The Three Monkeys

 

"That Monkey was just one extrusion of the multi-dimensional N-Form."

The Three Monkeys by James Goss 

There are certain writers I think understand Torchwood absolutely perfectly - Joseph Lidster, Tim Foley, Gareth David Lloyd, Guy Adams - chief of all of which is James Goss. The man does not miss. He can write about around anything at all really. You could tell him to write a Torchwood story about Ianto's childhood pony and he'd probably nail it out of the park. He's like that. The Three Monkeys feels like a story almost deliberately written to test that theory. It's a story about a magical alien monkey that sends out waves of luck. Sheer shitpostery. 

The Monkey doesn't matter, no, what matters is the characters, and the little human interactions they have throughout. The Three Monkeys really rewards your attention that way - from a bit about stealing tin roofing, to even offhand dialogue coming up to help explain the plot, one of the main words I'd use to describe this particular Torchwood tale is witty. Especially since the cast is a hysterically small four characters, two of which hardly have any dialog. The scenarios are farcical, and the concepts are wildly funny but also a story with a rather sad overture between Owen and Andy's characters, somehow managing to develop them further together in a really compelling way after bloody Corpse Day and The Hope by saying the obvious. That of course these characters couldn't properly like each other, because while they're friends, every time one of them shows up in each other's lives, things happen to go horrifically wrong.

The Three Monkeys is horrifically clever, a sort of Moffatian sense of clever, but it's also kind of cynical. Still, it's a lot more fun of a ride than either prior Andy and Owen adventure. It's even got some okay action sequences on audio and really understands how to do it's format - a lot of the narration is done through one or the other characters investigating a place via walkie talkie, allowing for more vivid description that makes sense in-universe as Andy literally describes to Owen what he's seeing. The two hander is very difficult to do on audio, yet flourishes like this prove it's always immensely rewarding. However, The Three Monkeys isn't the best usage of this format, and the cynic in me can even point out that it's a very muted and much more comedic We Always Get Out Alive without the time loop aspect. Having two characters in a car is a great source of drama and fun, but it isn't necessarily original, and yes, the last bit of the story does feel rather rushed. I still do really recommend the Three Monkeys though. Pieces like this are very fun to listen to - and just as fun to come back to afterwards. 9/10 

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