Machines: 9 to 5

"Happiness makes for better workers."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: July 2018

Series: Torchwood One 2.03

Featuring: Yvonne, Ianto 

Synopsis

It's Monday morning. Stacey loves Mondays. Stacey loves every day. Stacey lives to work. She's a temp and she loves it. Only there's a man in the coffee queue who has a terrible warning for her. Stacey is going to die today.

Verdict

9 to 5 was a great story to conclude the Machines second series of Torchwood One! In my blogging of Blind Summit I mentioned how it appeared that this boxset was going to contain three individual stories rather than an arc going throughout the series, but I was completely wrong as this adventure brought the whole series full circle in an impressive way. I thought it started a little strangely with Stacey as the new temp but having Ianto arrive rather hastily to apparently save her and claim she didn't have long to live immediately provided some intrigue. Tanya was a very annoying character for her brief moments as Stacey's friend and her constant referral of her pal as babes was grating. I was so happy when she made a quick shift into a robot and was exploded into her component parts! I'm really not sure I could have gone an entire hour with her playing a big part. Yvonne's faking being the head of HR at Stacey's workplace was amusing and I liked how she was firmly wanting to know about the new project in place. Yvonne knew a great deal already and the moment she was trying to tell Stacey a home truth was a little sad. Stacey didn't know what the weather was like nor what transport she had arrived to working, because she was a robot. HQP as the employer was basically a dummy organisation with the initials not standing for anything and it was all part of a government file digitisation programme and they had gone to Temporary Solutions for some very cheap labour. The idea of the Temps was a little sad and the concept of them only existing between the hours of 9-5 was quite something! Stacey going to what she believed was her flat but it not being how her memories had it was sad as she came to the realisation of her life. But Stacey was different to other Temps with her developing traits and becoming more and more human with each date, and she was keen to help take down Temporary Solutions after learning her truth. Elaine Hartwell was a great character as the head of HQP and I liked her concerned interrogation of Stacey when it came to the security breaches. Stacey showing her loyalty to both sides was fun and it seemed a shame that the Temps schedule was to end today, meaning she'd likely die. Elaine being unable to infiltrate Torchwood as part of the programme, but that's where phase two kicked in and the idea of bring the master network online and putting Temps in every UK workplace. She would hold the private data as ransom against the government to enact this which was fun, and Yvonne was subjected to retrieve the information on Torchwood. Except, Yvonne was always in control as she realised that the Blind Summit tech had been utilised to create Elaine as a cheap copy – of Yvonne! That was a lot of fun to hear her revel in that moment. Elaine was a Temp too, but she wasn't the only villain. WOTAN was back which I adored! I didn't see the return coming so it was areal delight. WOTAN 2.0 was back and in full action, with Yvonne still required for installation. I think we needed a bit more of an explanation as to how it survived The Law Machines, but it was wonderful for it have Work Machines now! Marvellous. The idea of WOTAN couldn't be destroyed, but Stacey challenged it in a big way which was brilliant. Who did WOTAN work for? The upgrade comments and timing was amusing as that's happened on more than one occasion in my employment, but Ianto was on guard to corrupt the back up and create a syntax error so there was no file and no way back to the cloud for WOTAN to finally see the ancient computer programme off! What a triumphant return in this boxset though, a delight. The time approaching 5pm was sad as everyone had been too busy to find a solution to the Temps, and Stacey was over. It was an emotional end to what was a great conclusion to a really solid second series.

Rating: 8/10