God Among Us: Another Man's Shoes

"Trading bodies is not an everyday occurrence."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: February 2019

Series: Torchwood 6.07

Featuring: Captain Jack, Yvonne, Mr Colchester, Tyler, Ng, Andy

Synopsis

Yvonne wakes up in Andy's body – and both have difficult days ahead of them.

Meanwhile, Norton's making himself very much at home in Tyler's body, much to Tyler's alarm, and Ng is worried she knows what's going on.

Someone's playing a terrible trick on Torchwood. But who will win?

Verdict

Another Man’s Shoes was another terrific audio adventure to continue the second instalment of God Among Us along very nicely. The story initially starting with Ng wondering why Tyler was screaming at 6am hit home for me as I was literally on the train at that time and I really felt like screaming as well! I was intrigued by what had happened to Tyler with his new voice and thinking he was taller, but then we found out it was actually Norton in his body! Well, I was immediately intrigued and then we found out that Andy and Yvonne had too traded bodies which was a superb dynamic. It didn’t stop there though as Captain Jack and Mr Colchester had also swapped! This was going to be a lot of fun and whilst it was a little harder to keep track of who was who given the lack of visuals, it was still so much fun. It didn’t happen to anybody else in Cardiff like had been the case throughout the past two series of Torchwood. The team had been targeted and I thought that was exciting. There couldn’t be a better day to get them either as Andy particularly had a job performance review for the incident in The Empty Hand where he shot an unarmed refugee under the influence of Ro-Jedda. I thought that was good continuity so the idea of Yvonne taking the performance review for him was pretty amusing. I was impressed with a number of the main cast in this one in how they took on the character that had swapped bodies with theirs. It sounded like they had a lot of fun. Andy wouldn’t just sit around worrying about Yvonne taking his review, he’d go to the Hub and command Torchwood. Well, he’d at least try. His confronting of Ng for the past and what she did to Gwen was nice because of how close Andy was with Cooper and I have to say she is definitely being missed despite the high quality of this sixth series. Tyler and Norton being in a clothes shop and taking the impulsive decision to essentially shag themselves as they were in another body was quite mindblowing but I was hardly surprised. Inviting Jay for a threesome after they were done was quite something though! Norton was beyond full of energy. Mrs Davenport conducting Andy’s review was good and Yvonne certainly got things off on the wrong foot and all she desired was a yes to ensure Andy didn’t get dismissed. She didn’t get that so quickly went about giving Davenport a dose of retcon which was very amusing. Ng had a very interesting episode with hearing the enigmatic signal which meant she had to leave the Hub alone. She had to ask if it was time and seemed confused which I liked and what we later got was wonderful. The humour that came with Norton being introduced to Tinder was very funny and he didn’t mess around with getting Tyler’s body around the block. The day of body swap also had impact because it was Colin’s birthday and Colchester had big plans that Jack would now have to try and carry out. Colchester had booked a reservation at Antonio’s despite the waiting list of weeks. The scene where Jack was denied a table and talked up Colchester’s voice in a threatening way was just glorious. The humour that came when he found the table had been booked under Colin’s name was glorious. A real episode highlight. Tyler wanting to find his phone ended up with Andy using some Torchwood software in an iffy way to interrupt Norton’s latest sexual exploit. I really liked the shift in having Andy, as Yvonne, be called by the Committee and a meeting was planned for an hour’s time. My eyes lit up when this element of the story took place. Yvonne continuing to be pushy with Davenport and using her last retcon to try and push her into passing the rest for Andy was very good. I thought it was lovely that Colchester wanted to experience Colin’s birthday with him after all he’d planned, but there was a weird moment after Colchester emerged as Jack. Despite it almost seeming like Colchester wanted Colin to reschedule events and have Jack stop going along with the plans, which would upset him greatly, Jack didn’t go through with that. Colchester had a change of heart and wanted Colin to have a lovely day whilst he went and put things right. He wanted his body back. I thought the character development for Tyler was brilliant with it killing him to see Norton slutting around in his body. It was a lesson he needed to realise how much he messed up in his younger days. Norton’s proposal to Jay was unexpected though and seemed a bit much. The destination of Ng’s signal taking her to an ice cream van housing the wonderful Scottish woman was excellent and I loved the comment of ‘Herald meets Deity’ conforming my suspicions that she was indeed God. It was nice to hear that she was impressed with Ng for getting herself a name, friends and a job. God was testing Torchwood and whether they could weather the storm with rain continuing to fall. Finding out that God did all of this so Ng could pass judgement on the Torchwood team was great. Andy being with the Committee and finding out that the body swap was an early sabotage of Evolve technology that allowed mind transfer was really interesting and I’m intrigued to hear how this will come back into the story arc later in the series. The plan for a reset and the Committee taking their pick from the survivors was brilliant. Andy not being subtle when he found out the truth about Yvonne’s involvement was very amusing. He soon came around and pushed the boat in all of the right ways which I liked a lot. He’s been a wonderful character this series. The prospect of Cardiff drowning if he continued pushing was foreshadowing if I’ve ever heard it. There’s definitely still so much to come. Yvonne finally getting Davenport to give Andy the security he needed to keep his job by just admitting his shortcomings and coming up with an action plan was very good. We unsurprisingly found that Norton had been rejected by Jay but the idea of the body swap scrambling their emotional restraints seemed feasible. Norton again talking of how the world really is ending was interesting because he doesn’t really seem to be doing much about it! Ng standing firm that she had become her own self and will fight God was wonderful. She was Torchwood now and would not pass judgement. Questions finally arising concerning Orr was well overdue and I really can’t understand why there haven’t been any mentions of her yet. It’s quite baffling to be honest! The whole body swap also being designed to see how Ng would react was a good development, but then Colchester arrived at the ice cream van to find her alone. The device in control of the body swaps was there though and was soon turned off. God was nowhere to be seen. Torchwood would definitely have learned from each other as God wanted which was good and I like the idea that she’s almost preparing the team for future battle. Colchester having planned some Rift corridor adventures for Colin’s Birthday was lovely and I liked that Jack held off kissing him because he could feel that he was swapping back to his body. Colchester at least got to finish Colin’s birthday in the shower with him and had comfort that he’d had a good day. Andy confronting Yvonne about her involvement in the Committee was good but I didn't think it would come so quickly. I found it quite sad that Yvonne hammered home that this was no longer the Torchwood of Jack and Gwen because that's who I fell in love with the show based upon. The world had changed now. I am not too sure if I like that Andy knows of the Committee before through Norton. With this being the official continuation, I think it should be standalone from other audio stories. God then greeting Andy afterwards was intriguing and the comment of the world ending when Andy believed the rain would stop was surely a harrowing foreshadowing of what's to come. Overall, another fantastic audio.

Rating: 8/10