Torchwood Monthly Range #11 - "Broken" by Joseph Lidster

Ianto. Poor sweet Ianto. A character who had nothing but grief up until his death, that the show adamantly refused to ever pay attention to despite him being one of the best members of the cast, is finally getting the stories he deserves. I'm not even going to have a build up, Broken is an easy 10/10. Easily the best Lidster script I've listened to so far, I don't think there's many audios with such incredible character development as the tour de force on display here; maybe Broken Hearts or Scherzo, but neither of those destroyed me as much as Broken. Broken is a masterpiece, so let's get into it.

Ianto Jones is tired of life. His job's practically killing him, none of his coworkers trust him, and he has nowhere to go. So when he finds a local pub with a barmaid who'll actually listen to him and his problems, he's overjoyed. Trouble is, Torchwood has a way of following you. Everywhere you go.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Ianto was brilliant in the show. I don't know if I'd call him my favourite member of the original team (I really can't decide on a single favourite) but he was most certainly up there. Broken, however, changed him from a good character to an incredibly complex and beautifully written character. Taking place in the first half of Season One, we actually see the fallout from stories such as Cyberwoman and Countrycide, which retroactively makes Season One feel a lot tighter. The whole script is perfect: the dialogue is mature and interesting and realistic and it grounds the whole story in real world emotion. Not only that but the pacing is so well done; Ianto's spiral is written unbelievably well and it never feels like a leap from him crying at a bar to trying to end his own life. Of course, whilst Broken focuses on Ianto, it is a two hander with Jack as our secondary character, exploring how Ianto could've possibly forgiven him and even have fallen in love with him after the incident with Lisa. For the most part, this stuff's perfect (we'll get into why it's not flawless later) and it falls into the camp of stories where Jack really gets to be a gaslighting piece of shit, which is my favourite type of Jack story. This all leads up to an encounter with The Saviour - an intergalactic slave trader using the depressed and suicidal as merchandise - and barmaid Mandy, who'd been working with him the whole time, where Ianto allows Jack to be taken away and sold into slavery as revenge for the events of Cyberwoman. Not only is this a horrifyingly twisted moment in Ianto's arc, it's also leads to what might be my favourite moment in Torchwood, where Ianto gets a call from his mother shortly after leaving Jack to die, where he finds out she has cancer. The call slaps him back into reality, he realises what he's done and goes back to save Jack and it is the most perfect culmination to Ianto's story; I nearly cheered when Jack's theme kicked in.

It almost feels like a crime criticizing this story, but I do have a couple grievances. My main problem is the weird kiss between Jack and Ianto at the end. It feels weirdly corny for such an interesting, nuanced story and follows what is already a great conclusion to the pair's relationship, with them all laying out their problems on the table. I know establishing Jack and Ianto's romantic involvement was probably needed, but I feel the contents of this story is what sets them off on the road towards the relationship, not what actively causes it. Literally ten minutes ago, Ianto was willing to let Jack get sold into slavery, it feels too quick and melodramatic. My only other gripe is that Mandy, who was supposedly coercing Ianto into willingly handing himself over to The Saviour, feels too genuine throughout. I know it's addressed that sometimes, she was legitimately trying to help Ianto, but I never really felt any implication she was in anyway manipulating him maliciously, even when she was in private.

Broken is fantastic, through and through. Lidster writes a heartbreaking, genius and emotional character study that launched Ianto into the stratosphere of Doctor Who characters, turning him from the coffee boy into one of the most fascinating and complex people in this fictional universe. Utterly beautiful script, an absolute masterpiece.

10/10

Pros:

+ Turns Ianto from a good character to one of the most emotionally deep in Doctor Who

+ Great, realistic dialogue that helps ground the story

+ Paced excellently, really allows you to feel Ianto's spiral into depression

+ The Saviour was a good, hateable antagonist

+ Ianto going back to save Jack is genuinely one of the best Torchwood moments, period.

+ It's always good to be reminded that Jack's a bastard

Cons:

- The weird, awkward kiss between Jack and Ianto at the end felt like a blow to the head compared to the careful subtlety of the rest of the play

- I feel, in retrospect, a lot of Mandy's action don't make a lot of sense with the context at the end

Top 5 Best Torchwood Monthly Range Stories:
5. #2 - Fall to Earth by James Goss
4. #10 - Moving Target by Guy Adams
3. #9 - Ghost Mission by James Goss
2. #4 - One Rule by Joseph Lidster
1. #11 - Broken by Joseph Lidster

Top 5 Worst Torchwood Monthly Range Stories:
5. #6 - More Than This by Guy Adams
4. #3 - Forgotten Lives by Emma Reeves
3. #5 - Uncanny Valley by David Llewellyn
2. #1 - The Conspiracy by David Llewellyn
1. #7 - The Victorian Age by AK Benedict