Torchwood: Believe

Believe by Guy Adams: A near impossible task to try and get right is handed to Guy Adams. The entire Torchwood cast brought together for one recording session and a script needs to be fashioned that satisfies the hordes of fans that want more of the season one/two era of the show. It's exactly how I figure Peter Anghelides felt when he had to write Warship, which featured all of the Blakes' 7 cast that were still with us at the time. To Adams' credit, he does a stunning job of writing a Children of Earth style epic that involves everybody, has something to say, feels like a properly modern piece of storytelling and feels every bit as edgy and dark as Torchwood ever did. No part of this feels like a stunt but rather precisely the sort of measured storytelling that should have been told when Chris Chibnall was spearheading the show. Instead of giving us everybody all at once, Believe is split very smartly into three segments as the Torchwood team split up and investigate the Church of the Outsiders. Tosh and Owen own the first disc and take the espionage route by getting close to the one of the Church leaders, Gwen and Ianto take the reins in disc two and try and infiltrate the Church and get close to one of it's disgraced ex members and Jack is saved for the last disc after a brilliant cliff-hanger that I'm sure John Barrowman adored bringing to life. Am I allowed to mention John Barrowman anymore since Big Finish cut their ties with him? This material exists, and he is a part of it and I am able to separate the character from the actor, so I have decided that yes, I absolutely can. Jack is used brilliantly in the last segment when it appears that he has gone rogue and is ready to expose his true nature in order to stage a coup in the Church. The only scenes that I really object to (and it is VERY Torchwood) are Owen and Tosh and their disturbing power games during a sex scene with Layton. Owen has always been a bit of sick puppy but there are some uncomfortable gender dynamics happening here that didn't sit well with me. Everything else is pretty much gold and it leans into that brilliant Children of Earth cloak and dagger atmosphere of everybody pulling in the same direction to defeat a genuine threat to the planet. The Greys are a chilling (and slightly comical) idea and the scenes where they invade the Hub are genuinely unsettling. What surprised me was where all the best scenes landed. After the plot had finished and the Church had been foiled. You get fifteen minutes of character scenes that deal with the fallout of a three hour treatise on faith and organised religion. Jack condemns Val in an angry scene that speaks for the family of every person who has been sacrificed to a cult, there is an unforgettable scene between Ianto and Erin that shows the hopelessness of somebody who has given themselves to an exposed cause and Gwen gets the best moment of all where she makes scathing remarks about the despondence of the human race that would rather focus on the mundanities of their own lives than the glorious of outer space. It's downbeat and reprehending in the best Torchwood fashion but brought to life with dialogue this sharp and by actors this good it doesn't feel like it is just shitting on the human race for the sake but that it genuinely has something to say. Of the cast I thought that Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd acquitted themselves the best and I will certainly be seeking out more of their individual stories in the future. This is a huge undertaking; slick, thoughtful and dramatic. Colour me impressed: 9/10