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Post by fenris on Oct 24, 2006 18:58:43 GMT
It's interesting that he's the team's medical officer, which would surely mean - at the very least - that he's a qualified doctor, but he was introduced to Gwen in the previous episode as just 'Owen Harper', not 'Dr. Owen Harper' or 'Dr. Harper.' I wonder if he was struck off and rendered unemployable, whereupon Torchwood approached him and he had no choice but to accept their offer? Note: since making my previous post, I've rewatched Episode One, and in the scene where Jack introduces Gwen to Owen, the dialogue is as follows; JACK: Owen Harper. OWEN (slightly annoyed): Doctor Owen Harper. Oops. My bad.
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Post by Fassbender Fan on Oct 27, 2006 16:12:56 GMT
I've been on other message boards about Torchwood and have been surprised to see people commenting at length about the amount of bad language on the show. I have to confess I didn't notice any swearing at all (not quite sure what that says about me). Tell me about it - totally passed me by too. I suppose my corruption-by-TV is now officially complete. There was quite a lot of swearing, especially when you compare it to Doctor Who. fark was said within the first ten minutes as was Bastard and various minor curse words, it doesn't bother me personally but that's what the people are complaining about. But as far as I'm concerned, it's shown after the watershed, it's not unnecessary frequent language and you have to remember Russell T Davis also created Queer As Folk so Doctor Who & Torchwood are incredibly incredibly tame for him! lol I've seen the first/second episode double bill thing and I liked it, mind you it took me forever to watch it because I was never that excited about it or too bothered. I'll keep watching because I like Captain Jack and the character of Gwen seems cool. As dumb as I am though, when's the 3rd episode on??! I'm so confused between BBC BBC THREE etc...
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Post by DreamDangerously on Oct 27, 2006 17:35:07 GMT
next ep is on at Sunday 10pm. on BBC3
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Post by fenris on Oct 31, 2006 20:42:22 GMT
Episode #3: The Ghost Machine. (Spoiler Warning)
To be honest I thought this episode was a little lightweight. I also believe it's a bit too earlier in the series to be doing a slower character-driven piece. We haven't really gotten to know Owen yet, other than get the impression that he has somewhat dubious morals, so his turmoil upon experiencing the fear and pain of a murder victim just didn't have the impact that the writer was shriving for. More successful was Gwen reliving happier times she'd had with her boyfriend, which continued the subtext from the previous episode of appreciating and maintaining a live outside of work.
I also enjoyed the scene on the target range (and not just for all the sexual tension between Gwen and Jack). It's inclusion made sense in that Gwen is still finding her feet within Torchwood, and currently remains very much the newbie.
On a separate issue, I've read discussions about Torchwood on other forums, and I can't understand why most viewers seem to be assuming that Captain Jack traveled from the Dalek-destroyed space station in the far-future (as seen the Doctor Who episode 'Parting of the Ways') straight to 21st century Cardiff.
We know Jack can't die and no longer sleeps, so perhaps he doesn't age either. He might have several centuries wandering around time and space before ending up in Torchwood. That would explain why he now seems more subdued. It also suggests why he seemed almost envious of the man brought back to life at the beginning of 'Everything Changes'. Perhaps Jack now regards eternal life as a curse, and is waiting for the Doctor in the hope that the Timelord can help him die.
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Post by fenris on Nov 13, 2006 19:40:00 GMT
Episode #4: Cyberwoman.
It's over a week since this episode first aired, but here are my ten cents (better late than never): I've got mixed views. It was a pretty good attempt at making a fast-paced action romp, but unfortunately it was hindered by too many plot contrivances and weaknesses.
Just as I didn't feel engaged by Owen's torment in 'Ghost Machine', I wasn't particularly drawn into Ianto's ordeal in this episode either, simply because I don't know either character well enough to care about them. Paradoxically, I felt more sorry for the pizza delivery girl. The fact that she knew Ianto made it doubly sad - a very clever touch.
This story might have worked if it had been placed later in the series, perhaps with some foreshadowing spread out over several weeks (for example, Ianto looking shifty when somebody on the team mentions the empty storeroom, or an episode ending with him disappearing into the room, closing the door behind him, and either electronic noise or the sound of him talking to someone being heard).
