So Welsh, so emotional, so bizarre, so brilliant, and so Torchwood. That’s how it looked like Big Finish’s main Torchwood range would end last September with its 96th release, Salvage.
It would have been a very fitting end, but a few weeks later, the audio production company put out an announcement confirming the range would reach 100 releases and there would also be a 20-year celebration of the franchise through an audio drama called Torchwood: Legacy.
On television, the show changed a huge amount through its four seasons, not least because American company Starz co-produced the last of those, and over the last decade, the Torchwood Institute’s past and future has been explored on audio. The main range is one of Big Finish’s strongest, and boldest, with plenty of genre-hopping and exploration of topics far away from science fiction that successfully land in what are standalone audio dramas.
Salvage is like a coda to the show and to the range, and delightfully it’s written by the man who played Ianto Jones: Gareth David-Lloyd.
He also starred in Torchwood: SUV, a main range release from October 2022 about the institute’s ever-reliable high-tech car in the 2000s, and Salvage is a spiritual sequel to that.
The story starts with a man called Jed trying to get into the SUV, then negotiate with it so he can add it to his museum of scavenged artefacts. When that doesn’t work, he gets violent with the car. Distressed individual, comedic opening scene.
After the titles is a trailer for ‘The Gatekeepers’, which sounds like an in-universe version of the Torchwood show, and so the audience is introduced to 17-year-old Welsh twins Esther and Cody. Esther is witty and grown-up, while Cody is insecure, child-like, has every mental condition you can be diagnosed with, and fed up of being constantly mocked by his sister. He’s easily riled, and while you can feel sympathy for him over the course of the story, it’s likely you’ll be simultaneously laughing. One of his coping mechanisms is listening to ‘The Gatekeepers’ audio dramas, and the transitions in and out of snippets of those stories in this story is expertly done. So meta.
These are two incredibly well-realised and very believable characters brought to life by Carlie Enoch and Dewi Wykes, an impressive feat, given their rather extreme personalities. Enoch, in particular, gets some scenes with real emotional depth and vulnerability that she nails.
The siblings come across a scrapyard early on containing various artefacts from Doctor Who and Torchwood, and soon find Torchwood’s SUV. It has an ashtray. Must be an old car then.
From thereon, it’s a hilarious weaving of two teenagers out of their depth with the marks the Torchwood Three team left on the SUV while they were alive.
David-Lloyd voices the SUV, and despite mostly being consigned to robotic delivery (deliberately, as a decades-old car AI interface) still manages to convey emotion and add comedy to his lines through aptly chosen colloquialisms. In fact, he makes the SUV a character in itself, and, by the end of the story, you’ll be feeling for the vehicle in its old age.
The soundscape is rich in the scrapyard, through all of Esther and Cody’s subsequent escapades as they are hunted by Jed, and the emotion-packed ending, making Salvage a very immersive listen. Close your eyes and you’re actually in the Torchwood SUV, on the run.
Jed is convincingly threatening, but is also used for physical comedy and to add absurdity to the plot as a contrast to how believably real the children have been written and played.
There’s a very contemporary flavour to the characterisation of Cody. While mental conditions shouldn’t be laughed at in our day-to-day lives, this story handles the mocking of his coping mechanism-led existence responsibly by mostly channeling it through his sibling who clearly does care greatly for him despite poking fun at him repeatedly.
When some of Cody’s traits do get in the way of the pair staying alive, it’s fair enough for Esther to point out how disruptive it’s proving. And also hilarious.
The story gives both the chance to boost their confidence outside of the comfort zones, and basically be a bit like Torchwood operatives for a few days.
Being heroes of their own story is definitely a respectful and rewarding resolution to hear play out, and this is a highly recommended listen for long-term fans of Big Finish’s work, Torchwood and audio dramas in general. Beautifully executed from start to finish, including after the credits.
