Torchwood: Ex Machina

The story opens with a woman approaching Torchwood with a seemingly impossible story that hints that something alien or supernatural must have happened to her. As Ianto investigates, it soon becomes clear to the listener that something else is also very wrong but that none of the characters in the story are able to notice it.

This makes for an off-kilter story, although far from the strangest thing Big Finish have done with the series. To begin with, it's largely a procedural, with Ianto trying to solve the mystery but not seeing the bigger picture of which it's a part. In the later portions, the threat builds up and it's quite close to the end before we get the explanation, told through a series of flashbacks.

Ianto might seem an odd choice for the Torchwood protagonist here, but that's part of the point, and it's hard to imagine any of the others working so well. There's also a good performance from the guest star, a woman out of her depth and relying on the man who makes the coffee (this is probably set during season 1 of the TV show) to help her out of her increasingly dire situation. There's a good mixture of action and sci-fi mystery with the odd dash of humour and the whole idea is really rather clever.