In the past few years Big Finish, creators of fantastic Doctor Who audio adventures, have slowly but surely brought back bits of Team Torchwood: A John Barrowman here, a Gareth David-Lloyd there. But finally, the original team (give or take one particularly persistent former member) – Captain Jack, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, and Owen Harper – have been brought together for a new Torchwood case.
Announced today by Big Finish, Torchwood: Believe is set before the events that tore the team apart during the climax of the show’s second season, which saw both Owen and Tosh tragically bumped off. Ianto would suffer a similar fate in the follow-up miniseries Children of Earth, and then absolutely nothing happened after that at all. Why do you ask?
But anyway, since then, Torchwood has slowly but surely made a comeback in audio form as hope for more TV adventures waned – to the point that the series has, canonically speaking, been “continued” at Big Finish with a new series that picked up the story of Jack and Gwen where it left off on TV. But Believe takes a trip into the series’ past, to bring us more time with the full Torchwood team.
The story – which also stars fellow Doctor Who alumni Arthur Darvill as a mysterious antagonist called George Layton – will see Torchwood investigate a doomsday cult called the Church of Outsiders, which believes humanity is on the brink of an evolutionary moment that will catapult humankind to the stars. But when grisly goings-on start occurring around the group, Owen decides it’s time for Torchwood to put a stop to whatever sinister plans they have got in the works.
As fun as it’s been to see Big Finish continue Torchwood on in some way, it feels like this is really the audio adventure fans have been waiting for the most. It’s the chance to finally have more time with this version of the team. Torchwood: Believe is set to release in April.