Machines: Blind Summit

"You are weak. We are the future."

Writer: Gareth David-Lloyd

Format: Audio

Released: July 2018

Series: Torchwood One 2.02

Featuring: Yvonne, Ianto

Synopsis

Ianto Jones has just moved to London. He's broke, has no friends, no future. One day he loses the one thing he's been holding on to, and suddenly people around him are dying. Could a mysterious woman really offer him salvation?

Verdict

Blind Summit was a great story to continue Machines! This second series of Torchwood One looks set to follow more of a theme than an ongoing story arc like Before the Fall and I'm absolutely not against that, with a fun throwback to The Law Machines and the line about Yvonne Hartman being required. I thought this was a welcomed addition to the Torchwood library for two important reasons and both concerned Ianto. It was wonderful to get an origin story for how he ended up with the job at Canary Wharf, and I love that it was the Ianto actor Gareth David-Lloyd that wrote it! I think that's such a fun little nugget and it's a gem of a piece in all honesty. It's good to get an insight into Yvonne running Torchwood before any of the regular Torchwood characters we came to know were present and just hearing Ianto struggling to get to grips with living in London and being new to the capital was intriguing. It was a little different to the character we knew and that was good because he was untouched by Torchwood. He was behind on his rent and whilst I didn't appreciate there Llancock reference from his landlord regarding him being Welsh, it displayed his predicament. Yvonne and Tommy discussing the Brett Archive was good and I liked the quick cover up about how it was used before Ianto came on board. Before Torchwood, he was slumming it with his dad who really didn't sound like he was in good shape, and Yvonne didn't make an effort to hide her disgusted reaction to his appearance. Ianto was working in a coffee shop and I loved how when Yvonne entered, she was familiar but he couldn't quite remember her. All the signs of retcon. The coffee place quickly ended up as a place for weapons testing injected some action and Ianto even got shot, although that seemed to be forgotten about rather quickly. The use of robotic soldiers was fun and we were soon introduced to the lead villain of the piece in the form of Pascal, the CEO of Blind Summit. It was a biotech company and they were testing a drug stolen from Torchwood. The failed experiments ended up in the canals (yes that's people!) and excelium was clearly more than a flu vaccine. If it had gotten out, then there was a mole at Torchwood One. I must admit I did find Yvonne's insistence that it wasn't Matthew a little overboard and pretty much an early clincher that he was the turncoat, although the fact she had used truth serum on him did provide some comfort. The development of Ianto's father going missing was interesting and later finding out that it was orchestrated by Yvonne said a lot about her. The name Yvonne Hartman being a telepathic trigger for Ianto to provide protection worked well and I liked how he inadvertently went on an undercover mission and was subjected to the excelium rather quickly. It was all to prevent his dad ending up in the canal, but this was quite the first day on the job! The effect of the drug on Ianto was fascinating and I liked how he thought Yvonne was in his head through the microscopic earpiece, but the drug had also brought his memories back which was a really great development. The revelation that Matthew was the mole was a decent moment even though it was predictable, and the Arachmed being used as a torture device on Yvonne provided some tension and urgency. He wanted the Brett Archive which worked well, although I wasn't expecting to ave Matthew and Pascal romantically involved! That should have been a more prominent Ange. Tommy had a good role in saving the day and the joke he made regarding Pascal to Matthew was wildly inappropriate given his condition! The Arachmed dealing with Matthew also brought things to a brutal end. Yvonne paying off the debts and rent for Ianto was nice, and she even dealt with the rat which was fun! I liked that Ianto rejected the offer of Torchwood and wanted it retconned from his memory, as he headed back to the museum job. However, Yvonne showed up their too after a Viking ship discovery that Ianto was overseeing, and the recruitment drive was in full force again. Overall, a terrific listen! 

Rating: 8/10