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The Red List was the fifty-sixth story in the Torchwood - Monthly Range by Big Finish Productions. It was written by James Goss.

Publisher's summary[]

At first it was lights in the sky. Then the country started falling apart. Torchwood has come to help. So has A Charitable Earth. But there's a problem.

Mr Colchester and Ms McShane find themselves trapped in a quarantine hotel in the middle of an alien invasion.

Can they save the world without leaving their rooms?

Plot[]

Mr Colchester has been summoned by Señor Fernández to his country to help thwart an alien invasion which threatens to cause societal collapse, but he is kept quarantined in a hotel on the pretext of a concern about viral malaria. He meets Dorothy McShane after going out on his balcony and leaves his room at night after hearing somebody in pain, but a guard catches him and claims that the room that he heard screams from is unoccupied. He shares his concern with reception, who pay him little notice, and with Ms McShane, who is frustrated that the medical supplies she has brought are stuck in the harbour until she can leave.

Ms McShane stops being friendly with Mr Colchester upon learning that he is with Torchwood due to their former attitude towards the Doctor, but helps after he sees somebody fall from the fourteenth floor and sneaks out with him. A guard spots them, however, and escorts them back to their rooms after claiming that nobody had fallen. The following day, Ms McShane admits that she has come to overthrow President de Santos because of how he has let a generation of children down and Xavier, who works in maintenance, confides in Mr Colchester that he believes that de Santos is a bad man.

When Mr Colchester hears Ms McShane in distress, he jumps onto her balcony and opens her door, letting out a swarm of blowflies from the air conditioning. He asks Xavier to check the basement and ducts in case the blowflies were attracted by corpses and Ms McShane finds something alien in her cupboard taking her shape which she flushes down the toilet. Mr Colchester's own cupboard, however, is empty. Ms McShane deduces that they have both been being brainwashed and Mr Colchester has subtly trying to get the both of them to realise it through non-existent crossword clues and messages only he could see.

Upon realising that Ms McShane has been being copied for being strategically advantageous and that Mr Colchester has been being brainwashed to assassinate de Santos, they knock Xavier out and take his key card to escape the hotel. They put on hazmat suits and discover that the guards and staff are all Xavier; they are the Unity, a group paid to take over a A Charitable Earth and discredit Torchwood. They dissolve themselves when Mr Colchester and Ms McShane get out and the hotel is evacuated in order to prevent themselves from being discovered, making Ms McShane worry about whether or not they are all the original versions of themselves.

Cast[]

Worldbuilding[]

Notes[]

  • This story was recorded on 8 and 26 July 2021 both remotely and at the Soundhouse.
  • The country in which the story is set is implied to be in South America: it is led by "El Presidente", has issues with malaria and English is spoken with an American accent.
  • Writer and producer James Goss explained that this story is set "after Covid" and gave a rough setting of "early 2022".[1]

Continuity[]

External links[]

Footnotes[]

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