but makes sure that everything that came before still plays into the story, not just Torchwood violence for Torchwood violence sake.

Samatha Beart does a brilliant job as Orr, a character I remember from years ago in Aliens Among Us, unfortunately, I haven’t listened to much of the continuing Torchwood series since then so hadn’t heard much about her character. I liked that Darby took the time to develop her humanity and she quickly builds excellent rapport with her co-star Amy Beth Hayes as Tania, the pair playing much of this story as a two-hander.

It’s pretty obvious from the beginning that this story is about the COVID anti-vax movement and forgotten war, the idea that governments will create bigger issues so we ignore what is happening in other countries. Darby explores these themes carefully and I was impressed that it didn’t go completely over the top, instead making sure that both sides of the stories get time to say their piece and not mocking anyone. It was the anti-vaccinating plot themes that I noticed the most though and the Torchwood format allowed Darby to explore this in greater detail than a Doctor Who story would have.

On a first listen, it isn’t too clear how the ramifications of this story will fit into the larger story, but having heard the whole series Propaganda works as both a standalone tale and one that fits into a larger arc. Where it really shines though is showing us how good of a character Orr is and takes great strides to make her a lot more human.

Tim Foley’s At Her Majesty’s Pleasure is up next, reuniting Tracey Ann Oberman’s Yvonne Hartman with Tom Price’s PC Andy. Of course, this is a different Yvonne, she’s come over from the parallel world Rose and her family found themselves trapped in and so she is even more ruthless than our universe’s counterpart. But that doesn’t necessarily make her a bad guy, she’s not as ruthless as one might think, something that is explored over these stories starting here.

Following the events at the end of the previous series, God Among Us and the consequences of her actions, Yvonne has been locked away in the most secure prison in the country, but Andy is certain she is about to escape. After receiving a phone call from Yvonne, Andy decides to try and stop her from escaping but in a series of twists and turns Andy realises he’s played right into her hands and his involvement was part of her escape plan. There are plenty of twists on offer here, and Foley goes a long way to making sure that when you think you know what is going to happen he throws in enough curveballs to keep you guessing.

Foley gives us two time frames too, there’s Yvonne trying to escape and then flashbacks to a date that Yvonne and Andy went on months before she was imprisoned. At first, these two plot threads seem to be unconnected but as the story roars towards its conclusion, we find that there is more going on than meets the eye as Andy has to put his detective hat on as things she’d said and done on the date suddenly become much more relevant.

Tom Price and Tracey Ann Oberman are brilliant here, playing off one another fantastically. Both are brilliant performers and there is no hint that Andy and Yvonne aren’t a real-life couple, in fact, these two characters are perfect for each other, even if Andy can’t condone how Yvonne gets the job done. Yvonne had felt a little one-sided when she first appeared in the Torchwood audios but here, Foley manages to put everything she’s done into context making her feel a much more rounded character. Once again, Among Us has settled for character over action and it’s worked wonders.

Foley continues with Cuckoo, a story which feels much different to the previous tale, not featuring any of the normal cast but it does see the return of the late-great Murray Melvin as Billis Manger up to his usual cruel tricks and it makes for a brilliant listen.

Following a group of urban explorers who are creating a YouTube video, they travel through a series of secret tunnels and eventually discover the Torchwood Hub. The group, Vijay, Diana and Bryn soon find themselves in trouble when Billis makes his presence known and a whole different presence soon begins trying to convert them into Torchwood agents. In typical Foley fashion, there is a lot more to all the characters than first meets the eye. Diana’s true intentions and motives are gradually pulled into question and Bryn is looking for somewhere in Cardiff to build houses and make money, while it seems Vijay is there to create content for his YouTube channel.

And then there’s Billis, with his literal shopping trolley of alien artefacts he’s looting from the Hub, who quickly scuppers any plans the three leads might have had otherwise. Melvin does a brilliant job as Billis, who is at his nastiest and most manipulative here, and his rapport with the main cast really shines here and works as a way of making the story a really uncomfortable listen as we wait to hear how many horrible ways he’s going to trick the leads into dying.

Foley doesn’t rest on his laurels either, switching the story from a merely creepy story to full-on horror at the halfway point, playing with a number of established horror tropes and somehow he made the ‘found-footage’ genre work on audio too, which is no mere feat! Gareth David-Lloyd makes a return as Ianto too, but he’s not the Ianto we know and love, he’s the Hub’s security protocol, using Ianto as its interface and he puts in a great performance too, sometimes being as creepy and evil as Billis and making us wonder just who the true villain is here.

I think that Cuckoo is possibly my favourite story from this series and certainly my favourite Torchwood story I’ve heard for some time. It’s as disturbing as it is brilliant and masterfully written and performed. A needed break from the overall plot, there are still a few lines littered through the script which tie it into the bigger story, but this is entirely a stand-alone tale, it is a fantastic story which blends really dark horror with an interesting look at what Torchwood is fundamentally.

Among Us 2 comes to a conclusion with Pariahs from James Goss who manages successfully to wrap up a number of plot threads left hanging from the previous episodes and we finally see this new Torchwood team working together to bring the two most hated men in the world to trial. Orr and Mr Colchester are out to get the two men, while Ng and Tyler are preparing for an enquiry into the dodgy pharmacy Phlobos. Yvonne is lurking in the shadows ready to spring into action and bring everyone to justice and James Goss must be given credit for not overstuffing his script despite all the plot threads he has to play with here.

Goss makes sure that each of the characters gets a time to shine, paying particular attention to Mr Colchester giving him and the man he’s trying to rescue, Graham Graves an interesting history while he’s at it. This backstory is elevated by the performances from Paul Clayton and Richard Clifford and I was surprised at how tragic this part of Mr Colchester’s background was, while Graves is thoroughly unlikable and actor Richard Clifford does a great job of using speech patterns and making sure his attitude is in line with some of the real-life politicians we have.

While Mr Colchester finds his past coming back to haunt him, Goss gives Orr and the man she is trying to rescue, Kyle Lansman – a whistle-blower for how bad things are at Phlobos – an action movie series of events, travelling across the world, wearing disguises and using fake documents. Tyler and Ng haven’t spent a lot of time together either despite both being introduced way back in the Torchwood revival in 2017, and both actors do a brilliant job of bickering and have plenty of back-and-forth between them. Of course, Goss doesn’t keep the courtroom drama waiting too long and the Chair of the Enquiry makes a great foil for Torchwood without trying to be.

Pariahs is a brilliant way of wrapping up the second series and Goss does a masterful job of wrapping up some, but not all, of the plot threads while dangling some more for us to ponder over with the upcoming third instalment in the series. This is also director Scott Handcock’s final directorial credit in the Torchwood range, probably due to him working on the new series under Russell T. Davies and Pariahs is a great story to go out on as well as bringing the fantastic Among Us Volume 2 to a successful conclusion, leaving us feeling very excited to see how the series will wrap up in the upcoming Volume 3!