In Review: Big Finish: Torchwood: We Always Get Out Alive

Synopsis: Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams are on the run from a cataclysm. They’re the only survivors, and they’re driving away from the disaster as fast as they can. They’ve got to get away, they’ve got to warn the authorities, and they just can’t be late for the babysitter again.

No worries. After all, they’re Torchwood and they always get out alive. But this time there’s something in the car with them. Isn’t there?

Review: Torchwood: We Always Get Out Alive is what audio storytelling is for. Structurally, Guy Adams’ script revolves around two people interacting in a car on a road. That’s it, and it would’ve been death on screen. On audio, though, listeners can forgo the tedious visuals associated with talking heads and just focus on the talking.

I’m delighted that Adams covers so much thematic ground in the course of the story. His script allows Eve Myles and Kai Owen to move from babysitters, bad jokes, and civil servants to pondering love, danger, death, and everything in between. In the process, Myles and Owen inhabit Gwen and Rhys, perfectly portraying the layers of their relationship in extremis. Their dialogue is the narrative. The threat is truly just riding along to enjoy their performances as much as the listeners.

My one issue is that I have very little sense of when this story takes place relative to Torchwood: Aliens Among Us. The timeline is important, because Gwen and Rhys are in a specific place at the end of that arc. I’m hoping Big Finish fills in the gaps.

• You can purchase Torchwood: We Always Get Out Alive here. 

Written By: Guy Adams

Directed By: Scott Handcock

Cast

Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams)

Producer James Goss

Script Editor David Llewellyn

Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs