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Big Finish Torchwood #64
Torchwood #64 - Suckers
Shireen’s not exactly enjoying being sectioned, but she’s been in worse places. That psychiatric unit in Brecon was a right dump. This one’s alright, though. There’s table tennis, art therapy and they even get to do a bit of gardening.
There’s only one problem. Shireen’s roommate. Toshiko - she's a total space cadet, convinced the unit is overrun by aliens. Yeah, right.
There’s only one problem. Shireen’s roommate. Toshiko - she's a total space cadet, convinced the unit is overrun by aliens. Yeah, right.
Audio CD
First published August 17, 2022
About the author
Alexander Stewart
163 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 3, 2023
Before we begin this review, I just want to say a few years ago I was sectioned under the mental health act due to how bad my depression was getting, but thankfully I left a few months later and returned home. So when Big Finish announced this story, I was intrigued but cautious at the same time considering this could either be really good or really offensive depending on execution.
Shireen has been moved to another psychiatric unit in Brecon. But she has a roommate by the name of Toshiko and she believes the hospital is infested by aliens. To get out alive Shireen might have to start believing in beings from beyond the stars that threaten the fragile minds of the patients.
Alexander Stewart's first script for Big Finish is by far one of the most challenging and difficult stories to put together, but he's managed to do it in a way that's very knowledgeable and not insensitive which as an ex-patient I really appreciated. It's a dark, brutal horror story that does tackle how patients can be mishandled in vulnerable places just because of their race or sheer mind. To me, this was surprisingly realistic because the patients are gaslighted in this story and unfortunately (not my own experience personally) this is something that can actually happen if a hospital is run by a corrupt boss. It also deals with racism, prejudices, and hatred all in the horrific disguise of being 'helped'.
It's a brutal but excellently well-handled story that does end with a shocking ending that opens up the idea of a possible sequel.
Overall: It's a brilliant horror story with the amazing Toshiko where Naoko Mori really truly manages to bring an amazing performance to this incredibly mature tale. If you find matters to do with mental health and the unfairness in psychiatric hospitals to be very triggering, however, it's probably best to stay away. 10/10
Shireen has been moved to another psychiatric unit in Brecon. But she has a roommate by the name of Toshiko and she believes the hospital is infested by aliens. To get out alive Shireen might have to start believing in beings from beyond the stars that threaten the fragile minds of the patients.
Alexander Stewart's first script for Big Finish is by far one of the most challenging and difficult stories to put together, but he's managed to do it in a way that's very knowledgeable and not insensitive which as an ex-patient I really appreciated. It's a dark, brutal horror story that does tackle how patients can be mishandled in vulnerable places just because of their race or sheer mind. To me, this was surprisingly realistic because the patients are gaslighted in this story and unfortunately (not my own experience personally) this is something that can actually happen if a hospital is run by a corrupt boss. It also deals with racism, prejudices, and hatred all in the horrific disguise of being 'helped'.
It's a brutal but excellently well-handled story that does end with a shocking ending that opens up the idea of a possible sequel.
Overall: It's a brilliant horror story with the amazing Toshiko where Naoko Mori really truly manages to bring an amazing performance to this incredibly mature tale. If you find matters to do with mental health and the unfairness in psychiatric hospitals to be very triggering, however, it's probably best to stay away. 10/10
September 1, 2024
Toshiko Sato is no longer sure there is such a thing as ‘Torchwood’. Drugged, dazed and exhausted, she’s been incorporated into a psychiatric ward plagued by aliens! Or… perhaps there are no aliens. The ward staff are quite sure there are no aliens, and they’re the healthy ones, so they should know best, right?
Recent arrival Shireen Afzal is not appreciative of her new overseers, nor her bunkmate Tosh. She struggles enough with her own mental health, and dealing with some raving schizophrenic is hardly conducive to her rehabilitation. But the crushing atmosphere of the ward and strange whispers of octopus-like aliens quickly lend credit to Tosh’s tall tales, and besides, Tosh is a kind and friendly lady; good friend material.
Suckers thrives off the excellent chemistry shared between Naoko Mori and Emma Kaler, who plays Shireen. They are both flawed and self-conscious people. Confined, drugged and punished together, they quickly find common ground, and work to build each other up in a debilitating environment. Mori is fantastic as an anxious, terrified shadow of Tosh. Despite her character’s drugged out state, she never once veers into zombified drone-like territory in her performance. Instead, she skillfully portrays an incredible state of delirium and dissonance that amplifies all of Tosh’s most self-sabotaging traits. Her most ingrained, characteristic – empathy, kindness and sense of justice – endure, but they are warped and corrupted by her panicked state of mind to heartbreaking and upsetting lengths that writer Alexander Stewart takes great advantage of.
