Details and covers for some of next year’s releases in the monthly Torchwood range have been revealed. In a surprising but brilliant twist, the new batch will see the team at Torchwood Three take on a collection of classic Doctor Who monsters.
Since gaining a license to include elements of the BBC Wales series in their audio plays, long time Doctor Who audio producers Big Finish have made Torchwood one of their highest profile, and highest quality ranges. The range has succeeded in being a hybrid of the tone and quality of television stories like Children of Earth, and the free-wheeling chaos of the Torchwood team’s adventures in the first two seasons. Divided into multiple strands, such as the Torchwood One boxsets set before the fall of Canary Wharf, and the post-Miracle Day boxsets which act as an official ‘Series Five’ and ‘Series Six’ continuation of the show, one of the most popular strands has been the monthly releases which dip in and out of Torchwood’s history and future at will.
It was not surprising when some time ago Big Finish confirmed the continuation of these standalone Torchwood tales in 2019. But now they’ve been announced as continuing all the way to February 2020! Also the details for the first four 2019 releases have been announced. Following on from Torchwood One: Machines pitting Yvonne Hartman against Wotan and its reborn War Machines, the upcoming discs see returns for a slew of classic Doctor Who monsters and heroes.
Producer James Goss has also teased what listeners can expect from those stories following later in 2019: “Jack and Ianto discover domestic bliss, we’ve Gwen Cooper as you’ve never seen her before, Dr Owen Harper’s in prison and there’s something nasty out at sea. We’ll meet the person who joined Torchwood at the same time as Tosh, Jack Harkness goes down a mine with a national treasure, and there’s a town where you have to drink or die. Plus, which Torchwood character is a massive fan of opera?”
Torchwood #25: Night of the Fendahl (March 2019)
Marco makes films. You wouldn’t like them. The lighting’s shoddy, the sets are cheap and the sound’s appalling. But there’s an audience for them. Because they’re films in which bad things happen to women.
Marco’s latest venture is based on real events. Events which took place in Fetch Priory many years ago. It’s an anthology piece, and Marco needs one final victim. But the last victim is not who anyone is expecting.
Death has returned to Fetch Priory. And Death is no-one’s victim.
Torchwood #26: The Green Life (April 2019)
Many years ago Jo Grant met Professor Clifford Jones, fell in love and saved the world. It all happened in the idyllic Welsh community of Llanfairfach.
Josephine Jones has come back to Llanfairfach, and she finds it a bustling place with a thriving economy. The little town is now at the spearhead of a healthy-eating revolution. And yet, something’s missing. It feels like the heart has gone out of the place.
She falls in with a dashing stranger and realises that although the past was a lot simpler, not everything’s changed. There’s still something nasty in the mine, and it’s been waiting for Jo for a very long time.
Torchwood #27: Sync (May 2019)
Margaret Blaine is the Mayor of Cardiff. She’s also an alien who’ll do anything to get off the planet Earth. When a spaceship crashes outside Cardiff, it seems like the answer to her prayers. Only she’s not the only person at crash site.
Suzie Costello works for Torchwood, but strictly to her own agenda. When a spaceship crashes outside Cardiff, it seems like the answer to her prayers. Only, she’s not the only person at the crash site.
Bonded by an alien device, Margaret and Suzie find themselves on the run from Torchwood, the police, and six warp missiles that’ll destroy them, Cardiff, and most of the Western Hemisphere.
Torchwood #28: Saragasso (June 2019)
The seas of planet Earth are choked by plastic. A plastic that no-one has a use for and no-one can get rid of.
Rhys Williams finds himself stranded on a container ship in a sea of debris. People on board are dying. Because, luckily, someone’s found a solution to Earth’s polluted waters. The Nestene Consciousness can never have too much plastic.
In consideration of Torchwood’s older target audience than Doctor Who, and the presence of characters – such as Jo Jones and the Slitheen – who have even appeared in CBBC’s The Sarah Jane Adventures, Big Finish have been even keener to emphasise that the Torchwood range is entirely unsuitable for children.
You can pre-order these new Torchwood releases individually from Big Finish’s site, or save money with a Torchwood bundle. A six-release packet is £50 on CD or £45 on download, or you can save even more money by ordering all twelve Torchwood releases together at £90 on CD or £84 on download. And if you pre-order a bundle now, you’ll gain access to an exclusive pre-order extract from Night of the Fendahl.
