Alex Hewitt reviews last month’s Torchwood release from Big Finish, which saw Tom Price return as Andy Davidson – along with his dog!
Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle are fairly recent additions to the Torchwood writing team, and while their first two contributions, The Grey Mare and The Lincolnshire Poacher, were spooky stories drawn from real-life folklore, their first time writing for Sgt. Andy Davidson is a more character-driven affair.
Andy is chasing a shoplifter through Cardiff when he loses the suspect at the Red Lion pub. Right from the start, sound designer Toby Hrycek-Robinson creates a highly convincing soundscape, doing well to establish the environment of the story. Mooney and Pringle’s script is fantastic, elevated even higher by the performances of Gareth Armstrong, Lissa Berry, and Howard Ward as Kenn, Mary, and Dick respectively. These three are pub regulars and shine right from their first moments. The listener is instantly transported to the Red Lion and drawn right into that world.
At the pub, Andy meets Zadeiah Campbell-Jones’s Nia, who works as a bartender and writes science-fiction in her free time. Campbell-Jones’s performance is commendable and lends itself brilliantly to her interactions with Tom Price. Over the course of the episode, Andy and Nia build up a strong relationship – one that feels very, very real. Both actors are pitch-perfect, and Price in particular allows himself to gently scratch the surface of Andy’s character every now and then with references to some of the developments that he’s faced in recent Torchwood stories, without ever detracting from the events at hand.
The main plot is that Nia is convinced that some of the pub regulars are being transplanted into dogs by Sandra, who owns ‘Rejuvin8’ – a yoga spa that neighbours the pub. Leah Marks is excellent as Sandra, ensuring there’s an ambiguity as to whether or not the character has sinister motivations. Throughout the story, Andy and Nia get closer, only for the final act to shake things up. Director Bethany Weimers is new to the Torchwood range, but proves herself highly capable with this story, ensuring that scenes flow well into one another and keeping up a fast pace throughout most of the story, but slowing things down when necessary to allow for more intimate character moments.
Nia, Kenn, and Mary form a sort-of amateur detective group not unlike L.I.N.D.A. from Doctor Who episode Love and Monsters. Towards the end of Dog Hop, however, things take an interesting turn that will undoubtedly leave listeners pondering the events of the episode and wondering whether a sequel would benefit this release or not. It’s worth listening to the bonus features as well, to hear about the fitting way that the story was conceived.
Dog Hop is a triumphant, though perhaps unexpected, success – yet another in a range that shows no sign of running out of steam. This is undoubtedly a surprise contender for Big Finish’s best story of 2023.
Torchwood: Dog Hop, along with the rest of the Torchwood range, is available now from https://www.bigfinish.com/.
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