Asylum
A Torchwood Audio Adventure
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Radio 4 Asylum A Torchwood Audio Adventure |
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| Author | Anita Sullivan |  |
| First aired | July 2009 |
| Synopsis: When PC Andy Davidson arrests a young girl for shoplifting, he thinks it's going to be a routine case. That is, until he sees that she is carrying a gun. The girl is soaking wet, covered in mud, and the weapon is like nothing he's ever seen before. |
Who's that girl? by John Wood 18/12/90
Torchwood: outside the family entertainment slot, beyond the watershed. I'd come to associate this show with unnecessary swearing, gratuitous sex and uneven plots, but it had held just enough of my interest to keep me coming back. I'm also a fan of the Doctor Who audios, partly because I can listen to them while doing jobs, so when I saw three Torchwood stories coming up on Radio 4, I wanted to give them a go. First up is Asylum, and I'll keep it spoiler-free since it's not been out a year yet.
In retrospect, the fact that this was being broadcast in the afternoon should have been a clue that it would be a bit different. There's no swearing, no sex, and almost no violence; a security guard wrestling a shoplifter to the floor, Jack doing his best American cop show "on the floor, hands where I can see 'em" routine, and... er... that's it. I found this refreshing.
There's one other thing that's nearly absent, though, and that's a plot. Seriously. There's five minutes setup, five minutes resolution, and almost nothing of importance happens in between. This could be disastrous in an action show, but what we have here is a character piece, and a very well written one: it held my attention throughout. Asylum is all about Freda (the shoplifter mentioned above), her interaction with the regulars, and their interaction with each other while dealing with her case. The dialogue is consistent with the TV series and everyone stays believably in character.
Which brings me to the cast. Jack and Ianto are sidelined for much of the story, but get to have some nice quiet moments together. They are shown to be very comfortable with each other, despite their contrasting personalities and differing attitudes to what is appropriate. Gwen is the team member with the biggest piece of the action (or at least the most lines), wearing her "caring confidante" hat. She acts as the glue in this episode, the only character everyone talks to: Freda, Jack, Ianto, and Andy.
Yes, nice guy PC Andy's back, and this time he gets a decent spot in the limelight. He also gets to find out more about Torchwood and stands up to Gwen and Jack more effectively than he has in the past. I enjoyed his presence. He did have one comedy moment which was a little too silly for me (when they catch up with Freda shortly after they've found out something about her), but this is a minor complaint.
Finally, Freda. As the centrepiece of the story (and the only significant character I have no pre-existing expectations of), her role is vital, and fortunately she is played very well. We are given a good sense of her as a confused and vulnerable teenager, and as the story progresses we learn about the culture that she comes from naturally, through dialogue and the connections she makes with Cardiff rather than through infodump exposition. Her speech patterns are an effective shorthand way of showing that she is "not from round here". She also narrates some of her thoughts; I was very briefly confused on the first occasion but then found this to be quite effective.
Asylum does feature some of the standard Torchwood "props" (Retcon, the Rift) but uses them appropriately, and the only other piece of SF magic it introduces is consistent with what we know of the Doctor Who universe.
Productionwise, I've been a bit spoiled by the richness of the Big Finish audios. Asylum sounded rather bare in comparison, but it was all clear and well edited, and the occasional music felt appropriate.
And that's about all I can say while still avoiding spoilers. Overall, an enjoyable, low-key tale, though certainly not one for the action junkies. 8/10.