Torchwood Magazine # 19

I'm finally able to review some of these when they actually come out--crazy, I know! (hey, I'm still writing reviews of Buffy books published eight years ago, so this is quite a feat for me) Issue # 19 of Torchwood Magazine features:

* News that Eve Myles has been named the seventh sexiest woman in Wales in a recent online contest. No offense to the Welsh, but . . . really? I just don't see it. A separate news blurb mentions that John Barrowman is performing in drag for a production of La Cage Aux Folles. Next year, he might just place higher on the list than Eve . . .

* Some extraordinarily cool and gross concept sketches for the 456 alien by Neill Gorton of Millenium FX. I'm too lazy to scan them in, but they're fantastic. I will blatantly plagiarize Gorton the next time I need a monster for a role-playing game and want the players to have nightmares.

* Interviews with the actors who played Ianto's sister and brother-in-law in Children of Earth. I rarely find these interviews with guest actors very interesting--they always loved doing the show, thought everyone was brilliant, would be stoked to return, etc. Now, if one of them said "I saw John Barrowman doing meth in his trailer while Eve Myles sacrificed goats in a Satanic ritual," then they would be interesting. In other words, supporting actors doing interviews for fan magazines: lie shamelessly! Readers and libel lawyers will thank you . . .

* A really good short story by Trevor Baxendale titled They Keep Killing Andy. PC Andy turns up dead with a knife in his back. Then his body disappears, and a couple of days later the same thing happens. And then again. It's a clever story, slightly marred by an ending that I'm not a 100% sure makes sense, but that's okay.

* The fifth and final installment of the Broken comic strip. It's not great, but it is better than some of the other strips the magazine has run. And, I'm a sucker for a dark ending.

* A short story titled Flotsam and Jetsam by Kate Orman. Giant starfish monsters rampaging through Cardiff? I'd like to visit, but I sure wouldn't want to live there. An interesting supporting character in scientist Morgan Ling--she knows all about Torchwood and doesn't get ret-conned at the end. And speaking of the end, it has a nice non-kill the alien resolution which was a surprise and much appreciated.

* A "Beyond the Hub" feature on fairies. It is interesting that today we think of fairies as very nice, Disney-like figures who are funny and helpful--whereas historically, fairies were baby-stealing monsters responsible for all sorts of foul deeds.