Review: Torchwood: AudioGo: Army of One

Gwen Cooper is being targeted by a very unusual serial killer…

It’s just beginning to feel as if Torchwood has finally run out of momentum. Its peak was undeniably Children of Earth, with its bleak central theme and its unremitting commitment to story and character. Miracle Day was… well, bloated is one way of putting it, but perhaps one trip too often to the well. Unsurprisingly, we’ve heard nothing more about a further collaboration between the BBC and Starz, and it’s interesting to note on the back of this CD that Kai Owens “played” Rhys Williams rather than the more usual “plays”.

If this new batch of audio plays is anything to go by, then perhaps it’s as well. Ian Edgington’s story is perfectly okay – strip it of its Washington DC background, and it would be a run-of-the-mill Torchwood episode from the second season (and indeed the flashback section within it seems to be pretty much exactly that). But there’s no real feel that everything has changed as a result of the Miracle, no investigation of how Rex is reacting to being immortal. No, it’s a chase through Washington with a contrived excuse to allow Kai Owen to use his Welsh accent a lot. But is Torchwood just Gwen and Rhys and some flashbacks to the team? Russell T Davies nailed it when he talked about Gwen and Jack being at the heart of the story, and with one part of that equation missing, this is not much more than a time filler.

Verdict: Perfectly ok if you want a standard Torchwood adventure, but this isn’t demonstrating why the Torchwood brand should continue.  5/10

Paul Simpson