Also known as "OBJECT ONE: A TORCHWOOD STORY"

Well, this just popped the hell out of nowhere didn't it?! Literally a month after the last one was released, "SURPRISE!!! We've been doing this in secret for the last year!! And we're bringing it out on the anniversary!!!" It was the story that kicked off a whole week of news of exciting new releases and the best bit was that we didn't have long to wait. Ultimately the day came and..... to say that people were excited is a bit of an understatement. The ideas and possibilities of doing a Torchwood Anniversary special. What would it be about? Who would be in it? Will it completely conflict with the last ten years of fan-fics that I have diligently been crafting? Well to answer them; 1) Everything, 2) Everyone and 3) WHAT?!?!

THE TORCHWOOD ARCHIVE REVIEW
THE 10th ANNIVERSARY BIG FINISH SPECIAL

By Jack Ryan

BEWARE: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

It's no surprise that Big Finish like to do some things in secret. Sure take a look at the War Doctor and Tenth Doctor releases earlier this year for bigger examples. But as for this, this had to have been planned when the idea of a Torchwood range was being made real. Or at least since December. There are sometimes reasons behind such far planning. Hell, look at how far ahead they record the 4th Doctor Adventures! But this had a bit more of a hectic recording schedule, being recorded during regular episode sessions, instead of across a few consecutive days. Now this can sometimes present a problem, especially when two actors who have had their lines recorded separately are meant to have a full flowing conversation; there's always a risk of it not sounding natural and thus breaking the flow. Does this ambitious story fall into that trap? I can safely say.... no. No, it does not!

Torchwood. Outside the government, beyond the police, above the atmosphere and out beyond the stars. Founded in 1879 by Queen Victoria, Torchwood has existed to defend Planet Earth from all the universe has to throw at it, and using that knowledge and technology to defend the human race against the future. And now in that future, Torchwood has fufilled it's function and now exists as an archive to remind the human race of it's noble and defensive history. But today marks the end of Torchwood. Today, Jeremiah Bash Henderson has arrived in the Archive. Today, he has arrived to shut it down. But before that..... today, Jeremiah has returned Object One....

So for Torchwood's tenth anniversary special, a celebration of the TV series and Big Finish series (and with Russell T Davies busy with BadWolfTV, and yes that does exist!), BF have entrusted producer and BFTW showrunner James Goss to give us this squee-fest of a celebration. But writing an anniversary special presents a whole new set of problems than a regular episode does. You want to honour the past, but not turn it into a glorified game of continuity bingo, and not to mention have a good story backing it all up, plus topping it all off is a decent payoff to an ongoing plot line. And Goss succeeds on every count with this belter of a two hour special, which features jsut about every main character Big Finish have got their hands on, plus a couple of notable guests AND an appearance from a character I don't think anyone was expecting, an ambitious look at Torchwood in the future, and a very shocking and satisfying payoff to both the contained story and the ongoing plot of the Committee. I won't say what it is hear because.... you most assuredly won't see it coming.

Like I said just then, this two hour extravaganza features just about everyone Big Finish has gotten for the series and the return of nearly all the original cast (minus the glorious Burn Gorman, but one day...). That includes John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, Kai Owen, Naoko Mori, Indira Varma and Tom Price. And joining them along for the ride are the likes of Yvonne Hartman herself, Tracy Ann-Oberman, Rowena Cooper as Queen Victoria, Dirk Gently's Samuel Barnett, the legendary David Warner, Class' Aaron Neil (he's appearing in EVERYTHING nowadays!), the glamorous Lisa Bowerman, Damian Lynch, Fanfare For The Common Men's Ryan Sampson, Emma Reeves, Guy Adams, Zone 10's Krystian Godlewski, Graceless' Laura Doddington, Geoffrey Breton, Kerry Gooderson and Paul Clayton. Not to mention a superb performance from new lead Richie Campbell as Jeremiah Bash Henderson and a gloriously emotional appearance from Julian Lewis Jones. Look up who he played in the TV series, and I guarantee you, you'll be crying before you even hear him. Every last member of this cast, both regular and guest, they are all a treat and an absolute pleasure to listen to as they hit every line and every delivery straight on the head with how good they are, all down to Goss' expert writing and a masterclass of directing from the mystical legend that is Scott Handcock.

In terms of sound design and music, we are graced with the returning and combined effort of Steve Foxon and Blair Mowat (the latter of which can also be commended for his recent work on Class, very well done!), and their effort here, most assuredly represent their best efforts yet in the series. Every note, every tune, every sound just lifts itself off of Goss' pages and they project it perfectly into our eardrums. Their efforts here cannot be commended enough, as it just perfectly helps to make the story unique from everything else before it.

I doubt even when it started back in 2006 that we'd ever be seeing this day with what we have been graced with. It was a ploy and a plan that took the best part of a year to execute and it was done perfectly. Celebrating ten years of history whilst also looking to the future is perhaps the only way any of us could have possibly imagining this happening, and I doubt we would have done it any differently.

VERDICT: 10/10 A mark for every year we've been graced with one of the best spin-offs ever. Here's to ten more years!