Torchwood: Ghost Mission by James Goss (CD audio review).
In a first full-length adventure and lead role for Tom Price’s Sgt Andy Davidson, ‘Ghost Mission’ takes a huge pinch of time-travelling salt and shows Andy what a day in the Torchwood team might be like.
In an interesting twist, although Torchwood does what it likes really, he is given an assessment day and a dead assessor. In fact, his assessor is from the 1950s. Norton Folgate (Samuel Barnett) is non-corporal in the present day as he’s actually being projected from the 50s. Stay with me.
A chemical spill might be a normal traffic incident caused by human or corporate carelessness but not in Cardiff. The spreading green goo not only dissolves a hapless pedestrian but also tries to recreate him. Andy must track down the source and can only be helped verbally by Norton who is unable to touch anything. This can be awkward. As Sgt. Andy tries to overcome his fear he’s also aware he’s being marked out of 10. It’s not the easiest lesson.
As we lurch from one crisis to another there’s a chance to get to know Andy and find out why he is so keen to follow in his friend Gwen’s footsteps and get access to the inside of Torchwood. He’s charmingly naive and we love him because he is just another version of our own aspirations.
James Goss wrote this whip smart and very funny drama giving both Price and Samuel Barnett as Norton an enormous amount of rope. It’s just what you want from this kind of adventure. It has witty dialogue, mild dilemmas and the two actors spark off each other really well.
The extras of cast interviews and chats reveal the seed of a sequel which took three years to get around to. Tom and Sam make a glorious double act and I look forward to their next outing.
Sue Davies
May 2022
(pub: Big Finish, 2016. 1 CD 65 minutes. Price: £ 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-78575-211-7. Download: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-78575-212-4)
cast: Tom Price, Samuel Barnett, Lisa Bowerman, Laura Doddington, Aaron Neil, and David Warner
check out website: www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/torchwood-ghost-mission-1391
