TW #27 : Miracle Day

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. So many times. And that’s just today. It’s been about seven hundred years since my last confession."

Episode #27:         Miracle Day.
Companions:        Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams and Rex Matheson.
Air Date:              8th July to 9th September 2011.

When C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy, he finds himself unearthing a threat which challenges the entire human race. One day, nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next, and the next. People keep ageing. They get hurt and sick, but they never die. The populace of the planet dub this "Miracle Day" for the immortality they now seem to have. However, this leads to a negative result: a population boom, overnight. With all the extra people unable to die and continuing births, resources have become limited. It’s suggested that in four months’ time, the human race will cease to be viable. But this can’t be a natural event – someone must have caused "Miracle Day". It’s a race against time as C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking “What is Torchwood?", he’s drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human, forever.

I have to be very very honest here and just outright say that hated the "Miracle Day" mini-series. Had this been a one off show of it's own unconnected to the Whoniverse I might have enjoyed it more. There is a lot to like really as it features things that I rather enjoy in my science fiction and horror. The story is very dark and nihilistic, and is rather gruesome in some places. It does make you thing about things too. How would you or I react if we woke up tomorrow and these events were playing out?

The problem is that Miracle Day just does not fit into the Whoniverse very well. Other than it being too dark even for Torchwood, it is one of those major events that would have been mentioned before in passing. I know that isn't possible but it feels shoehorned in. I also find it hard to conceive that an event this massive would not have drawn to the Doctor to it. Again, different show, but it is a major event and yet it just stands alone too much. On a side note it is also far too American in style which may also go some way to explain why I have a hard time with it.

Another problem is that the series just ends with a strange swap of immortality between Jack and agent Matheson. So far this has, canonically, gone unresolved and with no new Torchwood on our screens in the foreseeable future I doubt it will ever get resolved.

So what is the big horrible thing at the centre of the Earth between China and South America? How does that fit in with subterranean Silurian cities and the Racnoss at the heart of the planet? Again, we have no revelation and it just feels like the very notion of tying it into the canon has been chucked in the bin.

I really don't have a single good thing to say about this series of Torchwood and I would avoid it if I were you. Pretend it never happened and carry on watching the rest of the Whoniverse.

TW #26: Children of Earth

"There's one thing I always wanted to ask Jack. Back in the old days. I wanted to know about that Doctor of his. The man who appears out of nowhere and saves the world; except sometimes he doesn't. All those times in history where there was no sign of him … I wanted to know why not. But I don't need to ask anymore. I know the answer now: Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame. I'm recording this in case anyone ever finds it, so you can see. You can see how the world ended."

Episode 26 :            Children of Earth.
Companions:           Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:                 6th July to 10th July 2009.

When all children on Earth stop and start chanting "We Are Coming", the Torchwood team investigates. Could this be the start of a global crisis?

Children of Earth was a five part series which took on a much darker tone than any previous Torchwood story had done. Specifically it dealt with an alien visitation who wanted to take 10% of the world's children to be used as an addictive narcotic. The story deals with how people handle this and the potential loss of their children. In that regard elements of the story are rather disturbing.

There is a lot to this story. The alien 456, the British government being corrupt in the light of these events - willing to do anything and screw over anyone who may get in the way, the destruction of Torchwood, Jack having a daughter and grandson, and the death of another main character, Ianto. In some instances it has too much going on but the story is compelling enough to keep you watching.

One thing I like a lot about Children of Earth is that it is the first Torchwood story to truely embrace that fact that it is set in the same universe as Doctor Who. The above quote from Gwen in the final part is especially true in my mind as I often wonder why when Torchwood deals with some pretty major events that the Doctor doesn't appear.
One character, Rupesh, states that due to recent events (not specifically referenced but likely to include things like the Webstar attack and the relocation of Earth, half the world now knows of or believes in the existence of alien life, while the other half is in denial. Suicide rates have risen, which Rupesh ascribes to crises of faith. This may also be reflected by the insanity and suicide of Alex Hopkins, who learnt about upcoming events in 1999.

The aliens known as 456 are suitably alien, as you can see from the photo above. At last we get an alien species which isn't a man in a suit. These are not the typical Whoniverse alien whose motives are simply evil. These creatures want to use human children as drugs. I don't think there is anything quite so evil previously in the Whoniverse. As such I love that they brought us such a species even just once.

