Among Us: Aliens Next Door

"Look at us, two aliens watching the lives of humans."

Writer: Ash Darby

Format: Audio

Released: May 2023

Series: Torchwood 7.03

Featuring: Ng, Orr 

Synopsis 

Mrs Betty Clerihew has an exciting in her spare room. Torchwood are hiding out there, watching the comings and goings of her estate. Apparently, monsters are living on the cul-de-sac.

Verdict 

Aliens Next Door was a fantastic episode to kick off the Among Us seventh series of Torchwood! I must admit that I’m not sure how much I can buy into this series being the official seventh of Torchwood, but rather I think of it as the third series now of something of a spin-off range. I’m still a little behind on the Torchwood monthly stories and with this one kicking off with Orr and Ng, I’m glad to find that this appears to be something of a separate continuity. Or at least you don’t need to be up to date! I think it’s good to kick off the new series with original characters from the range and this served as a fine reminder of their qualities. I thought it was important to address the elephant in the room of Captain Jack’s absence given the controversies surrounding John Barrowman at the moment. It’s a huge shame that he isn’t a part of this series or the continuation of Torchwood, but the show can certainly survive and even thrive without him. Sure, it would be better to have him around but at least they addressed his absence which made sense given the way everyone seemed to go their separate ways at the end of God Among Us. Jack could be anywhere! Torchwood was in fragments now and I liked that Cardiff was still recovering from the great flood. That was important continuity given the scale of what preceded up to now. The relationship between Orr and Ng was very good but it was clear that the latter was up to something regarding the former. Reiterating the empathic abilities of Orr was important to re-establish given the amount of time that has elapsed since the previous series. I was intrigued as to what was actually happening in the episode but as it went on, I really appreciated the slow build. Betty Clerihew was an intriguing character and she seemed like she was hiding something right from the off which was fun. The idea of Torchwood being reduced to camping out in her spare bedroom and taking stock of what was happening on the street was brilliant and showed the decline whilst also highlighting their ability to survive. Torchwood will go on! Betty knew they were special ops and Ng didn’t even hide that they were from outer space, but the old woman didn’t seem to believe them. The way racism in modern Britain was addressed here was tremendous and it’s not something Torchwood has shied away from in this audio series. I was really impressed. Hakan was a good character and I couldn’t help feel sorry him. He was being targeted as a sex offender, had his cat stoned and his home was offensively graffitied. He really did have a lot to deal with being a man of colour and a different nationality which was shocking. It really is horrifying to think that stuff like this still happens in modern society, and it was addressed really well here. I thought the history behind him was intriguing and the fact that he was trapped in his own experiment was a really good revelation of what had happened. Ng knew that was the case and she was apologetic to Orr for bringing her there. She was empathic and felt a little too much. The involvement of Betty was expected and her accusations levelled towards Ng and Orr were pretty amusing. I really liked how things ended in potentially setting us up for the future of the series and the overall story arc with the child on the phone who claimed to be a friend, but they knew now where they were. It seems Torchwood was due to come out of the shadows and that’s very exciting! Overall, an excellent start to the series. 

Rating: 9/10