Sergeant Andy – Spaceman?!

James Goss’ tale puts Tom Price’s Andy Davidson front and centre, after he’s called in to investigate a murder on a Mars spacebase. The rigours of the Martian atmosphere mean anyone outside the base will instantly be killed if they haven’t got a spacesuit… but there appears to be even more danger within.

Of course – and this is established in the blurb and the pre-credits – we’ve not jumped a couple of decades to a real Marsbase; this prototype base is not that far from Neath, and a petrol station that does a decent burger (NB opinions on the latter may vary). Andy, representing Torchwood, is there because there have been murders – or, as the base’s computer, Dave, puts it, a lot of human error leading to accidents.

There’s a passing similarity with the set up for a Hawaii Five-0 episode from a few years back – although it’s rather more believable that such a test base would be among the volcanic rock of Hawaii than a quarry in Neath, even if the latter is what decades of Doctor Who-watching would lead us to believe. Here, Davidson doesn’t have the sort of back up that the 5-0 operatives had, and there are some very tense moments as he tries to save the day with the odds stacked firmly against him.

It’s good to have an episode that depends in part on Andy’s training as a copper, and director Lisa Bowerman allows the Poirot-esque elements to flourish as appropriate. Joe Meiners’ sound design and Blair Mowat’s score help to sell the mix of real world and the artificial, and Bowerman has assembled a diverse cast that work well together.

Verdict: Spotlight on Andy in a different sort of Torchwood tale. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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