Latter Days: Retirement Plan

"I'm killing myself next month."

Writer: Gareth David-Lloyd

Format: Audio

Released: September 2019

Series: Torchwood One 3.01

Featuring: Ianto

Synopsis

Torchwood's Head of Alien Acquisitions is retiring. But there's something very wrong in the idyll of El Cielo. And it's going to kill Ianto.

Verdict

Retirement Plan was an excellent start to the Latter Days third series of Torchwood One! I really am enjoying this spinoff range and probably even more than I expected, and this was quite the opener to say the least. I thought it started in a fun way with Ianto and Tommy and the latter giving the former tips which was amusing. I wasn't expecting the entire story to centre around the unique pairing and Tommy planning on retiring was a solid basis to move things forward. His showing Ianto all of the tips because he was good was a nice compliment to the PA, and the shift in revealing that Tommy planned to kill himself and upload his consciousness into El Cielo was not at all what I was expecting! That seemed very uncharacteristic for Tommy and he was easily able to steal the technology being the Head of Alien Acquisitions. That was a lot of fun. His desire for Ianto to do maintenance on the software once he was uploaded was an amusing prospect but I did love that he was only willing if he could go into the software himself first and take a look. He was plugged in and experienced all that Tommy had put together which was quite brilliant and Jerky John being the basis of all of the characters was fantastic. Ianto's reaction. to him even being the basis for a female within was terrific, especially when Tommy smacked her behind. Yvonne being a character within the El Cielo was incredible comedy and Tracey Ann-Oberman put on an incredible performance with the Spanish accent! It was quite tremendous. I loved the humour of her being programmed to love Tommy only and call Ianto the ugly one. There was quite the contrast when Tommy revealed all about the emotional tale of his wife and how he had to retcon her after finally being able to tell her the truth about his life, and now he had spent half a century at Torchwood so if this was the retirement he wanted then surely he deserved it. The video version of Yvonne preventing Ianto and Tommy from leaving because she'd learned of the magic words that disconnected them was tremendous and she knew that they wanted to fix and make tweaks to the characters! She believed that Ianto wanted to kill them so she retaliated with poison to try and ensure it was just Tommy and her. Things really shifted gear then when Ianto and the 'Elena' Yvonne seemed to get intimate before the introduction of an action-packed second half of the episode with the soldiers coming trying to take down Cassandra Brav. The analogies of the retirement obviously signalled that Ianto was tasked with saving Tommy and the quick adjustment of narratives with Elena skipping ahead to being a double agent was fantastic. I was a big fan of Brav just being another Yvonne and Ianto getting in on the game with his secret agent persona and laser weapon was marvellous. Ianto pondering on whether he wanted to actually stay in the El Cielo was intriguing and unexpected but his having a talking sports car Travis was terrific. Ianto was in fine form and that should come as no surprise given the author. Travis knowing that Ianto always completed his mission was nice and him being the swine that needed to be killed put him in quite the position within the virtual world! Yvonne making herself admin was fantastic but I did enjoy Tommy's plan to get Ianto to the outside to help him. Yvonne using Sandra and Tommy's old dog Lola as a hook was full of emotion but he was contemplating living forever in his old life. I thought that was a strong argument! Tommy was nearly convinced but he'd actually been given the reigns as a result which was a nice touch. The comedy at the end with the true Yvonne being on the outside and having seen everything was marvellous, and there would be no retirement for Tommy. He'd made a binding agreement to Torchwood and it wouldn't be ending now. Overall, an excellent listen! 

Rating: 9/10