John Barrowman has just crossed paths with the Thirteenth Doctor but May 2021 sees Captain Jack Harkness reconnect with the Tenth Doctor as David Tennant joins Torchwood.
Celebrating Torchwood’s 50th monthly release, Absent Friends – penned by James Goss – stars Barrowman and Tennant with Gareth David-Lloyd returning as Ianto Jones.
Torchwood: Absent Friends is available to pre-order now.
On a dark and stormy night in Cardiff, the city is in danger, and the Doctor’s put himself in charge of Torchwood in order to save it.
In a sealed recording studio, the voices of the dead have been playing for 17 years. Was it the project of a madman, or is this the site of something terrible?
Torchwood has been hunting for the Doctor since 1879. And now they’ve found him. They may regret it.
Synopsis
This will be the first time the Doctor has appeared in any Torchwood media and honestly feels like something the television series tried to avoid. It made sense for the Doctor to appear in the child-friendly The Sarah Jane Adventures made sense given the parent show was a family affair. But transplanting the happy-go-lucky Tenth Doctor into the darker and often brutal world of Torchwood felt unlikely. It seems, however, that fandom got its way…
Fans have been asking for this for a long time. Now that it’s okay and it’s been cleared, it’s great to have him on board. There’s an interesting dynamic going on here because Jack still wants to follow him but yet wants to impress on him that he’s still the leader.
John Barrowman
But that’s to say nothing of how busy David Tennant has been this year. Having already recorded the Out of Time trilogy, the Dalek Universe saga and a River Song series, Tennant also recorded Tenth Doctor, Classic Companions for release in 2022.
But, for Tennant, appearing in Torchwood will be a chance to mix things up for his Doctor.
Because this isn’t a Doctor Who story, the Doctor doesn’t have to be ahead of everything and saving the day. What’s interesting about this story – from the Doctor’s point of view – is he sort of messes up. It’s a story about the Doctor being a bit imperfect which is nice to see now and again actually.
David Tennant