Liberation of the Daleks features for the first time, a Doctor’s debut story taking place in comic-form. Does the gambit work? Let’s find out.
The Review
I mean, come on, Daleks taking on dragons!
Initially, I wasn’t sure how ‘canon’ to take Liberation of the Daleks, but it became rapidly clear that this was as official as it gets. Fitting the gap perfectly between The Power of the Doctor and the following minisode, it is a great anniversary look into everything Dalek. Let’s talk Fourteenth Doctor, and thirteen months from his appearance it is clear Tennant truly is getting two numbered Doctors to his credit. For understandable reasons, there’s nothing made of the mystery around the Doctor’s creation. I did enjoy getting to see older Tennant in the Thirteenth Doctor’s TARDIS and using her screwdriver throughout the story. I didn’t read this comic, I watched it, courtesy of a full movie made by the YouTube channel Cloister Room with a full score, sound effects, and even directorial decisions. I was floored at the high quality, and can highly recommend it. Finally, Lee Sullivan’s art is absolutely spectacular, from Tennant truly looking his current age to the beautiful varieties of Daleks, it’s a feast for the eyes.
The Tenth Doctor met the real Golden Emperor, the Fourteenth meeting a dreamed up one somehow makes sense
The plot starts with the 1966 World Cup Final and a seeming Dalek invasion, but it turns out this was taking place in one of the many dream realities of the Dalek Dome, a Dalek-themed reality park powered by the real dreams of captured Daleks. Naturally, the woman in charge, Georgette, underestimates them, and soon the Supreme Dalek has entered the real world. The escalation is done well here, this invasion seems as bad as it gets until the Doctor defeats it and leaves…only to be drawn right back and now the golden Dalek Emperor is in charge! The story is definitely too out there for a tv episode, but it is a great homage to the 60s Dalek comics and constantly upping the stakes. The Doctor saves the day of course by playing other Dalek Emperors (and Imperators and weird Daleks we’ve never met) off each other, jealous at the golden emperor’s success. In the end, he leaves Georgette to decide if she has the right to kill her captive Daleks.
Liberation of the Daleks is a lot of fun, and despite initially thinking the comic strip was a weird choice, it gives us hardcore fans an immediate post-regeneration story and some Dalek gloriousness just not feasible even on a Disney budget. The motion comic came out to 75 minutes or so, and I truly had a blast. Who knows if the Doctor Who Magazine strip will be this in-continuity again, but a fun anniversary adventure.
9/10: The full motion comic gets a 9.5, but I know that’s a little unofficial, seriously though, a lot of fun. Don’t miss out!
Starting with seemingly disconnected stories, Torchwood: Among Us gradually builds together an incredible narrative taking on seemingly every ill of modern society. What a treat.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
Moderation: 10/10
How I Conquered the World: 10/10
Doomscroll: 10/10
Misty Eyes: 9.75/10
Cuckoo: 9.75/10
The Apocalypse Starts at 6PM: 9.75/10
Aliens Next Door: 9.5/10
Pariahs: 9/10
Propaganda: 8.75/10
At Her Majesty’s Pleasure: 8.25/10
Colin Alone: 8/10
Heistland: 8/10
Among Us faced a daunting task, recorded over a once in a century pandemic and dealing with the blacklisting of Torchwood‘s central figure. With James Goss and the Big Finish team at the helm, I needn’t have worried. The lack of Jack and general departure from Cardiff makes for a very different season tonally than the previous two, so it feels like another soft reboot. Still, every character gets their time from Ng in Misty Eyes, Orr in Propaganda, Colchester in Pariahs, Yvonne in At Her Majesty’s Pleasure, and Tyler in Moderation. Each boxset also had an experimental story from Colin’s life falling apart in Colin Alone, Billis smothering Torchwood’s next team in the crib in Cuckoo, and the fantastic story of an algorithm’s descent into madness in How I Conquered the World. Goss described this season as being about the dangers of being too online, and from social media fueled conspiracies to fears about just where does all that DNA of ours go, the prescience of this season is truly incredible. Long live Torchwood!
9.23/10 Finishing only .02 off ofDoctor Who Series 9 for the finest season of Who-content ever seems correct. It’s incredible to say but Children of Earth may have been bested.
