Torchwood: 5 reasons why Big Finish have handled it better than the BBC
By James Aggas
For over two years, Big Finish have been handling the Torchwood brand incredibly well, particularly with series such as Aliens Among Us. Have they handled better than the BBC?
Photo credit: Torchwood/Big Finish
Image obtained from: bigfinish.com
Almost seven years since we last saw Torchwood on our screens, we look back at how Big Finish have handled the Doctor Who spin-off, and how it’s even better now on audio than it was on television.
It’s been a long time since we last had Torchwood back on our screens. In fact, it’s already close to seven years since we’ve had a brand new episode on television. However, fans still have plenty of Torchwood to enjoy with books, comics, and of course, audios.
Big Finish Productions have helped a lot at keeping fans happy the past few years. They’ve even continued the series with their own take on season five in the hit audio series Aliens Among Us. Better still, season six, God Among Us, will be out soon in October.
Listening (and re-listening) to the many Torchwood stories available on audio, as well as the strong fan reaction to them (well, those who have listened to them, at least), it’s made me realize something. As good as Torchwood was on television, it’s been far, far better handled by Big Finish on audio than the BBC ever handled it.
There are five key reasons for this.
Big Finish’s run on Torchwood began with the release of The Conspiracy in 2015.
Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions
Consistency
Something that really stands out about the Torchwood audios is how consistently brilliant they are. Almost every single one, I’ve at the very least greatly enjoyed, if not loved.
Even The Dollhouse, a story that I was considerably less keen on, seems to have found more of an audience than, say, Love & Monsters, which feels like the Doctor Who equivalent of this episode.
What really helps is that Big Finish has a very strong team of writers behind these audios. They’ve either worked on the television series, such as Joseph Lidster. Or they’re simply very strong writers who were massive fans of the series, such as James Goss or Guy Adams.
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It’s a great mixture that helps push to Torchwood into a fresh new direction. At the same time, it also helps keep the series grounded to its greatest strengths.
Big Finish have taken those strengths and developed them greatly, giving us so many high quality stories. Fall to Earth, Ghost Mission, Broken and so many more: these stories focus on our favorite characters and really highlight both their strengths and their flaws. Just as good is that they tell stories that continue to remain true to the spirit of Torchwood.
And this level of high-quality storytelling is incredibly regular, too. After all, season one took a long time to find its feet. But the audio stories that Big Finish have made have had no such problems. Their output has not just been great, but consistently great on a regular basis.
Which leads me to…
Even when we don’t have regular monthly Torchwood, we usually have very special releases filling in the gap, such as Torchwood: Outbreak.
(Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Regular output
At first, the rate of Torchwood output on television wasn’t too bad. In late 2006 and early 2007, we got season one. In 2008, we got season 2. 2009 gave us Children of Earth, although that had a considerably reduced episode count of just five episodes. Miracle Day increased it to ten, but we had to wait two years for it.
And after that…nothing.
Meanwhile, since 2015, Big Finish have been releasing Torchwood audios on an ongoing basis. Now we don’t get a brand new Torchwood release every single month. But it’s pretty close.
From September 2015 to August 2016, a monthly story featuring one or two of the characters from Torchwood was released. Just a couple of months after that series took a break, we saw the release of The Torchwood Archive and Torchwood: Outbreak, two very special releases. We also saw the release of Torchwood One in January, before the main range continued in March.
You get the idea. There are far more months that we get brand new Torchwood in some form than months when we don’t. And that looks set to continue for a good long while, especially with season six out in a matter of months.
In fact, with twenty-four episodes in the main range, twelve in the continuation, six from Torchwood One, not to mention a couple of specials, we’ve already got more stories of Torchwood from Big Finish in three years than the BBC gave us in five. And we’ve got many more to come, too.
Big Finish haven’t just explored the lives of the characters of the TV series, either. They’ve also taken a deeper look at Torchwood One, before its destruction in the Doctor Who episode Doomsday.
(Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Expanding the universe
Speaking of Torchwood One, one thing that Big Finish have been brilliant at is expanding the vast universe of Torchwood. Not only do the audios focus on the regulars that we know from the TV series. It also delves into the organization’s past.
