TW Audio Book Reviews - Spoilers
BBC Audio has so far released 2 ‘Exclusive Audio Stories’ to accompany Torchwood Series 2.
Everyone Says Hello, by Dan Abnett was read by Burn Gorman (Dr. Owen Harper) while Hidden by Steven Savile was read by Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato).
Both stories take place before S2 E06 ‘Reset’.
In general, both stories were ‘ok’. I’d give them both a resounding shrug of the shoulders and a good ol’ ‘whatever’.
The only scene in Everyone Says Hello that I can clearly remember was one where Jack shields a girl from a gas explosion. Although both his ear-comm and a plot-device metal wrist band are damaged or destroyed by the fireball from the explosion, (and Jack was apparently killed), his coat and his hair seem to have gotten away unscathed. (Question: Just what is that coat made of anyhow? Answer: The same thing his hair is, so it would seem…)
In many ways, Hidden comes off as officially sanctioned fan fiction. For example, there’s a fairly long scene where Ianto is involved in a high speed car chase with the cliché Mysterious-Bad-Guys-in-a-Black-Car-Who-Came-Out-of-Nowhere who eventually drive him over a cliff, literally. He escapes before his car explodes but is badly injured yet still must grit his teeth and hide himself from the Bad Guys until help can arrive.
As Ianto is being air-lifted to safety, Gwen gives an over-the-top boo-hoo whine about how much it hurts when someone she knows is hurt. Owen responds with a truly sappy, very out of character speech about how Gwen needs to care, how the world is really about caring for others, how caring is not a weakness etc, etc. (Hey, I like Gwen and her caring attitude but this whine was a bit much. And Owen’s speech? Just - bleck.)
I can’t even remember how many times I’ve read this type of scene in fan fiction since the first Torchwood episode aired. Please for the love of little apples, this is supposed to be written by a professional writer! Couldn’t he come up with something better? Guess not.
Jack actually does very little in the whole story. He’s been taken in for questioning by the police and spends most of the story not answering questions. I still can’t figure out why he didn’t just pull out the old Torchwood Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card that’s been used on at least one other occasion.
Oh, yes there was one other scene in Hidden that made me want to bang my head against the wall. Ok, so we all know that Torchwood orders pizza under the name Torchwood and has it delivered to the Sooper Sekret front door to the Hub also known as The Tourist Information Centre, but when Tosh hijacks Official Police Evidence and has it re-routed and delivered to the TIC? Uh, doncha think maybe the Police would notice and maybe look into it? It would seem the answer is, uh, no?
Don’t get me wrong, both audios were a lot of fun to listen to, mainly due to the brilliant job both Naoki Mori and Burn Gorman do in their narrations. Both actors managed to get the ‘feel’ of the individual characters across. They used different accents and voices when doing the various Torchwood characters. So while the stories themselves were rather lame, the narration itself made both audios well worth listening to.
Everyone Says Hello, by Dan Abnett was read by Burn Gorman (Dr. Owen Harper) while Hidden by Steven Savile was read by Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato).
Both stories take place before S2 E06 ‘Reset’.
In general, both stories were ‘ok’. I’d give them both a resounding shrug of the shoulders and a good ol’ ‘whatever’.
The only scene in Everyone Says Hello that I can clearly remember was one where Jack shields a girl from a gas explosion. Although both his ear-comm and a plot-device metal wrist band are damaged or destroyed by the fireball from the explosion, (and Jack was apparently killed), his coat and his hair seem to have gotten away unscathed. (Question: Just what is that coat made of anyhow? Answer: The same thing his hair is, so it would seem…)
In many ways, Hidden comes off as officially sanctioned fan fiction. For example, there’s a fairly long scene where Ianto is involved in a high speed car chase with the cliché Mysterious-Bad-Guys-in-a-Black-Car-Who-Came-Out-of-Nowhere who eventually drive him over a cliff, literally. He escapes before his car explodes but is badly injured yet still must grit his teeth and hide himself from the Bad Guys until help can arrive.
As Ianto is being air-lifted to safety, Gwen gives an over-the-top boo-hoo whine about how much it hurts when someone she knows is hurt. Owen responds with a truly sappy, very out of character speech about how Gwen needs to care, how the world is really about caring for others, how caring is not a weakness etc, etc. (Hey, I like Gwen and her caring attitude but this whine was a bit much. And Owen’s speech? Just - bleck.)
I can’t even remember how many times I’ve read this type of scene in fan fiction since the first Torchwood episode aired. Please for the love of little apples, this is supposed to be written by a professional writer! Couldn’t he come up with something better? Guess not.
Jack actually does very little in the whole story. He’s been taken in for questioning by the police and spends most of the story not answering questions. I still can’t figure out why he didn’t just pull out the old Torchwood Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card that’s been used on at least one other occasion.
Oh, yes there was one other scene in Hidden that made me want to bang my head against the wall. Ok, so we all know that Torchwood orders pizza under the name Torchwood and has it delivered to the Sooper Sekret front door to the Hub also known as The Tourist Information Centre, but when Tosh hijacks Official Police Evidence and has it re-routed and delivered to the TIC? Uh, doncha think maybe the Police would notice and maybe look into it? It would seem the answer is, uh, no?
Don’t get me wrong, both audios were a lot of fun to listen to, mainly due to the brilliant job both Naoki Mori and Burn Gorman do in their narrations. Both actors managed to get the ‘feel’ of the individual characters across. They used different accents and voices when doing the various Torchwood characters. So while the stories themselves were rather lame, the narration itself made both audios well worth listening to.