Torchwood has never felt more biting or more current as the Among Us boxset reaches a properly shocking conclusion.
The Review
How I Conquered the World is a story I wish we’d gotten in the previous two boxsets (especially with the idea of the Committee still confusing): at last, everything is explained. It takes place as the horrific childish voice we’d been hearing turns out to be ‘Friend’, the sentient algorithm behind the social media platform HelloFriend. It’s a both funny and scary distillation of society and how algorithms begin to spread hatred: it just wants to make everybody happy, including the bigots, and it turns out the only thing that makes them happy is bigotry. It also gives us a rough outline of Torchwood’s activities throughout the series, including some long-overdue justice paid to the horror of Miracle Day. In a way, Friend has been operating in the shadows since the new series began, and its true level of manipulation is left open to interpretation. From AI voices describing sex to a man yelling to the restore the Synderverse, Who-related media has never been more online. For a niche series such as this, it’s as biting satire as we can imagine. 10/10, as unique a story as can be dreamed and an explanation of where we all went wrong. How can Torchwood running out of a temp agency save us now?
The timeliness of this Torchwood season continues to impressive with a story all about the hell that is being a social media influencer. The story was teasingly marketed as Colchester meets influencers and promised a lot of fireworks as the surly Colchester dealt with them. Despite that, Colchester grows to love the influencer he’s assigned to protect, but not as much as Tyler. That’s right, this is actually a Tyler story, and for some reason I find Tyler stories to be my favorite. He falls in love with Chris, an influencer, and in the end Chris dies too, because Tyler can’t save him and gets snarky with him because he can’t help himself. There are no winners in this story, just depressed people looking at people much prettier than them and knowing they’re depressed too. Welcome to modern society. 10/10, is this going to be one of the best Big Finish boxsets of all time?
I thought this story would be a sexy beach heist involving cryptocurrency, and instead it’s sort of a comedy about Iceland? Torchwood go to Carcassonne France to stop Friend auctioning its super weapon, and at the same time Rhys is calling in has finally joined the mysterious Kristen in Iceland. The parts I really liked were Tyler’s despondency and Orr truly feeling his grief, which of course in Torchwood fashion means they hook up. The Icelandic stuff was less interesting, I think partially because Kristen just didn’t connect with me much as a character. She’s kind of a smart old Icelandic grandmother I guess, I’m not sure. It was fun to see Rhys still involved, but her part of it fell flat. On top of it, the dramatic conclusion is really just a chat between Yvonne and Friend, but Yvonne does get to claim she knows what Friend will do next. Does she? Only one way to find out. 8/10, I guess there’s no real angle to crypto other than it being stupid but this lacked the bite
Instead of a conventional big guns blazing finale like the previous two seasons, James Goss gives us something exciting and unexpected. The main character of The Apocalypse Starts at 6 PM is Janet, a normal light entertainment tv host. It turns out that they’re the last people everyone in the country can trust. In a critical denouement mentioning a surprising character, Yvonne explains that Torchwood saved humanity the only way they know how: by making them all stupid and scared. It’s a fun thrill ride as Janet has the worst day of her life, and we get a showdown between Yvonne and Friend taking place on a tv show sofa. It’s truly Torchwood in all the best ways, a bit subversive, exciting, and constantly surprising. The biggest surprise: Friend isn’t quite done yet. Series 8 can’t get here soon enough. 9.75/10: This boxset sticks the landing as Torchwood shows it’s still got tricks up it’s sleeve.
Among Us 3 takes on the Internet, and makes it completely not cliche.
9.438/10 I know where I am, and I know what I’ll do next: keep giving James Goss my money.
Torchwood Among Us2 rounds out the list of updates on the Torchwood team, and sets the scale for what should be a heck of a finale.
