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“The 19th Century is when everything changes and WE are ready.”

This month’s Torchwood is the start of the second series for Big Finish’s Torchwood Series. Oddly this opener is a one-off set in the Victorian age! We get to see some of Jack’s time on earth which is much alluded to in the televised Torchwood series but seldom actually touched on. Lest we forget, he’s been in Torchwood for quite some time.

The Big Finish Solicit for this adventure reads:

“London, England, the 1890s. Queen Victoria, ruler of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, has arrived for her annual inspection of the Torchwood Institute. This year, everyone is quite determined, nothing will go wrong.

Several minutes later a terrible creature is unleashed on the streets of London. No one knows where it comes from, what it is, or even why it’s on Earth. It’s ruthless, has no morals, and is quite unstoppable. Captain Jack Harkness is on the loose, and Queen Victoria is along for the ride of her life.”

Also this month the solicit contains a nice little disclaimer not present in series one’s solicits…

Torchwood contains adult material and may not be suitable for younger listeners.

Indeed it does contain adult material, not a blatant as Uncanny Valley but anytime Jack is on the scene you can assume he’s alluding to something dirty at some point so it’s probably wise for Big Finish to include this disclaimer. The disclaimer is nice too because it spells it out for the Torchwood faithful that YES this IS Torchwood. Just like Fox’s recent Deadpool movie was made to be rated R… Torchwood was made to contain adult material.

So disclaimer asides aside… let’s get into the story! This story was funny, this story was engaging, and this story was grandly entertaining! It was like an american buddy cop movie… with the QUEEN!

There’s just something magical about how they feature Queen of England in these Doctor Who and Torchwood stories. She’s always represented as quite the force to be reckoned with and this story was no exception.

The casting was wonderful It’s not often that you can say this but… Jack may be the principle Torchwood character…. But I think Rowena Cooper as Queen Victoria stole the show! Really the monster wasn’t the story so much as the Queen running with Torchwood became the story.

I’ve said it often in the past but THIS is what I love Big Finish for (“This” being the way they find a gap in time or a character that we’ve not thought much about and they flesh it out) and they SO excell at it. This was maybe not what I was expecting from a series opener but it is a great one! If the theme of series 2 is to throw us delightful curve balls like this one? It’s going to be a very good series of stories. And it opens the floodgates WIDE open in my brain. Captain Jack Harkness meets Jago and Litefoot?! OH PLEASE Big Finish make THAT crossover happen!

I’m giving this story 5 out of 5 stars I keep saying it… but what a light and humorous way to start the second series!

This story took us into what we might consider Torchwood prehistory what do you think of that? Would you like to hear more stories about the untold years of Torchwood? What eras would you specifically like to see them tackle Torchwood in? You can let me know in the comments below or by shooting me a tweet! @jessekiefer I want to hear from YOU!

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