Always Turning Up When We're Not Wanted - A Torchwood Soho Thread

Partly wanting to hear other people’s thoughts on the ‘Norton Era’ of Torchwood, partly wanting to remind myself to get round to listening to Ascension at some point.

Torchwood Soho is a Big Finish series focusing on Torchwood One during the 1950s, featuring Andy Davidson from the main show, Norton Folgate (spinning out of his appearances across TW audio), and new characters Gideon Lyme, and Lizbeth Hayhoe. Uniquely for Torchwood, the boxsets for this range each tell a single story throughout the episodes contained within. Each set is 6 25 minute stories, so almost reminds me more of the classic era in terms of tone and style compared to the modern one.

So far we’ve had four sets

  • Parasite
  • Ashenden
  • The Unbegotten
  • Ascension

And a few other Torchwood Main Range stories in that era

  • Ghost Mission (Not in that era, but first appearance of Norton and features him meeting Andy
  • Goodbye Piccadilly (A personal favourite)
  • Madam, I’m (featuring the return of Adam from the episode of the same name)
  • The Black Knight
  • The Restoration of Catherine (also not in that era and I’ve not listened to it, but it’s Norton and Andy so worth mentioning)

So as always, a few questions to get things going:

Have you listened to any of the sets? Which is your favourite?
Have you listened to any of the main range stories? Which is your favourite?
How do you feel about Big Finish doing stories about other eras of Torchwood? Are there any eras you want them to explore more?
Are there any aspects of the 1950s that you think could make for a great Torchwood story?
What do you think about Norton (and/or Lizbeth and Gideon)?

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Having listened to all of them, I couldn’t really tell you a thing about what actually happened. My favourite Soho audio is probably Goodbye Piccadilly, and is the only one I own in disc. I kinda wish they did 1 hour audios instead of 30 mins.

Gideon is great in the most recent boxset, as are his tensions with Norton.

I enjoyed listening to the stories but struggled to visualize them due to the fast-pace of the episodes and the scene switching.

I kinda wish we had more smaller moments for the audios to tell us what things look like, or who the characters are. Because it quite literally drops you in the deep end, doing the same with Andy so at least you’re confused with him.

Though I am curious about what actually happened in the latest boxset…cuz it may or may not contradict The Torchwood Archive audio. And now I’m realizing how convoluted Norton’s timeline is :sob:

Edit: by comparison, I found it much easier to follow Torchwood One, and Torchwood The Story Continues, because I could clearly imagine the setting.

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Definitely interested in listening now if I wasn’t already

Norton’s timeline is… strange, to say the least, with The Torchwood Archive and The Story Continues both already implying different things about his fate (without saying too much)

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I didn’t listen in chronological order, but I was still surprised by the complete lack of introductions to the characters too.

It’s like they quite literally wrote “Outbreak” said, yeah that’s good enough, and then it’s full throttle into Soho :smile:. I suppose it just needs time to breathe which is why Goodbye Piccadilly and Madam Im- are my highest rated Soho audios.

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Yeah, I’ll definitely agree with that, I enjoy the sets, but my favourite Soho content is definitely the main range stuff (Goodbye Piccadilly is just a blast, and Madam, I’m is a great use of Adam)

To be fair, I’m a bit ‘eh’ on The Black Knight, but it was fun enough. Just feel Norton needs some of that supporting cast to balance him properly (and doesn’t help that it was the Absent Friends replacement)

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I know nothing about Torchwood Soho.

I might try and listen to it when I’ve finished the TV series.

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I have the first two box sets but haven’t listened to them yet. I think I’ve asked this before, but what would people recommend I listen to in preparation? I’ve heard Ghost Mission but that’s it for Norton.

i adore this series so much! i really want to hear more of lizbeth, maybe even outside the range. i think she’s phenomenal.

i’d say ghost misssion, and maybe goodbye picadilly? i can’t recall if it comes before soho or not atp, i’ve heard all of these years ago.

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Yeah like @twelvesoswald said, Ghost Mission and Goodbye Picadilly

The later probably isn’t required, but I think it’s worth listening to

Honestly I’d probably recommend just looking at Norton’s page and listening to the main range and soho stories (ignoring Archive, The Story Continues, and Outbreak) in release order

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I do have Archive and Outbreak - would they work anywhere (I know they’re not focussed on Norton).

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Oh yeah those work anywhere

I think again you want to listen to Ghost Mission before them to know who Norton is, but other than that listen whenever

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