TW #6 : Countrycide

Jack: You need to know something. A long time ago, I was pretty good at torture. I had quite a reputation as the go-to guy. My job demanded, at the time, see. So I know where to apply the tiniest amount of pressure to a wound like yours...

Cannibal: Stop, you're going to kill me!

Jack: It's in your power to make me stop. Just tell me what I need to know! 'Cause in ten seconds, I'm going to find a sharp object.

Episode 6:     Countrycide.
Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:       19th November 2006.

Concerned that the space-time rift is spreading, Torchwood investigates a series of gruesome deaths located in a small village in the Brecon Beacons. What sort of creature could cause such shocking injuries? Stranded without communications or equipment and isolated from one another, the team confronts a terrifying enemy.

The Torchwood team head out into the Welsh countryside to investigate a spate of disappearances. Soon they come isolated from one another, captured and added to the menu. In this story it sets itself up as a horror story and really does come across that way. The true horror is that there are no monsters in this one as the killers are a family of human cannibals who commit their acts every so many years. The first time that you watch this story and that revelation pops up it just snaps together perfectly. Again I wonder how the Doctor would have handled such an adventure?

Countrycide is an excellent episode and could be watched purely as a stand alone story as there is very little to tie it back to the Torchwood hub in Cardiff.

TW #5 :Small Worlds

Jack: Something from the dawn of time, how could you possibly put a name to that?

Gwen: Are we talking alien?

Jack: Worse.

Gwen: How come?

Jack: Because they're part of us. Part of our world, yet we know nothing about them. So we pretend to know what they look like. We see them as happy, we imagine they have tiny little wings and are bathed in moonlight.

Gwen: But they're not?

Jack: No. Think dangerous. Think something you can only half-see, like a glimpse, like something out of the corner of your eye. With a touch of myth, a touch of the spirit world, a touch of reality all jumbled together, old moments and memories that are frozen in amongst it. Like debris, spinning around a ring planet, tossing, turning, whirling... backwards and forwards through time.

Episode 5:     Small Worlds.
Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:       12th November 2006.

Jack encounters monsters from his past: fairies, with the ability to choke people and change the weather, make a series of killings centred around a little girl, the Chosen One. He also reunites with an old friend, but will Estelle Cole be safe when she starts to get a little too close to these fairies? And how can Torchwood stop a force from the dawn of time, masters of Earth, their domain? More importantly, what is so crucial about a little girl named Jasmine, for whom these creatures will gladly tear the world apart?

Small Worlds is yet another excellent story from Torchwood's first season. Doctor Who has shown us it's take on many different myths and legends over the years but Torchwood brings us that universe's view on faeries. Once again they do a great job in giving us something alien and wondrous but making it horrifying at the same time.

The story centres upon a young girl who has been chosen by the faeries to become one of them. They take a nasty hand in her future killing off anyone who threatens her (or themselves) in any way. When Torchwood investigates they find themselves drawn into a conflict that no matter what they do, they cannot win. It makes me wonder, given how the faeries are described by Jack, how the Doctor or the Time Lords would have handled these creatures?

"Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."

TW #4 : Cyberwoman

"You could have saved her! You're worse than anything locked up down there! One day, I'll have the chance to save you...and I'll watch you suffer and die!"

Episode 4:     Cyberwoman.
Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.

Air Date:       5th November 2006.

 

Ianto has a dark secret, tied to the basement of the Hub — a secret he will protect at any cost: a semi-converted Cyberwoman! Will Torchwood Three fix things in time before the Cybermen, ripe from battle with their greatest enemy, the Doctor, convert the world?

 

When Torchwood was first announced I did wonder whether there would be much in the way of a crossover between the two shows. Unfortunately Cyberwoman is pretty much it, at least for a while. Where Ghost Machine was a vehicle to showcase Own this story gives us a side to Ianto that we needed. Unfortunately Ianto just seems to be a bit of an idiot when the chips are down and his "love" for a girlfriend almost converted becomes a problem. He knew what went on at Canary Wharf the year before so why risk this? We also learn that Owen has a bit of a thing for Gwen. This storyline continues for a while as a side issue for them.

 

I would have preferred more interaction with the Whoniverse through Torchwood but we don't really get it. I'd have loved for them to have to deal with Silurians under the Welsh hills or something to that affect. But we don't get it which is a shame.

 

In Cyberwoman we get to see a bit more of Torchwood's resident pterodactyl but it still doesn't explain why they have one.

