George Hewitt reviews the opening episode of Torchwood Among Us 3

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The three main writers of Among Us join forces to open the final boxset with a bang. How I Conquered the World tells the story of Hello Friend, a social media network that has been taking over the world for years. Always in the background, this episode explores how Friend (Mia Hope), the sentient form of this platform, has been working its way through Torchwood since its early days.

The story, uniquely, is told mostly through vignettes of Friend explaining different aspects of social media, and how it’s learned so much about humanity. We’re treated to some excellent pieces of social commentary, as Friend looks at relationships, porn, avocado toast, and even restoring the Snyderverse. Ash Darby, Tim Foley, and James Goss have included references all over the place to online social media phenomena, and these ground How I Conquered the World, making it feel like a very real, prescient story.

This story also sees the debut of AI actors in Big Finish – sort of. To represent some of the characters Friend has interacted with, director David O’Mahony has decided to use artifical voice synthesis rather than actors. This is a bold move, and highlights Friend’s lack of humanity. However, it should be stressed that this is not used in place of actors – the four stories in this boxset make use of a strong ensemble cast, who all appear as various characters in this episode.

The Torchwood team appear fleetingly here – they aren’t entirely the focus of the story. What makes How I Conquered the World so impressive is that following Pariahs (review here), the whole hour is essentially an exposition dump explaining how Friend has been connected to the previous episodes of Among Us. Yet, it doesn’t feel like the listener is just experiencing an infodump. The story has depth, and so being able to piece together the links into past Torchwood episodes is thrilling.

The story closes with a more direct follow-up to the finale of Among Us 2, and sets up the team in a very tight spot for the rest of the series. How I Conquered the World is more experimental than many Torchwood stories, but successful in the risks it takes. An excellent debut from O’Mahony in the Among Us saga. 

Torchwood: Among Us 3 is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com