beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

Big Finish Audio with Toshiko Sato.

I liked it. Has a sense of place, seems to like Cardiff and people. Those are things I always like in these stories.

I think we get more about the OCs than Tosh, but she gets some fun stuff to do too.

I listened to Big Finish Torchwood #45 The Crown.
Not a fan. Wasn't terrible, but wasn't terribly involving either.
( Read more... )

Bit spooky, but didn't grab me.

Also the stories with none of our modern team Torchwood in have an uphill struggle to get my attention, and this one didnt keep it.

My first thought was to recommend listening to this one without knowing what on earth is going on, because that's where Andy starts, and it does some stuff after that that seems very Torchwood whilst also being, basically, two guys getting annoyed at each other in a car.

But a trigger warning comes up: ( Read more... )

Okay... so. ( Read more... )


I liked this one a lot. Set when Owen is dead, doesn't let you forget it, shows and tells you a lot about Andy, and what he thinks of Torchwood by now.



I put it on to block out the weird vacuum cleaner sounds coming from outside though and those are still going so I'm sure some of the subtleties got tangled with whatever is making a noise out there.


But still good.

I watched Torchwood 1-11 Combat.
Torchwood is not giving me feelings today.
I am just in a very different mind than I was when I first watched.

All that with the fight club seems tedious and annoying.

Gwen does evil. Drugs her boyfriend. Like when Willow used memory erasing on Tara. Very wrong.
Gwen wants her feelings fixed without paying attention to other people's feelings.

Torchwood are bad guys. Don't get me wrong, I'm still listening to Big Finish and I care about the characters as individuals, but Torchwood, experimenting on aliens and letting them loose to act as bait? Bad guys.

And it might be Jack's idea but Tosh just asked for clarification, she didnt actually do anything.

Jack isn't a good boss. Not useful or effective. Employees are out drinking because they are not in fact working, he calls them back in. They are running around with guns, drunk. Bad boss.

Torchwood needs way more people to do even what we see them do, without being disasters at it.

And yet, if they were not disasters, would I care about them this much?

*sigh*

I think I'd rather listen to audios than rewatch this again, but, a lot of character mileage happened here.

PC Andy in a spacesuit on the cover, with a Welsh flag patch on the arm.
Actually the whole story is set in a quarry in Neath.
Which is a bit meta.

( Read more... )


Andy is reliably kind, even once he starts figuring things out. And his approach to problem solving always seems achievable, which is nice. Relatable.

But it is just a bit depressing. Quite creepy. Full of nasty murders.

you know, Torchwood.



I liked it.

by Gareth David-Lloyd

Toshiko and Ianto go to the opera, and there are aliens.

Except mostly it's GDL actually liking the characters and giving them a chance to people together. So there is also a plot, but mostly a conversation.

Wherein we find out about Ianto's goth phase and he gets to say more about how he feels about Jack, while Jack is missing. And Tosh talks about Owen. And saves the day.

I am :-) now. I like GDLs writing, you can tell he cares and likes things.

I gave it 5 out of 5.

I have been saving this one up until I had a certain degree of mental equilibrium, because it's a Torchwood Owen Harper story, and he doesnt get the funny ones. He gets life and death and things that mess with the line between.

This was another brilliant story, but it's going to get dark.

pretty detailed spoilers go under the cut:
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And I've pretty much just retold the story while trying to pick out the good bits, because it was pretty solidly good bit.

But the whole journey, the gradual reveal, the clues that you realise are clues right along with Owen, that was all so good. You end up knowing more about him and it fits very well with what we already knew. And the themes, the grief and guilt and memory and life and death and all, that's Torchwood. Including the decision to stand up and go on with life after.


I dont think it's as dark as some of the Owen stories have been, but it's still some heavy stuff, and I like what the story did with it.


So dont read the spoilers, go listen if you can. Big Finish website, available to download now.

This is a frustratingly good episode. Frustrating because the costume design on the Cyberwoman makes it difficult to notice everything else. But it does some really good stuff.

It's asking how far you'd go for someone you love, and when even is that person the same person you love. Big big question.

Unfortunate rubber suit.

