Torchwood: Poppet from Big Finish Review

In the first Torchwood release, we see the return of Kai Owens as Rhys Williams getting caught up in some supernatural goings on in the Welsh countryside. And while this isn’t the first Torchwood story for the writing team of Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle, it is their first outing for Rhys as a character.

The story takes a minute before it allows you to work out that this takes place while Gwen and Rhys are on the run after the events of Children of Earth and soon while working at a roadside café, he notices that something strange is going on at the school opposite with a mother looking for her missing child at a school which does not know who that child is.

The script that follows from Mooney and Pringle is a slow descent into a spooky and unsettling drama which blends horror, missing people, magic and even a Froggy cake in a way that only Torchwood could do. To their credit, as things continue to get darker, the authors keep a genuinely funny streak going through the proceedings, which is pretty impressive given how dark this story can get. It’s a good job then that Kai Owen is firing on all cylinders here bringing a sense of levity to the dark and grim imagery on offer, something that is very necessary for a story like this!

As amazing as Kai Owens is, this story belongs to the character of Mr. Collins, played by Sion Tudor-Owens as the intensely unsettling character. Tudor-Owens rises to the occasion to create some genuinely terrifying moments which will chill any listener as Mooney and Pringle keep things going with an eerie and claustrophobic atmosphere, playing with the expansive landscape of the location and making it feel very enclosed.

While some of the themes here aren’t entirely original, we’ve had other Torchwood releases which do similar things much better, Poppet is a great time. It’s genuinely creepy and the folkloric aspect is something that the range needs to explore and utilise more because it gives the story a fresh feel to a series that has been going on for some years now overall it’s a great way to kick off Torchwood’s 2024 adventures.

You can pick up Torchwood: Poppet from Big Finish on both digital and CD now.