Smashed begins really well. A fracking company exploiting a small Welsh town, destroying the environment and poisoning the water; all excellent setup for a Torchwood story. As an ecology student who is very strongly anti-big business and anti-fracking, and very protective of soils and clean waterways, it felt like the perfect setup for me. Those first few scenes, especially with the mum whose daughter is ill, were really great.

It goes off the rails pretty quickly!

I'm a great fan of James Goss’ writing, but most of his weaker scripts have the same sort of problems; a good beginning and ending with a lot of random running around in the middle. This story definitely had that, with the addition of a lot of 'drunk Gwen’ jokes, most of which I didn't find particularly funny. There are good moments – again, the ending hit for me – but most of the middle felt like Goss on autopilot. Coming so soon of The Hope (one of my all-time favourites) that's a bit of a disappointment.

Also – it's never confirmed, but those were Primords, right? They were definitely Primords.

how is no one talking about this one!!!!!

okay, i admit, on the surface and on first listen, i really didn’t think much of it, but i’ve just re-listened to it for the first time in 5 years and WOW bLOODY WOW. best James Goss.

a f**king tour de force of acting from Queen Myles, and Gwen Cooper is ultimately at her f**king best her.

this was depressing and bleak, but god this was just so Torchwood