The Victorian Age has explored this, to an extent. Particularly Jack’s very early days of working “for Queen and country”. We’ve only had one story explore this era in full, but it’s provided us with a fascinating glimpse of Torchwood’s early history. (And the theme tune for this particular story is fantastic.)
But it’s with Torchwood One that it gets really interesting. Tracy-Ann Oberman reprises her role of Yvonne Hartman, which she only really played on television in the Doctor Who episodes Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. As a result, it’s a radically different look at Torchwood.
But it works. We get to see the organization in its prime, before the invasion of both the Cybermen and the Daleks destroyed it. It feels more professional and office based, which instantly gives it a very different feel to the Torchwood we’re used to.
We also get to see it as a more morally ambiguous organization. Yvonne Hartman isn’t a villain, but she’s certainly far from a hero. She’s not out for what’s best for the world, only for Great Britain. She was a fascinating character in her original appearance, so it’s fantastic that her character has been explored far more in these stories.
Getting glimpses of Torchwood like this is something that we’d have never seen in the BBC series. At the very least, not to the full extent that Big Finish have given us.
Big Finish’s Torchwood audios have been keen to explore characters we love in different ways, such as Jack and Ianto’s relationship in Broken.
(Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Character exploration
If there’s one thing that the TV series did incredibly well, it was its strong focus on characters. Particularly from the second season onwards, when it had a firm grasp of who those characters were. The series would regularly focus on a particular character by putting them in a different situation and exploring how they reacted to it.
The audios have not only continued to do just that, but also enhanced it. Some stories have focused on and even developed characters individually, such as One Rule and Ghost Mission. Two very different stories, but each focused on characters that weren’t explored quite as much in the TV series.
Others have even explored the relationships between two regulars, particularly Broken and The Last Beacon. Again, these two stories are very different in tone. But they provide us with a fresh glimpse of the Torchwood characters we know.
It’s kind of funny to think that the individual focus of these many characters was mainly done out of necessity. When the Torchwood range of audios was initially established, focusing on one character at a time was mainly done for budgetary reasons.
Thankfully, the brand has become much bigger, to the extent that we’ve already had a full-cast continuation of the series. But the monthly range still continues, mostly in the same format of focusing on one or two regular characters.
Because, the simple fact is that it works really well. It plays to Torchwood‘s strengths in a simple and effective way. And it’s given us so many great stories already.
Torchwood will continue in season six later this year with God Among Us.
(Photo credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Continuation
Lastly, Big Finish have done what the BBC haven’t done since 2011: continued the story. With Aliens Among Us, we’ve had new story arcs, new characters, new aliens: basically, we’ve had more Torchwood, and lots of it.
Even better is that Aliens Among Us has been arguably better than Miracle Day. While it was interesting seeing the team move to a US setting, the show moved too far away from its roots. Miracle Day at times felt like a potentially good story, but dragged out for too long, particularly for a season that only focused on one main story.
Aliens Among Us was longer, but it handled the season’s arc much better. With each of the episodes, the arc developed. But it also had plenty of room for more stand-alone storytelling. For example, it gave us radically different situations that Torchwood investigated. The series also gave us intensely character focused episodes, too.
Aliens Among Us was the perfect balance between the “case of the week” structure that we got with the first two seasons, and the ongoing narrative that we got with Children of Earth and Miracle Day. I’m very excited about God Among Us, particularly at finding out how Big Finish continues the story even further.
Torchwood started out as a show with a rough start that had promise, then became a high quality series that found a devoted fanbase. So when I say that it’s been at its very best with Big Finish, you should know that I don’t say that lightly.
Nevertheless, Big Finish have given us so many amazing Torchwood stories. They’ve enhanced and expanded its history while also looking to the future. Even if it were to be brought back on TV, I doubt that the BBC would handle it quite as brilliantly as Big Finish have done.
Next. Review: Flight into Hull! (Meta-Crisis Doctor audio). dark
Have you listened to any of Big Finish’s Torchwood stories? Do you agree that it’s at its very best now, even moreso than when it was on television? What are your favorite Torchwood stories? Let us know in the comments below.