One of the many joys with Big Finish’s new Torchwood series, apart from the great stories and range of authors, is catching up with characters we never thought we’d meet again.

With ‘Zone 10’, writer David Llewelyn brings back Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori), last seen dying in the second TV season story ‘Exit Wounds’.

In ‘Zone 10’ Toshiko is acting as a lone agent, visiting Russia as a result of deciphering a 40 year old radio message known as ‘Pulse’. She enlists Maxim Ivanov (Krystian Godlewski) of the KVI, Russia’s own equivalent of Torchwood and together they enter the region known as Zone 10, once the scene of a little documented inter galactic war.

What this story does well is to explore who Toshiko is away from her colleagues in Cardiff and let her mix brains with action in a way that doesn’t undermine how she was portrayed on TV. Most of the first part of the story has her interact with world-weary Maxim but everything changes when they meet up with Anna Volokova (Ella Garland).

Even if the elements of the story can only end in one way, there is plenty to grab the listener’s imagination and we also learn a lot more about the mysterious Committee, the series arc ticking along in the background.

It’s not all action and aliens, there are some powerful emotional moments, and, for a touch of lightness, a brief exploration of the importance of pizza to organisations attempting to deal with extra-terrestrials. The direction and soundscape are engaging and the three main characters are well rounded, with Naoko Mori clearly happy to be back in character.

Another hit!

Released in March 2016 by Big Finish.

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