Torchwood: Odyssey Review

Big Finish’s Ood trilogy kicks off here with several characters from The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit making their return or debut in Big Finish’s Torchwood range. For the opening story, Odyssey we see the return of Claire Rushbrook’s Ida Scott, a scientist who, as we’re told in the television story, has a rocky relationship with her distant father. Odyssey finally sees that relationship getting explored in greater depth.

Author Patrick O’Connor is a newcomer to Big Finish and you’ll be pleased to know that this is a great first story he’s crafted. Essentially a crash course through the relationship between Ida and her father Odysseus, Ida’s feisty personality is a highlight through the hour-long tale.

Rushbrook is no stranger to the works of Big Finish but this is her first time playing Ida Scott since 2006. Luckily she hasn’t forgotten how to play her, she’s confident but not arrogantly so, she trusts her gut more than a scientist would normally do so, thanks to her experiences on the impossible planet of Krop-Tor and she nails the character beats here, really coming across a real person and anyone listening who has distant relationships with their parents will understand Ida’s outlook on life she displays here.

Big Finish also made the right decision in casting Silas Carson as Odysseus and the Ood. Carson gave the voice to the aliens with the creepy tentacles. It’s explored here that it was he who first gave the voice to their translators. Odysseus is also very ill here with a terminal condition that is destroying his memories but believes he can be cured by listening to the sound of gravity. Ida knows how dangerous gravity can be from first-hand experience so isn’t too keen on her father toying with it, but she also doesn’t believe that gravity can heal someone in the way her father wants it to.

Odysseus is incredibly rude to poor Ida but O’Connor makes sure he’s also a little sympathetic, reminding us this is a man who is dying and doesn’t really know what he is saying anymore, despite his protestations that his mind is as sharp as ever. There are some very raw emotions that run through this story most notably a daughter just trying to get her father to say he’s proud of her.

Odysseus is being cared for by a character called Tom, who is likeable enough despite not getting much to do and if anything with O’Connor’s script feels a little weaker than the rest it is Tom’s fate, he dies ‘off-screen’ and is all but forgotten about by the time the story comes to its conclusion despite being an intrinsically important character in the beginning.

O’Connor’s script though is at its best when it deals with Ida and Odyssey’s relationship which remains at the core of the horrors unfolding around them. I also liked how the Ood aren’t evil here, they are just very very strange, but there is still a creeping sense of unease about them and it was nice to hear that Ida has been scared of them ever since the events of Sanctuary Base 6.

O’Connor’s script is a brilliant opening to the Ood Trilogy wrapping up in December and sets the bar high for the following instalments.

You can pick up Torchwood: Odyssey from Big Finish now on CD and digital.