One element that isn't covered is with the destruction of the Torchwood facility what becomes of everything that was in there? Weevils, the pet pterodactyl, and even Jack's brother are all unaccounted for.

Children of Earth features Peter Capaldi (the future 12th Doctor) in the role of a rather screwed over civil servant. This is the second appearance for Capaldi in the Whoniverse as he also appeared in Fires of Pompeii with David Tennant

I enjoy dark stories in TV and literature. I find them the most intriguing and fascinating stories in fiction. As such, I should have a good rating for this story. However it is one episode too long for me in being a single continuous story. It is four hours stretched out into five and it feels like it. But it is still entertaining to watch.

TW #25 : Fragments / Exit Wounds

"Here's what's going to happen: everything you love, everything you treasure, will die. I'm gonna tear your world apart, Captain Jack Harkness, piece by piece. Starting now".

Episode 25 :            Fragments / Exit Wounds.
Companions:           Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:                 21st March to 4th April 2008.

Captain John Hart returns to have his revenge on Torchwood and takes Jack prisoner. Jack and his long lost brother Gray don't have a good reunion. Can the rest of the team trust John?

Although Fragments is a sort of flashback episode it is also technically the first of a two part climax to the second season of Torchwood and so I am including both episodes under one heading. Fragments sets up John Hart luring the team to a location with the intent on killing the Torchwood team. Instead everyone survives but we have flashbacks to how the various team members were recruited by Jack Harkness.

Jack starts off in the late 19th century being discovered by a pair of Torchwood agents who being unable to kill him instead bring him into the organisation with the intent of using his skills to hunt down aliens and other strangeness. It follows him through to new years eve 1999 (when the 8th Doctor is saving the world in San Francisco) where the Cardiff team and killed by their leader as he feels nothing can save the Earth. This one is quite interesting not so much for Jack but more for showing us that early Torchwood is quite a nasty organisation and how the character changes from when he is abandoned on the Games Station until we see him again in the 20th century.

Toshiko's flashback reveals that she is a bit of tech genius and the things she had to do before UNIT arrested her and Jack recruited her. In Exit Wounds we also get a confirmation that it was Toshiko who the 9th Doctor spoke with during the events of Aliens of London/World War Three. Ianto is shown trying to get into the group following the fall of Torchwood at Canary Wharf and helping Jack capture the pterodactyl we saw briefly in the first season. Owen loses a fiance to some brain parasite that Torchwood couldn't help with. The reaction goes a long way to see why he is the way he is. Normally this sort of episode would be quite dull for me but seeing how these characters came together is actually worth an episode devoted to it.

When we get to the finale episode we learn that John Hart is being forced to do what is doing by Jack's brother Gray who for reasons I don't fully get wants to kill his brother. Now, I can understand that being tortured and left for dead by some unspeakably evil race can drive you a bit crazy but it doesn't feel fleshed out enough in this story for why Gray has such a hatred for Jack. I'd have liked a little bit more if I am honest. Eventually Gray is stopped and captured, being placed in cryogenic storage by Jack.

It was good to see John Hart again but once more I feel that he was underused having only appeared in effectively two and a tiny bit episodes. We needed some more time with the character then but I doubt we will see him make a return either.

In Exit Wounds it would appear that John Hurt, possibly through Gray, has the means to summon and repel the Weevils making me wonder whether their presence in Cardiff is the result of Jack's brother. Again, I'd like to have seen something more made of that.

Lastly this episode sees the deaths of two regular characters: Toshiko and Owen. Toshiko is shot by Gray and Owen is incinerated by a nuclear power surge. They get some good screen time in their last moments, which certainly brought a tear or two to my eyes, where Toshiko basically admits that she was in love with Owen. It is a sad ending but done very well.

TW #24 : Adrift

"The scream lasts twenty hours every day. Before the rift returned him, Jonah had looked into the heart of a dark star. What he'd seen had driven him mad."

Episode 24 :            Adrift.
Companions:           Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:                 19th March 2008.

When a local teenager disappears, Gwen is drawn into an investigation that reveals a darker side to Torchwood. Hundreds of people have disappeared without a trace, but Jack is obstructing attempts to find them. The answer seems to lie in the Rift - literally - and as Gwen follows the trail, she makes a shocking discovery.