 

Cyberwoman is the first disappointing episode but since the first three are so good, I can't fault it too much.

 

 

TW #3 : Ghost Machine

"Why should you get away with it? You said you were sorry, said you didn't want to hurt her, but you didn't STOP! What if I didn't stop? Would I be sorry?"

Episode 3:     Ghost Machine.

Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.

Air Date:        29th October 2006.

 

When Gwen retrieves an alien object from a fleeing man in a hoodie, she's haunted by a vision of a lonely young boy. As the team tracks down the object's owner, the elusive Bernie Harris, Owen experiences an even more terrifying vision and a long-buried crime resurfaces.

 

Ghost Machine is one of my favourite Torchwood episodes. Not because it's action packed but because of the awesome premise for the story. The Torchwood team get their hands on a piece of alien technology that allows the user to experience the emotional residue left behind at a location. What you and I would call ghosts. In this instance Owen experiences the rape and murder of a young woman in 1963. This has a strong impact on him and he takes it upon himself to bring the man to justice. We learn that Owen for all his bravado and dark nature has a sense of right and wrong. It brings so much to his character and it is that insight which makes this such an exceptional story for me.

 

Other than the recovery of the alien device there is nothing to make Ghost Machine a Torchwood investigation and that the writers could come up with stories away from the primary focus of the show is great. I recommend this story lots.

 

 

TW #2 : Day One

Tosh: My god, he just...

Jack: [deadpan] Came and went.

Episode 2:     Day One.

Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.

Air Date:       22nd October 2006.

 

Gwen's first day on her new job at Torchwood sees Cardiff's night-life at the mercy of a gaseous alien who consumes its victims during orgasm, leaving behind only dust. And it's all her fault — she let it escape a fallen meteorite. The gas is devouring its teenage host. She's fighting for control as the alien inside takes down victim after victim. Torchwood tracks the alien to a sperm bank, but too late for the patrons within. Soon, if they don't act quickly enough, it'll be too late for everyone else too!

The second Torchwood episode continues the mature content theme with a story about an alien life form that feeds on the sexual energy produced during sex. Though almost graphic in places everything is done with a tongue-in-cheek approach that keeps it tasteful.

What makes the episode for me is the connection that the characters have together. Everything Changes felt a little forced at times but Day One shows a good sense of humour and camaraderie between them. It's a fun story at the end of the day especially for a one off story.

Addition: Adding this in now as I've only just noticed that I missed it out. In this story we learn that Jack Harkness has the severed hand of the Doctor from The Christmas Invasion. It's in a stasis container of sorts. A nice tie in to Doctor Who and something that becomes important further down the road.

 

TW #1 : Everything Changes

"There you go! I can taste it! Oestrogen. Definitely oestrogen. Take the pill, flush it away, it enters the water cycle. Feminizes the fish. Goes all the way up into the sky then falls all the way back down onto me. Contraceptives in the rain. Love this planet. Still, at least I won't get pregnant. Never doing that again."

Episode 1:     Everything Chnages.
Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones and Suzie Costello.
Air Date:       22nd October 2006.

The Torchwood Three team arrives at the scene of a brutal murder. PC Gwen Cooper's curiosity is challenged by their attitude; their approach and their technology is at odds with everything she believes in. As she investigates them, she begins to uncover a dark, mysterious and dangerous world right in the heart of Cardiff.

The Torchwood spin off series starts here. Several months on from the battle of Canary Wharf and Torchwood is now pretty much just a handful of operatives in Cardiff led by Jack Harkness. We don't know how he got back from the future but now he's in charge.

The story itself isn't actually anything specific but instead is an introduction to the Torchwood team, the Cardiff Rift and the Weevils. It has a short plot involving Suzie Costello and the murders but that won't be resolved for some time. But even so the episode is well written and the characters well described. Oddly I enjoy science fiction shows where the main characters are flawed and/or unlikeable. That pretty much covers all of them in Torchwood.

Unlike Doctor Who this show is much more adult in nature both in regards to the profanity and the sexual references. Although part of the Whoniverse which is very family friendly this format work wells as a spin off.

The episode introduces the Weevils, an aggressive almost-feral alien species that has crossed through into Cardiff via the rift. They become a regular feature of the early shows though we never learn anything about them unfortunately.

I like how this episode plays out. Utilising the Doctor Who universe to tell more grown up stories was very clever. Whatever you say about RTD's time on Doctor Who, the man can write an excellent episode.