Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy

Torchwood: Aliens Among Us #1.2 - "Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy" by James Goss

The further this series goes on, the more I'm becoming convinced its an episode by episode remake of Season One. Changes Everything was written directly as a reimagining of Series One Episode One and now we have Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy, which, in the same vain as Day One, is a rather immature runaround following Gwen as she tries to keep under control a rampaging alien, this time a really rather irritating bride to be.

Tyler's got a tip off about the aliens invading Cardiff, and Gwen and Mr. Colchester are off to investigate it. The daughter of Ro-Jedda, some enigmatic rich socialite, is getting married and she's having a rather lively hen due at a trendy wine bar. But between the suit cases all the bridesmaids carry and the strippers getting devoured, something just might be off. Before they know it, Gwen and Colchester are stuck with the bride to be and dragged across Cardiff, about to learn all about the life of an alien.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I want to make it clear immediately, this is not as egregiously bad and immature as Day One, there are some good things in here. For instance, "Gwen" and Mr. Colchester are both great throughout the whole thing and their exchanges are fantastic. Mr. Colchester also continues to become my favourite member of the current cast. I also think the ending twist of Gwen actually having been some imposter the whole time was a great ending, even if I had spoiled myself by looking on the TARDIS wiki and noticing Gwen was always referred to as Ng. There are a lot of bits and pieces of interesting concepts: a lot of interesting ideas about freedom and youth but it's all squandered by one thing: Madrigal.

Madrigal (not the company from Breaking Bad) is the alien bride-to-be that Gwen and Colchester are forced to drag around the whole story and god is she irritating. Every time something comes out of her mouth I want her to stop talking and instead I just have to listen to one of the worst performances I've seen on Big Finish. It's not then helped when her best friend, the equally annoying Quenel is suddenly introduced into the plot. The plot's good enough and it's got enough energy but these two characters are the centre of everything and I hate every second I have to spend with them, they feel so weirdly campy for Torchwood. Also, I really don't know what their species - the Sorvix - look like - they kill by drinking people's blood? Organs? Tumours at one point? All through mouths in their backs; how this looks and works is completely unknown to me.

Some good ideas and some fun dialogue between Colchester and Gwen don't make up for an annoying and immature script centering around two thoroughly unlikable characters. Can't wait for next episode to be a remake of Ghost Machine though.

5/10

Pros:
+ Gwen and Colchester are both really likable and well written
+ The ending reveal was really well done and shocking
+ Has some nice themes about freedom of youth and finding yourself, even if it didn't exactly translate into audio
+ The story itself is fun and action-packed enough

Cons:
- Both Madrigal and Quenel are deeply, deeply unlikable characters
- The Sorvix are a species I haven't fully managed to realise yet
- The performances outside of Gwen and Colchester were all pretty bad
- Tyler felt really underused in this story, especially since he seems to be the main focus of the series

Torchwood: Aliens Among Us | Ranked
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2. Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy by James Goss - 5/10
1. Changes Everything by James Goss - 8/10

Overall - 6.5/10