End Game

This is ‘the one where Tosh is talked down to by a group of officials on the verge of something major happening.’

To know the characters enough to really care about their decline, this could have been a double-disc story; the actual plot though, is perfectly suited to this singular, hour-long format. That way, it isn’t long before bad things – or the possibility of them – start happening.

I love Tosh. She’s a boffin, of course, and has a problem getting too close to people. Here, she’s in her element. Lots of trying to reason with a vast computer system. Gradually those around her realise she’s their best hope.

As Naoki says in the extras, this is a ‘Torchwood escape room … Torchwood panic room,’ which I think sums this up. It isn’t the greatest story ever released, but it’s a good one and makes the listener wonder what they might do in such circumstances. The peaks of tension are well realised. And like many of these singular releases, provides a new way of telling a story. I’m not sure any other Big Finish range is so successfully experimental.

It’s funny but I never really ‘got into’ Torchwood on the television (I watched an episode called From Out of the Rain, which I loved, but still wasn’t hooked). The audios, however, are a different story. Big Finish has done them proud, expanding the Torchwood universe and developing interesting new characters. There’s always a place for the originals, of course, and Tosh – mainly due to Naoko Mori – is always worth revisiting.

My score is 7 out of 10.