This month’s Torchwood is another character vignette for the second series of Big Finish’s Torchwood. Tosh goes on a solo mission deep into Russia which starts tying us back into the tale of “The Committee”The Big Finish Solicit for this adventure reads:

“They call it “Pulse” – a radio signal which has puzzled the world for 40 years. But now Toshiko Sato has solved it.

She’s uncovered a message which leads her to Russia, and into an uneasy alliance with the KVI – the Russian equivalent of Torchwood. Toshiko needs to get into Zone 10 – a frozen wasteland which officially doesn’t exist.

An intergalactic war was once fought in Zone 10. And it turns out there’s a survivor.”

I wasn’t sure about this at first, not because it was Tosh, I was always on board for that but… The Committee, I wasn’t sure about pulling us back into that story. This story however does a fairly nice job of bringing us back into that loose storyline which was started back in series 1.

Some of the stories we’ve gotten have alluded to the committee in very loose ways and some have hit us over the head with it. This one was a fairly nice middle of the road approach. That is to say…knowing the past stories WILL help lend some context to a few of the things that are said. That does make this story slightly less stand alone than some but that previous knowledge is not strictly necessary for enjoyment. Those allusions just might feel a little clunky for the uninitiated.

Toshiko does a nice job of pulling this story with a few co-characters. This story does feel somewhat similar to Ianto’s story “Fall to Earth” in that Tosh wasn’t often a huge action hero of the series but she’s thrust into some pretty good action here.

This story does a very nice job of paying homage to the Tosh we knew while bringing us a new story forcing the character to reach out of her comfort zone. In this case the frozen wastes of Russian wilderness with spies and snowmobiles and a strange mystery to solve ARE that discomfort zone.

For fans of The War Doctor stories there is some great call backs to technology referenced in that series as well as tech that we later know Tosh helped to design for the Torchwood Hub as a fail safe. So there are some fun easter eggs to be had for longtime fans.

Even the Torchwood theme music has some fun variations in this episode. As seat music it was just subtle enough for me to catch but not as blatant as Torchwood theme music can get sometimes, I really appreciate that subtlety.

This was another great story for the Torchwood range. Taking the familiar and making it new again while remaining authentic seems so effortless for Big Finish but it’s due to a great team. The casting, writing, direction, and sound are all working together to hand us another solid entry into the newly expanding lore. For fans of the television series I can see this entry being a pretty fast fan favorite.

I’m giving this story 4 out of 5 stars. It brings us back into the loose central plot-line while serving a fresh scenario.

If this were televised this would have been an on location episode Torchwood as almost a spy organization makes it prime to play with global locations. What is a location you’d love to see Torchwood explore? Egypt? The middle East? South Africa? You can let me know in the comments below or by shooting me a tweet! @jessekiefer I want to hear from YOU!