On the plus side, I thought Jack's use of the pterodactyl was inspired - a real "I never saw that coming" moment. And I enjoyed the scene when Gwen and Owen, hiding in a mortuary drawer and believing Lisa had discovered them and they were about to die, started snogging wildly, acting on pure instinct in the belief that these were their last few seconds alive (Owen subsequently describes it as "the last act of a condemned man").
The biggest fault of the episode was the notion that Ianto would simply be allowed to remain on the team. The only way it makes sense is if it's revealed in a future story that Jack let Ianto stay so he could keep an eye on him, rather than having him out in the world somewhere potentially plotting revenge. But seeing as how Torchwood's stories seem to be mostly self-contained, that sadly seems unlikely.
I'll post my views on Episode #5: 'Small Worlds' in a few days.
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Post by fenris on Nov 20, 2006 20:47:28 GMT
Oops. Still haven't gotten round to reviewing Episode #5. Oh well. In the meantime, here's my thoughts on Episode #6: Countrycide. ( Spoiler warning) A fairly enjoyable episode, but with some serious plotholes and inconsistences. Typical Torchwood then. I liked the fact that there was actually some continuity carried over from previous episodes. It's established that both Lisa's death and the Owen/Gwen fumble in 'Cyberwoman' are having repercussions within the team. And Owen's sleazy side resurfacing after being subdued following the events of 'Ghost Machine' was another nice touch. However, a major problem with the narrative is that despite the fact that they're supposed to be a highly-trained group of expert investigators, the Torchwood team spend most of the episode acting like inept, rank amateurs. Repeatedly spliting up despite knowing they're in a dangerous situation, getting taken by surprise/ambushed and captured by a bunch of country bumpkin sheep farmers, etc. It's just as well that it's ultimately revealed to be normal humans responsible for all the disappearances - based on the team's performance here, if there really had been an alien killing machine running amuck in the Welsh hills, then they would have been dead within five minutes. A pleasing twist at the end the episode reveals that Gwen and Owen are having an affair. I think this actually makes perfect sense: the whole point is that she doesn't like him. Her whole life's turned upside down, she's quietly and slowly descending into turmoil, she can't talk to her boyfriend about it, so her only release is having passionate but emotionless sex with someone she wouldn't normally touch with a barge-pole, but he's now one of the few people who knows what she's going through. It'll be interesting to see how this develops. Incidently, I've been amusing myself by thinking up alternate titles for this episode: The Welsh Chainsaw Massacre. The Brecon Beacons Have Eyes. Wrong Turn After Leaving Cardiff. Sheep Creek. Any others?
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Post by DreamDangerously on Nov 23, 2006 21:09:57 GMT
I thought it was a pretty poor episode myself. There was some terribly hammy acting going on especially from Tosh and Ianto and Gwen's increasingly annoying open mouth horrified guppy face (which she seems to have borrowed from Ella Dee's I'm mad I am schtick). I thought the plot was predictable and the cannibal villagers were laughable charicatures, which I'm kind of hoping was on purpose.
Silly nonsense and not in a good way, with everyone struggling to make it all seem a lot darker and more meaningful than it actually was. I'd rather have had real monsters than the 'perhaps it is WE who are the monsters' blather.
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Post by matt on Nov 24, 2006 18:07:53 GMT
My opinion on this so far? Pile of pants.
I couldn't be arsed to watch episode six and I don't feel bad about it at all.
That's never a good sign.
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Post by fenris on Nov 25, 2006 11:23:14 GMT
There's no denying that compared to what I hoped the series would be, it has turned out to be disappointing. Based on the vast majority of comments that I've read on other message boards, most people feel the same way.
Despite all the claims from the cast and production team that Torchwood would be a dark, gritty, 'adult' show, in the episodes screened so far it's basically seemed to be typical Doctor Who except with some blood, swear words and occasional snogging/sexual references clumsily added on. Maybe the producers genuinely believe that throwing in such elements is enough to justify the show's post-watershed status, but that's not my idea of what an adult drama/thriller series should be.
