Released October 2015
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW

‘The Conspiracy’ proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Torchwood could easily adapt and thrive in any medium and any format, setting in motion the mystery of the malevolent Committee and highlighting the magnificently unique and complex Captain Jack Harkness. For the second release in this burgeoning range, ‘Fall to Earth’ by James Goss, the focus shifts to the beloved Ianto Jones who finds himself trapped aboard the visionary Ephraim Salt’s first private space flight as the ship falls out of the sky and plummets back to Earth below it.

‘Fall to Earth’ opens in a rather spectacularly absurd fashion as Ianto who is bleeding out on the crashing SkyPuncher receives a telephone call from an innocuous insurance agent simply doing her job and trying to notch another sale. Knowing that this woman may be his only hope at surviving, he uses his Torchwood access to make her computer one of the most powerful information databases on the planet, but her unwillingness to go off script and break protocol even when confronted with a dying man makes for another unexpected hurdle he must overcome. Lisa Zahra gives an incredible performance as a woman simply doing her job who suddenly finds herself in the most extraordinary of circumstances as one man’s life above and so many more lives around her in the ship’s crash zone are put at stake as Zeynep balances her supervisor’s overbearing nature with Ianto’s surprisingly robust line of credit. Zeynep is instantly relatable and quickly proves how resourceful, intelligent, witty, and brave she is as Ianto and she try to piece together the dangerous puzzle before them that is seemingly connected by an auspicious series of coincidences.

Given how intimate and enthralling the quickly-developing relationship between Zeynep and Ianto becomes, Gareth David-Lloyd likewise deserves full due for being able to portray a man trying to defy the odds and save innocent lives even if that means forfeiting his own as the ship plunges toward Zeynep’s building. Delirious as he must tend to his own bleeding and fight off the scare of a lifetime as he searches for a phone charger amidst the celebrity crew that has already died from an act of sabotage that is far more personal than he could have ever imagined, Ianto manages to maintain his wits and dedication and firmly proves just how valuable he can be to Torchwood even if this entire undertaking to avert disaster was of his own secret accord in order to prove his worth to his colleagues, a damning statement about the culture of the organisation where acts of defiance and secrecy are celebrated if successful. Zeynep quite rightly tells him that nobody is worth dying for, and while she did mean his coworkers, Ianto’s continued willingness to die for everyone while doing what he believes to be right speaks volumes about this character in a way that simple words could never manage.

Quite fantastically, this entire incident, its impending ramifications in Turkey, and even the deliberate rerouting of Zeynep’s innocent call are all revealed to be part of an elaborate Committee scheme to completely take down and destroy Ephraim Salt, his empire, and his legacy. With such an intimate character-based drama that continues to amplify the tension and danger throughout, ‘Fall to Earth’ is a superb two-hander that avoids the excesses that Torchwood on television was initially so prone to overindulge in, and Scott Handcock’s confident direction helps to ensure a stellar piece of entertainment that ranks among Big Finish’s very best.