Audiobook Review: Torchwood- Department X by James Goss

Read by Kai Owen

Description: G.R. Owen is the last of Cardiff’s old department stores. Times are hard and the ancient firm has gone into administration. But who are the Administrators? What goes on behind the shutters at night? And why are customers disappearing? Torchwood are already investigating; G.R. Owen is the site of their oldest unsolved cases, and Jack is determined to solve it before the store closes forever – which is why Ianto is working undercover in gentlemen’s fashions and Gwen is in handbags. Are the new managers really aliens? What connection do they have to the mysterious G.R. Owen himself? And is Jack the only one looking for the Department of Curiosities, last seen in 1905? Written specially for audio by James Goss, Department X is set before the ‘Children of Earth’ TV story and features Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, as played by John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd in the hit series from BBC Television. It is read by Kai Owen, who plays Gwen’s husband Rhys.

Review: How do you define greatness? I’m kidding, I’m not that kind of reviewer. However this is one of a set of 2 amazing audio exclusives from the Torchwood series. While part of that may be down the the writer, James Goss, who is one of my favorites when it comes to Doctor Who and Torchwood stories, I think most of it has to do with our narrator. 

Kai Owen regularly plays Gwen’s husband on Torchwood but these audio exclusives show that they really don’t give his character enough credit. Kai Owen is a far superior narrator to most of them, including Gareth David Lloyd (whom I adore). It makes this one of my favorite audiobooks so far, I’m still holding out that they’ll make more. 

This story is one of the sillier ones, the store seems determined to kill Jack over and over again in more and more bizarre ways. And yet I still can’t help but love how quirky it is. It’s certainly one of Torchwood’s more original stories, which is the nice way to call it weird. 

Jack and Ianto have great banter in this little episodes. I’ve found that the audioplays and audio exclusives have much better characterization of them than the show usually does. Gwen is less annoying here, though I still don’t like her very much. Kai does a great job wit all of the characters, and can pull of Jack’s accent much better than either Burn Gorman or Gareth David Lloyd. It doesn’t register as wrong when I listen to it. 

All and all I’d have to say this is one of my favorites, though I think Ghost Train is slightly better. If there were more episodes like this in the original show maybe it would still be going. 

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