Is this really the end for Cardiff – and the world?

The two box sets of Torchwood continuations reach their climax with James Goss’s episode that emphasises that for all the apocalyptic destruction and mayhem, good drama comes down to the interplay between the characters. We’ve now spent hours in the company of Mr Colchester and Colin, Orr, Ng, alternate-Yvonne, Tyler and co. that it’s easy to forget that they didn’t originate like Jack and Andy on the TV series – we’ve become invested in them and their lives, and we care.

A lot of threads that have been running for the last few years are tied up – stretching right back to the earliest Big Finish plays – and elements that haven’t seemed to make sense now do. Goss juggles the various strands neatly, allowing sufficient space for the character moments (Yvonne and Tyler eating pizza) yet never losing sight of the imminence of the end of the world. (Quite how Cardiff is going to cope with this without a huge aerial delivery of retcon is a problem for another day!)

There are strong performances across the board and this is an appropriate point to also recognise the challenges that were overcome by the production team in bringing it all together. As the various interviews note, by no means were all the cast together for their scenes and you really can’t tell that’s the case thanks to Steve Foxon’s magic.

There’s plenty of mileage in these characters and the situations that Goss and director Scott Handcock have left them in. We’ve had Aliens Among Us, then God Among Us… will series 7 be Torchwood Among Us?

Verdict: Once again demonstrating the strengths of adult drama, Torchwood series 6 goes out on a high note. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order God Among Us volume 3 from Big Finish