Customer Reviews

Torchwood: Department X (BBC Audio)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kai Owen does a good job reading this. I really enjoyed it.

I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the series. I have occassionally been disappointed with audios in the past (either due to poor story or poor reading), but this story was engrossing enough to listen to straight through.

Department X is a two-and-a-half hour Torchwood audio book narrated by Kai Owen. The story involves the organization going undercover to infiltrate a Cardiff department store where a spate of disappearances have recently taken place. Although the story itself is fairly routine action- and plot-wise, there are a couple of interesting concepts introduced: one is Firestone Bank, a long-time (secret) rival to Torchwood which collects alien artifacts and sells them abroad for a profit (I would like to see some recurring villains); the second is the Department of Curiosities, Torchwood's "longest unsolved case" which comes to a resolution in Department X. Otherwise, there's nothing particularly notable about this story, which could easily have been adapted to be a Doctor Who or Sarah Jane Adventures story--in other words, the writer didn't take advantage of the idea that Torchwood is supposed to be the "dark and edgy" corner of the Whoniverse.

Kai Owen is a lively and engaging performer who throughly engages with the source material and brings the voices of Jack, Gwen and Ianto to life admirably. Anyone who is supportive of the Torchwood franchise should enjoy this "classic" mystery adventure, straight from the pen of James Goss, who is a veteran Torchwood expanded universe writer. As Riotoo says, the story is engaging and the strong points are the moments of humour throughout. If Children of Earth was too dark for your tastes, this reverts to more familiar and comfortable territory.

And of course, there's a bit of nostlalgia as this is likely to be the last "current" expanded universe fiction to feature Ianto Jones, who will be missed.

I think the BBC could have easily got another season or two out of Torchwood before the franchise got tired, instead they killed almost everyone off, and sent Jack back into space in "Children of Earth" :-( Now they are just making money by publishing books and audio books, a cheaper way to a profit ? OK, despite that the stories remain good and worth reading or
listening to, this one included.

They are still trying to sell Torchwood audio books by including Ianto in them, but he is not even a main focus of the story. Even though Kai Owen is a good actor, I'm not as interested in hearing him read as I would Gareth David-Lloyd or Naoko Mori. Not worth the money either, you can read excellent fan fiction for free anywhere on the internet.