Torchwood – The Monthly Adventures

#002. Fall to Earth ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

A pilot episode is always going to be rough around the edges, but the follow-up often proves to be a lot more successful. Ianto Jones is going for a space flight… followed by a space crash!

◆ Publisher’s Summary

The SkyPuncher is the first private spaceflight. But Ephraim Salt's visionary project has gone horribly wrong – the ship is falling out of the sky and there seems no way to stop it. Ianto Jones thought the flight would be sabotaged.

The only problem is… he's on board.

◆ Ianto Jones

Gareth David-Lloyd is one of my favourite performers from Torchwood, and someone who constantly manages to wow me. Very happy to report that he kicked off his BigFinish journey in style.

Ianto tries to call for help, but ends up calling Jubilee Pizzas instead; that’s not great when you’re on a crashing spaceship! He prefers the term “sky butler” to air steward. Gwen told him that flying is two moments of terror and hours of boredom… right now, it’s just terror for him. Ianto claims to be a spy, but he’s definitely no James Bond: his life is actually very dull. He works for a secret organisation, but he’s just the coffee boy. The whole reason he went aboard the SkyPuncher was to try and impress his co-workers.

◆ Story Recap

Ianto Jones has infiltrated the maiden voyage of the first private space flight. He’s disguised himself as an air steward and hopes to find some information on the Committee. What he didn’t count on was that the Committee had sabotaged the flight: everyone barn Ianto has been poisoned and the SkyPuncher is on a collision course. The only person who can help him… is a call-centre worker from Turkey attempting to sell him insurance!

◆ Insurance for a Prehistoric Beast

The idea that Ianto has to keep purchasing insurance – just to keep Zeynep on the line to help him stop SkyPuncher crashing – is utter genius, and quite funny too. He even purchases pet insurance for Myfanwy, the Torchwood pterodactyl! Gareth David-Lloyd and Lisa Zahra clearly have great on-air chemistry, and it makes these scenes all the more entertaining.

◆ Sound Design

Neil Gardner has done a fantastic job on ‘Fall to Earth’.

Alarms blare as the SkyPuncher goes haywire and starts losing altitude. The ship’s control panel fizzes before going dead. An insane billionaire attempts to batter down the door of his own spaceship’s cockpit. Hearing Ianto get put on hold whilst the SkyPuncher begins crashing back to Earth had me wetting myself with laughter.

◆ Music

Blair Mowat scores are usually very repetitive, but that’s surprisingly not the case here. I loved the melody that played once Ianto ascended above the atmosphere; really soft and beautiful.

◆ Conclusion

“I’m on a spaceship and I’m falling out of the sky!”

A haywire spaceship is being used by the Committee to ram into a satellite, before crashing it into a call-centre in Turkey. All three of these things happen to be owned by the same billionaire.

James Goss hit a home run with ‘Fall to Earth’. The whole episode is a ploy to ruin the reputation of an influential man, but it’s packed to bursting with comedic moments. The interplay between Ianto and Zeynep had me cackling throughout. Now, would you like some pet insurance… actually, maybes space insurance would be more useful!