Jack ...... John Barrowman Directed by Kate McAll.
Plot outline When PC Andy Davidson arrests a young girl for shoplifting, he thinks it's going to be a routine case. That is, until he sees that she is carrying a gun. The girl is soaking wet, covered in mud, and the weapon is like nothing he's ever seen before. He knows that this is a case for Torchwood... The team discovers that the girl is called Freda, but can find out nothing else. Yet when she speaks, it's a strange mix of English and Icelandic, but with a Cardiff accent. While Jack and Ianto check out the girl's weapon and her blood sample at the Hub, Gwen and PC Andy take Freda to a safe house. But when Jack calls with the results - and Freda goes on the run - PC Andy finds his world turning upside down. Written specially for BBC Radio by Anita Sullivan, Asylum stars John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones and Tom Price as PC Andy Davidson.
Analysis by Cuisle The radio play is a much simpler storyline than the TV series. And I mean that as a compliment. It never gets bewildering the way From Out Of The Rain did or bogged down like Adrift. It tells a simple story of Freda the refugee from the future who is half alien and half Human, on her father’s side and the burning question, what should Torchwood do with her. There was a distinct drawing of sides. Jack, was the hard man who insisted that Freda had to be restrained and isolated, while Gwen and PC Andy took the humane line, wanting to protect her. I found this just a little inconsistent about Jack, actually. After all, as Ianto pointed out in the story, he, himself came from the future, and his excuse about knowing how to behave doesn’t really cut any ice. I would really have expected Jack to be more understanding of the confused girl.
PC Andy has a much bigger role in this story than he ever has on TV. That isn’t a compliment. Andy is annoying. His attitude towards Torchwood is annoying. And letting him have the moral high ground over Jack is an annoying way of giving his character more of a profile. Granted, it is necessary to give the external characters liked Andy and Rhys are moving into the vacuum left now that Toshiko and Owen are no longer around, but really, Andy needs more of a personality to fill it properly. Jack and Ianto didn’t have a lot to do, really. Apart from the amusing scene in the car with the laser remote control that caused such chaos, there wasn't much for either of them to do. This is a shame since they really are the strongest characters usually.
The best parts of the story really were the flashback scenes with Freda. They were delightfully done in a cleverly crafted future-mongrel language that was part Scandinavian and part Welsh. The horror that unfolds – a girl nearly burnt to death when Humans attacked her home because she and her mother are not Human – is an excellent case of science fiction holding up a mirror to life. They were attacked for being alien. People are attacked in Britain for being Catholic, Protestant, Indian, Muslim, Jewish, Polish… you name it. It’s rather grim to think that in two or three generations old style racism will be replaced by speciesism. But all too easily to believe. In the end, Jack comes a little too quickly around from hostility to Freda to deciding that Torchwood needs an Asylum policy. I had already guessed that would be the conclusion, but I was ready for some kind of twist. There wasn’t one. This story was kept simple and straightforward. One possible gripe. Some of the incidental music was too loud for the dialogue. On the radio the balance has to be right. In places it wasn’t.
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