Smashed

"I've got to get more booze."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: October 2019

Series: Torchwood Monthly 32

Featuring: Gwen

Synopsis 

Glynteg was never much of a place. Since the refinery's shut down there's been nothing much going on – no jobs, no money, more pubs than buses. One of those sad Welsh towns where there's little to do but drink. 

The the fracking company came and there was a brief spark of hope – maybe there'd be some jobs, at least. But that fizzled out. Instead the peel started falling ill.

Gwen Cooper's come to Glynteg to find out what's happening. Something ancient has woken up beneath the ground and will do whatever it can to protect itself. The Hunters have been unleashed. And there's only one way to stay safe.

Verdict

Smashed was a pretty decent story to continue my way through the monthly audio adventures of Torchwood from Big Finish! I must admit that whilst fully aware of the connotations associated with the title of this episode, I really didn’t anticipate that Gwen would be drunk for nearly its entirety! Credit must go to Eve Myles for what was as a whole a stellar performance in what were surely difficult circumstances, but I think it was probably a little too much at times. I thought it was nice to have Gwen going solo and mention how she used to be pretty good at saving the world. It seems that the days of Torchwood are somewhat behind her and I was fascinated by the concept of money playing a part as to why the organisation was no longer in full operation. In fact, Gwen seemingly took the independent investigation of events with Drillpak purely to help the Torchwood bankroll in the hope of getting the band going again. That was a nice concept and it really is terrific to know that there is life to Torchwood after Miracle Day and beyond. Gwen’s call to Rhys was good and I thought the Glynteg setting was really well done. The fact that there was no signal in a little remote area of Wales was incredibly believable and Gwen’s humorous warning to Rhys about not eating Anwen’s fish fingers was equally so. I thought it was a weird vibe in Glynteg and that soon became completely unsurprising given that everyone was drunk to endure they weren’t taken over by the pathogen that had run rapid in the water supply and beyond. Even a lemonade on tap from the local pub was not safe, and of course that’s exactly what Gwen had to get her infected. The slow build of that infection taking place was great and I liked the deterioration into drunkenness before it became the constant. You could almost hear the rationalisation within the drunkenness of Gwen when that became the norm and she needed to try and sort things out whilst inebriated. The little hint regarding that at the start of the episode was good to come back to, and I can only keep praising Myles for her performance! It was impressive, but I just can’t believe it lasted so long for everyone to be drunk! It got a little tiresome as a listener to be honest and I think that’s a big reason for losing a few marks on my rating. Martyn was a good character as an environmentalist and he complimented Gwen well. It was fun for him to resist the pathogen for so long only to be taken over and make a good drunken pairing with the Torchwood operative. Just hearing drunk people have fun together is always amusing and that was presented really well here. The truth about Drillpak and them not actually being the culprits of everything going wrong at Glynteg was pretty well done and Rhian turned out to be a fascinating character involved in the cover up. She knew about the independent investigations and I must say Gwen’s approach of asking locals what she shouldn’t be asking was marvellous. More definitely should have been made of that! I thought the story did go a little too long but the conclusion was decent in seeing off the pathogen as the effect of inebriation wore off. Rhian was defeated and sent packing in a somewhat triumphant moment, but as a whole this will simply be remembered as the Torchwood audio where everyone was drunk. That’s unfortunate as Eve Myles deserves better for what she brought to the table here, but it was just a little too odd and long in parts. Still, a decent listen!

Rating: 7/10