Among Us: Dreamscroll

"Enjoy living your best life."

Writer: Ash Darby 

Format: Audio

Released: August 2023

Series: Torchwood 7.10

Featuring: Mr Colchester, Ng, Orr, Tyler

Synopsis

Something is killing influencers and Torchwood have to save them. Mr Colchester discovers a whole new world and he doesn't like it one bit. Don't forget to like and subscribe.

Verdict

Dreamscroll was another excellent episode to continue my way through the third volume of Among Us for Torchwood’s seventh series! This followed on very nicely where How I Conquered the World left off and the heavy inclusion of AI as an enemy was terrific. Now I must admit, I’m not someone to be involved or bothered by the world of influencers but I really appreciated everything that went on here. I’m no avid YouTube watcher and I do spend time on social media, but that’s mostly for sport and Who content! I couldn’t care less about the likes of Kardashians and other influencers who create meaningless and boring content. It’s not my world but I’m fully aware of and tackling it in a Torchwood story was very nicely done and another fine example of the series tackling current and modern issues. The world of influencers has gone rather crazy and I must admit I found Tyler’s thoughts on veganism quite amusing as I just couldn’t live that way. Surely there’s no enjoyment in a meal there if you’re worried about milk proteins? I thought the format of the story was strong in having the four Torchwood characters of Mr Colchester, Ng, Orr and Tyler taking an influencer under their wing basically. There were a number of influencer deaths recently and with the threat left by Friend, Torchwood on the case to try and stop the next victim. They weren’t all successful though as Mr Colchester found out with Flavia. He’d actually taken a bit of a shine to her and could see the personality beyond her social timeline and presence, so when she died he was rather upset and almost guilty that it had happened. Tyler blurting out to him that his subject had died was a bit harsh, but it seems he had fallen in love with Chris who was his subject. He’d convinced him to get off People Fluid which turned out to be quite the app. The idea of automatic mode was good in ensuring that influencers could keep their content posting constantly, but that being taken as far as still posting once they were dead for both images, text and video streams was incredible. It was horrifying but also brilliant for a Torchwood story! Just having Ng and Orr walk in on the first victims and seeing the dead corpses still live streaming was quite something. The relationship conjured up between Tyler and Chris was good and I found it amusing how the latter went off his app’s schedule for when he could fit some sex in. The idea of having to redo a blowjob because of the lighting was also just barmy. Social media and the world really has gone mad. I really liked how Orr’s empathic abilities were utilised here as whilst we had the humour of her blurting out that Tyler did love Chris, she was also able to confirm whether those on the video were real or not. The deep fakes would obviously not have any emotions to emit and that came in handy! She was really good here. I thought the way things ended with Orr and Ng being at the supposed headquarters of the People Fluid company and it all not being real was fantastic, and the way Chris after dying reverted into the familiar voice of Friend was excellent. Her business is far from done and I’m very excited for the two episodes yet to come. Overall, a tremendous story!

Rating: 9/10