Ascension (Torchwood Soho audio story)

Ascension was the fourth release in the Torchwood Soho audio series. It was written by James Goss and starred Samuel Barnett as Norton Folgate, Dervla Kirwan as Lizbeth Hayhoe, Tom Price as Andy Davidson and Joe Shire as Gideon Lyme.

Ascension

Demonic
Angelic

Main character(s):

Norton, Lizbeth, Andy, Lyme

Featuring:

Armitage, Goringe

Main setting:

London, Wales and Moscow, 1950s

Key crew

Publisher:

Big Finish Productions

Writer:

James Goss

Director:

David O'Mahony

Producer:

James Goss

Music:

Blair Mowat

Sound:

Shane O'Byrne

Cover by:

Sean Longmore

Release details

Number of parts:

6

Release date:

4 July 2024

Format:

3 CDs
Download

Production code:

BFPTWSOHO04CD

ISBN:

ISBN: 978-1-80240-150-9 (physical); ISBN 978-1-80240-151-6 (digital)

*Torchwood Soho*
← Previous
The Unbegotten

You may be looking for the Gallifrey audio story.

Publisher's summary

Is the end of the world really nigh? A number of groups believe so – and what’s odder, they’re all vanishing.

Have they really gone to heaven, or is something far worse happening? It’s Torchwood. Obviously something far worse is happening.

1. Burning Bright

When carol singers on the runway bring down a plane, Torchwood investigate.

2. Chariot of Fire

The race is on to stop the world ending at midnight. Norton has it all under control.

3. The Invisible Worm

In Moscow, the true power of Ascension is revealed.

4. We Have Built Jerusalem

It's up to Lizbeth, Andy and Gideon to save the world now.

5. Dark Satanic Mills

Come on holiday, all ye faithful! What is going on on Salisbury Plain?

6. Fearful Symmetry

As the net tightens, does the human race have one last use for Torchwood?

Plot

Burning Bright (1)

A group of carol singers trespass on a runway at London Airport where a church one stood and refuse to leave despite a jet liner arriving from New York, their leader shouting that they are there to ascend to Heaven. The aeroplane is unable to pull up and explodes as it lands, something that attracts the attention of Norton. He gathers Andy, Lizbeth and Gideon early in the morning and informs them of the explosion and how the group vanished in a blaze of light. The newspaper is full of declarations of the end of the world, so the group split up to investigate.

Gideon joins Sister Patience's Peckham Apocalypse, Lizbeth Pastor Tom's Dane Street Ascension and Andy Father Dinsdale in Wales. Father Dinsdale eventually admits to Andy that he began his career as a fraud, but he has come to truly believe that the faithful will soon ascend. Meanwhile, Norton repeatedly attempts to meet with ministers to discuss the situation without success, although he tells Gideon otherwise, and believes that the supposed prophets might have received an alien signal which they have each interpreted differently given their predictions of different days for the end of the world.

Norton meets with Armitage at his club and confides in him that he believes that the government has been infiltrated, but Armitage claims that they are simply annoyed by his actions in Ashenden and at Mandeville Walk. He eventually meets Sir Reginald Peebles as he leaves his office and realises that the government know the Ascensions to be true, so he hurries to Peckham and saves Gideon from disappearing with Sister Patience and the rest of the congregation. Thanks to her lateness, Lizbeth avoids ascending with Pastor Tom's group.

Chariot of Fire (2)

Andy and Father Dinsdale are joined by a number of believers in the wake of the recent Ascensions and Father Dinsdale puts them to work on his farm. Not understanding why he would have them do this if the world is ending, Andy learns that Father Dinsdale has had three groups Ascend in the past but has always been left behind and that the next Ascension will be at midnight in two days' time. Norton keeps up the pretence with Lyme that he is making progress with the higher-ups and visits Armitage with Sir Reginald, Ruddigore from the Ministry of Works, the Archbishop and various others to discuss Ascension as what he calls the Ascension Action Group.

Norton makes little progress, but claims otherwise when he meets with Lizbeth, who is upset by Maggie's Ascension, and when Andy calls him whilst he and Lyme are walking Bunbury. Lizbeth visits General de Souza, an old friend, and gets him to take over the Ascension Action Group to ensure that work is done. De Souza puts a stop to Norton's plan, Operation Angel Wings, as he believes that a powerful weapon is responsible for the Ascensions and that it must be investigated before any action can be taken. He takes the operation under military control, frustrating Norton and leading him to form an alliance with Armitage and to fall out with Lizbeth. In Wales, the Ascension begins and Andy sees a blinding light.

