Torchwood: More Than This

 

Glorious? Ludicrous? Torchwood?

More Than This by Guy Adams

How I love Gwen Cooper. Well, not when she's written badly. I can name at least two examples of abysmal Gwen Cooper writing per Torchwood series (Minus Children of Earth probably) But nonetheless, More Than This is just magnifient Gwen writing. I'd go as far to say that it rivals Adrift as her best story. Then again, it's also not her story. More Than This is a moving beautiful piece on the depression of Roger Pugh, leader of the Cardiff planning council, who has lost his wife. It's structured almost like a companion chronicle, there's only really Gwen and Roger for most of it, you could almost pair it down to a two hander if you axed the short and sweet Andy cameos and Russell T Davies's one line appearance, and it also has a framing device and a sort of narration. It's part character study, part pilot. It really is like a pilot in a way, it introduces all of the main Torchwood elements to Pugh as an audience surrogate (almost) and it's funny that it's doing this as the sixth release in the range but nonetheless, More Than This is a really beautiful and well-handled study involving depression and oh my god is that hard to do. The writing is sensitive, and also harsh when it needs to be. I felt geniunely emotionally affected by this one so dang much. Pugh falling through a hole in the universe is one of the most beautiful moments I've heard on audio, the way the actor delivers the lines is transcendental. It's also wonderfully funny when it needs to be, but also really brutal. It's a masterclass in writing tone above all, and I would definitely encourage people and especially writers to view it for that alone.
I may be easy when it comes to Torchwood. You could very easily accuse me of such, but dang it, I can't give this any other score for the wonderful emotional wringer it put me through. I just can't. 
You can attack me for this being the third Gwen audio I've given a high score, but it's also probably as good as We Always Get Out Alive, if not better, so buzz off. 10/10

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