The Empire Man is a very intimate story, with Queen Victoria, the Prime Minister and Castringham huddled within the library sharing stories and spirits. It shows the individual thought processes as the Prime Minister desperately tries to understand why he has been asked here and how the stories he is being told can be assumed to be factual when so much contained within could be chalked up to coincidence and heightened emotions.

This style would not be out of place within The Companion Chronicles with three characters discussing the stories' events and the emotions evoked at the time as well as the reactions provoked in the present are interspersed with narrated recountings accentuated by Patience Tomlinson who plays a vital role as a distinct character in each. While this format does lend itself well to the inevitable intermingling of the three disparate tales, it does also mean that each of the stories is by necessity extremely short with little time to fully develop as much as Queen Victoria might hope in order to deliver the maximum impact. Unfortunately, given the brevity of the accounts rather than this being one cohesive tale being broken up by the Christmas Eve discussions, it is quite easy to understand why the Prime Minister is so reluctant to accept at face value what is being told no matter how engaging the Queen and Castringham may be. Regardless of his own related tale, he has not yet revealed. Inevitably, all three stories do not achieve the same level of engagement as the links to the same mysterious wooded region become known.

Despite no relevance to Torchwood as an organization, going as far as to have Queen Victoria explicitly tell Castringham not to mention anything to its members about these affairs, The Empire Man at times is evocative and atmospheric, but far too often it is rushed and imbalanced with even suitably strong performances and direction failing to elevate it into becoming the far more profound package it tries to be.