The Invisible Worm (3)

Lizbeth and Lyme find Andy left behind at Father Dinsdale's farmhouse, upset that Norton had forgotten to rescue him before the Ascension. Lyme changes the locks on his and Norton's home out of anger and Andy demands that Norton sends him back to his own time, which Norton agrees to do if he helps him with the task de Souza has given him: to find a way to weaponise the Ascension and test it in another country. Lizbeth travels to Moscow with Father Dinsdale to work on this mission and employs the assistance of Aleksandr of the KVI, knowing that his government will eventually shut down the project she finds obscene.

Aleksandr shows Lizbeth a machine, found in a crashed spaceship, which shows the spread of the idea of Ascension and indicates that something within the idea can affect the physiognomy of those that believe in it. Father Dinsdale spreads the news of Ascension and gathers followers in Moscow whilst further Ascensions occur in Havana, China, Egypt, North Korea and Cuba, delighting Armitage. When Lizbeth tells Aleksandr to expose and stop the project, he locks her up and joins Father Dinsdale's mass Ascension event of other a thousand people, which de Souza and Armitage celebrate. Afterwards, Lizbeth analyses the coal-like substance left behind and, before she is captured by the Soviets, informs Norton that it is the most powerful fuel the Earth has ever known.

We Have Built Jerusalem (4)

Norton is staying with his father, Reverend Edward Folgate, whose church has seen a rapid drop in attendance recently, since being kicked off of the Ascension project. Lizbeth returns to London and is excluded from Operation Catapult by de Souza until she threatens to leak information, upon which she learns that de Souza's plan is to send nuclear missiles into the sky in the hopes of hitting a spaceship and feigns support. Lyme, meanwhile, visits several newspapers in the hopes of writing and publishing a story on a religious group's failure to Ascend and is eventually hired by Borage at The Gazette.

Borage gives him access to the paper's classified department and proceeds to call de Souza, reaching Lizbeth and being told to afford him every access rather than keeping him ignorant as he had previously been ordered. Lizbeth passes on a message to Lyme to investigate Ascension camps and keeps in touch with Andy, who has discovered a secret listening station in Cornwall in the Torchwood files and is looking for signals like those Aleksandr detected in Moscow. Upon learning that the government are inviting people to cheap and free pilgrimages to religious sites to get people to Ascend and provide them with fuel, Lyme gets drunk and takes the train to Norton to inform him and get his help.

De Souza gets cold feet about the project as do several others at the Ascension Action Group and Lizbeth intrudes upon a meeting after Armitage assures everybody that what they are doing is right for the country. When de Souza changes his mind, Armitage continues discussion of which of society's undesirables they are to Ascend. Lyme, meanwhile, joins Father Dinsdale's Ascension camp after losing faith in Norton, who did not answer when Lyme asked in front of Reverend Folgate whether or not he had ever loved him.

Dark Satanic Mills (5)

Lizbeth has learnt from a secretary contact that the government has taken control of several power stations to capitalise on the new fuel and joins Andy at the listening station to analyse the Ascensions. Father Dinsdale has been Ascending hundreds of people every night whilst Reverend Folgate's congregation entirely abandons him, but Lyme fails to Ascend despite several attempts. Analysing the second of Lyme's attempts, Andy feels something pass over him and feels the curiosity of the force responsible and, afterwards, Lyme and Father Dinsdale call Lizbeth to get Lyme to safety as people are executed by the soldiers following three failed attempts to keep word from spreading.

At the bishop's order and wanting to try something new, Reverend Folgate informs Norton that he will be holding an Ascension and asks him to spread the word. Norton invites Marion Smallbean of the BBC's Religious Broadcasting Unit to hold Songs of Joy at the church and broadcast the Ascension, during which several people Ascend. At the same time, Father Dinsdale holds an Ascension at which neither Lyme nor Minnie, who wishes to join her husband Cedric, are taken and are thus due to be executed. Lizbeth and Andy arrive to save Lyme, but Father Dinsdale has warned the soldiers of them and they are forced to join the condemned.

Fearful Symmetry (6)

Reading out a speech which Norton claims was written by the bishop, Reverend Folgate exposes the government's scheme to the public before Armitage can get the broadcast pulled and is horrified to learn that Norton allowed him to kill people. The operation is brought to an end and Armitage warns Norton that he will never enter Whitehall or any of the government's building again, but Lizbeth and Andy discover from the listening station that other countries such as Mexico are experimenting with Ascension. Despite the news, Ascensions are still taking place in the UK as well and Reverend Folgate is visited by people still wanting to Ascend.

to be added