Everyone Says Hello

"It makes everyone talk."

Writer: Dan Abnett

Format: Audio

Released: February 2008

Series: Torchwood BBC Audio 02

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, Ianto

Synopsis 

Across Cardiff, ordinary people are behaving in odd ways: saying hello to one another, and going out of their way to greet people. Torchwood discovers that an alien communications field is gathering strength in the city.

The team must find the device responsible and shut it off – before civil unrest engulfs the city.

Verdict  

Everyone Says Hello was an excellent BBC Audio adventure of Torchwood! I must admit that prior to listening I was a little put off by the fact the runtime of the story was a whopping two-and-a-half hours in the prose format, but I was so impressed with Burn Gorman in the narrator role. He brought his character of Owen to life in brilliant fashion, but what was even better for me were his impressions of the other main cast. His American accent on Captain Jack was fantastic and really felt authentic which always helps in how much I enjoy a story. Jack is Torchwood during this era of the show with the story fitting in during that first series, so having him sound something akin to John Barrowman is very much in my favour. His take on Ianto was also brilliant with that thick Welsh accent presented in a humorous but unoffencive way. Tosh didn’t feature too much with her remaining at the Hub and working her magic from there, but when Gorman was required to voice her his impression was faultless. The same can be said of Gwen as well. It really didn’t feel like we had a reading of 150 minutes with just one actor. Credit to Gorman. I loved the concept behind this story and it built really well from the simplicity of Owen and Gwen getting into work early and people stopping them on the street and saying hello. That seemed harmless enough, but they soon went into their life story in very quick fashion with a barrage of pointless and random facts about themselves. Some of that was amusing with a woman revealing she’d never had an orgasm to a man revealing he liked cod and chips. It was all a little wild and chaotic which was great! Jack thought nothing of it initially but the direction soon shifted to realising that everyone being too polite and saying hello was an alien interference. I really liked that the story was trying to work out the source and that sent us out on a lengthy and very interesting adventure. It was exciting and well paced. It was good that the Torchwood team had their bracelets on to ensure that they weren’t impacted by the field that was sending everyone into a diatribe of their life. The way this was worked out to be communication software on a large scale was excellent and that was a concept I really enjoyed! It forced people into expending knowledge about themselves in the name of learning. However, the communication field had been set off automatically after the ship it was a part of had crashed and the explorer had died. There was nobody for the acquired knowledge to go to. The idea of feeding it gibberish to confuse and overload the software and make it think the planet was too alien to be worth anything was decent, but it still seemed slightly lacking and was my only qualm with the story really. I felt something a little more impactful was deserved for the climax, but it wasn’t bad by any means! The cliffhanger with Jack losing his protection was very good and I liked how it was he who was vulnerable as that’s usually not the case! The way he was tackling the challenge of not reverting into constantly introducing himself was great through. Pratt having a history with Gwen in the police force was good although I could have done with less of the humour regarding his name and personality. That was a little unnecessary. Overall though, this was a thoroughly enjoyable audio adventure with a strong and unique concept at heart!

Rating: 9/10