As the description above shows, Adrift is quite a simple story. What Gwen finds out during the course of the story, when not being given the cold shoulder by Jack, is that the Cardiff rift doesn't just deposit the strange and unusual into the streets of the city but it also snatches people away to somewhere, anywhere, in time and space. Seventeen of these people have been returned over the years but they never return intact. They come back scarred, both physically and mentally, and for their own benefit they have to be locked away in a remote location. It is the sort of story that Torchwood needed at this time. We see a lot of strange adventures in the show but we rarely see the repercussions of the Cardiff rift's existence.

Adrift is a story that gives Gwen plenty of screen time as well as PC Andy Davidson, a little used police colleague of hers. The episode revolves around her investigation. It seems that most episodes like this center on Jack or Gwen, and it would be nice to see everyone else get some more of the screen time.

The episode is more in keeping with the sort of episodes that I wish there had been more of during the early years of the show rather than the typical monster hunt episodes. As I mentioned we rarely see the consequences or after effects of the adventures we watch every week in the Whoniverse. In Doctor Who the titular character vanishes off after seeing the climax of his adventure but Torchwood is fixed to a single location and yet we never see the consequences. 

TW #22: Something Borrowed

Jack: What is it with you? Ever since Owen died, all you've done is agree with him!

Ianto: I was brought up not to speak ill of the dead. Even if they do still do most of their talking for themselves.

Episode 22:      Something Borrowed.

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

Air Date:          5th March 2008.

Gwen Cooper is about to get married to her fiance, Rhys. Only one problem: on her hen night she is bitten by an alien and awakes on her wedding day heavily pregnant with a alien shape-shifter's baby. The alien mother is on the loose and searching for it's offspring. The only way for the alien to get the egg is to rip open the carrier... Gwen.

Something Borrowed is a bit of a silly episode. It focuses on Gwen's wedding to Rhys and the almost carry on style hunt for the shape-shifting alien that is hunting her to rip out the alien child inside her. When the giant gun comes out any sense of realism goes right out of the window. It is a comedy of errors really and just fails abysmally. 

Other than the story the effects are just terrible as though the production budget ran out of money for decent effects. Especially Rhys' mother as an alien which just looks like a poor attempt at turning Nerys Hughes (who we saw in Snakedance) into an alien goth. The same can said of the impersonated Jack Harkness.

The only good thing going for this episode is the sense of continuity with us getting to see more of the life of the crew, in this case the wedding of Gwen and Rhys. Even the slow dance between Jack and Ianto is nice and sweet. But it isn't enough to save the episode. If the episode had meant to be played for laughs it may have worked. Very disappointing.

TW #20 : Dead Man Walking

"There was a light, a tiny speck of light and I was rushing towards it, like down a corridor, and it got brighter, and brighter, then suddenly there were these gates... these big,pearly gates and there was this old geezer and he said, "You've been a very naughty boy!"

Episode 20 :            Dead Man Walking.
Companions:           Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones, and Martha Jones.
Air Date:                 20th February 2008.

Owen has died. Jack decides to return him to life for a few minutes. No one could have guessed the consequences.

Owen has been shot dead. Jack decides to seek the aid of a psychic girl who guides him to the location of the second resurrection glove whilst hinting that it would be unwise (use shows us the tarot card Death). Jack has to enter an abandoned church now used by a large number of Weevils to recover it. When used on Owen it brings him back but keeps him around, a walking talking corpse. Unfortunately this has allowed the entity Death to enter the mortal world and begin a killing spree to allow it to remain.

This story is a bit of a strange departure but I kind of like it anyway. I find it odd that the entity of Death is a real thing. It doesn't quite fit the Whoniverse but at the same time it does. Death appears as a skeletal figure sheathed in a black fog and drains the life out of it's victims leaving them looking like they died of old age. It is hinted at this is the shape moving in the dark that has been mentioned before when someone has been killed and revived. Maybe it was this and not Abaddon? It also implies strongly that there is an afterlife even though throughout Doctor Who we are told (admittedly by the Doctor who may not know any different) that there is no such thing. If there is then it sheds a dark light over the whole universe when you consider how many people have died during the Doctor's adventures. And do Daleks and the like go there too?

