This story is probably one of my favourites in the Torchwoood catalogue period.

It gives the listener four stories: two told by Ace, and two by Mr Colchester. Whilst each individual story is good, my favourite was the story of the broken soldier. It works on an emotional level, contrasting the stoic Mr Colchester telling the story with the less put-together Singeon of the 1980s. It feels genuinely tragic, and sad yet hopeful at the same time. I had to pause the story as I was listening on a train and knew if I continued I'd cry - I genuinely don't remember the last time a story accomplished that. Paul Clayton's performance, the sound design, and the beautiful script culminate for a lovely midpoint.

The other stories are also great, the stories of Torchwood's first director aren't as effective but provide a through line through the story. Plus the near misses between the Doctor and Torchwood before Doomsday are an interesting idea and its nice to see them. These stories are undeniably still great and still offer a slight underlying tragedy.

The final story offers a great quiet ending that ties a neat bow on the story.

The sound design is beautiful and gives a great atmosphere for the stories giving a festive yet spooky feeling for the story.  Plus, Ace and Mr Colchester as characters work wonderfully together. The story highlights their similarities - both run-aways in different ways.

I do think the story can be criticised for leaving a lot of the supernatural elements in each story up-in-the-air however, I personally didn't feel like answers were needed. The narrators themselves don't fully understand them, so they can't explain what they don't know.   Overall, its definitely a strong festive story.

I liked the idea of this story, more than the story itself. The story focus on a Victorian railway and a company investigating a suspected incident involving a missing train. Of course over the story the master masquerading as a railway engineer slowly putting pieces into place for his own plan.

The story's score is great, if a bit loud at times and it does well to conclude the boxset. However, I think the story is weak as I personally was fatigued by this type of story. 3 out of the 4 stories have the master as effectively secondary characters manipulating events to ensure a grisly fate for the protagonist. Whilst this type of story is good, having the Master entirely in control in this boxset makes it feel predictable. Whilst each story's ending had a twist, they were all predictable to an extent. This story is no different, like the story it pastiches the signal-man is struck by a train. Whilst the scfi elements are a fun addition, it felt like the story had only been building to them briefly and relatively disconnected to the rest of the tale.

The story-in-a-story narrative used feels natural however, it does come across as being relatively bland. Whilst it reveals what the Master's plan and why he's being telling stories, the fact the Master was really a Tardis looking for a pilot feels like a "yes, and?" moment. For me at least, it lacks the kick needed too make it a good conclusion. The boxset had been building to a revelation as to why the master had been doing telling stories, but this feels like an-built up twist with little foreshadowing.

Either way, the story was fine it wasn't spectacular or awful. It was just fine.

This review will function more so as an umbrella review for Dalek Universe as a whole, than just the Triumph of Davros. I have a lot of thoughts on it that will only really make sense with wider context, as I think the Triumph of Davros two-parter just backstabs the rest of the series.

Firstly, what is the main theme of Dalek Universe? I think, its identity. The first two boxsets focus heavily on the looking at what influences someone's personality and their character. Furthermore, as stated in the interviews for some writers this is deliberate. in 1.1 + 1.2 it focuses on the Doctor. How are  does their identity and personality shaped by: Gallifrey and the Time War (as shown by the Nun) and their companions (shown by the contrast with Ann and Anya). in 1.3 it focuses on Anya, how she was shaped by the SSS and her family. In 2.1 the themes are developed by Mark as we learn about what shaped him with flashbacks to his mother, it presents the idea of identity as something powerful that cant simply be overwritten by our natural constraints (in his case his programming). 2.2 then refocuses to Felicity, and shows how even when altered by experiments she remains the same person in some ways. 2.3 shows us this with the Lost. Whilst the Lost changes and loses their  memories, they stay the same with their motivation and goals.

The Third boxset then u-turns on this. 3.1 has part of the drama being "is Mito, River?". Whilst it's shown to be a ploy by River, it doesn't offer any interpretations or explore River. It treats her like a prop rather than a character. This is just bad writing. Next 3.2 and 3.3. The main culprit for the series' themes being backstabbed, is the First Movellan. This character is entirely used for a twist with 0 impact on the story. The fact they are Mark Seven centuries later, does show some parallels with both the Lost and Felicity, but the inclusion just makes it so the storyline of 2.1 is reversed. 2.1 showed that Mark can go against his code, having that resolve the narrative, 3.3 has him effectively a prisoner to it. It shows his identity can be overridden therefore going against what boxsets 1 and 2 were saying.

The story itself also feels very mediocre. It lacks any drama as we know all of our characters' fates excluding Anya. We know Davros doesn't really betray the Daleks, and we know the Doctor returns to the post-time war period. So the drama then has to come from the side-characters, all of whom are just bland and one-dimensional. I believe the issue with Dalek and Movellan stories is that its hard to create interesting characterisation as they intended to be one dimensional.

Whilst the end is nice, it feels unresolved. Mark's ending is completely unsatisfying as it offers finality for Mark but not the First Movellan, which to me is the worst of both worlds as Mark can't return, but the villain goes undeafeted. I feel like Anya's ending seems odd. She seemingly accepts her fate as being stranded in the far future, with no qualms. As the main characters, their endings feel rushed.

Overall its a mediocre story to an otherwise great series, which definitely harms the rest of the series.

