George Hewitt reviews the final episode of Torchwood: Among Us 1

Rounding off the first boxset of the new series of Torchwood is producer James Goss‘s Moderation, which sees the return of Jonny Green as Tyler Steele. This time, Tyler is working for an online news company moderating the comments section, while Mr Colchester is seemingly following him around, undercover as an Uber driver.

Despite the cover art, the main character in this story is really Petra Malik, played effortlessly well by Maya Saroya. Petra is a journalist for the same news company Tyler works for, and throughout this story is faced with abuse from all sides. Goss’s script is brutal, allowing listeners to feel terrible for Petra and what she has to go through. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and Islamophobia are all on full display in this story, the character who exudes them most being Silas Carson‘s Barry Bean. Saroya and Green are excellent in this episode, communicating the relationship between their characters really strongly. The struggles of Petra and Tyler can be understood easily, and Carson’s performance means that listeners won’t feel any sympathy for Barry – it’s nice to have an all-out bad guy in a world where so many characters are morally grey.

If there’s a weak link in this story it’s that sometimes it feels as though the script is trying to do too much. It covers crypto-currency, conspiracy theories, DNA testing, hashtags, manipulation of the media, and many other facets of being online in the 2020s. For this reason, some aspects can feel slightly under-developed, such as the character of Heggsy, a far-right conspiracy theorist who doesn’t get quite as fleshed-out as he should. That said, the peripheral characters aren’t hugely important to the central plot, mostly serving as worldbuilding, with some of them seemingly setting up future events for the series.

Mr Colchester’s segments of the story fit nicely into the narrative, Paul Clayton giving as good a performance as ever. The way Tyler’s spiral back into his old ways is presented is effective, and Colchester’s kindness – though slightly surprising – is justified and heartfelt, establishing that Torchwood do care for each other. The Child is back on the phone in this story, furthering the plotline set up in Episode 1, though it’s still not clear where this is going. Nonetheless, Moderation is a fantastic final instalment in this first boxset, and sticks to the high standard set by the previous three episodes. 

Torchwood: Among Us 1 is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com