Yvonne Hartman is Required for ‘Torchwood One: Machines’ [SPOILERS]

An upcoming Torchwood release will pit its former leader against WOTAN

**THIS POST CONTAINS TORCHWOOD SPOILERS**

Back in January, ‘Torchwood One: Before the Fall’ showed us London’s Torchwood office at the height of its powers. Next year sees Torchwood One’s former leader, Yvonne Hartman, face down a classic villain from Doctor Who – welcome back, WOTAN!

Doctor Who Is Required

WOTAN was the first artificial intelligence built on Earth and the brainchild of Professor Brett. It made its debut opposite the First Doctor in ‘The War Machines’ way back in 1966. If you haven’t seen the story, you may be familiar with its cry of “Doctor Who is required” causing 51 years of continuity headaches. Nicholas Pegg will take up the vocal role of WOTAN for this upcoming release. As a seasoned Dalek operator, that seems appropriate.

Yvonne Hartman

Oberman made her debut as Yvonne Hartman in the two-part finale of Doctor Who’s second series. Back in 2006, Torchwood’s then-leader inadvertently caused an invasion of Cybermen and Daleks that ravaged the planet. Yvonne was cyberized in the chaos. But she made one last stand, breaking through the programming, to buy the Doctor more time.

Torchwood One

Yvonne has made three appearances since then in audio under the Big Finish banner set before her final battle. Until recently. Facing a coup from his former teammates, Captain Jack heard a familiar voice call out to take control of Torchwood’s Cardiff branch. Part two of ‘Aliens Among Us’ ended with the shock return of Yvonne Hartman to the land of the living. If the info we have to go on is any indication, ‘Torchwood One: Machines’ will explore how that shock ending came to be.

We’ll update this story with new information as we get it. Meantime, let us know what you thought of Torchwood One: Before the Fall in the comments!

Updates: Big Finish just made the official announcement on its website so we’ve updated and corrected this article. We previously reported it would be released in January, it will be available in July. We assumed it would be set after ‘Doomsday’ but that does not seem to be the case after all.