The Review
Propaganda seemed to get off to a slow start, but it was actually building toward one heck of a denouement. It starts with Orr traveling to essentially the Ukrainian War, and her plane gets shot down. It turns out Orr is very hard to kill, and she heads to Voloshnik, a town afflicted by a mysterious disease. With her companion Tania, they find a city of dust and one Englishman and what Orr discovers as “the greatest advert in history’. The idea of destroying a whole city just to help form a narrative, it’s terrifying, especially that the person unwittingly helping create it ran a Russian troll farm. The themes of this season, misinformation, manipulation, it continues to take central space. 8.75/10, it was fun to see Orr actually get to be the headliner for a story. Maybe regret listening to this on a plane though…
It took until halfway through the season to unleash Yvonne back on Torchwood, and it is always a pleasure to hear Tracy-Ann Olberman again as she takes center stage in At Her Majesty’s Pleasure. This time she successfully executes a year+ long plan in order to leverage Andy’s feelings about her in order to escape prison. Poor Andy is once again not in charge of his own story, getting duped and pushed around by Yvonne. Yvonne gets a worthy adversary in Charlotte, the prison warden, as Torchwood seemingly has no shortage of ruthless women around. It’s a good story, but never reached the great heights the societal examination stories this season have. I just hope something will go well for Andy one of these days. 8.25/10, the problem with this story is you just always knew Yvonne would get out.
There’s always a worry with these type of episodes that it feel like a waste of time, after all, none of the Torchwood crew is here. Still, it’s a fantastic story anchored by Nathaniel Curtis as Vijay, a supposed urban explorer who goes with two of his friends into the ruins of the Hub. There he finds Bilis Manger, in the last role of the sadly departed Murray Melvin, and a hologram in the frankly unrecognizable voice of Ianto. His transformation into becoming a member of Torchwood, trying to sacrifice himself for the greater good, is an amazing journey. There’s also one of the most sickening deaths ever as the famous Torchwood lift meets a locked door and crushes a guy to death. As Bilis said, this story was about the spirit of Torchwood, and how they somehow persevere despite immense costs. 9.75/10, a rewarding story with some great performances, and it does give us some hints toward the overall arc too. What are shard drives I wonder?
Everything finally comes together in Pariahs, and as you’d hope, it’s a disquieting reflection of a society that doesn’t feel far away. Yvonne, Ng, and Tyler are running an inquiry into Floboss, a data company. Colchester is trying to get the PM’s top assistant and Floboss exec Graeme there. Graeme is a piece of work, a ‘friend’ of Colchester’s from the Falklands who is contemptuous of everyone that’s not him. Finally, Orr is recovering the whistleblower, a man named Kyle who sits in exile in Eastern Europe. After seven episodes divided, the Torchwood team is united again, and it’s an absolute treat. The revelation of a bioweapon that can genetically target certain people or ethnic groups is devastatingly scary, as is the remorseless entity who kills everyone but Torchwood with devastating efficacy. I don’t know how Torchwood can stop it, but I know they’ll be in the winning room. 9.5/10: James Goss’ influence is all over this season, and very much for the better. What a smart writer.
Among Us 2 says once and for all that this brand new Torchwood team, all who haven’t been on screen (except Yvonne sort of) can stand on their own with Jack. This deadly social satire promises the threat will continue to ramp up. I can’t wait to see what happens.
9.063/10 The terror of this season is deep-set, and it feels like Torchwood has never been more up against it. Can’t wait for the finish.
Torchwood Among Us establishes what has been happening to our favorite Torchwood agents as they remain scattered, and gives us the Ng and Gwen showdown we’ve been waiting for.
The Review
Aliens Next Door is the first Torchwood release in four years, and what a long four years it has been. Thankfully, it’s come back swinging with a premiere that gives me high hopes for the future of the series. Jack is referred to as the elephant in the room, but Ng is right, Torchwood is so much more than him. The pairing of Ng and Orr is quite excellent, bouncing off each other extremely well and having differing strengths and weakness: Ng’s long experience and Orr’s naïveté. The plot is a winner too, as social manipulation is used to turn an estate against a harmless man, showing how quickly we can turn on our neighbors in rage. To see Ng and Orr briefly give in is harrowing. Still, the victim isn’t quite innocent, he helped develop this social engineering technology, giving a great added layer to the story .Melanie Kilburn gives a great performance as Betty Clerihew, the epitome of a town gossip. The threat is clear, and I can’t wait to see Torchwood respond. 9.5/10, a great first episode bringing the team back. At least this story seemed loonily be a year or so in-universe from last season.
