Golden Age
A Torchwood Audio Adventure
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Radio 4 Golden Age A Torchwood Audio Adventure |
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| Author | James Goss |  |
| First aired | July 2009 |
| Synopsis: The Torchwood team go to Delhi on the trail of a dangerous energy field. |
The Twentieth Century was when everything changed... by John Wood 30/1/10
Having listened to and enjoyed Asylum, I came to Golden Age with fairly high expectations. My feelings after hearing it were... mixed.
The story is much more traditional Torchwood, with the team hunting down a mysterious energy phenomenon and Jack in the spotlight, his immortality being put to the test once again and some more of his past revealed. A refreshing twist is that the action takes place outside South Wales; in Delhi, to be precise.
Don't expect a travelogue, though: the guest cast is made up entirely of members of the Royal Connaught Club and the Delhians who serve them. The former are relics of the last days of the Raj, clinging on to the attitudes and privileges of that bygone era and attempting to keep alive the "Golden Age" of the title. They are portrayed as stereotypical colonial Brits, confident of their own importance as rightful rulers of the planet; rather like Yvonne Hartman from Torchwood One, but minus the modernisms. The Delhians made me wince a bit with their servile pampering of their employers, but that's just my own inherited guilt rather than anything wrong within the story. The setting is played for comedy, poking fun at the absurdities of the Raj. It's not trying to get across a message; it just wants to be entertaining. The overt racism is simply part of that absurdity, like the fact that Queen Victoria set up a "Torchwood India", effectively equating a country of almost a quarter of a billion people with Cardiff.
The characterisation of Gwen and Ianto is shallow here as well, with neither showing much personality, while Jack is portrayed in a cartoonish manner as larger than life but tortured (or at least pricked) by his past. None of this matters much, since this is not intended as a character story; to be honest, I didn't even notice it until afterwards.
The stand-out performer is Jasmine Hyde, playing the Duchess. She comes across as very slightly off-kilter from her first appearance. She is the link that allows the fantasy world of the club to join seamlessly with the different fantasy that is the Torchwood/Who universe. Her performance made the story work for me.
Once again, the sound is quite basic compared to Big Finish, with little in the way of effects and background music, but the places visited present a greater variety of tonal qualities (crowded streets, busy factories, the echoey halls and cellars of the Royal Connaught Club). These are well realised, and this helps it feel less bare than Asylum.
I found this the hardest of the three to rate. It's fun - a cozy, light-hearted romp where you just know nothing really bad will happen to the regulars - but this frothy nature makes it more ephemeral. If these audios were a three-course meal, Golden Age would be a delightful lemon souffle; served, no doubt, on a silver dish by a dabbawallah. I'll go with 7/10. Boy, fetch me my coat!