Fallout

"I'm just a copper from Cardiff."

Writer: David Llewellyn 

Format: Audio

Released: April 2012

Series: Torchwood BBC Audio 08

Featuring: Gwen, Andy

Synopsis

When Yasmin finds a jewelled egg in her grandfather's shed, her first thought is to sell it. Unfortunately, the object is no valuable Faberge antique, but a dangerous weapon from another planet. Worse still, the buyer she finds online is a Russian secret agent working for the Committee for Extraterrestrial Research, who promptly swipes it, kills her brother Sayed and lands her in hospital.

When Sgt Andy Davidson realises that he's not dealing with an ordinary double shooting, he calls Gwen Cooper, who breaks the bad news about the egg and its deadly contents. With no Torchwood to help, and Gwen in America, it's up to Andy and Yasmin to follow the trail of the "Shiva virus" – all the way from Cardiff to the British Museum...

Verdict

Fallout was a great story to continue my way through the Torchwood Tales collection! I'm reaching the end now which is quite sad as I feel like I'm only just getting started now the range has moved to stories of around an hour in length and going beyond the events of Miracle Day. It was brilliant to hear that series and events referenced when it came to the revelation that Sayed stood up after being shot dead. I thought Andy was terrific as the main character and it was good to hear Tom Price in the narrator role. He sounded a little different to how he portrays Andy for Big Finish and on screen which was intriguing, but he stepped back into the role terrifically. I thought his take on Gwen was amusing as well as he performed the phone conversation with Rhys in the background as they were at a drive through. The continuity from Miracle Day in having them still in the United States was strong and it's crazy to think of Gwen as not being in Cardiff. Hell, Torchwood aren't even in Cardiff anymore! They don't have a presence which is very difficult to wrap my head around, but it's also exciting as it takes Torchwood beyond the realms of Cardiff. Listening now in 2024, it's quite amusing to hear that we have a character by the name of Yasmin Khan some five years before Yaz debuted as companion in The Woman Who Fell to Earth. Unfortunately it's difficult to try and think of this as the same character who travelled with the Thirteenth Doctor, but it's a fun little quirk. The mystery of the jewelled egg was good and I really did like Yasmin as a character. She was confused by everything that happened and her reaction to Pavel showing her the briefcase full of money was excellent. She had never seen so much! Sayed convincing her to sell it on eBay seemed foolish but I liked the effort to make a quick win. It was of course much more than that though! The fact it contained the Shiva virus was exciting and I liked how it was deadly to all life forms on Earth. It was incredibly dangerous and with all due respect, I wasn't hugely confident in having Andy as the man to prevent its spread. He handled the task rather well though and it was nice for him to draw back on his experience with Gwen and his interaction with Torchwood. I thought Kalogzul made for a strong villain and his distain towards the annoyance that was Torchwood was a lot of fun. I can't help but think he was the only one feeling that way towards the organisation, and the frustration of the Hub now blowing up and taking certain artefacts with them was great. Here, the egg was left behind and not part of the others in Russia and that was proving dangerous in the wrong hands. I thought the story shifting from Cardiff to London and the British Museum was amusing and the standoff there really was quite something. Torchwood having the upper hand with some preplanning in place from Jack in leaving a weapon in an artefact was a little strange and felt like cheating, but I couldn't help but feel it was amusing! The fact that Pavel was infected with the virus and then lost the antidote when Kalogzul was killed was quite extraordinary, and then he just blew up! That was quite an impactful ending. Andy being at the conclusion and confronted with someone from COBRA was good, but he was having none of it. He wanted to just get home and go to bed. He wasn't respecting the chain of command on this occasion. I don't think he enjoyed being the head honcho! Overall though, a terrific little audio adventure. 

Rating: 8/10