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Torchwood Series Six overview: Was God Among Us a worthy follow-up to Aliens Among Us?

By James Aggas

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Now that the sixth series of Torchwood has finished, how was God Among Us as a whole?

(Photo credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Now that God Among Us has finished, how was the sixth series of Torchwood overall? Did it match the success of previous series Aliens Among Us? Or was it even stronger?

Following the release of the final four episodes last week, I re-listened to the whole of Torchwood: God Among Us, the official sixth series of the popular Doctor Who spin-off. This re-listen highlighted a lot of key aspects of the series, particularly with its extreme shades of light and dark, its character exploration, and how it built upon previous releases in the Torchwood universe.

This last point definitely sticks out when just re-listening to this series from the beginning. Unsurprisingly, the sixth series is a very direct continuation of the previous series, Aliens Among Us. That series ended on a huge cliffhanger, and there were many elements that were deliberately left unresolved. In fact, God Among Us‘s opening episode was heavily focused on exploring these threads.

As a result, God Among Us is noticeably less stand-alone than the previous series. True, with Aliens Among Us, it helped to be more than a little familiar with the TV series when listening to it. But at the same time, it was a fresh starting point, featuring a brand new team of major characters and new arcs. So if you hadn’t read any of the books or comics (as I haven’t done) or listened to any Torchwood audios in any of Big Finish’s other ranges – such as their monthly ranges or their prequel series Torchwood One – you could still enjoy Aliens Among Us easily.

Of course, that whole series was just the start of a brand new era for the Doctor Who spin-off. God Among Us continued directly from Aliens Among Us in a big way, building further on characters and storylines introduced in the previous series. So that’s one key way that the sixth series is less accessible than the fifth.

But there’s one other reason why God Among Us is less of a jumping-on point than before. And that’s the Committee.

First introduced in The Conspiracy, the Committee have been a major threat to Torchwood across many audios. Was bringing them into God Among Us a strong move?

(Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Committee

In the second volume of the series, God Among Us brought in both Norton Folgate and, more significantly, the Committee. And that’s actually rather bold, as both were originally introduced in Big Finish’s monthly audios.

For those of you who don’t know, when they first got the license, Big Finish initially began releasing monthly audios that focused on different characters from the TV series. Taking place all over Torchwood‘s history, some of these were set during the earlier seasons, some of these were set long before, and some were distinctly set after Miracle Day. No matter where they took place, the earliest releases usually shared one key element – the Committee.

The Committee were initially introduced in opening episode The Conspiracy as a dangerous alien organization running things behind the scenes. Since that first episode, they’ve slowly been established as one of Torchwood’s greatest enemies. In fact, it was strongly implied that they were the real masterminds behind the events of Miracle Day.

So bringing them into the direct continuation of the TV series – something that was initially designed as an easy jumping-on point – was a bold move. But, at the same time, it was also a smart one. Like I said, the Committee had been introduced in their other audios as one of Torchwood’s biggest threats. So it made sense that, in this brand new era of the series, they’d turn up at some point to face the new team. Particularly after the new team had been so effectively established in Aliens Among Us.

Plus, while they are introduced in a way that makes it easy for new listeners to understand who they are, it’s also a nice reward to those who have listened to the Torchwood audios from the beginning, and to see elements like the Committee and Norton Folgate be brought into the direct continuation.

Episodes like A Mother’s Son and Hostile Environment gave us stories with extremely dark subject matter. But God Among Us also had some light episodes, too…

(Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Darkness and light

Story wise, God Among Us was one of extremes. Some of the episodes were incredibly dark or uncomfortable to listen to.

The biggest example of this was Hostile Environment. This was an incredibly difficult listen, to say the least. It’s great, but it also deals with some very difficult subject matter: in this case, homelessness. It’s a very uncompromising look at the problem, as we see the problem from the perspective of someone learning to live with it. It’s a story of day-to-day survival, and has one of the regular characters at their lowest point.

Very close to that episode in terms of difficult subject matter is A Mother’s Love. Alexandria Riley’s debut script for the series is a bold one, as it follows a mother looking for her son in the aftermath of a huge disaster. It’s powerful stuff, and Mina Anwar’s performance as Bethan is so raw that it’s incredibly hard-hitting stuff.

From one extreme to the other

But it’s not all doom and gloom. On the contrary, God Among Us also features some extremely funny episodes.

Despite the seemingly grim title, The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood is absolutely hilarious. The story follows the perspective of the incredibly delusional Brent Hayden. Not only is he super into conspiracy theories, but he also basically believes that he’s one of the most important men in the world, and the only one who can take out a far-leftist organisation like Torchwood down.

This episode is hilarious not just for Tom Forrister’s performance as Brent, which is perfectly done. But it also explores just how delusional Brent is, giving us wildly distorted versions of the characters. John Barrowman clearly had a lot of fun playing a stereotypical bad guy in this episode, making The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood a brilliant comedy episode…with an admittedly dark and messed up ending.

We also got Another Man’s Shoes. In some ways, this is your classic body swap episode. There’s no major threat for Torchwood to fight, not this time. Just the regular characters finding themselves very confused as they wake up in each other’s bodies.

Naturally, this gives us some great comedy with the actors parodying their other characters. Highlights include Jonny Green’s take on Samuel Barnett’s character of Norton Folgate, and Tom Price playing Tracy-Ann Oberman’s wonderfully confident and devious Yvonne Hartman. It’s a fun episode that’s beautifully low-key. The fact that it follows Hostile Environment is a huge bonus, as frankly, we needed a bit of light relief after such a hard-hitting episode, and that’s exactly what Another Man’s Shoes gave us.

