The Dying Room

"It's a case of remembering what you know."

Writer: Lizzie Hopley

Format: Audio

Released: August 2017

Series: Torchwood Monthly #18

Featuring: LeDuc

Synopsis

"In this room everyone learns the truth. And neither of us will be quite the same when we leave."

Paris, 1940s. The German-occupied city is in a state of turmoil – a plague ravages the streets, turning people into deformed monsters. 

The city's finest hotel is under siege. SS interrogator Grau has come here to find out the truth. Grau has one night to cure the plague and to unmask the mysterious Madame Berber and who she's really working for. Herr Grau knows all about Project Hermod. And now he's going to find out all about Torchwood.

Verdict

The Dying Room was a great audio to continue the monthly adventures of Torchwood from Big Finish! I've really enjoyed the series expanding on the organisation of Torchwood itself and exploring its different variations throughout time. Here, we met Torchwood during the Second World War which was an exciting concept in of itself, but having them featured in the city of Paris under siege was brilliant. It's such an exciting setting that can work so well and it felt like there was more opportunity for things to go wrong with Torchwood around. We know that the Doctor could just rock up and save the day, but it doesn't always feel that way with Torchwood. We didn't have any familiar characters here with the only thing that was familiar to us was just the name Torchwood. I thought Grau was a fantastic character leading the interrogation of LeDuc and the Torchwood operative claiming to have no knowledge of what Torchwood was made for a good listen. It was a classic interrogation technique to feign innocence of what was being asked, but Grau efforts to persuade with the story of resolve and slowly being skinned layer by layer was really gruesome. Even if he did work for the SS, that was still a dark taunt. Grau's obsession with finding Madame Berber was great and I loved that by the end he didn't need to have been looking for her at all. The idea of a plague being around in Paris at this time only added to the problems facing the setting, but the Nazis were worried about their mortality here because the description of the effects of the plague were actually rather disturbing. The format of the story with the interrogation and then having flashbacks from earlier in the day integrated in the storytelling was very good and effective. It was a unique style and I was impressed with the background music that established the hotel base of the interrogation really nicely. The comments against the Nazis here from LeDuc were amusing and obviously written with hindsight which was good, especially with the lack of sympathy afforded to them when it came to the plague. I liked the idea of this plague and it turning out to be Torchwood's doing was magnificent. I love the idea of the Nazis having knowledge of Torchwood from even before World War One, so them getting one over the evil Germans here was delightful. LeDuc made for a good lead as a Torchwood operative and he is definitely a character I would be keen to explore some more of, especially in this time period with all the potential on offer there! Grau thinking he had the upper hand when he believed he'd exposed the familial relationship between LeDuc and Gabriel was fun, before it backfired in a very big way! LeDuc emphatically revealing he was Torchwood all along and had been having everything go to plan was great stuff and a very fun way to end things! As a whole, I thought this was an impressive audio adventure and a terrific change of pace to the usual Torchwood stuff. Overall, a very good listen!

Rating: 8/10