Torchwood fans: Why you need to check out prequel series Torchwood One

If you’re missing Torchwood, or fancy a different take on your favorite Doctor Who spin-off, then we highly recommend checking out prequel series Torchwood One.

Like many of you, I’ve been a fan of Torchwood for a long time. The darker, more mature take on the Doctor Who universe gave us so many amazing stories that its parent show simply couldn’t tell. Particularly Children of Earth, which is probably one of the very best examples of mature science-fiction of the twenty-first century.

It’s been a long time since we last saw the series on television with Miracle Day. But in the years since then, Big Finish has kept fans very happy. First with audio stories set during the time of the TV series, before later giving us the fifth and sixth series of the spin-off.

But perhaps one of the most radical takes we’ve had is one that’s not only set before the series we all know and love. It also shows Torchwood run by someone very different to the constantly flirty, trench coat wearing hero that we’re most familiar with: Yvonne Hartman, leader of Torchwood One.

Yvonne Hartman, Torchwood’s previous boss, is focused on heavily in the series.

(Image credit: Torchwood/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Different…

We only briefly saw Torchwood One on television during the Doctor Who story Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, but it was enough to give us a good idea of what both the organization and its boss were like. It was more professional, even more powerful than Torchwood Three in Cardiff. It was also more aggressively patriotic, too.

While Torchwood One had been in power for more than a century, it was clearly the leadership of Yvonne Hartman that made it so successful – and so dangerous. Clever, charming yet also devious, Hartman stood out as an instantly brilliant character, thanks to both the great writing of Russell T Davies and an excellent performance by Tracy-Ann Oberman.

So both the organization and its leader were radically different to the Torchwood that we became more used to. And that’s what makes Torchwood One so exciting as a series: exploring a version of Torchwood that we barely got to know on television.

…yet familiar

However, is it so different that Torchwood fans won’t find anything familiar about it? Not at all, in fact, that’s what makes it so compelling. There’s a lot that’s different about Torchwood One, but there’s a lot it shares in common with its parent series, too.

For example, it still presents a world that’s darker, more cynical and more mature than the one we see in Doctor Who. Make no mistake, like the Torchwood we know, Torchwood One is aimed at an older audience, thus helping to retain so much of what we loved about the original series.

The stories we’ve had in the prequel series so far have been great, as well. Opening box set Before the Fall establishes how different Torchwood One really was, while also giving us a fantastic three-part story. Machines gave us a good trio of stories and revived an old Doctor Who villain in a surprising way.

But it’s the most recent box set, Latter Days, that stands out as the best. Focusing on themes like retirement, mistreatment, regret and grief, while still having amazing stuff like Ianto Jones living out a James Bond-style fantasy, it’s a perfect example of what Torchwood is like at its very best.

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Yvonne and Ianto

Ah yes, that’s something else that makes the prequel series immediately appealing to a lot of Torchwood fans: Ianto. The TV series established that Ianto had worked at Torchwood One before, and was one of its only survivors before working at its Cardiff base.

Now we all know how popular Ianto is. We all know how fantastic Gareth David-Lloyd is in the role. But even better is that you get to see Ianto in his younger days. You get to find out what he was like when he had to work for someone like Yvonne Hartman, how someone like him stood out by comparison, and even how he joined Torchwood in the first place – in a script by David-Lloyd himself, no less!

Lastly, the best reason to check out the series is getting more of Yvonne Hartman. Big Finish has revived her in a big way, and has helped fans to re-discover just how much of a brilliant character she is.

Especially with Tracy-Ann Oberman playing her. She just embodies that character so completely, and it’s hard to believe there was a gap of almost a decade between her original appearance in Doctor Who‘s Series 2 finale and her return to the role in the audio One Rule. A wonderful creation, and it’s great that she’s getting a lot more attention. Both in her own prequel series, and beyond…

If you’re missing Torchwood on TV, or just want a radically different take on one of your favorite sci-fi series, you can’t go wrong with Torchwood One. Different yet familiar, it’s easily worth checking out. You can get each of the three volumes of the series on CD and download from Big Finish Productions.

Have you listened to Torchwood One or heard about it before? Are you a fan of Yvonne Hartman? Do you think we should have seen more of her in the TV series, even in flashbacks? Let us know in the comments below.