Torchwood: Sabotage from Big Finish Review

Sabotage sees the return of the fan-favourite pairing of Mr Colchester and Ace. This time we get to see Ace hard at work with her organisation A Charitable Earth while Mr. Colchester is up to some more nefarious Torchwood business. The pair are hugely popular and have been since their first story together in 2021’s The Red List and once again it’s not hard to see why.

From the very get-go, it’s clear how much chemistry Sophie Aldred and Paul Clayton have together as their respective characters, it’s a dynamic that so many people have gotten right and their childish bickering is always undercut with the respect both of the characters have for one another. Only this time in James Goss’ story, things are a bit more serious than they previously have been.

Things kick off with Ace in India with her charity assisting a group of villagers who have been displaced from their homes by a mining company. Mr. Colchester is on hand with Torchwood seemingly to investigate several terrorist acts that the mining company have had to put up with. Goss makes sure both characters are on the opposing side as they don’t like what the other is doing. Goss builds a lot of the tension in Sabotage on uncertainty, incidents occur where the background hasn’t been fully explained which does happen in real life through the media and he raises the question of allegiances to keep characters and events interesting and relevant as the plot quickly thickens and there is a real sense of the consequences of the characters actions having an impact on the world around them.

However, I’m not sure that much time is given to the themes behind this story. The elements of this story, colonialism, oppression and whether or not violence can be excused given certain circumstances all have questions raised and explored though not too much which is to the story’s detriment. Goss decides to focus on the characters and have them be behind things rather than characters forced to do things because of the things happening around them. That way we would have gotten some real exploration of these themes and while they are handled well, the characters rarely step out of their moulds to make things interesting.

And something is missing in the relationship between Ace and Mr. Colchester here. Colchester is genuinely vile to Ace throughout this story to the point where it might make the listener get quite frustrated and there were a few moments when I thought of switching this off. Of course, he reveals at the end that it was all part of his plan but if I were Ace, there would be no way I’d forgive him for his actions here and its weirdly out of character for Ace that she just lets him get away with it without a bit more of a fight.

But Sabotage does raise some interesting real-life questions and issues and at least attempts to explore them, to the extent of which is up to the listener, I would have liked a little more of this and less bickering from the two leads. There’s no denying the fact that Sophie Aldred and Paul Clayton work well together and are both easily the best thing in this story, but the focus on the bickering and how genuinely vile Mr. Colchester comes across as here works heavily against what could have otherwise been a great time for the pair.

Also worth listening to is the bonus release with this one called Another Postcard from Mr. Colchester where we hear some more of his solo Torchwood missions. Clayton’s voice lends itself fantastically to narration and he is thoroughly engaging from the start. Much like a previous entry into this range, the story from Goss is incredibly satirical and on the nose, this time exploring the idea that our phones do record everything we say and do before we get a new upgrade and discard the old models which then come back to haunt us in the future.

This extra release is a delight to listen to and is highly worthwhile for people who aren’t familiar with the character and how he interacts with the Torchwood mythos. I’m keeping my fingers crossed we get some more as the Torchwood range continues!

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