Among Us: Cuckoo

"We're going to find Cardiff's biggest secret: Torchwood."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: June 2023

Series: Torchwood 7.07

Featuring: Bilis

Synopsis 

A group of urban explorers break into the Torchwood Hub. They disturb Bilis Manger who has his own plans for the evening.

Verdict 

Cuckoo was an excellent episode to continue my listening of the second volume of Among Us as part of Torchwood’s seventh official series! This was a rather unique instalment and one I thoroughly enjoyed as it seemed to blend between the Torchwood of old and the Torchwood that’s to come as Big Finish advance the story. The continuity from God Among Us in particular was excellent and I loved how Bilis showed quite a lot of distain regarding recent events in the city. His relationship with Time is an enigmatic one which was explored very well here. His suggestion of Torchwood being a fixed point in time was fascinating and I loved that he felt that the man who was resurrected, the woman from another universe and then the Herald were all interfering in that. He was obviously referring to the likes of Jack, Yvonne and God in recent developments in the Torchwood series and that was really good stuff. He was angered. He’s had a troubled relationship with Torchwood so with them now on their knees it was fun to think of him scourging around what remains of the Torchwood Hub. It was in a bad way, but some of the technology there was salvageable. That was fun to explore and Bilis really was on a mission to collect all he could. The trio of Bryn, Vijay and Diana were excellent and a really strong hint at what the future may have in store for Torchwood with these three at the helm. I’ll jump ahead to the ending where it was very ambiguous and with Bilis being involved I really liked that. I could certainly see this being the route for Torchwood ahead and if it is then this was a really solid loose pilot. It’s quite fun for them to have investigated and stumbled their way into Torchwood and their comments about the hexagonal stencil logo were amusing. I wonder if that would be their first point of change? Of course, before we had the ending we had an apparently brutal death of Bryn. He was broke after losing his job and quite amazingly saw the investigation into Torchwood as a potential property development recce! That was stunning and certainly an intriguing angle. Vijay was the lead of the trio with his desire to document their discovery for his following, but the fact he had Bryn’s death on film was shocking. We know all about the elevator up to the water tower at Roald Dahl Plas on the Cardiff Bay, but after all of the damage suffered to Torchwood it was only partially working. The lift went up but there was no opening for it to go through which meant Bryn was crushed in brutal fashion. The calm callousness of Bilis was a stark reminder of how uncomfortably brilliant his character is. He had a hunch that would happen but didn’t really warn them. It was not  the escape Bryn was hoping for which was a line dripped in horror. It was fantastic. The inclusion of Ianto as a hologram program was good stuff and another great way to blend the past and future eras of Torchwood together. I was impressed with that. Bilis wanting to see him was amusing and everything being a game to him was excellent. Never has an old man been so frightening! This being a posthumous release for Murray Melvin is such a shame as Bilis is a sublime character who has left an indelible mark on Torchwood. He will be forever remembered and this is a fine way to bow out with a wonderful performance. Vijay accepting his new role within Torchwood was very good but he didn’t seem too bothered about his duty when it came to saving the technology ahead of himself. Finding the morgue was eery and for a moment it seemed he’d end up there too like so many operatives before him. The distorted credits marked the ending nicely as we weren’t sure which version was real. Neither was Vijay, was it all a dream or was he now dreaming of a potential future? I hope we haven’t heard the last! Overall though, a brilliant listen. 

Rating: 9/10