Colin Alone is the story of Colin, struggling in the months since Colchester’s departure. There’s one glaring problem to this story, Colin is no longer played by Ramon Tikaram. For me he was a standout the past two seasons, and Joplin Sibtain does his best, but it isn’t the same. (Apparently Tikaram didn’t want to come back, which is a massive shame). Most of the story reminds me of Hostile Environment, in its repetitive stomach-churning structure. Colin’s put through interrogations about Colchester by a mysterious organization who do their best to sabotage his non-profit job, getting him fired while his apartment floods and his building manager refuses to help. It’s depressing, it’s a lot of the Colin recast, until the very end where Colchester shows up and takes out the villains. The uncomfortableness pushes it up to a 8 for me, but it wasn’t exactly fun to listen to. 8/10, the world and everybody collapses around Colin, and it’s a tough listen.
After 26 episodes, this is the reckoning between Gwen and Ng that we have been waiting for. Ng arrives in Iceland where Gwen and Rhys live in a lighthouse which is very Torchwood. The confrontation goes about as well as you’d expect, I’d forgotten with all heroism that Ng had killed Gwen’s mother in cold blood! There’s a lot of blood of Ng’s hands, and it turns out far more than we thought. We finally know what Ng is, an alien who made a deal with some powerful entity ‘the mist’ to give her immortality by stealing other people’s bodies. In exchange, it wants the souls of those she slips through, and now it’s here for Gwen. Even more horrifyingly, the first person Ng killed for immortality was her own child. What makes this story so perfect is we find out just how much being Gwen changed Ng, and how her humanity and motherhood have permanently altered her. For Gwen, by the end of the story, she decides to get back into the alien hunting game. With Eve Myles semi-retired focusing on her family, this could be the end for Gwen, but it’s a hopeful one. Oh, and it’s just fun hearing Kai Owen as Rhys again. 9.75/10, we finally get the reckoning for Ng we’ve been waiting for. Sidebar, it’s funny how Alexandria Riley’s voice has taken over my memory of what Gwen should sound like.
Tyler Steele is finally a hero. Moderation is such a perfect and disturbing look at modern day alt-right communities and journalism. Tyler is now working moderating the comments section at a major London newspaper, and a gay Muslim reporter named Petra is struggling to get her stories published. The new boss of the paper, Barry, played by Silas Carson to loathsome perfection is encouraging hate speech because it drives engagement. Tyler has to figure out a way to save Petra, which he barely does with some incredible tech skills. The attacks on Petra get more disturbing every day, especially because of how sickeningly it reflects our actual reality. The same week people are calling bomb threats on Targets having Pride merchandise, it’s a lot to take in. It ends on a perfect cliffhanger as we get a sense of the true villain of this season, and it is horrifically chilling. The joy for me is seeing how far Tyler has come to where he is putting his life on the line to save others. We could use some more of that. 10/10: a true Torchwood classic from James Goss.
Among Us 1 opens a new season of Torchwood perfectly timed with cutting social commentary and incredibly sci-fi drama. I know it’s blasphemous with Children of Earth existing, but this season could topple it.
9.313/10 Never has something in the Doctor Who world been such on the cutting edge as this boxset. A true tour de force.
Cardiff experiences worse and worse disasters in God Among Us, building on the previous season and delivering one of the finest seasons in Whoniverse canon.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
Day Zero: 10/10
Flight 405: 10/10
Eye of the Storm: 9.75/10
Thoughts and Prayers: 9.75/10
Future Pain: 9.5/10
ScrapeJane: 9.25/10
See No Evil: 9/10
Another Man’s Shoes: 9/10
A Mother’s Son: 9/10
Night Watch: 8.75/10
Hostile Environment: 8.75/10
The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood: 6.75/10
God Among Us in many ways is a true love letter to the city of Cardiff. Through whatever twists of fate, in 2004 Doctor Who found itself basing production in the Welsh capital, and Torchwood was set there. The city of Cardiff is somewhere I’ve never been, but I feel like I understand it, comparing it to the Rust Belt cities in the United States. It’s always an underdog, but never down and out, and full of beautiful people living their lives, as crazy and silly as they can often be. Yes, this season does feature God (though not the actual deity, close enough it scarcely matters), but she is really here to provide introspection for our characters. What are their motivations, what do they really care about? Their jobs? Their relationships? What will they be willing to sacrifice? At the end, Cardiff is just about blown to bits, but somehow, Torchwood did it again, and the city will survive, for one more day.