Ultimately Death is defeated as it can't use Owen and he keeps the entity at bay until it is forced to return whence it came. But at the end Owen is still very much undead and walking around. This version of immortality is very different to Jack's. Owen doesn't degenerate but he retains any injuries now caused to him and suffers the problem of not being able to eat, drink, sleep, have sex or use the bathroom. It is more a living hell really than immortality. At this point I am beginning to reconsider the show somewhat. We are told that Torchwood is about protecting mankind and preparing them for the future when in fact, as you look back, the underlying theme of nearly everything in the show (past and future) is death. 

TW #18 : Adam

Adam: You always remember what you killed, don't you, Jack?

Episode 18 :            Adam.
Companions:           Jack Harkness, Qwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:                 13th February 2008.

An alien with the power to change memories infiltrates the team. With Captain Jack caught up in the memories of his lost family and Gwen struggling to remember Rhys, it takes Jack's love of Ianto to reveal the truth. Yet there's always a price to pay.

The premise of this story is another typical and over used science fiction trope, the addition of a new team member who everyone knows but is in reality a psychic extraterrestrial with the power to insert his existence into the memories of others. It has been done so many times before in shows like Star Trek and while Adam is no different it isn't bad either. Some care has been made to make this work. Adam is inserted into the opening credits just like the rest of the team members, giving pause to the regular viewer.

The episode itself is typical of Torchwood in that despite being an entertaining forty five minutes nothing actually happens. There is no real plot other than Jack slowly coming to notice that something is wrong and then fixing it. Fixing it in such a way that this episode only happens for us the viewer. Every member of Torchwood has it retconned at the end.

What does make the episode is Adam reviving the memories of the younger Jack losing his little brother, Gray -  whom Captain John Hart mentioned having found at the end of the first episode of this season. We learn that Jack's home isn't Earth but another colony and that they were attacked by some terrible race who may have taken his brother. Finally after all this time we are getting something on Jack's back story. Enough to pique the interest but not too much. The rest of the team get sort of personalty switched by what Adam does to them but their interactions aren't as interesting as the experiences Jack has.

The problem with Adam is that it simply feels like a filler episode with no real addition to the story other than the flashback to Jack's past. I would have just preferred something more tangible out of it.

TW #17: Meat

"Have you never seen something so mad, so extraordinary... That just for one second, you think there might be more out there?"

Episode 17:     Sleeper.
Companions:   Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:         6th February 2008. 

Gwen is forced to reveal Torchwood's true nature to Rhys after he follows her to work and accidentilly uncovers the truth behind the mysterious alien meat. Is there a price to pay for Rhys, Gwen, or Torchwood?

Meat is a fairly interesting story. Again nothing original but played just right so that it works. The story follows the team as they investigate a new source of meat that is coming onto the market in Cardiff. Some strange whale-like creature has washed up through the rift and been taken by some men who are looking at making money from it. The creature regenerates any flesh taken from it and grows as a result. The meat is packaged as something like beef and sold on with no one any the wiser. When Rhys becomes involved he has to infiltrate the gang so that the Torchwood team can close the operation down for good.

At last we are getting Rhys into the story more rather than being a background character as he was throughout the first season. He really is the center to this one and it is nice so see a character who isn't one of the Torchwood team get the spot light in the show. Although I didn't remember Rhys being so up himself as much previously even when you consider that he's having to deal with Gwen having a secretive new job.

Although different in appearance and design, the poor creature reminds me of the star whale from one of the early 11th Doctor stories, The Beast Below. They reused the sound for that so is it a juvenille or similar species? Probably not but nice to think that we can link them together. Both episodes also focus on human abuse of an alien animal.

There is more sense of the surreal in this episode. I can watch Doctor Who and see strange aliens, mysterious worlds and the like, and it never or rarely causes me to ponder it. Meat is a good Torchwood story but it feels out of place when you drop something like this in although that is maybe the point of the show. Doctor Who is science fantasy while Torchwood perhaps shows us how bizarre such events might be if you see them from an everyday person's point of view.

TW #13 : End of Days

"And I heard but did not understand and I said, 'Master, what is the end of all things?' And he said, 'Go, Daniel, for the things are closed up and sealed until the end of time.'" Daniel 12, verse 10.

Episode 13:   End of Days.
Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:       1st January 2007.

The Rift is open and beings from all the periods of time are seeping through. What exactly does Bilis Manger know and what lurks in the rift? Can Jack save the world?

