Torchwood One review: Latter Days – Retirement Plan mixes humor with character exploration
By James Aggas
Ianto Jones gets to know his colleague Tommy better in the idyll of El Cielo, in the opening episode of Torchwood One: Latter Days. When the place isn’t trying to kill them, at least.
Latter Days, the latest box set in the Torchwood One series – the prequel focused on the London based branch of the organization before its downfall in Doctor Who finale Doomsday – begins with Retirement Plan, written by Gareth David-Lloyd.
The man best known for playing Ianto Jones has emerged as quite the strong Torchwood writer in the past, and this latest episode is no exception. It’s also unsurprising that Ianto gets a heavy focus in this episode, but he’s not the only one, as Retirement Plan explores series regular Tommy in more depth than ever before.
If you haven’t listened to the previous Torchwood One box sets, Tommy is Torchwood’s Head of Alien Acquisitions. He’s “old-school”, which is basically the polite way of saying that he has some extremely dated attitudes and can come across as very difficult, at times. But he’s also someone who’s brilliant at what he does, and always manages to get the job done. He’s also an alcoholic, although he hasn’t touched a drop in years.
With that kind of description, it’s perhaps unsurprising that David-Lloyd wanted to explore the character in far more depth than from what we’ve heard previously. He gives Timothy Bentinck some really great scenes to perform in the role, as Tommy tells Ianto the toll working for Torchwood has taken on his personal life, and why it lead him to becoming an alcoholic in the first place. The ending is particularly emotional and reveals exactly how much depth Tommy likes to keep hidden.
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A story with a lot of humor
However, that’s not to say that this story is without humor. In fact, that’s exactly how Gareth David-Lloyd eases us into this tale of fantasies and character exploration – plenty of laugh out loud moments. Usually (but not always) at Ianto’s expense.
There are a lot of early scenes in Retirement Plan that focus on Ianto and Tommy as a great double act. These are two very different personalities, and David-Lloyd aims to get as much humor out of that as possible. (He did something similar in his earlier audio The Last Beacon, which focused on Ianto and Owen going camping.)
But that’s not the only source of humor he uses. Clearly, David-Lloyd had a lot of fun with this script, and wasn’t afraid of finding every excuse he could to get Tracy-Ann Oberman to say the funniest lines in strong accents. Considering how brilliant she is as the strong and confident Yvonne, it’s nice to hear her get to do some great comedy in this one and play something a little different.
Oh, and as for the cover of Latter Days? Yes, it relates to this particular episode. I won’t say how or why, just that it’s exactly as brilliant as it looks.
Retirement Plan is a great mix of both humor and character exploration. A very bittersweet episode, and another great Torchwood story from Gareth David-Lloyd.
Next. Robert Holmes and The Phantom of the Opera. dark
Have you listened to Gareth David-Lloyd’s previous stories for Torchwood? Do you think he writes for the series and the characters well? Which lighter, funnier stories of Torchwood do you enjoy? Let us know in the comments below.