9.125/10 An incredible work of sci-fi storytelling
Torchwood: God Among Us concludes in epic fashion, with a Cardiff utterly destroyed, the Committee on the ascendant, and Torchwood out of trust with the city and each other.
The Review
A Mother’s Son for the second time in Series 6 gives us the perspective of an outsider finding themselves connected to Torchwood, but thankfully it’s much better. It settles on Bethan, a mother who loses her son in the floods and goes on a question to find him, or who’s responsible. The voice mails she has of her son saying he’s scared as his dorm gets ripped away by the water is stomach churning. Still, there are precious few episodes, and I’d prefer them to be centered on a member of the team. The big mystery is why no one can remember Torchwood’s involvement, I thought maybe God was doing something but it turns out Yvonne was drugging the water. Poor Andy has somehow found himself on the Disaster Relief Committee, key word at the end there. Also, we get some more Orr, finally, who isn’t limited to sexual desires anymore. It’s a depressing story presenting the horror of Cardiff after the disaster, and sets a grim tone for the toll it’s taken on the city. You can’t say Torchwood doesn’t know how to push the envelope to darkness. 9/10. Bethan was played by Mina Anwar, aka Gita Chandra. Who would’ve thought?
ScrapeJane is a story about belief, and how belief can make the very real come true. It’s a great pairing of Colchester and Ng (though I’d have liked to have a scene where Colchester comes to terms with Ng still being on the team after the whole impersonating Gwen thing). RIP to Jeff, our favorite hapless podcaster from Cardiff Unknown as he is ripped to death by ScrapeJane. Colchester’s disdain for podcasters is great, and is icy delivery of ‘merch’ was gold. We get a bit more introspection into Ng, about asserting herself as a Welsh woman and fear of God destroying Earth too. The real star as usual though is Paul Clayton as Colchester, who really makes you feel the fear of ScrapeJane and also gives a heartbreaking monologue about how fears if Colin stops believing in him, he’ll die. It’s a fun actually genuinely scary in some sections story, and ties into the endgame of this season as Ng worries this devastation is caused by God not believing in Herself. 9.25/10, more than anything, it’s another chance for Paul Clayton’s brilliant work as Colchester. He keeps going, because what else is there to do?
Day Zero is a staggering story, and one that lands with an even harder punch after the tumult of the pandemic. The water runs out in Cardiff, and it leads to absolute mass chaos. Colchester is shocked at the depravity of people, but experiences a slight change of heart when Tyler tells him he resurrected him. We have the push/pull forces of Jack and Yvonne, the former getting himself to shot to death in a failed bid to save a kid’s life, while Yvonne almost quits (until being talked out of it by God), but is shocked by her tactics failing. At the center of it is a totally overburdened Andy, who is trying his best but way in over his head. Ng doesn’t have much to do, expect with Andy slamming her by saying she’s not Gwen. The center of it all is Orr, who uses her powers to somehow provide water. Feeling the desperation and pain of the city, she makes it rain to solve the water crisis, but is utterly devastated at the misery of humans. It’s a bleak but beautiful story, showing a city on the brink from the most human of causes. 10/10, the end is still coming, like it always does, as Andy moves to capture God. We’re in for it now.
Thoughts and Prayers ends a two season storyline with a big, bold apocalypse that really comes down to people believing in each other. Don’t get me wrong, the end of the world is rendered beautifully as the Committee begin their great reset with fireballs and flame raining down. The world is saved by the unlikeliest of characters: Orr. The brilliance is that it makes perfect sense, Orr always had such a deep love and affection for people and it is her faith in humanity that ends up winning the day. Ng tries to save a world for once, Tyler admits he cares for Jack, Andy of course was working for the good guys all along, and Colchester still keeps prioritizing the work ove Colin. Yvonne comes up with the plan to use Orr to blast the Committee’s home planet to dust in a very Jack way, by the seat of her pants. Throughout it all is God, who doesn’t really get absolved for everything she’s done, but willing gives up her powers and goes to start a new adventure on Earth. It’s a triumph because of the scale, but really the characters that have been so beautifully realized throughout this series. 9.75/10: the power of love wins the day: because one gender-fluid alien so loved humanity.
