Double Part One

"God I love plastic."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: January 2023

Series: Torchwood Monthly 69

Featuring: Roberta Craven

Synopsis

1970s London is a place of suspicion and murder. The assassination of an entire embassy comes to the attention of Torchwood. 

There's a global energy crisis. There's an alien invasion. Petrochemical companies are subject to hostile take overs by the mysterious Nessoil. Extremely hostile take overs. 

Roberta Craven was once a spy. Now she's broken. But she can still see the patters in the world. And they're closing in around her.

Verdict

Double started in very strong fashion for the first part of a very unique two-part Torchwood release! I don't think the Torchwood monthly range at Big Finish has made enough of this kind of story in visiting different eras and teams at Torchwood because there really is so much potential. We've had Torchwood Soho kind of become its own thing which is good but one offs like this one here and The Dollhouse have been relatively few and far between. That's no criticism I just wish we had more of the Torchwood story! I think the 1970s is a really fun time for a Torchwood story because of everything that was going on at that time with the Third Doctor grounded on Earth meaning for storyline purposes a lot of the alien invasions had to come to the planet rather than him finding them elsewhere. That works well so 1973 seems perfect to have the return of the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness! They've just been thwarted twice in Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons, so now Torchwood are on the case when things get very political. I am surprised that the murder of an entire Libyan embassy representation would not be under the remit of UNIT, but alas there need to be some liberties taken with storyline. I do suppose that UNIT can't be everywhere! I thought Roberta Craven as the lead member of Torchwood for the story was a wonderful character and it was so refreshing to hear Louise Jameson in this kind of role. She played it so well and within just a few minutes she was such a likeable character and I cared about her as the protagonist. I think a lot of that is down to Jameson as a familiar voice as the wonderful Leela, but here she was a disgraced ex-spy at MI5 now finding her feet again at Torchwood. That's a really fun set up for a lead character that would have so much potential. I haven't even listened to part two yet but I'm already ready for a 1970s Torchwood boxset. I thought the sound in the story was incredible and the way the 1970s was captured in atmosphere was almost mesmeric. It was a sheer delight to hear that familiar intruding sound effect in my ears to represent when the Autons were present. Roberta knowing about them was good and I liked how she had suspicions based on the recent wave of deaths including suffocation and the importance of oil to plastic. The way things got political surrounding the oil here was impressive with Ossam ousted by Nessoil. The irony of the name of the latter in not really hiding who they were was not lost on Roberta and it's just good fun. The in-joke as well about why the Nestene Consciousness didn't just take over a plastics factory instead of an oil drill in the sea was marvellous and they could just about get away with it when it came to Roberta's mind. She had Aspergers and I liked the way her struggle with the rest of the world being too slow for what she was working out was presented. It was emotional at times and that just added to her likeableness. Herman Baker being the supposed double agent on the inside was good and I really liked Neal Hart as the journalist that was asking all of the right questions to expose thing and that got him threatened in an almost devastating way! The potential merger between Nessoil and Ossam not going ahead because of the Auton reveal and killing was a little surprising as I thought that would go through, but the cliffhanger was also a tad predictable in fully bringing the Autons into view in an active and physical way. It was impactful to be fair and definitely sounded traumatic, but I'm more interested in Roberta and the politics of the whole situation. Overall, a really strong start and I can't wait for the second part now!