Outbreak: Incubation: Know

"Stage one, your head's not your own."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: November 2016

Series: Torchwood Specials 2.01

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Ianto

Synopsis

"First they know you, then you love, then you kill..."

Incubation - Prodromal - Invasion

A medical trial's gone terribly wrong, and one of the test subjects is loose on the streets of Cardiff. Within hours a virus is raging out of control and the bodies start piling up.

The Government scrambles to control the outbreak but isn't too keen on anyone finding out the dark history of the virus. Captain Jack Harkness has encountered the infection before and knows that something alien is hiding inside it. 

With the city sealed off and murderous mobs rampaging through the streets, Torchwood has to save something even more important than the human race.

Verdict

Incubation: Know was an outstanding start to Outbreak! I'm a little confused as to whether this is considered a single story or a series, but given that we have three different writers for each disc that makes up its own stage of the adventure I'm going to proceed in judging each one independently. And as starts go, this was sublime. This was Torchwood at its very best and the stakes were raised immediately! I loved how there was no messing around in getting to grips with what this story was trying to do and it has set things up for the next two hours in an incredible way! From a personal perspective, I'm a big fan of revisiting the trio from Series 3 of Torchwood as it has been so long since I've done anything with just them, and they were wonderful together. It was so much fun to have things starting with Gwen and Ianto on a speedboat chasing a giant space octopus that Jack was riding. And Ianto was getting jealous about how much Jack was enjoying it! Some of the comments from Gwen with her being stuck in the middle of some of their sexual innuendo was tremendous. Of course, as the umbrella title suggests the outbreak that occurred here spread at an incredible rate and Cardiff was cornered in no time. The real life feel that Torchwood has with it being set modern day really benefits it and I liked how Andy was there at the start. The deluded man he arrested in the caves that just wanted his mum was horrifying when we found that he had a knife and his mother's blood on his hands. He was arrested and he demanded to speak with Torchwood. I felt a little sorry for Andy with how dismissive Gwen was on the phone with him, so it was nice that Jack went in person to the police station to see the mysterious prisoner. It was clear from Godalming's call that he was one of the test subjects that had gotten loose from Heights Pharmaceuticals, with nine others picked up but he was left out there. Rhys didn't have a lot to do in this part with him being stuck outside of the Cardiff blockade thanks to his lorry driving sending him abroad, but I get a sense he'll have a important role later in the story as he tries to get into Cardiff and reunite with Gwen despite him telling her otherwise. The humour on the phone with them regarding his fake French girls pickup was wonderful. I liked that Jack had some knowledge of what was going on with our prisoner, later named as Luke, and now I want to hear everting about Operation Red Dawn and the Good Thinking Programme from which Luke was seemingly a test subject. A number of Cardiff residents complaining of itchiness whilst a large number of others went into a dream state put the city at an incredible risk and the spread was rampant. People were turning on each other and the situation was pretty dire for the Torchwood team. That was coupled with Jack locking himself in the Hub to ensure that Ianto and Gwen were safe because he was infected and that meant soon he would try to kill them. That was very eery! The childlike nature of Luke was intriguing and I was surprised that Godalming intended on shooting him dead. She needed to cover up and too much had already been revealed. Jack explaining how the outbreak was essentially a man made virus boosted from alien technology was fantastic and I'm looking forward to exploring its impact. The cliffhanger with the Hub going into lockdown and only Gwen making it out was excellent, and the idea of Jack wanting to kill Ianto now sets us up very nicely! Overall, an incredible start! 

Rating: 10/10