Life is getting bad for Rhys when he can’t even visit his mother in hospital without really weird things happening…

After the trip back to the pre-Doomsday Torchwood One in the excellent Before the Fall, we’re into the monthly releases again, with the focus on Kai Owen’s Rhys Williams and his mam, played once again by Nerys Hughes. Writer David Llewellyn has fun with the dynamic between the two of them, as do Owen and Hughes who play off each other beautifully.  Rhys’ Torchwood… well, we can’t exactly call it training… kicks in when he realises that his mother is in great danger – and so will he be if he doesn’t do something pretty sharpish despite his mam criticising pretty much every decision he makes. And there’s one of the funniest uses of a swear word in context since Robert Powell in The 39 Steps.

There are quite a few questions left unanswered at the end of the story, I suspect quite deliberately to set up another arc across these releases. (The fact that we’re finally getting an Owen episode could tie in neatly with some of them.) That doesn’t mean this isn’t a self-contained tale: Rhys and his mam have their own particular way of dealing with the threat (including Rhys telling his mother to do something few children have probably ever had reason to ask of their parents). The two intruders with whom they have the most dealing, played by Karl Theobald and Ryan Sampson, have the feel of one of Robert Holmes’ double acts and also reminded me of the classic Hitch-Hikers’ Guide character, Mr Prosser…

Director Scott Handcock maintains the tension throughout with Benji Clifford’s sound design conveys some horrific moments almost as if from afar and Blair Mowat’s music score never intrusive. It all adds up to a strong start to the new releases.

Verdict: A suitably gruesome start to the new season. 9/10

Paul Simpson