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.

Torchwood Monthly Range #3 - "Forgotten Lives" by Emma Reeves

Miracle Day... happened. It came and went, everybody remembered very little of it and nobody was particularly fussed that it was over. There was one unifying want however, the want for a fifth season, especially with all the ends left loose following the final episode of Miracle Day. Forgotten Lives is the first story to continue the narrative from where it left off, and like Miracle Day, it is fine, just fine. Gwen and Rhys are back and as lovable as ever, Jack is an old man and the Committee are still there, as always, I suppose.

Five years after the Miracle, Gwen and Rhys' quiet life are disturbed by a phone call that brings them to Brynn Offa Residential Home, a quiet place in the North of Wales. But not all is right, something watches over the home and a resident just so happens to recognise Gwen and Rhys. A resident who identifies himself as Jack Harkness.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Whilst I'd hesitate to call Forgotten Lives anything particularly special, I will absolutely congratulate Emma Reeves for her characterisation of Gwen and Rhys; two of Torchwood's best characters are back in full force, with Myles and Owens slipping back into their roles effortlessly and immediately winning me over, in charm and emotion both; their barely contained anger against Jack is sublime. Outside of that, I do like the mystery this audio sets up, there are a number of burning questions you get through out that are fun to see unravel. The Evolved, our main antagonist this time around, are a serviceable villain with a really cool concept behind them, and I do like the philosophical questions they evoke.

My main problem with Forgotten Lives however, is that I just don't have anything to say about it. It's fine, it's a pretty good audio, but it's just fine. It's nothing special and it's especially hard to review since there are very few cut and dry pros and cons to pick out and talk about. It's paced well, everybody's well acted and written, there a some good ideas bouncing around, but it's all just a bit small scale. Even looking at other reviews online, you can see how little there is to talk about because every reviews (including this one) are incredibly short. Besides that, I will note that Phillip Bond playing Jack is... confusing. He get's none of Barrowman's mannerisms or quirks right and it actually surprised when it turned out he was in fact Jack.

This is one of my shortest reviews for something full length simply because Forgotten Lives hasn't got much to it. It's OK, no more, and there really isn't enough to talk about here in depth. It's solid, but really not that deep.

7/10

Pros:

+ Gwen and Rhys are wonderfully written and acted, with some great emotional backing

+ The mystery is nicely set up and revealed, constantly leaving you guessing

+ The Evolved are a pretty interesting alien race and a great antagonist

Cons:

- About as deep as a puddle, to the point of having nothing to talk about

- Phillip Bond's performance didn't go down well with me and it was hard to see him as Jack

Top 5 Best Torchwood Monthly Range Stories:
5.
4.
3. #1 - The Conspiracy by David Llewellyn
2. #3 - Forgotten Lives by Emma Reeves
1. #2 - Fall to Earth by James Goss

Top 5 Worst Torchwood Monthly Range Stories:
5.
4.
3.  #2 - Fall to Earth by James Goss
2.  #3 - Forgotten Lives by Emma Reeves
1. #1 - The Conspiracy by David Llewellyn