Gabrielle Ketley reviews the latest Torchwood release
Torchwood: Bad Connection (Aaron Lamont) presents a worst case scenario for anyone afraid of small spaces or large bugs.
When Emlyn Crook (Jason Watkins) gets a mysterious phone call, ordering him to remain inside the phone box, he thinks it’s a false alarm. That or a prank call. Torchwood Agent Suzie Costello (Indira Varma) doesn’t waste much time trying to convince him otherwise, instead she cuts right to altering his brain waves, allowing him to see the invisible monster (a cockroach the size of a car) outside the phone box.
This sums up the partnership between Suzie and Emlyn. She’s on his side, she’s trying to save him, she will go to any lengths to succeed, whether he likes it or not.
Watkins’s portrayal of Emlyn allows both his humanity and humour to shine through, particularly when he politely requests that a pedestrian confirms for him whether or not there is in fact a giant cockroach out and about on the streets, and his ensuing despair when the cockroach eats said pedestrian (and his very nice jacket).
Emlyn’s initial scepticism falls into a desperate, palpable fear, as the bodies start to pile up on the street outside.
While Emlyn does all he can to spare the unknowing pedestrians from their grizzly fates, Suzie’s pragmatic acceptance of their doom creates an engaging clash of morality between the pair.
Pre-canon Suzie occupies a fascinating space in Big Finish productions. As a Torchwood agent charged with protecting the earth, she is sincere in her desire to do good, but in her efforts to do good, she reveals herself quick to accept the deaths of innocent civilians as mere collateral damage.
Of course, it’s all for the greater good, because Suzie is a good person, as she rather desperately tells Emlyn, who she spends the best part of the episode treating like; in Emlyn’s own words, a piece of cheese in a trap.
Varma plays Suzie with a wonderful mix of ruthlessness and vulnerability. Even while justifying her actions, she still needs to hear from someone else she’s a good person, begging Emlyn for vindication, for a moral exculpation that clever, plain-speaking, compassionate Emlyn gently refuses to provide.
In addition to its excellent characterisation, Torchwood: Bad Connection’s greatest strength lies in its dark humour. Lamont doesn’t shy away from indulging in how absurd (and rather dodgy) poor Emlyn’s attempts to warn others of the invisible threat must come across, especially when he tries to save one young girl by asking her to hide with him in the phone box.
Torchwood: Bad Connection is fun, funny, and unafraid to be serious when the moment calls for it.
Torchwood: Bad Connections is available on CD or as a download from
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