It was an interesting story and once it got going it was really good. However, I'm guessing this was one of the victims of the changing direction of the series (I remember an interview from around 2021 that said TW series seven originally meant to have a larger plot about anti-vaxxers and an epidemic but something happened in 2020 to change plans). The fact a pen name - Ash Darby - was used for this script suggests to me it was edited. It seems to have two 'false starts' one which was deliberate (the opening scene) then one that lasts till around the fifteen-minute mark).

The story starts too slowly. Once Orr finally gets to Voloshnik the story is a lot better especially when Orr pieces together what happened. The war plot is interesting and you can assume it was probably about Donetsk (Russian satellite state, ongoing conflict between legitimate government, Russian-backed rebels and Russia)  however that may be a 2024 reading of a circa 2019 script. The plotline about misinformation is interesting yet lacks any depth, it could have easily been developed. All they would need to do is add a few lines about Tania having a second child who died due to her mother's anti-vaccine views. Then make Tania confront those emotions with Robert Wilson.

The ending with the explanation of the is amazing and like most Torchwood stories, the ending is extremely well done and links the theme of the episode - misinformation. I just wish it went into more depth and got ot the point quicker. You could cut the entire section with the insurgent, and have Orr get to the hospital from the plane crash.

I remember once reading an Agatha Christie interview where she discussed the rumor that she wrote backwards and only adding the elements that allowed the mystery to be solved after the rest of the book was written. That's what Phobos feels like. The twist of the fear entity  feels artificial and it doesn't feel integrated with the plot naturally. There's very little build-up other than a single scene or two of Kai trying to cause fear. the fear entity is a great concept, its Lovecraftian in nature, and it has the power to feel threatening - if it were explored properly.  Yet only introducing it in the last 10 or so minutes meant it couldn't be explored. And the 'rules' governing its behavior felt bizarre (I'd give them a pass if the rest of the story were better) and Kai's goals seem convoluted  - surely there were better more efficient ways of making people feel afraid? Furthermore, the way the Doctor defeats the monster feels lazy.

Then there's the side plot about Farl and Amy. This was just fine. It didn't really feel resolved though. Their family drama felt unexplored and unresolved with no ending. Also, the racism directed to Farl feels like a poor plot point considering he seemingly conforms to the expected stereotype of his species. There's also Hayd and Drew. Drew's queerness is just lazy. Its thrown into the script with no build-up and no resolution. I get 2006 was a different time but it still feels pointless and unexplored (like many elements of this story).

Overall, I can picture a world where Phobos was a much better story about fear, where it explored its characters and their fears. Farl and his families prejudice, Kai and his fear of the entity as well as losing Eris, Amy and raising a child alone, Drew and his love for Hayd. Instead with have a story that is serviceable but feels rushed and like its missing solid 10 minutes.

Also the fact Amy just accepts Lucie is a time traveler feels absurd. I get this is set half a century in the future, but that still feels like something that's just silly. Focusing on Lucie in this story, she doesn't feel like herself. She feels poorly characterized. My best example is the joke about the House of Lords. That's not something I can see her saying. It feels out of character, like the author thought of it and without wondering if it was something she would say.

I will praise it for being fine. The dialogue feels relatively natural for most of the characters, its not drawn-out, it does show more of the Doctor and Lucie becoming friends. But, just because it is serviceable doesn't mean its good.

I think the biggest issue this story has is just how comparable it is to Broken. Broken examined the events of the first series of Torchwood and questioned how they impacted Lanto whilst focusing on showing how he progressed as a character as a result of them. Coffee examines how the events of the first three series of Torchwood impacted everyday people, and how the two characters we meet are impacted by them.

The reason this comparison is flawed for Coffee is that Broken is so superior in every way. Using Lanto as the Torchwood character in a story with a very similar narrative to a pre-existing story naturally leads to comparisons, had they used Tosh, Andy, or Owen this would be less of an issue. What we got with Coffee is good. Yet it lacks the depth Broken had, I think trying to cover three series rather than just focusing on a shorter timeframe would have allowed it to do more with its characters I think.

I undoubtedly enjoyed Coffee, it was a nice quirky story that focuses on how ordinary people view Torchwood something we've not got before. Yet, it lacks the substance that would elevate it from a good story to a truly great story.

Unfortunately, I found this story quite uncomfortable and confusing at times. Whilst for the main part, the story is relatively interesting the idea of a man and his wife attempting to live forever as gods by cloning themselves and transferring their minds is interesting. However, I think the issues come with the plot.

The plot struggled to keep me invested. I found the characters to be relatively dull too. The opening is a very melodramatic scene akin to the opening scene of The Armageddon Factor. These scenes made me quite confused the opening made it difficult form to place where the story was set ie the future or the past. Plus the melodrama is overdone making me lose interest. The villain of the piece 'Zeus' (the choice to name him after a god made the story even more confusing for me) is very unlikeable, of course, this is intentional however it does feel very  uncomfortable especially in the scenes between him and Lucie.

I will add that for the relationship between the Doctor and Lucie feels rushed, it doesn't feel like their relationship has grown naturally the Doctor's dependence on her is said rather than shown.

Overall the story is fine if not flawed, and worth listening to if you're going through the Lucie Miller stories.