God Among Us 3 is a triumphant conclusion to a six boxset arc that saw Big Finish take on the Torchwood mantle (with some help from RTD of course) and give us stories about the corruption of institutions but the hope of people. The twin titans of Jack and Yvonne lay out a lot of the framework, but little arcs like Colchester’s insecurity, Tyler growing into an empathetic person, it’s beautiful.
9.5/10 Truly a classic series of stories, and right behind Children of Earth for the best Torchwood there is. Not long now until we find out what’s next
Torchwood: God Among Us was heavy on character, but now it’s heavy on action as Norton Folgate shakes apart the team and Big Finish delivers the Torchwood epic we’ve been waiting for.
The Review
Flight 405 is only 45 minutes long, but is a thrill ride. I enjoy a good character story, but three of the four stories last boxset were, and the fourth one was bad, so I was ready for some action. Oh, this one delivered. Norton is delightfully charismatic and evil, and takes Andy and Yvonne into a high stakes mission. A plane from the 1950s has been stuck phasing in and out of time above Cardiff which is a delicious idea, and they have to recover an artifact that will blow up the world if it crashes. Of course, something is very much not right with Norton, as God visits him and notes there’s a skeleton wearing his suit on board. It’s a thrill ride, develops Andy and Yvonne’s relationship, and gives us a whopper of a cliffhanger as Norton and Yvonne are part of some shadowy Committee. 10/10. It’s exactly the kind of story I love, full marks. (Also, I loved the fake in-universe podcast Cardiff Unknown included on this disk, I felt like I was being skewered for a podcast with my friend I haven’t even started yet. Just a ton of fun and one of my favorite bits of Big Finish. I’ll watch it again faster than it takes me to mention my new girlfriend).
There are a lot of uncomfortable scenes and storylines in Torchwood, but few are as depressing a listen as Hostile Environment. The plot centers on Tyler, who is now homeless begging for change on the streets of Cardiff. A new program ostensibly helping get homeless people off the streets is actually running drug tests and offering people to take them or get burnt to death. Tyler can’r seem to be seen by anybody, he meets Ng, Andy, Colchester, but they all fail to grasp the severity of situation. It’s a depressing rinse and repeat of Tyler trying to live and getting tracked down by a drone. Thankfully, revenge is had as Tyler finally leverages Ng and Colchester by faking an emergency call, getting them tagged by the drones, and killing the man behind it. There’s a touching scene of Jack being vulnerable with Tyler, but it doesn’t undo the painful ending where Tyler refuses to see the woman who helped him on the streets, perpetuating the cycle. It’s an almost too brutal look at modern society, but can’t argue with its relevance. 8.75/10, Tyler’s genuine happiness to see Colchester is muted by Colchester assuming he didn’t mourn his death, another depressing moment.
Another Man’s Shoes keeps up a very enjoyable Torchwood tradition: making sure that we’re having fun saving Cardiff. In this story Andy and Yvonne swap bodies, and so do Jack and Colchester. Jack starts to come clean to Colin but learns it his birthday, so Jack pretends to be Colchester to not ruin it. The moment when we finally get Colchester arriving, furious in Jack’s body, is gold. The more intriguing swap is Yvonne and Andy, as Yvonne tries multiple times (through wiping the assessor’s memory) to get Andy to pass a performance review with the police force. Meanwhile, Andy discovers Yvonne working for the Committee (man I love David Warner’s voice, RIP). It does lean a bit hard on a random monthly audio which is annoying. Finally we get Tyler and Norton switching bodies, which Norton uses to have tons of sex before depressingly admitting to Tyler how down he feels, especially with the world ending. Finally, Ng learns this was all set up by God as She continues to learn about Torchwood. This is a delightfully fun story, no small part due to the amazing vocal work. I really thought Tom Price was Yvonne there, that guy is more talented than he’s been allowed to show. 9/10, it’s another ‘learn about the team’ story, but with a delightfully fun twist. It has been raining a lot…
Eye of the Storm is the one that I have been waiting for since Season 5. A massive proper climatic adventure, and it cements this boxset as a classic in my mind. A massive storm has been building, and now it is affecting a Sorvix power station out in the ocean. What follows is a series of twists so shocking that even God doesn’t see them coming. The Committee’s plan has arrived, and Norton betrays Torchwood to lead to the end of the world. Thankfully for the world, he realizes he got played and in a great performance Samuel Barnett he sacrifices himself ending up back on Flight 405. The drama is immense, with Jack, Ng, and Colchester all unsure if they can trust each other. An unlikely pairing of Tyler and Yvonne is excellent, as Tyler snaps Yvonne out of her devotion to the Committee. The whole time the Committee (played by an always great David Warner) used God to get Norton to supposedly stray from the plan as he inadvertently creates a biblical tsunami heading toward Cardiff. God is horrified and Yvonne can only blubber as the wave hits. It’s big, epic, gives great closure to Norton and sets up a true status quo change for the finale. 9.75/10: a big epic that finally feels like it delivered on Torchwood’s disparate plots.
