Parasite: Meet Mr Lyne

"You can't just save my life and then run away."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: August 2020

Series: Torchwood Soho 1.02

Featuring: Folgate

Synopsis

Enter the world of 1950s Torchwood! 

Gangsters are vanishing from the streets of Soho, there's a deadly Nazi secret on the loose, and something's moving in the smog. Norton Folgate should be sorting this out, but the Torchwood agent is in disgrace. Who's going to save London this time?

Verdict

Meet Mr Lyne was another great episode to continue my way through the Parasite first series of Torchwood Soho! This followed on nicely from where The Man From Room 13 started and I think the format is gaining pace. I almost feel like the episodes could be a little longer but that keeps the pace frantic and certainly appeases my appetite for wanting more. I thought the title of the episode was intriguing as Gideon was the referred to Mr Lyne and after his impactful introduction without much known about him in the opening episode, it was good to get some background about him. His position as a black man seems like it's going to be excellent to play around with given the 1950s setting and I think it's nice that Norton genuinely isn't bothered by his race. That could not be said for those offering him a job or a hotel room before he turned up on their doorsteps and quickly rescinded their offers! Purely based on the colour of his skin. It's shocking to think that this was the norm for this day and age so having Torchwood operate within this environment is really intriguing as a listener in 2025. I think the loose continuation and mentions of the fog are good and I suspect this will be where the umbrella titular parasite will lie. Threatening London with something that can be passed off as a natural phenomenon is good stuff and I'm excited to hear how things play out from here. The innuendo and childish humour that came from Norton being obsessed with Konstantin's package was fun stuff and Lizbeth was just a little too keen to open it when it arrived at Room 13. Norton of course realised that this was the sure fire way to get a deadly package into Torchwood. Doing so by ordinary mail wouldn't exactly be easy to get into Torchwood! So there we are. A fine trap for sure and I liked that Norton worked it out. The ridiculousness of the George Ezra fund really did make me audibly laugh as that's just so random and bonkers for the 1950s. Why him of all famous people to name the fund after some fifty or sixty years before he made an impact? Given that Andy popped up as the cliffhanger finish though at least provides a link to the times of Ezra. I wonder if he's Andy's kind of vibe? Just having him around for the series is going to be fun because his dynamic with Norton is already established and quite a touchy one. I'm very invested in finding out why and how Andy has travelled back in time to save Norton which is exciting moving forward. Catching up with Gideon as he got close with his investigation into Torchwood as a journalist was good and I liked how we were brought right up to speed with where he interacted with Norton in the series' opener. I am also very excited by the prospect of Torchwood Soho coming up against the Nazi version of Torchwood. That just sounds sublime! The potential there really is endless and I'm super excited to hear what comes next. Lizbeth looks like she'll be out of action now thank to the contents of the package, but Norton and Andy could be anywhere and anywhen! Overall, a really strong episode to continue the series. I look forward to hearing what's coming next! 

Rating: 8/10