Going from misery and tragedy one episode to light and easy comedy the next isn’t something many series can do easily. But that’s something else that makes Torchwood continue to stand out even now, and I’m glad God Among Us showed us that the series can still handle such major transitions so easily.

God Among Us gave us plenty of rich exploration of the regular characters.

(Photo credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Character development

This was definitely one of my favorite aspects of God Among Us. If Aliens Among Us was about introducing the new team, then God Among Us was about pushing them forward.

One character that was great to explore was Ng. In the last series, she had stolen Gwen Cooper’s life, quite literally. She even looked exactly like her, at least at first. No one on the team had any idea that she wasn’t Gwen until Herald of the Dawn, the finale to Aliens Among Us.

In the sixth series, we finally got some answers as to who or what she was. More importantly, however, we got to find out what she was really like as a team member. After hiding as Gwen for so long, Ng finally got to be true to herself. So it was interesting exploring this character in a very different way, especially when she had to gain Jack’s trust over course of the series.

Back from the dead

Mr. Colchester also had quite the interesting journey. Particularly as he started out dead at the beginning of this series. The fact that he came back to life would normally be a copout, especially in something like Torchwood.

However, there were a couple of reasons why his resurrection worked so well. One is the fact that it instantly shows just how powerful “God” really is in this series. And secondly, as we’ve written before, Mr. Colchester is one of the best characters of the series, and killing him off would be a huge mistake. (You hear me, Big Finish? A huge mistake.)

Despite not appearing in the middle episodes, Orr had quite the journey, too. Their close relationship with God affected them in a big way, particularly in the final episodes. Initially, they were a being created to adapt to any desire. But they become so much more than that by the end.

We also had some great development from Yvonne Hartman and Andy Davidson, both separately and together. The start of their romance at the end of the last series was a surprising development. But it’s also been a welcome one. Both of the characters change a lot over the series, and while they’re almost complete opposites, they also seem to balance each other out, at times. Both are also brilliant characters already, so hearing the two together naturally gave us some brilliant moments, both comedic and dramatic.

But if there’s one particular character’s journey that I’ve loved this series, it’s one that I hated (in kind of a good way) in the last series: Tyler Steele.

While initially not one of my favorite characters, Tyler Steele’s journey in God Among Us was perhaps one of the best.

(Photo credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The redemption of Tyler Steele

Out of all of the new characters in Torchwood, Tyler Steele definitely had the best journey in God Among Us. In the last series, he was a real piece of work. Initially, a former tabloid journalist looking to make a fresh start for his career in Cardiff, it was soon established that he was far from ideal Torchwood material. He was selfish, cowardly and far from open-minded. He even spent the last series working directly for the Sorvix.

This series however sees him go through some major ups and downs, and I do mean major. His grief at the loss of a friend colleague in opening episode Future Pain was just the start of it. As the series went on, we saw him go on a downward spiral, until he eventually hits his lowest point in Hostile Environment. What Tyler goes through in this episode are things that you wouldn’t want to happen to anyone.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tyler starts to improve after this episode. As well as having a lot more self-respect, he starts to treat everyone with a little more kindness.

But it’s in the third volume of the series where we really see him at his best. In the aftermath of the disaster that struck Cardiff at the end of the second volume, Tyler is constantly helping those who’ve suffered in the aftermath. Whether it’s making sure that his friends are OK, or giving blankets to strangers, Tyler is constantly shown to be doing good. It took him a long time to get to this point, and I mean a long time. But the payoff has been definitely worth it. I just hope that, while the character shouldn’t be without his flaws, he doesn’t go back to old habits in the next series.

Overall, God Among Us has been another strong series of Torchwood.

(Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Summary

To sum up, God Among Us has been a very different series compared to Aliens Among Us. And perhaps, in some ways, more satisfying.

The fact that God wasn’t the new big bad, but a being that genuinely wants to help was a very welcome surprise. The powerful being’s presence gave the series a very different feeling compared to the last. Aliens Among Us had a layer of fear and mistrust. Some of that paranoia has been brought into this series, but we also have an exploration of faith, love, and other more positive things in a very destructive world.

I’m also glad that the story of the Sorvix was resolved. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy them as the main threat of Aliens Among Us, but their story really had been resolved by the end of that series.

It also has to be said that the Committee are definitely more satisfying as a main threat. Along with the long history that they share with Torchwood, they’re also very clever and their deceit and manipulation works on a much deeper level. So bringing them into the series was a brilliant move.

But what really made this series work so well was the emphasis on both character development and a strong variety of storytelling. We had development in the last series, especially after the first volume established the characters. But we also got a lot more freedom and fresh angles to look at these interesting and flawed characters, which helped to make this an interesting series.

Best volume?

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If I had to pick a favorite volume from this series, it would have to be the recently released volume three. Admittedly, this may be because it’s still fresh in my mind. But the way that each episode handled the aftermath of a citywide disaster was just fantastic, especially A Mother’s Son and Day Zero. Both Aliens and God have helped to make Cardiff important to Torchwood once more – arguably, for the first time since series two – and the city has been richly explored throughout. So seeing it in a time of crisis, and seeing it handled well, is really rewarding to listen to.

If you’re a Torchwood fan and you haven’t listened to God Among Us yet, I highly recommend doing so. But only until you’ve checked out Aliens Among Us at least. God Among Us is stronger overall, but it builds so much on the previous series, too.

It also might be worth checking out some of the monthly audios, particularly The Conspiracy, Ghost Mission and Goodbye Piccadilly. The first one introduces the Committee into the series, while the other two introduce Norton, who’s extremely important in volume two.

dark. Next. Actress spotlight: Maureen O’Brien (Vicki)

What were your thoughts on God Among Us? What was your favorite aspect of the series? Do you prefer it to Aliens Among Us, or vice versa? Let us know in the comments below.

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