God Among Us 2 introduces the Committee to the series, which admittedly is clunky, but I understood everything well enough. Really, who exactly they are is less relevant than the character arcs for Norton and Yvonne in this boxset and how they choose Torchwood and Cardiff over their shadowy benefactors. We also get a dark examination of how society treats the homeless focusing on Tyler in Hostile Environment. Overall, the promise of Torchwood on audio feels fully realized.
9.375/10 A great boxset with some wonderful performances, evocative design, and finally a dramatic climax leaving me guessing where we’re going next! Still though, what happened to Orr?
The middle piece of Torchwood‘s fifth season is a mix of stories examining the human condition in a rapidly changing Cardiff.
The Review
Love Rat starts the middle edition of Aliens Among Us off strong, with the season’s best story yet. It’s not filled with whirlwind excitement like fire drone chases or a murderous intelligent hotel, but is more of a character piece. Maybe it’s just that I’m now used to and warming up to the cast, it was certainly a heavy lift having just Jack and a completely new group. The plot centers around a parasite that spreads via sex and increases the sex drive of carriers, a classic Torchwood plot. John Barrowman feels more authentic and at home than the previous boxset, and drives a lot of the action. Sam Béart is just as excellent as Orr, but everyone’s upped their game. Jonny Green is a lot more convincing as Tyler this time, and the eerie Eve Myles impression of Alexandra Riley keeps getting better. Tyler officially swears off the gang after bailing their horniness out, which was an inevitability for Torchwood. The mystery of NotGwen deepens and she almost kills Rhys, who of course blames himself for their marriage difficulties and not that his wife has been secretly body-snatched. Gwen doesn’t deserve him. 9.25/10: oh, and Andy’s back! Love Andy.
AKill to a View focuses almost entirely on Colchester, to smashing results. Ng is nowhere to be seen, the rest of Torchwood is ancillary. Really, this story is about Colchester’s relationship with his husband, Colin, who we finally meet. Colin is much more outgoing and sociable than the irascible Colchester, and we see the strain that the long hours of Torchwood puts on Colchester. He has moved into the nearly top floor of a swanky apartment building to try and keep Colin safe from the racial violence. The tower isn’t Sorvix, but it’s run by Billis Manger, the bizarre but interesting villain from way back in Season 1. It turns out at the Ritz Towers people compete to move up, literally. It’s a commentary on life, always trying to kill to get ahead with no end to that insatiable hunger. The story is made by excellent performances headlined by Paul Clayton as Colchester who is proving to be the absolute heart and soul of Torchwood. He daringly leaves it all on the line to barely safe his husband, and he holds him in the rain having delivered Billis what he wanted: a way to message the Sorvix’s mysterious enemy. It’s a moving story, and a true triumph. 10/10, focusing on Colchester yields rich results.
