Moving Target

"Frozen... everything? Everyone!"

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: June 2016

Series: Torchwood Monthly 10

Featuring: Suzie

Synopsis

Suzie Costello would never describe herself as a hero. Not even if she were the last woman on Earth. Turns out, she's the second last woman on Earth, and that'll just have to do.

With the Earth frozen in time, Suzie becomes locked in a battle to save the planet and the life of Alex, the last woman alive. Hunted by alien warriors, and, with every hour that doesn't pass, the stakes are only getting higher.

Suzie Costello would never describe herself as a hero. But she would say she's someone who always makes the right choices. Wouldn't she?

Verdict

Moving Target was not the greatest of monthly Torchwood releases from Big Finish unfortunately! For whatever reason, I just couldn't find myself getting too invested in this adventure which was a big shame as I was really looking forward to exploring more of Suzie following on from her appearances in Everything Changes and They Keep Killing Suzie. She's a really interesting character and I just don't think this was the best use of her character. She represents part of the Torchwood team prior to where we join when the series starts, but this story closed her off from the rest of the world which would have worked better with a more familiar character in my opinion. I liked how there was a different take on the usual Torchwood introduction where the twenty-first century is where everything changes and Suzie reflects that she really should have been ready, but from what we know of her she very much was not. The concept at the heart of the episode in of itself wasn't bad and having time frozen and being able to explore the world and interact with it whilst everyone and everything remained frozen represented an incredible opportunity. I don't know what I'd give for that! Suzie realising that the time distortion generator she had 'borrowed' was inactive so deduced she wasn't the cause of whatever was happening outside, and she soon realised that she wasn't alone with Alex being another woman unaffected by the freezing of time. She seemed a fun character initially and very much ebullient, but I didn't grow to her and I think finding out the reason for her being the target came too late. I liked the concept behind her being future proof and the fact she would have a limited impact on the timeline as her pregnancy was ectopic and her fiancé was actually cheating on her with her best friend which would lead to an overdose. It was quite an abrupt series of revelations and then after a whole episode of escaping the hunters, something that dragged too long for me, Suzie went and killed her anyway! I really wasn't expecting the truth to be that the hunt would only end when the target died. I quite like the idea of being caught off guard like that, but it still just felt a little bit off. The whole hunt pausing for three hours after ten hunters were killed just felt wrong and Suzie only reading the rulebook bit by bit had a feeling that the rules could just be made up as we went along. I did enjoy the relationship built between Suzie and Alex until the vodka came out, and then we saw the damage that can be caused by alcohol. Alex calming that Suzie wasn't saving her out of selflessness but actually because she wanted to be important. There was clearly some foreshadowing of Suzie's fate, and that was also sparked by the Referee who turned out to be an incredibly annoying robot. I didn't like him at all. As a whole, this did have a brilliant concept at its heart but I think this was a failed opportunity to explore Suzie and her involvement in Torchwood. It had its moments, but as a whole it failed to get me hooked which was a shame. 

Rating: 5/10