Season one of Torchwood comes to a mighty climax with an excellent ending. Bilis Manger has manipulated the team and following the events of the previous episode manages to use the Cardiff rift to orchestrate the return of Abaddon, the son of the Great Beast (see The Satan Pit) who appears to have been sealed away somewhere. Freed the monster strides across Cardiff and wherever his shadow falls people die.

First off I am going to point out something that does grate on my nerves with the current Whoniverse. In recent years there have been too many major events where there is no chance for anyone (other than Donna Noble it seems) to have missed it. Classic Who never did this. Lots of little things and events that could be covered up. The 21st century may be when everything changes but personally I find it a bit much. Especially as these events rarely get mentioned again despite being huge occurrences for the world.

Despite that we have here a really good episode and some excellent closure for events that have taken place this season. Jack's immortality is revealed to the rest of the team, the team themselves seem to have a moment where their past transgressions are forgiven and you get a sense that maybe, just maybe everything will be ok now even though we know it won't be.

Using Abaddon is a nice tie in to Doctor Who and we have had such few connections really considering this is a spin off set in the same universe. I just wish he had received more and useful screen time. 

At the end of the episode we hear a familiar whirring groaning noise and Jack takes off in a rush before anyone realizes where he has gone. It ties in to the end of the next Doctor Who series but with a small and probably forgotten at the time continuity issue.

Sadly the following seasons of Torchwood never live up this first season which I think is a real shame as it had potential to be a good adult version of Doctor Who. 

TW #11 : Combat

Owen: I didn't want saving.

Jack: You want us to apologize?

Owen: For a few seconds in that cage, I felt totally at peace...And the you blunder in. Do you always know best, Jack? Is that what you believe?

Episode 11:    Combat.
Companions:   Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:         24th December 2006.

Savage aliens are being kidnapped from the streets of Cardiff, and Torchwood want to know why. Owen is sent undercover to find out who's behind it and soon befriends the charismatic Mark Lynch. Beneath the veneer of city life, Owen discovers a shocking subculture: can he avoid being sucked in?

In Combat, the team investigate the kidnapping of Weevils from the steeds of Cardiff. Owen finds that there is a "fight club" of sorts where men risk their live to enter a cage with one of the savage creatures for as long as possible. It is a cliched idea that these men don't see life as worth living if there is no danger to keep them on their toes. After the loss of his love in the prior episode Owen finds himself drawn to the danger in order to feel alive.

On one hand the episode seems like a nice idea but it has been done so many times that it feels like flogging a dead horse. It also feels out of character for Owen. He is a negative individual and has serious issues but fighting Weevils seems wrong for him. Maybe it is just my perception but it means that I don't much enjoy this story. What would have made the story better is if it came with some back story for the weevils but again we are left with them as a simple plot device.

TW #10 : Out of Time

John: Good God!

Ianto: Welcome to the wonderful world of scantily-clad celebrities.

John: There are children around!

Ianto: She's a children's TV presenter.

Episode 10:    Out of Time.
Companions:  Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:        17th December 2006.

When a plane from the 1950s lands in modern Cardiff, courtesy of the Rift, the passengers are reoriented by the Torchwood team, who becomes drawn closely to their lives.

Out of Time is a wonderful drama piece. You couldn't do this sort of tale in Doctor Who without adding something monstrous or science fiction to it, which would ruin it in my opinion. Torchwood handles it fantastically. The story deals with a trio who have travelled through time accidentally via air plane through the rift from the 1950's and how they adapt to living in the 21st century. For one the shock ends quickly and she makes a life for herself but things do not go well for the others.

The episode is a truly excellent piece of television before I even consider it part of the whoniverse. The episode is well written and the acting from everyone involved in spot on. The love story for Owen really adds something to his character that has been previously missing and when it doesn't turn out well for him the rest of the series takes the events of Out of Time into consideration. It isn't quietly forgotten. The reactions from the others and how times have changed for them in 60 years is wonderfully done.

Emma, the one  traveller for whom things turn out reasonably well leaves to go to London on the same day as the events of The Christmas Invasion take place. Strangely the events of that Doctor Who episode are never mentioned in Torchwood despite it being a major event.

Although there are no scary monsters or weird science fiction technobabble in this one I do feel it is one of the best Torchwood episodes we've had. If only the show had continued with this quality after the first season.

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.