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Not to be republished elsewhere without permission. Stephen James Walker, this means you

The Radio Episode.
"This is no job for the Ambassador for Wales" but it was great fun. Also more orientated towards the informative side of the Who'verse's history than most episodes of the new series era but fitting the day of particle physics on Radio 4. And can I just say, the juxtaposition of Torchwood and The Archers - utterly surreal.

It was penned by Joseph Lidster, who wrote one of the best of season two and again does a great job here. There's a good balance between the educational mandate and the simple but vital human drama. Putting the team in a life threatening situation after Exit Wounds, using the Martha they all know but isn't one of them as a sounding board and having a monster that gets into people's heads pretending to be dead loved ones allows a great exploration of how our three regulars are dealing with the aftermaths of the deaths of Tosh and Owen. This being Guilt - Gwen, Not Well but knowing he's stuck losing loved ones but connecting anyway because they're worth it - Jack, and worryingly for Ianto wanting to be with his dead loved one, Lisa to the extent he gets glowy - if not Twilight Sparkly - before Jack and Gwen get through to him that it isn't the dead, it is a monster getting into his head and the dead stay dead.

There's great one liners and an answer to the essential question re Weevils;) Can they swim? Turns out, not so much. There is good Ianto snark and also bits from Jack, especially re Weevils dress sense.

I suspect that some Janto fans at least will feel more than a tad miffed at the lack of Janto. There really isn't much but him the loving coffee and Jack line form Gwen to Ianto as she tries to reach Ianto and Jack himself seems to put Gwen and Ianto on the same level re his feelings towards them. It seems stronger on the Gwack vibe, if anything.

There is some great Gwen generally, both individually, with the two boys and with Martha.

Eve - like Gareth - does a nice job with radio acting. Jack is also pretty good. I wish Freema had a wider vocal range, as she really needed one to get the full range of emotions she was given to play with out via voice alone, which was a shame as she was given good stuff and there character was genuinely essential to get into how the regulars were feeling.

Background info reveals. Jack knows his particle physics. During the Time Agency period an entire colony was wiped out by the neutron eaters. I wonder of Captain John was with him? There was a funeral - presumably for Tosh with a memorial side for Owen as there wouldn't be anything to bury.

The dead characters were honoured appropriately and the characters, as in Exit Wounds, gain in my love for their grief for and respectful mourning for them. It was also good to see that Ianto still mourns Lisa, as it reflects well on him as well as her worth as a person. Good job, Joe.

There were some lovely swipes at irrational faith over reason, try and achieve a Rapture-esque everyone gets transmuted into angels, lets open the door to Heaven and not listen to the voices of reason telling you that means we all die. I do hope Sarah Palin listening, though I'm sure we wouldn't be that lucky.

Though I do wish Martha had gone a bit more towards atheist over agnostic, at least the other main voices were reason over faith.

The redemptive death was suitable and all the more effective coming as it did after the guy realised it wasn't Angels.

And finally, they won by embracing reason over irrational faith and reversed the polarity. Old Skool Love:)

In other words, well worth listening to.