Torchwood – The Monthly Adventures

#016. torchwood_cascade_CDRIP.tor ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

Because the police don’t usually turn up at people’s doors demanding why they illegally downloaded the MP3 for a Caravan Palace track, many people just assume that internet piracy is a victimless crime. They couldn’t be more wrong! Just look at the most notorious torrent site of them all, and what happened to the majority of its userbase.

LimeWire were more than happy to be dishing out pirated files, and the general public just kept clicking that download button. Thankfully, the dodgy dealings of this citrus-branded client were exposed multiple times. One investigation showed that of 123 randomly selected downloaded files, 37 contained malware – about 30% in total. If that wasn’t bad enough, they actively distributed spyware and key-loggers alongside the free version of the client.

Thousands of people had their personal information stolen from them on torrent sites, and most were totally unaware of it. Internet piracy is a crime, and it’s far from victimless… as Toshiko Sato is about to find out!

◆ Publisher’s Summary

WARNING: The unauthorised reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Your downloads are monitored. Internet piracy is a crime and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison, a fine of £250,000 or death.

Come on, we've all done it. We’ve all downloaded a cheeky little something we shouldn't have. After all, what's the harm, eh? You never get caught. No-one knows. No-one knocks at your door and tells you you're about to die.

Turns out, there's something hiding in the internet. It knows what you've done. And it's going to stop you.

◆ Toshiko Sato

Scott Handcock’s departure from BigFinish will forever be one of the biggest blows to the expanded universe, so I will savour every moment I get to talk about his work. It would have been so easy for him to just abandon all character development and focus on making ‘Cascade’ an experimental show-piece, so I’m glad that he gave Toshiko a little unrequited love storyline. It’s actually a really good role reversal of her relationship with Owen.

Naoko Mori has always been one of my absolute favourite members of the Torchwood cast, so allow me to compliment her on a job well done in this release. Fabulous performance.

Not a lot of people have Tosh’s number any more, even fewer use it. Jack owes her a day in lieu after they dealt with a water dragon in Cardiff Bay! Stephen claims that she is beyond the police. The virus starts rooting around inside of Tosh’s head, blaming her for her brother’s death by saying she’d abandoned him. Everyone underestimates her, and that’s a mistake, because she always has a plan.

◆ Story Recap

Tosh is contacted by Stephen, a former employee of Torchwood One who has become aware of a series of twenty-seven disappearances in which all but one of the victims shared a birthday and died at the exact same time.

The disappearance of the exception, Nikki, was recorded as a voice message for her girlfriend Janet, in which she claimed to see somebody following her and heard a voice telling her that she was going to die. Although Nikki doesn’t share her birthday with the other victims, her girlfriend does and she used Janet’s ID to illegally pirate music on Choosic, a torrent site used by all the other victims.

The people using this torrent site have unwittingly allowed a highly sophisticated computer virus to enter their devices… sophisticated, and very probably alien. Switching tactics, this virus decides to target all those born on a different birthday. Stephen’s birthday.

◆ Torrent Of Trouble, Cascade Of Carnage

Technology is not my strong suit. The most advanced thing I can do with a computer is install mods for Command & Conquer, but that’s something I’ve been doing for at least ten years now. Though I’m not a total idiot when it comes to browsing the internet, which is why I would NEVER use a torrent site.

The main antagonist of ‘Cascade’ is a highly sophisticated virus hidden amongst the files of a torrent site named Choosic. It browses databases for people with the exact same date of birth and begins targeting those who have committed internet piracy. Brings a whole new meaning to the term “cyber security”, doesn’t it?

It does actually interact with Toshiko during the course of the episode, and its glitching speech patterns were incredibly reminiscent of SHODAN from the System Shock games. It’s a neat little idea, and one with sequel potential.

◆ Sound Design

Rob Harvey has gone down the experimental rabbit hole for ‘Cascade’, because the whole piece has been edited to emulate a corrupted audio file.

Static flickers through the speakers, voices are pitch-shifted, and the audio leaps all over the place. You even have fragments of other stories and behind the scenes recordings frequently interrupting the drama. It’s all surprisingly creepy!

This style of editing could have backfired immensely, but it really aids the tense atmosphere of the story. It also reminded me of the many occasions where VLC decided to stop working in the middle of a BigFinish audio. That happened to me the first time I listened to ‘A Life of Crime’. The volume got amplified to the point Sylvester McCoy might as well have been screaming at me through a megaphone!

◆ Conclusion

“Internet piracy is a crime, and it’s far from victimless!”

People who have violated internet piracy laws are being targeted by an ultra-sophisticated virus, but it’s doing more than just filling their devices full of spam and spyware. The virus can effect the real world, and deliver lethal justice to those it targets.

Toshiko has always been one of my favourite members of the Torchwood team, and this is yet another brilliant adventure to her name. ‘Cascade’ doesn’t put too much focus onto its plot, but that means we can spend more time with Naoko Mori, who delivers a fantastic performance with co-star Robbie Jarvis.

Rob Harvey deserves more praise than anyone for how well this release turned out. The decision to have the audio emulate a corrupted file, full of jumps and glitches, was absolutely inspired!

Scott Handcock has been sorely missed ever since the announcement of his departure from BigFinish, but ‘Cascade’ remains one of the most inventive stories he has crafted.