Vultura mining have opened up a ‘temporary’ mine near an Indian village. Ace (Sophie Aldred) is there as the head of the A Charitable Earth relief effort. Mr Colchester (Paul Clayton) is there moonlighting for a little extra cash to fill the Torchwood coffers. Sabriya (Shaheen Khan) and Jamal (Anant Varman) are there because it’s their home and they want to fight for it. Dyson (Tom Hanson) is there to protect Vultura’s investment. Five people. Five motives. All of them running out of time.

The Torchwood line is always a pleasure and this particular pairing is rapidly becoming the best double act in the range. Aldred and Clayton have tremendous fun here, as friends who remain good-naturedly confused about why they’re on opposite sides and can’t quite help chatting to each other. There’s a touch of John le Carré or Mick Herron here, as Clayton’s Colchester reveals himself to be as adept at tradecraft as he is at making people dead. Aldred’s Ace remains the Doctor Who universe’s best explosives enthusiast but here director Lisa Bowerman, writer James Goss and Aldred dig in on that. A Charitable Earth has always been a great idea, one of the best endgames for any companion in the show’s history. Here, Ace’s altruism and anarchist background collide with Colchester’s and the fireballs fly from the jump. As Clayton says, they get to do ‘shout acting’ in this one and hearing Ace and Colchester fight it out in the exploited village of ideas is a surprisingly intense experience. Aldred and Clayton are always great but they, and the rest of this really strong cast, excel when given even more thematically complex material than usual like this.

The genius of the story lies in the fact this is one strand of it. Khan owns every scene she’s in as the exhausted, pragmatic mayor of the town and Ace’s best friend on site. Equal parts co-conspirators and not-quite-adversaries the two women spend a lot of the story running the maths on whether or not what they’re doing is right. Varman’s Jamal has no such doubts and neither does Hanson’s cheerfully sociopathic Ventura lawyer, Dyson. Jamal and Dyson both pay heavy prices for their ethical calcification. Ace, Colchester and Sabriya, ethically grey and troubled by that ambiguity, fare better. It’s an interesting approach, simultaneously oddly principled and inspirational and clear-eyed, furious and individual.

Verdict: Business as usual for Torchwood, and business as usual for this always impressive, always furious and eloquent, line. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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