The Restored

"The dead are rising from their tombs."

Writer: David Llewellyn

Format: Audio

Released: January 2020

Series: The Sins of Captain John 1.01

Featuring: Captain John

Synopsis

Captain John is in Restoration England looking for some gauntlets. There's intrigue in the Tower of London, the dead are walking the streets, an the severed head of Oliver Cromwell has a terrible warning.

Verdict

The Restored was an excellent start to The Sins of Captain John! This is a terrific little idea for a miniseries and it's honestly something I think Torchwood should do more of. The monthly range is absolutely great but it is lacking in continuity, the Among Us set of stories seem to have been concluded and Soho is a little different with the shorter episodes. There needs to be more! I think Captain John is a tremendous character and he's a fine villain to lead a series. It's absolutely right up my alley and he's almost like a version of the Monk with his meddling in time. Except here he was carrying out a mission as the Time Agent he was with the strict instruction of not interfering with history. Well, the gauntlets that he was after were doing a mighty fine job of that with the headless bodies of the likes of Oliver Cromwell and Anne Boleyn roaming around. That is quite some image! I think the concept of finding the resurrection gauntlet gloves is exciting and they're something we've seen utilised in Torchwood's first two series quite brilliantly. It's an incredible concept so the idea of them malfunctioning on a large scale here and bringing every body within a certain proximity back to life was horrifying! The idea of corpses brought to life knocking from inside their tombs was incredible, and having that in the seventeenth century during the Restoration period somehow makes it feel more eery. The learned mind at this time wasn't exactly accommodating of zombies and would of course think it witchcraft, and the recently severed head of Cromwell spouting a message of warning for the dark really was something. There was an eery feel throughout so the lighthearted characters of Mohisha and Frances were a nice break from the atmosphere of death. The former as the Indian assistant of the latter was really good and I loved how John took a liking to her. Not in the same way he took a liking to the sex hungry Frances, but she perished rather surprisingly so he was more interested in the intelligence of Mohisha. I liked how with her being an Indian woman at this time the concept of her learning to read was abhorrent, and yet she was clearly a very clever woman. The breaking of the fourth wall was good fun with John describing how she could become a companion and that lead to a further series of adventures, but from the way things ended here that doesn't look like it's going to happen. It's a shame as that's definitely something I'd be interested in! I think the ending was great in having John eventually retrieve the gauntlets and whilst it does seem strange that they would be mentioned in a seventeenth century text, I think it's fun that it was Mohisha and Frances who first retrieved them in the first place! John would take them off their hands though and I liked how he eventually built trust. Once Frances was dead Mohisha trusted him and with him whisking off with the gloves, the dead returned to their graves. That must have been one hell of a cleanup job to rebury them! The little cliffhanger finish with Jack being on the hunt for John and coming by Mohisha a year later and questioning her on the means of how she obtained her property was a nice touch and gives us a strong direction of the series to come. I'm looking forward to it very much! Overall, an excellent start! 

Rating: 9/10