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Old friends and new faces meet up in the new season of Torchwood, ‘Aliens Among Us’. In this review, we take a look at five key things from the first episode, ‘Changes Everything’.
Finally, six years since Miracle Day, the fifth season of Torchwood has begun. The first volume of the new series arc, Aliens Among Us, has just been released on CD and download.
We’ve been waiting a long time for the story of Torchwood to continue. While Big Finish’s previous releases based on the popular Doctor Who spin-off have been brilliant, they haven’t felt like an actual “season 5”. They didn’t continue the series, nor focus on the popular ensemble element of it.
So when an audio series actually labels itself as the official season 5, there’s a lot of expectation on it. I’m not surprised to find that James Goss, the producer and writer of some of the best Torchwood audio stories so far, has written the opening episode. Changes Everything had to achieve a great deal in sixty minutes. Five major things specifically, beginning with…
John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Kai Owen return in the official audio continuation, Torchwood: ‘Aliens Among Us’. (Big Finish)
One: softly reboot the series
To be honest, Torchwood seems to have been softly rebooting itself since its third season. In Children of Earth, it took on a brand new format. Before, seasons consisted of thirteen different stories before ending with a big finale.
Children of Earth, on the other hand, aimed to tell one epic story spread across five episodes. It had also moved from BBC Two to BBC One, which meant a significantly larger audience. The first episode wasn’t too focused on re-introducing the show to a new audience. But it also had very little baggage, allowing new viewers to jump right in.
Miracle Day is an even stronger example, and it’s not surprising. This was meant to introduce Torchwood to an even larger American audience. In this case, an easy jumping on point made even more sense. This was helped by including the new characters of Rex and Esther.
Another soft reboot might seem excessive, but Miracle Day was six years ago. Even for a dedicated audio audience, treating it as a soft reboot wasn’t a bad idea. Even the name of the episode, Changes Everything, is a direct reference to the first episode, Everything Changes. Everything about this episode is designed to show that this is a brand-new beginning.
Like Miracle Day, this was achieved by introducing one or two new main characters, particularly with Tyler Steele. As a newcomer to Torchwood, he has no idea what’s going on. So having everything explained to him by other members of the organisation helps ease new listeners into what’s going on and finding out where Torchwood is now.
Which leads me to…
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Two: continue the story after ‘Miracle Day’
Seeing the world through Tyler’s eyes doesn’t just make things easier for new listeners. It also helps ease fans of the TV series into how everything’s changed since Miracle Day. Like I said, it’s been six years. A lot has bound to have changed since then. In fact, at the end of the TV series, the Torchwood hub in Cardiff had remained destroyed after the events of Children of Earth.
The episode does a great job of giving us a short explanation on how Torchwood has been resurrected as an organisation. I really liked the approach it took. Especially as the producers of the series have seemed keen to connect Aliens Among Us to the books and comics that also have taken place after Miracle Day.
I haven’t kept up with much of Torchwood outside of the TV series and the audios, but I do appreciate that it’s taking itself seriously as a larger universe. Not so much that it puts off newcomers and even fans of the series from listening to the new season. But just enough to give it a bit more depth.
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Three: introduce the new guys
I’ll just come right out and say it: I’m really enjoying the new major characters so far. Tyler Steele is a great point of view for the audience. A disgraced journalist, he’s a character who openly admits how selfish he is. He’s only really in Cardiff looking for a big break.
What makes him such a great character is that the writers, while they have admitted to intentionally making him unlikable, they haven’t taken things too far in that direction. He’s a man who’s not completely without redemption. Which makes the journey that his character is taking all the more fascinating. In some ways, he reminds me of Fifth Doctor companion Turlough. Far from your typical ally, and you’re always unsure what path he’ll take. I’m excited to see how Tyler develops across the series.
But my favorite new character is definitely Mr. Colchester. To be honest, I’m actually surprised to say that. When I first heard about this old civil servant joining the Torchwood team, I was really skeptical that a character like that would fit.
How wrong I was. Like your typical Russell T. Davies character, you think you know what to expect from him, and then he surprises you in so many ways. Oh, he’s old fashioned and clashes every so often with the rest of the team. But he’s also a fair man, or tries to be, and genuinely tries to be more of a help than a hindrance.
It should be noted that not all of the new regulars are introduced in this episode. This is a set that takes its time. Still, how this episode introduces two major characters is very nicely handled.
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Four: set up a new series arc
Like the third and fourth seasons, there’s a new subtitle for Torchwood’s fifth season. The subtitle of Aliens Among Us immediately lets us know that the series is still continuing with season long arcs. However, Changes Everything has, erm, changed that format in a couple of key ways.
Firstly, it begins rather in the middle of things. Children of Earth and Miracle Day had something major happen to the world in the very first episode. Changes Everything, however, is set some time after something major has happened to Cardiff. The problem is that no one is entirely sure what exactly has happened. On one level, there’s a refugee crisis and hate crimes are on the rise. But on the other hand, it’s clear that there’s something much deeper going on, just beneath the surface.
Secondly, it’s not establishing a fast non-stop pace from the first episode. In both Children of Earth and Miracle Day, Torchwood were on the run. They were always trying desperately to outrun their pursuers. In this episode, while they don’t have the power they once had, they’re not running away from a major threat, either. So there’s a more deliberate pace to this season right from the first episode that suggests this arc won’t be as heavy as the last two. This should mean more flexibility in storytelling for the series, too.
Changes Everything is an episode that sets up the beginning of a major mystery. It’ll be intriguing to hear how this mystery will unfold as the series goes on.
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Five: tell a good story
Just as important as the previous four points, however, is the fact that Changes Everything needed to tell a good story by itself. Not stand-alone, exactly, but at least have told and resolved something within one hour. In this case, James Goss has been very clever about focusing on Tyler’s story. Who he is, what he’s investigating, and how he becomes involved with Torchwood. Of course, this is only the beginning of his journey, but it allows the episode to have some focus, at least.
Changes Everything is a great new start to Torchwood. It’s everything you could’ve hoped for from a TV episode and more. Writer James Goss had a lot to balance out with this opening episode. Thankfully, he succeeded very well, and continues to be one of Torchwood’s very best writers, in any medium. A brilliant start to season 5.
Next: Torchwood Season 5: 5 reasons why Big Finish should make it