So there's a lot of compare contrast on relationships, ( Read more... )


The characters as I hang out with them in my head, or even in fanfic sometimes, have far fewer sharp edges. Not a monster, less of a twat, sort of thing. Seldom in doubt that they are both trying and succeeding at being good guys. They dont get caught in these tensions, not knowing what to do, moral imperatives every which way and getting torn or ground up between. They resolve things one way or another, finish the journey, become some steady state of themselves that wouldnt be terrifying to meet.

Which is several steps from canon, I am noticing.

But one reason one runs out of new fic ideas is that process runs its course, the deciding, becoming, finding a place to stand. Without new canon you either need to take them on new journeys several more steps away from their established selves, or things get settled. The conflicts wear thin. It's either done or it seems a problem they're still having to think about it.


It's weird, I get new Torchwood content from Big Finish every month, but rewatching the episodes still feels like visiting a closed chapter, almost an old fandom. We did this bit.

Still tried telling interesting things though.

https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/torchwood-tropical-beach-sounds-and-other-relaxing-seascapes-4-2139

Tropical Beach Sounds And Other Relaxing Seascapes Volume 4
... whatever you are expecting, this is probably not it
but it is very, very fun.

It will be even more fun on second listen, because now I know how far they go I can go along with it more.
... though going along with the narrator of this particular self help book is, in itself, the Problem.
( Read more... )
Proper shudder stuff this is. Told in such a fun way.

Michael Palin (yes, the actual Sir Michael Palin) says in the chatty bit afterwards that he took the job not because of Torchwood (new to him) but because it's a unique bit of drama. A sustained narration that has a lot of emotional range to it. And not the sort of thing he usually gets asked to do.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-02-12/sir-michael-palin-will-join-torchwood-for-a-format-breaking-new-story-from-big-finish/

So basically Michael Palin thought it was good drama without having clue one about the Torchwood bits of it.

And I agree.


Recommended.

... cautiously...



... I listened to the chatty interview bits at the end because I very much wanted a little return to normality...

not relaxing, but does what it sets out to do.

I have listened to Fortitude and Dissected.

Fortitude features Queen Victoria and had a lot to say about Empire and stolen treasure and treating other cultures badly and the roots of Torchwood.
I didn't really connect to it emotionally though. It's all new characters, really, none of the team. So I cared but.
I think it was quite good. Interesting people doing interesting things and complaining about British colonialism.

Dissected was more my speed. Gwen and Martha, and a case obviously, but mostly Gwen and Martha realising they are not in fact friends right now. Martha gives a reason she doesn't work for Torchwood, ( Read more... )

I liked both stories but as you can see from the sheer verbiage I like the characters emotional connections and character arc, the way the stories fit in and elaborate on canon gaps, so I didn't really get much out of the one as wasn't about main cast.

Fun to listen though.

Toshiko Sato takes a co worker's body home for burial, and we learn one good reason why Torchwood does not do that.

( Read more... )

If I liked Rhys more I'd like this better. Plenty of neat specifics on his character around the edges. Like 'how do you know this' 'I have a daughter, all I do is worry and watch safety videos'.

But mostly it's people running around a ship trying to figure out things that the listener knows from other episodes. Which I did not find engrossing. Even though the environmental message is sound, please recycle or the rubber ducks will get you is an odd way to convey it.

... making duck quacks sinister is classic though.

The cover was probably misleading though. Probably. which is kind of fun.

I liked it but I dont know how much I'll relisten.

This is less disturbing than Corpse Day.
Andy and Owen working together again. And discovering the kind of humans that make you wish it was aliens. But it's still slightly less disturbing than that.
... Torchwood is really, seriously, dark.

Owen and Andy were brilliant in this, and it was a great story for Owen. ( Read more... )

It's brilliant.

And dark.

And a whole class on how the emotional impact of the story depends on when you start and end it. If we'd got the same events as described here but presented in flashback or as story present day, this would arguably be darker than Corpse Day. As it is the things that stay hinted at and the narrative distance give some breathing room so it's only manageable horror. And if we'd stayed with Owen longer at the end we'd end on a whole different note. As it is we get, well, Hope, right when we're not expecting any.

This is an excellent audio and I'll be listening to it again later
... but only in daytime and when feeling fairly resilient.

Trigger warnings for ( Read more... )