Written by Alexandria Riley and directed by Scott Handcock.

Featured in Torchwood: God Among Us 3.

Spoiler-free verdict: The high-stakes escalation of the God Among Us arc takes a much-needed step back for a furiously poignant series standout.

Recommended pre-listening: See list.

***

God walks the Earth. A group of space bureaucrats called the Committee have exploited God’s powers for their own gain. Yvonne Hartman is back from the dead via parallel universe shenanigans, leading Torchwood, and cutting deals with said Committee. Oh, and all this leads to God’s powers flooding Cardiff with an enormous tsunami.

Suffice to say, there’s been a lot going on in God Among Us, Big Finish’s “sixth series” of Torchwood, particularly after the cliffhanger to Eye of the Storm, the finale to the previous set. So, as is becoming structural custom for this range, we pick up the action many days later, from a new point of view. This is a strategy that can work brilliantly or backfire, and Big Finish Torchwood is full of numerous examples of both, even in this box set. But for this episode, at the very least, it is an approach that yields nothing but gold.

A huge part of why it works in this case comes down to the choice of point of view. Bethan, a grieving mother looking to find her son in the aftermath of the tsunami, is a very poignant construction, and is made an even better idea through the casting of Mina Anwar. As viewers of The Sarah Jane Adventures can attest, Mina Anwar is always a good idea. The script is also full of cynical sharpness that takes this good idea to painfully real heights, such as in Bethan’s willingness to be exploited by TV and force herself to cry again and again just to sustain ratings and keep her son’s name in the public eye. Strongest of all, though, is her obsession with keeping her phone battery charged, a pleasantly ordinary fixation that turns into a deeply poingnant, understated reveal in the end, elevating Bethan’s plight with just the right sort of gut-punch of guilt and personal failure. In short, Bethan is a winning presence on every level, and is responsible for a good portion of the story’s success.

Also successful is the way the story uses the scaffolding of previous episodes in the Torchwood audio range to create a vivid portrayal of a community at breaking point. Unlike most episodes in this range, there are no actual new science fiction conceits here, and there don’t need to be. Instead, A Mother’s Son takes existing characters, locations, and concepts and shows new angles to them, both as a result of Bethan’s perspective and as a result of the flooding crisis. The use of Mr. Colchester’s apartment complex established in A Kill to a View in the second set of Aliens Among Us, for example, elegantly ties the class tensions and community concerns of that story into the new status quo without need for establishing significant new material.

Best of all, however, is the integration of Orr, a character who was sadly absent from God Among Us 2 and who I feel hasn’t always been given as much material as they deserve. The desire-based shapeshifter has moved on past taking the form of whatever people desire to get off with and onto deeper personal needs, with heartrending results. Having the grieving of a mass disaster latch onto them for comfort is a breathtakingly good idea, and Bethan’s failure to keep that comfort to herself is a wonderfully human tragedy. Not everything about Orr’s use here is perfect—their survival at the end of God Among Us 1 isn’t explained until far too late in this set, and there’s a mildly awkward moment where Bethan refers to this non-binary character with she/her pronouns—but the strength of this concept and the rawness of the execution mean it is nonetheless the best use of the character, bar none, and a very memorable emotional experience to hear. Once again, Bethan’s interactions with the fixtures of this world showcase all of humanity, in its personal needs and its large-scale failings, and mapping that onto the story of her needing and then failing Orr is a truly gorgeous thing.

Other characters get far briefer look-ins. We hear Colin and Tyler working to try to help after the flood, Jack trying to take Yvonne down for her complicity, Yvonne herself on trial for her role in these events, and most troublingly, Andy working with the Disaster Recovery Committee. But as the climax shows, in which Bethan dooms Yvonne as part of a greater game she has no sight of, these broader motions aren’t the point, and aren’t necessary to what works here. This is a story about feelings in a big tragedy being deflected and scapegoated onto the smaller scale, from clinging to Orr for support to blaming Yvonne for a far bigger catastrophe. A Mother’s Son is at heart a portrait of mass loss in the world of Torchwood through a deeply personal lens, with an eye on all the insight that lens creates, as well as on all the understanding that is lost by holding to such a small scale. There is heart and there is fury, both from and toward Bethan’s life here, and by stepping from the big picture to the small, the small picture just feels so much bigger.

Those are the moments I will treasure most from this episode, and, indeed, from God Among Us as a whole. Moments like Bethan musing about her smoking habit, or a woman trying to fill the loss of her lover by sharing a mediocre pizza with Orr in her form, or a TV crewmember admitting to Bethan that she should make herself cry for the cameras to please the audience, devastate in a way hearing a rush of water on audio never can. This is a piece that shines in how quiet it is, letting every strong feeling burst forward to the surface. And slowly, surely, quietly, it showcases the very best of what Torchwood can be.

10/10