REVIEW – Torchwood: The Conspiracy 1.1

Modern DOCTOR WHO has arrived… in the form of an anagram. That’s right the first of Big Finish’s licensed audios that dips into Doctor Who post 2005 is none other than TORCHWOOD.

The solicit from Big Finish:

“Captain Jack Harkness has always had his suspicions about the Committee. And now Wilson is also talking about the Committee. Apparently the world really is under the control of alien lizards. That’s what Wilson says. People have died, disasters have been staged, the suspicious have disappeared.


It’s outrageous. 


Only Jack knows that Wilson is right. The Committee has arrived.”

The format of these stories is a little different than what I’m used to but it’s off to a very intriguing start. I am used to Big Finish Stories that span multiple discs. The Torchwood series will apparently be one disc each and the story will be about 60 mins per part. Since there’s not a lot of story that makes my job a little easier reviewing these stories.

First it’s so good to have Torchwood back, it’s not entirely clear at what point this story takes place but based on the characters that have been announced for the upcoming stories thus far it looks to take place when the HUB was still around and while Ianto Jones is still around so it’s somewhere around Series 4 of Doctor Who at least if not earlier.

This first episode presumably sets the stage for the rest to come later. It centers around Jack Harkness and his solo investigation into Wilson (brilliantly played by John Sessions) who seems to know something about an actual cabal of aliens that could be a threat to the human race, but is he onto something or a conspiracy theorist who accidentally got it right?

The story is told in an Audio Drama style with some narration from the point of view of our lead character (Jack Harkness). I’ve stated in the past that I dislike narration but I have to admit John Barrowman’s narration works… partly because his character talks so much anyhow to where the narrative bits somehow just kind of make more sense than normal.

I hope that future episodes will see the whole team eventually working together but this first part is very much about Jack, his past, and what he knows about “The Committee.”

It’s classic Torchwood, it’s quick, it’s engaging, and I really don’t know what if anything I’d change. I’d like the whole team but I can’t fault this story based on my whims. Jack was solid, the sub characters were solid, the music was brilliant, and it all seemed to work cleverly into continuity, and at a speedy hour duration I have no doubt I’ll be listening to this more than once.

John Barrowman. Photo via BigFinish.com

It’s good to have them back and at least as an opener The Conspiracy was pretty perfect forcing me to give it that coveted 5 out of 5 stars rating.

I loved it but I also haven’t digested any of the other Torchwood Audio Books or Novels. Was this a return worthy of Torchwood? Or is there something else I should have been reading or listening to? Help a guy out and let me know in the comments below or by shooting us a message to letters(at)grawlixpodcast.com.