Naoko Mori Returns as Toshiko Sato in a Flashback Story of TORCHWOOD, Thanks to Big Finish Audio.

Tosh (Naoko Mori) travels to the family home of recently fallen member of the Torchwood team Sebastian (Hugh Skinner) to deliver his body and his dog to his Mum (Lucy Robinson). As she arrives at the family estate, she remembers working with Sebastian on his last case. Where Tosh is determine to make her mark on Torchwood by following the science, Sebastian was ready to get into some action and doesn’t have time for the research.

I wonder if he will live to regret that?

Tosh always seemed to me an underserved character in TV Torchwood. It was a great idea to have a technical wizard that is always struggling to be braver and apply her knowledge to the real word, but not one that often got something really meaty to play with. Here, as always, Big Finish delivers.

Sabastian is wonderfully irritating, laddish and exactly the type of privileged ass who will always get a job because of Daddy’s connections and neither appreciate nor put in the work required. This gives Tosh so much to work with – yes, you have to keep her as shy and struggling, to make sense of the timeline, but here they show the first sparks of bravery that will go into her character over time.

The character of the mother is enough of a stereotype to be easy to get a handle on in an hour long drama, but is writen well enough to add texture. A wonderful performance by Robinson brings home that she is still a mother in mourning.

Mori gets to really shine, as she has in all the audio dramas she’s been in to date. Not that she didn’t in the TV show, but she is given so much more and the character is it’s best version in the hands of writer Lou Morgan, director Lisa Bowerman and series producer James Goss.

You can buy this release now on CD or digital here.

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