I love the genre of science fiction show takes on a relevant modern issue and in Zero Hour we see Torchwood fight the gig economy. Tyler gets obsessed with Hasan (voiced by Sacha Dhawan no less) an attractive worker for Deliverables, a company that gives its workers precise instructions they follow to the letter. He uncovers that they are doing seemingly pointless tasks, repeatedly delivering packages of sand to abandoned flats across Cardiff. A sidebar we have is Ng trying to deal with Anwen, who never talks in an interesting choice. No Jack in this story, though Orr is on hand for the scientific explanations. It turns out after twelve weeks Deliverables kills its employees to skirt labor laws and the packages contain their remains, a gut punch plot twist. Ng manages to take it down, leaving Tyler shattered. It’s a smart examination of the gig economy and Jonny Green puts in easily his best performance as Tyler who is actually something other than naive or snooty. A great story. 9.25/10, doesn’t have quite enough steam for an hour but a fantastic premise.
The Empty Hand focuses on our favorite good guy cop Andy, and is a good story that misses some of its potential. Andy wakes up in an interrogation room wanted for the brutal point blank murder of an innocent refugee. There are nods to police brutality and the broken system of policing, but this story doesn’t go into it nearly as in-depth as it could have. It’s no real shocker that the Sorvix actually brainwashed Andy, and he is completely innocent. The design of the story is atmospheric, but there are some weird performances, mainly by Rhys who has just felt kind of off all season. Jack also helps inflame the protests for some reason and is covertly sort of working with the Red Doors terrorists. No real explanation is given for his mania. Really, this story is carried by Tom Price and Alexandra Riley’s performances along with the droll Colchester. The ending, Yvonne Hartman’s return, is a big surprise. Even bigger though is Ng is still undetected. 8.25/10: could’ve actually engaged more with police brutality.
Aliens Among Us 2 takes us into the ugly dynamics of sex, materialism in a high rise building, the gig economy, and racial biases in the police force with varying levels of success. I will say, it is a bit frustrating to see Torchwood so unable to reach a solution to the Sorvix problem. No resolution either on who will respond to that signal Billis sent. All to play for in part three I suppose.
9.188/10 Despite some faults, still a fantastic boxset taking Torchwood into better and more realistic territory than it has before. Very glad to continue this Big Finish Torchwood adventure.
Story 152, Episodes 682-685, Season 26 Episodes 1-4
Doctor: Seventh Doctor
Companions: The Brigadier, Ace McShane
Doctor Who meets Arthurian Legend as UNIT makes a very welcome appearance in a story that never lets up on the fun.
The Review
Ancelyn and Brigadier Bambera
It has been a long time since we’ve gotten a proper UNIT story out of Doctor Who, and it delivers. Delightfully, UNIT actually has cultural diversity benefiting it being an arm of the United Nations, and we meet the current Brigadier: Winifred Bambera played quite successfully by Angela Bruce. The Brigadier feels better here than Mawdryn Undead, which makes sense as that part was originally for Ian. We see him married in retirement, but the moment he catches wind of the Doctor he has to go back to being a soldier. For his final appearance in the show proper, it’s a great farewell, as the Brigadier stares down the Destroyer (an evil blue demon who doesn’t actually do much destroying), he says he is likely not Earth’s best champion but he’ll try his best. The two Brigadiers are both respectful of one another, and it’s also fun to see women in UNIT! Ace also makes a friend in Shou Yuing, one of the few Asian women in the classic series.
Morgaine and Mordred menacing…Merlin?
In classic Doctor Who fashion, the villains are Morgaine and Mordred of legend, who are of course inter dimensional warriors tracking down the spaceship of Arthur stuck under an English lake. Even more delightfully, everyone immediately pegs the Doctor as Merlin, and it’s confirmed he will be Merlin in his future. The Doctor now has a brown coat which I love and is now one of my favorite Doctor outfits. It’s a fun little inversion to last season where the Doctor seemed to have a secret past we didn’t know about, here it’s a secret future leaving the Doctor confused. Morgaine plans to fire a nuke, but the Doctor talks her down by explaining how dishonorable that would be and she relents. Now, Battlefield can feel a bit sloppy at points, and the true nature of the Arthurians isn’t revealed, nor their fate (they just get locked up by UNIT forever?). Still, it’s a blast, and who can hate Ace emerging from a lake wielding Excalibur?
Battlefield gives us a classic UNIT romp that is pleasantly diverse, and puts the Seventh Doctor in more unusual positions. I only wish the Destroyer did some more, you know, destroying.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 