The Victorian Age

"The nineteenth century is when everything changes."

Writer: AK Benedict

Format: Audio

Released: March 2016

Series: Torchwood Monthly 07

Featuring: Captain Jack

Synopsis

London, England, the 1890s. Queen Victoria, ruler of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, has arrived for her annual inspection of the Torchwood Institute. This year, everyone is quite determined, nothing will go wrong.

Several minutes later a terrible creature is unleashed on the streets of London. No one knows where it comes from, hat it is, or even why it's on Earth. It's ruthless, has no morals, and is quite unstoppable. Captain Jack Harkness is on the loose, and Queen Victoria is along for the ride of her life.

Verdict

The Victorian Age was a fantastic audio adventure to continue my way through the Torchwood monthly audios from Big Finish! I think it's a wonderful idea to visit Torchwood London in the 1890s and see just what the Institute was up to in its early days with this really not being that far removed from its beginnings in Tooth and Claw. Having Captain Jack present in Victorian London is brilliant and I love that the Jack we see here is relatively young (at least compared with what we would see on television!) and still had a long way to go until he would get back to the Doctor and see his vision for Torchwood Cardiff fully realised. I love that Queen Victoria featured and I really enjoyed her character and relationship with Jack throughout. She knew a lot about alien encounters and even suspected that the whispers about Jack were true before actually seeing them confirmed first hand. Her inspecting of Torchwood London was amusing and Jack keeping calm whilst Josephine was incredibly trepidatious about the prospect of the Queen arriving and shutting them down was great. I absolutely loved the use of the violin theme arrangement and it was something that gave the audio a unique feel and more genuinely a part of Victorian London. There is so much room to explore Torchwood in the Victorian era and I really do hope that this isn't the only audio to be set there from this spinoff range. The potential is endless. The creature that was rampaging through London during this story made for a good monster and I thought the concept of it feeding from the young and burning up all of its energy at rapid pace was excellent. It even aged Jack by a good fifteen years which was intriguing, but it had the opposite effect on Queen Victoria which was a lot of fun. From just one quick touch she was rejuvenated by a few years and had a spring in her step, so the way to defeat the creature was clear. Now it was just getting close to it. I thought Victoria was great throughout the audio to be honest and it was lovely to hear her enjoying life and the fact she was getting a thrill. It's a wonder she banished the Doctor and Rose if she was having such a good time here hunting aliens! The aura of superiority she brought was brilliant and I loved that we also got to just see her in a pub and fitting the bill for everyone. That was really nice. Jack explaining a number of the times Torchwood have presented an assassination attempt on the Queen's life was good and her continued comments that she would still have to shut Torchwood London down were intriguing, as I think she was merely playing. The revelation that the creature was intended as a living youth serum for someone in Her Majesty's Government was very interesting and I liked how this played into the lighthearted comments by Victoria regarding politicians and if they are actually human. That was very subtle but very well done. I suspect this is something to do with the Committee and I'm sure we will get a reference in a future adventure, but for now I like the ambiguity there of not quite knowing. Jack being offered the job of heading Torchwood London was expected, but the Welshman in me was delighted to hear that he maintained that his place was with Torchwood Cardiff. And why wouldn't it be? It's the greatest city in the world. Overall, a fine audio!

Rating: 9/10