Torchwood: Asylum...

[fajrdrako]

I just listened to the Torchwood radio pay "Asylum", available this week on the BBC website.

It's a rather nice Canada Day present to me. There's lots I liked about it...

Things I really liked:

1. A sympathetic alien, who's a girl. Most random aliens on television are male, and adult. This was nice to see. Most of the story is the mystery of who she is, and how she happens to appear in Cardiff in our time. I liked the "Ghostie" theme. I liked the way Freda talked.
   
   
2. The menace of the story isn't so much the girl as her device, which appears to be a gun at first, and how her device wreaks havoc to traffic and communications - mostly thanks to Jack. That was cute. It struck me that in earlier stories, careless experimentation with alien stuff was usually Owen's job. Now Owen isn't around to do it, Jack does. On the one hand, you'd think he'd know better. On the other... it was fun seeing Jack being playful.
   
   
3. PC Andy was fun, but his presence made him and Gwen the focus of the story, while Jack and Ianto got much less of a role. Much as I love PC Andy, I'd rather be hearing about Jack and Ianto, or at least seeing Andy interact with them. Andy's presence (and Freda's) did a lot to make this the external view of Torchwood, rather than the insider's view we are used to. Andy's reactions were fun, and I liked his dialogue.
   
   
4. So perhaps my complaint here is that the story was simply too short to develop much: it wasn't Torchwood's story, it was Freda's story, and it was too short to give us more.
   
   
5. As with "Lost Souls", I'd have a hard time here to see any kind of personal relationship between Ianto and Jack. And no references to Rhys. That isn't, unfortunately, what it's for: it's a nice SF short-story about aliens and time-travel. And nothing that short can contain great depth.
   
   
6. I don't know what we were to make of its implication about Torchwood, but I liked the way Freda was familiar with Torchwood, and that its role in her life was benign.
   
   
7. Can't help thinking I'd like to see a sequel where Jack, Ianto and Gwen befriend Freda's granny and she can give them alien help and information.
   
   
8. I like the way everyone thought the alien device was a weapon, and it turned out to be a remote control.
   
   
9. I liked the opening knife-throwing scene with Jack and Gwen. Again, we see the playful side of Jack. I approve.
   

More! Soon!