Alex Hewitt reviews the second part of the Torchwood ‘Ood trilogy’, a murder mystery by James Goss that features the return of Zachary Cross Flane and Chloe after his 2021 story, Empire of Shadows.

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The title of this story will undoubtedly jump out to listeners as Big Finish’s punniest yet. However, it also an apt description of the story; this is very much a Torchwood murder mystery in space. The premise of Oodunnit is that an Ood worker has been murdered on Paraglas IV – a planet-sized recycling plant for the Earth Empire. Suspects include other Ood workers, human workers, head of the recycling company Lady Drogba, and workers’ union leader Mr Brakow.

Right from the beginning, Shaun Parkes and Amanda Shodeko have a great rapport as Zachary and Chloe. The relationship between the characters isn’t entirely smooth-sailing – there’s a nice callback to Chloe’s memory wipe in their previous story together – but they make a good investigative team. Whereas they were essentially bodyguards in Empire of Shadows, Oodunnit gives Zachary and Chloe the opportunity to be full-on detectives, and the actors fill these roles perfectly.

Also notable from the start is Blair Mowat’s score for this episode. There are newly composed tracks mixed in with familiar motifs, but everything is pitched brilliantly for the story at hand. While a murder mystery at its core, Goss’s script also touches on some prescient social issues – as is standard for a Big Finish Torchwood play. Specifically, Oodunnit looks at workers’ rights, unions, the rise of technological threats to job security, and uses the Ood allegorically to explore racial themes, even directly referencing the creation of the American Railroads using exploited, underpaid Chinese workers.

When it comes to the guest cast, Silas Carson once again returns as the Ood and needs no notes. Carson excels at skilfully communicating emotion and thought in the Ood’s dialogue while maintaining their distinctive, monotonous voices. Belinda Stewart-Wilson plays Lady Drogba, and really gets to the core of the character’s belief in her own total superiority and disregard for the experience of the workers. Her relationship with Mr Brakow is an interesting one, and Paul Panting gives a wonderfully nuanced performance.

Goss’s script presents several points of view when it comes to what’s actually going on, and each different perspective is given enough time to develop. Bethany Weimers’s direction ensures that the story is told clearly, although the middle of this episode occasionally feels bland, especially when Zachary and Chloe get unnecessarily split up. Despite this, the atmosphere is maintained throughout, especially thanks to Shane O’Byrne’s sound design, which incorporates some gloriously creepy blinking sound effects for the Ood.

Oodunnit clearly draws from the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie, and everything is set up intricately from the beginning to come to a layered, intelligent ending that incorporates flashbacks to earlier points in the episode. With the context of the whole play, these moments have new meanings, so relistening to the whole story is encouraged. A number of themes are explored in interesting ways here, leaving a story that does what the title says and a fair amount more. Oodunnit is a solid continuation of Torchwood’s Ood trilogy.

Torchwood: Oodunnit is available now from https://www.bigfinish.com/, alongside the first and final parts of the Ood trilogy – Odyssey and Oracle.