Read the full review here:
https://sonicreviewwho.wordpress.com/...
Recent arrival Shireen Afzal is not appreciative of her new overseers, nor her bunkmate Tosh. She struggles enough with her own mental health, and dealing with some raving schizophrenic is hardly conducive to her rehabilitation. But the crushing atmosphere of the ward and strange whispers of octopus-like aliens quickly lend credit to Tosh’s tall tales, and besides, Tosh is a kind and friendly lady; good friend material.
Suckers thrives off the excellent chemistry shared between Naoko Mori and Emma Kaler, who plays Shireen. They are both flawed and self-conscious people. Confined, drugged and punished together, they quickly find common ground, and work to build each other up in a debilitating environment. Mori is fantastic as an anxious, terrified shadow of Tosh. Despite her character’s drugged out state, she never once veers into zombified drone-like territory in her performance. Instead, she skillfully portrays an incredible state of delirium and dissonance that amplifies all of Tosh’s most self-sabotaging traits. Her most ingrained, characteristic – empathy, kindness and sense of justice – endure, but they are warped and corrupted by her panicked state of mind to heartbreaking and upsetting lengths that writer Alexander Stewart takes great advantage of.
Read the full review here:
https://sonicreviewwho.wordpress.com/...
September 29, 2024
Set inside a secure mental hospital, this sees a newly transferred patient sharing a room with Tosh and listening to what are apparently paranoid delusions about aliens in the segregation ward. Taken on its own, and with no prior knowledge of Tosh, this would lead to more of a psychological mystery - here, we know that some of what she's saying is true, and the only question is how much. Even so, the story manages to play on the fact that it certainly doesn't sound that way to the viewpoint character, even as it slowly becomes clear that there really is something sinister going on and the staff cannot be trusted.
Mori does a good job here of portraying someone whose grasp on reality is fading, and who spends most of the story zoned out on antipsychotic drugs. It's a dark, claustrophobic tale, only becoming darker once we discover the villains' motivations. There are some chilling moments in a story that's mature for reasons beyond just the conventional horror moments, a cautionary tale of how mental health treatment can be abused if those in charge don't have the patients' best interests at heart.
Mori does a good job here of portraying someone whose grasp on reality is fading, and who spends most of the story zoned out on antipsychotic drugs. It's a dark, claustrophobic tale, only becoming darker once we discover the villains' motivations. There are some chilling moments in a story that's mature for reasons beyond just the conventional horror moments, a cautionary tale of how mental health treatment can be abused if those in charge don't have the patients' best interests at heart.
November 7, 2024
Une fiction audio sur le gaslighting dans un contexte de soin institutionnel en santé mentale.
Le personnage de Sato, alors qu'elle est au tout début de son parcours dans l'institut Torchwood, se retrouve incarcérée dans un hôpital psychiatrique où on la persuade qu'elle est atteinte d'hallucination (parce qu'elle voit des extraterrestres) et où elle est très fortement médicamentée. Ce à quoi je ne m'attendait pas en écoutant ce drame audio, c'est une réflexion sur l'altérité en santé mentale, une dénonciation de certains traitements sur les patients et du racisme institutionnel envers une partie des patients dans un contexte très fictif de l'univers de Torchwood certes, mais dont on comprend les équivalences dans la vie réelle.
Le drame audio a aussi quelques moments très fort où notre cœur se brise à entendre le cours des événements.
Le personnage de Sato, alors qu'elle est au tout début de son parcours dans l'institut Torchwood, se retrouve incarcérée dans un hôpital psychiatrique où on la persuade qu'elle est atteinte d'hallucination (parce qu'elle voit des extraterrestres) et où elle est très fortement médicamentée. Ce à quoi je ne m'attendait pas en écoutant ce drame audio, c'est une réflexion sur l'altérité en santé mentale, une dénonciation de certains traitements sur les patients et du racisme institutionnel envers une partie des patients dans un contexte très fictif de l'univers de Torchwood certes, mais dont on comprend les équivalences dans la vie réelle.
Le drame audio a aussi quelques moments très fort où notre cœur se brise à entendre le cours des événements.
August 28, 2022
Prescient and heart breaking.
November 21, 2022
Interesting Story, and a great early days adventure for Toshiko!
November 26, 2022
Tosh is locked in a ward with an alien that is killing patients.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews