Writer: David Llewellyn
Format: Audio
Released: November 2019
Series: Torchwood Monthly 33
Featuring: Bilis
Synopsis
A devious antiques dealer, a property developer and a heartbroken hairdresser. Three strangers sit on a train that's going nowhere.
They are joined by a mysterious figure.
Bilis Manger wants to tell them how they died.
Verdict
Dead Man's Switch was a really good continuation of the Torchwood monthly adventures from Big Finish! I’m loving that we get full stories with Bilis as the lead character as he really did make such an impression during the Series 1 finale of the televised show. He has so much potential on audio and he might even be creepier and more eery in this format! I thought the mystery to start with three strangers having fallen asleep on a train was good and now they’d woken up with their carriage in the middle of nowhere. The argument over which train they were actually on as each individual thought they were heading to either Grangetown, Heaton High Level or Bargoed, and with my local knowledge I can confirm those are very different lines to be on! The format of the three recalling their recent memories was great and I liked how Rowena’s was all about a mysterious mirror that it turned out she had won at an auction outbidding Bilis. He wasn’t too happy and did all he could to get it off her hands, but she wasn’t having it. She was delighted with her purchase. Rowena’s strange moment in the shop was intriguing as she had no memory of being there just five minutes beforehand. And there was CCTV footage to prove it! The fact she saw herself in the mirror was great stuff and chilling with it seeming that her doppelgänger pulling her into the mirror was how she got to the train! It was a fascinating start. Piers was a bit of a knob and I know that was the aim, but man he was just not someone I would get along with! His description of his last memory surely being a dream was interesting and I liked the mystery surrounding Bilis and his shop. Piers was working with the building manager and in an effort to rejuvenate Cardiff, his lease was going to see him evicted. That was surprising! Piers celebrated by getting high and whilst blown off by a love interest who amazingly didn’t want cocaine, the music being tampered with was fun and I loved the bats coming to him after he rigged the exterminator report. They were certainly endangered after they were breaking the window by smashing into it! And then he’d fallen before ending up on the train. Zoe was a decent character and I enjoyed her housing association struggles. Wedmoor Court was going to be knocked down and her and Bilis were the final tenants. Was this his new property after eviction? She was a hairdresser but whilst working she’d seen something that was a dark shape and hunchbacked. The noise not being squatters was good and I liked how within she’d seen her own flat! That was really good eeriness. Bilis not being recognised by all of them despite their encounters was delightful and a simple perception filter did the job. I thought the revelation that it was all part of a complex puzzle was great and the Committee being involved was an unexpected treat! The three were to be doppelgängers as part of the Committee’s plan to replace everyone, but Bilis had snatched them before that could happen. But he was far from a good guy, as he’d held all three on a quantum prison travelling through a temporal loop. He’d allow Zoe to leave, but then we had a sudden ending as Bilis revealed the Committee needed all of them for their plan to work. But then Zoe was freed and we were done. An abrupt end, but a really strong audio!
Rating: 8/10
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