torchwood_cascade_cdrip.tor

Oddball or experimental or brave or edgy or creative or just plain different are just some of the adjectives that could be used to describe torchwood_cascade_cdrip.tor. And they would all be right, because this is a very very different release in the Torchwood canon playing with expectations, playing with the audio medium and pushing it just as far as it can be pushed without quite irreparably damaging it. Part story of unrequited love from two lonely people, part urban techno thriller, part cautionary tale on the consequences of acquiring media from non standard (read illegal) sources this is as different a story as Big Finish have released in any of their ranges – and coming from the pen of the creative genius behind the sublime Dorian Gray series Scott Handcock – could we really expect anything mundane and straightforward? Of course we couldn’t.

So what is it actually about? Well, that would be telling, but the about is not really as important as the “how” – and it is the structure and the storytelling method of this release that makes it truly striking and unique, this is pieced together found footage of a corrupted media file illegally downloaded, it skips, it jumps about from perspective to perspective, it is non linear, it is a difficult listen but it is a rewarding listen to those who give it their full attention – and after two listens I got two distinctly different interpretations of what I had actually listened to and experienced – its that sort of story, the more engaged the listener is the more rewarding the story is.

Naoko Mori takes top billing in this story as Toshiko Sato, invited to London by an old colleague from Torchwood One called Stephen (Robbie Jarvis) who has been investigating the disappearances of people of the same age at the same time in different parts of the world – what is the link and why are they being hunted and why does Stephen think he is newt on the list and why did he ask Toshiko to help? these questions and many more will be posed and as with all good fiction the answers are there but are open to interpretation.

Scott Handcock brings in some of his trademark macabre, claustrophobic style of story telling that he is rightly praised for in Dorian Gray – the story is horror dressed up as a techno thriller and an ethical conundrum  on the evils of illegal downloading and has that dreamlike ambiguousness that makes the listener doubt what they have just heard and give it a second third and fourth listen to get the most out of the story.

Naoko Mori slips back in to the character of Tosh effortlessly, a conflicted character at once brilliant but wracked with social awkwardness and self doubt and this is an exceptional “Show don’t tell” performance, it really is a privilege to have Toshiko back in Torchwood again.

There is no way that this release could be called “easy listening” its probably as far away from easy listening as you can get, what it is in almost equal measure is disturbing, upsetting, challenging, intelligent and quite quite brilliant. Hats off to Scott Handcock, Naoko Mori and all at Big Finish for pushing the boundaries on what a Torchwood tale can be. 10/10.