Made You Look

"Talmouth is dying."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: August 2016

Series: Torchwood Monthly 12

Featuring: Gwen]

Synopsis

It stalks you. It whispers. It wants you to turn around. It wants you to look. But if you do... If you see it...

Talmouth is a lonely seaside town. No-one has heard from it for days. No-one who goes in comes out. Something has happened to Talmouth. Has it been taken over by aliens? Or is it something far, far worse?

Gwen Cooper's come to Talmouth to find out. What's happened has to be seen to be believed. But by the time you've seen it, you're already dead.

Verdict

Made You Look was an excellent audio to continue the monthly adventures of Torchwood from Big Finish! I really did think this was Torchwood at its best and it was a fantastic performance from Eve Myles reprising her brilliant role as Gwen. I was intrigued by the focus on the setting of Talmouth and I liked how it was an unfamiliar town, something I think Torchwood are really good at exploring. Having a seaside town as a setting for this kind of adventure was brilliant and I thought the eery feel and atmosphere of the story had a lot to do with the town and it being a seaside location. There's something quite enigmatic and chilling about the seaside and beach at night and that was exploited really well here. Gwen's reaction to the chippy being called the Codfather and getting cold chips for free was a lot of fun, but the reason why they were cold was soon revealed. I enjoyed how this story was essentially a two hander with the characters of Gwen and Mrs Rhodes the leads, and I thought the latter was a really good character. She was quite calm and fun and bounced off Gwen in a good way. Finding out why Talmouth had gone quiet was excellent and I thought Darkness made for a terrific villain. He was so chilling and that voice was just perfect. It was a great enemy suited for Torchwood and the whole concept of three looks and you die was magnificent. Gwen wasting her first two looks set us up nicely for the rest of the audio and I thought he worked really well as the antagonist for the audio format. It was a really impressive use of the format and I think it definitely worked better without any visuals. Mrs Rhodes was so mysterious with the way she calmly spoke to Gwen and how a friend had come in with her. She had no idea and daren't turn her back otherwise she would have died. Gwen deducing that Darkness couldn't move from the town because he was nearly out of power after consuming everyone there was great, and now there were just seagulls to fill his gap. But they weren't sufficient and you got the sense that he was juicing Gwen up which was very good. Darkness blocking the contact to Rhys through Gwen's phone provided a good late plot twist with his impending arrival after knowing where she was but not getting any kind of answer. Rhys was the kind of man who would be on his way in an instant and that meant more food for Darkness. The emotion invoked in Gwen with that impending predicament was superb. I thought the way Darkness was defeated with the aid of Mrs Rhodes was good, if not slightly too quick, and how he was essentially talked out of existence. It was a logical and fitting end for the enemy, but I'd have liked a slightly longer build to make it an emphatic moment and would probably have given the episode a perfect rating! Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable audio though and I really liked the chilling feel. Very Torchwood!

Rating: 9/10