With references to Miracle Day and much more, this is no introductory story, but Forgotten Lives does have some memorable aspects to it that make it worth listening, even if it isn't the best story overall.

I definitely felt some fatigue on listening, but on the whole there's a lot to enjoy. The bizarre choice to have Philip Bond playing Jack threw me at first, but I warmed up to it and the actor does a truly impressive job. We even get some interesting stuff with Gwen and Rhys.

I understand some people are a little cool or ambivalent in their attitude towards this audio, and do share that sentiment. I think the fact that the Evolved rely on body-switching style content is fine, but do wish they had a bit more fun with the idea.   Instead it leans a bit too much on the drama for my preference when this is a story practically begging to not be taken as seriously.  This is all punctuated by an abrupt ending I didn't find that satisfying or good pay-off to the more interesting elements of this story, and I feel like the stuff with Anwen should have hit harder than it did for me.

To be momentarily anecdotal; I've been reading Edward Ashton's Mickey 7 and it's a fine book (the arrogance of all of the cast so effectively written it's been encouraging me to put it off of my own irritability), but its greatest strength is that it bakes its stance on a popular debate in science fiction into its premise insofar that it puts it to rest. This debate, based off of Star Trek's Transporter, asks if, upon using a teleporter that operates by displacing your atoms on entry and reconstitutes you - otherwise unchanged - on the receiving end with new atoms, you would still assertively be you. Mickey 7 assertively quells the, perhaps not bioessentialist but instead, atomiessentialist arguments such a debate would raise in having its eponymous protagonist die and be resurrected repeatedly, via perfect clones of himself (hence the number in the title) that retain all of his memories. The problem of his individual person's integrity only arises when more than one clone is alive at a time, but that is beside the point of why a story like Forgotten Lives was so effective on me. We are all the sums of our memories, they are what utterly defines us and thus, conditions that lead us to forget like Alzheimer's and dementia are perhaps the greatest fear any one person could have. Quite literally within the narrative, via the Evolved, we see characters become entirely different people, their minds swapped in a visceral kind of body horror that the Evolved treat not just as a fact of life, but as something to be proud of. The story broaches the inhumanity of dementia, and the potential misdemeanour of dementia care, with a cutting panache. Myle's performance is staggering; Gwen is placed in a distinctly reactionary position, the only character in the story not to have her mind separated from her, a control as it were to show why humanity is incompatible with the Evolved's sinister "gift." In this tragic horror, no stones are left unturned when it comes to Gwen's relationships, one of the most tragic existing with Jack - who is at his most aspirationally 'Doctorish,' leaving Gwen in suspense for years about his whereabouts, only to be (quite literally) changed upon his return, where he only weaves further tragedy in his wake. It is hardly exempt from any levity, an inevitability when Kai Owen is involved, but the intimate execution of an inexorably horrific conceit places this among one of the all-time greats. The first story in the range which probably requires decent, and very existential, forewarning.

A truly haunting tale for Gwen and Rhys. I really enjoyed this story, and the horror elements were just amazing! Would've been nice if for her first audio story, Gwen didn't have to have Jack around, but otherwise this story was a real gem! The twist with Anwen really got me, and it was such a wild story. The villains were amazing in concept and execution and the acting was all around brilliant! Eve and Kai step back into their roles effortlessly!

We don’t deserve Eve Myles - what a powerhouse performer. Love this one, so visual but perfect for audio. Love it!

Torchwood – The Monthly Adventures

#003. Forgotten Lives ~ 7/10

◆ An Introduction

Onto the third episode now, where I finally have an opportunity to discuss Gwen Cooper. I very briefly talked about her in my reviews of ‘Aliens Among Us’, but that whole series was dominated by the Ng Possession story arc.

Time for a reunion with Gwen and Rhys, at an isolated care home in North Wales…

◆ Publisher’s Summary

It has been four years since the Miracle, and Gwen and Rhys's lives have gone back to normal, very normal. They're raising their daughter (they've got pictures they'd be only too happy to show you), they're living in a nice house, and they're almost on top of the laundry.

Captain Jack Harkness has been missing from the world and their lives for a long time. But late one night the phone rings, and they're summoned to an isolated part of North Wales. The Bryn Offa Nursing Home contains a dark secret, an alien threat, and someone who really shouldn't be there.

Gwen and Rhys are about to discover that Torchwood stays with you for the rest of your life.

◆ Gwen Cooper

Eve Myles doesn’t really participate in the audio adventures nowadays, which is a damn shame. She was always an incredibly strong performer, as she proves in this episode.

Gwen believes that the care home could be a cover for alien experiments or a UNIT detention centre for the inconveniently temporally displaced. It’s clear that even mentioning Tosh and Ianto brings back a lot of sadness. Torchwood’s standard procedure for dealing with alien tech is to push every button and hope for the best! Gwen isn’t a monster, so she’ll make sure the staff at the care home are locked up with tea and biscuits.

◆ Rhys Williams

I never really paid Kai Owen much attention during the show’s original run, but that all changed when I listened to a little story called ‘Sonny’. I’ll get round to reviewing it eventually, but just know that it’s my favourite BigFinish release of all time. His performance here is great.

Rhys likes North Wales. He used to drive with his uncle round all the routes here as a kid: it’s what inspired him to go into haulage. He misses his vocation, but knows that he was too well-known to keep working at Harwood’s. Rhys is horrified when he discovers that his daughter has been effected by the mind swap, to the point where he’d quite happily beat the living daylights out of Jack!

◆ Story Recap

Gwen and Rhys have been laying low since the Miracle, but recently found themselves summoned to a remote nursing home in North Wales. They come across an old man with dementia, claiming to be none other than Cpt. Jack. But they have more concerning things to worry about, as Anwen appears to have had her mind swapped with another resident of the nursing home! It’s down to Mr. and Mrs. Williams to stop the Evolved experiments.

◆ Enemy of the Committee

I’ve previously mentioned that the Committee would become prominent antagonists throughout this range, but this episode introduces us to their main opposition: the Evolved.

These strange beings possess the natural ability to swap people’s minds, however, I don’t think this talent was properly utilised. The mind swapping technology used by the Evolved would actually make another appearance, and be used to great comedic effect, in ‘Another Man’s Shoes’.

◆ Sound Design

Gardner has done a decent job with ‘Forgotten Lives’, but the sound effects aren’t particularly note worthy.

◆ Music

BigFinish have a plethora of excellent composers to pick from, so it’s baffling that they keep letting Mowat recycle his music from the first Torchwood story.

I would absolutely love to hear someone else have a go; specifically, the composing duo of Richard Fox and Lauren Yason, who have created some of the most stunning scores for BigFinish.

◆ Conclusion

“A naughty man is trying to steal mummy’s car.”

An alien race – operating out of an isolated nursing home in North Wales – have been swapping people’s minds, including putting Jack into an elderly man’s body and Anwen’s mind into a batty old woman.

If you’ve heard one mind swapping adventure, then you’ve heard them all. This whole episode comes across as generic, and gets completely overshadowed by the hilarious ‘Another Man’s Shoes’. It was delightful to hear Eve Myles and Kai Owen back though, and they do get an exceptional script in about twenty releases time.