Released October 2022

SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW

While the monthly Torchwood range has primarily focused on individual characters and often featured supporting characters from the television series or completely unique characters created for audio, it has at times paired members of the televised Torchwood Three to allow further exploration of beloved characters and their relationships in their earlier days together. Following the immensely engaging ‘Dinner and a Show,’ Ianto and Tosh return to the fore together in Ash Darby’s ‘Torchwood: SUV.’

Set in the very earliest days of the original Torchwood run just after Gwen has joined, ‘Torchwood: SUV’ sees Ianto and Tosh trapped together in Jack’s beloved SUV when the SUV dies within a poisonous mist housing even more dangerous creatures. With team appraisals looming and this routine investigation gone horribly wrong, tensions are understandably high, and Ianto in particular allows fear to overtake him as the two struggle to find a solution. While Ianto has certainly never been emotionless, he was often written as more of a background character early on, and ‘Torchwood: SUV’ brilliantly dives into his mindset at this time since he knows that he is capable of such more than the menial tasks and repair work so often asked of him. Unfortunately, he allows that simmering anger to boil over, and although lashing out at Tosh while suggesting that she has it far easier at Torchwood than he does is an interesting viewpoint at this stage of their professional relationship, it does become quite tedious to have Ianto persist with such a short temper and patience while Tosh tries her best to keep a cool head. Ianto may have something of a rash nature at a times, but unsealing the windows from the poisonous mists in a fit of rage and bravado simply seems a bit too out of character for someone who typically thinks about and overthinks each situation. Gareth David-Lloyd gives a remarkably energetic performance as always, but this iteration of Ianto doesn’t quite mesh with what has been shown of his time with Torchwoods One and Three no matter how frustrated he may be at this particular time in his life.

The notion of a sentient mist that provides atmosphere for deadly creatures to clear more land and ultimately planets for the mist to spread upon is a fantastic backdrop in which this claustrophobic story can unfold, and the amplifying tension as people and animals perish outside the SUV that must wait until morning to charge its backup battery becomes a character in its own right. And while Nigel Havers provides an intriguing voice for the SUV that Ianto and Tosh think Jack might just consider the most important member of his team, Tosh and Naoko Mori quickly become the true standouts. Tosh, again, did not always receive the greatest characterization on screen, and though she is rightly angered by what Ianto suggests about her role in the organization, she is more or less able to keep a cooler head even when Ianto significantly lessens their shared supply of safe air. Amidst the taunting of the mist, her determination allows her to continue to come up with at least fragments of ideas that can be developed into something more, but perhaps her greatest quality is proving able to distract Ianto from his own increasing fear by an innocuous conversation about crisps in order to get him to calm down and to again focus on the problem at hand. There is unquestionably too much bickering before getting to this point, something that in itself does exemplify the sometimes disjointed and chaotic methodologies of Torchwood Three, but the flashes of brilliance for both of these characters- and especially Tosh- make for an intriguing instalment dripping with tension that offers unique insight into where these beloved characters started their journey together.