Apparently Russell T Davies has been quoted as saying that he was working on an idea for a show about a team of investigators dealing with alien activity long before he was given the job of reviving Doctor Who, and simply dusted off the concept and slightly reworked it in order to turn it into a Who spin-off. If this is true, then I suppose it's possible that the original plan was for Torchwood to be a mainstream show, and only fairly late in development did some BBC executive decide it was going to be a dark, post-watershed series. If so, then the writers and producers may have had to quickly adapt it accordingly. This may explain why the show has (so far) been reduced to being Doctor Who with additional naughty bits.
Another of Torchwood's problems has been it's failure to develop it's characters in a proper fashion. Understandably, the first two episodes concentrated on Gwen (the audience identification figure - we learn about Torchwood through her eyes) and Jack, Gwen's main point of contact. However, episodes #3 and #4 centre almost entirely on Owen and Ianto respectively, and - as I've commented in previous posts - this doesn't work as we don't know either character well enough to care about them yet. Surely the best way to develop individual characters in a series with five regular cast members is to do it slowly and gradually, over several episodes, with occasional telling remarks or key scenes given to each of them in turn, instead of just dumping an entire episode's storyline onto the shoulders of a single character who so far has remained in the background. You can only get away with that kind of thing after a character has already been sufficiently developed enough to carry the burden, instead of having been kept a two-dimensional cypher.
Incidentally, I do agree with some of DreamDangerously's comments about Episode #6. Clearly we were supposed to find the villager's activities - and the end revelation that they slaughtered and ate passing travellers simply because "it made us happy" - incredibly horrifying. But they just weren't. Unfortunately, you only have to watch the news each night to see people all over the world routinely killing each other on masse for reasons that are pointless to everybody but themselves. Torchwood should stick to monsters of the non-human variety - against the real world it just can't compete.
However, despite it's many problems, I am still enjoying Torchwood. Considering that we're not quite half-way though the series yet, I'm prepared to cut it some slack in the hope that it might still improve, and what we've seen so far have been teething problems as the show attempts to find it's own identity, away from Who's shadow.
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Post by orokiah on Nov 25, 2006 14:50:48 GMT
To be honest, I thought the best thing about episode six was the title. I really, really enjoyed the first episode, but I haven't found the rest to be appointment TV by any means. John Barrowman was good value on Jonathan Ross the other week, though. Another of Torchwood's problems has been it's failure to develop it's characters in a proper fashion. Understandably, the first two episodes concentrated on Gwen (the audience identification figure - we learn about Torchwood through her eyes) and Jack, Gwen's main point of contact. However, episodes #3 and #4 centre almost entirely on Owen and Ianto respectively, and - as I've commented in previous posts - this doesn't work as we don't know either character well enough to care about them yet. Agreed. I'm still more interested in Gwen's boyfriend than I am in Owen or Ianto, no matter how many half-naked Cyberwoman girlfriends they throw in to try to liven them up.
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Post by DreamDangerously on Nov 25, 2006 20:36:11 GMT
I haven't given up by Torchwood by any stretch of the imagination, but as Orokiah says, it's not really must see TV at the moment, just kind of plodding along. It doesn't feel like it's really figured itself out just yet and like Fenris says, making a character centre stage early on doesn't mean we're going to magically like them.
We really needed more ensemble episodes earlier on. I find personally that I don't really give a stuff about Gwen's affair with Owen because we never really got a chance to care too much about her boyfriend and her 'normal' life.
JB was great on Jonathan Ross. He's got personality to spare that man.
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Post by fenris on Nov 27, 2006 20:26:37 GMT
Episode #7: Greeks Bearing Gifts. (Spoiler Warning)
Best episode yet. While previous episodes that have concentrated on a single character have been both misjudged and disappointing, this one worked really well, probably because we're now finally getting to know the characters well enough to understand them.
A major plus was guest star Danielle Denby-Ashe, who was great in her dual role as a smart-mouthed 19th century prostitute (the 1812 prologue was a great opening scene) and the sassy, confident Mary - the best villain we've seen in the show so far.
There were some minor plotholes - Mary claiming to have learnt everything about Tosh by "delving deep on the internet" was very weak. Alarm bells should have sounded for Tosh, surely? And the entire Torchwood team (except for poor Ianto) still seem to be implausibly acting like big kids too much of the time.
But the only real let-down was the rushed ending, with it's incredibly abrupt 'is that IT?' conclusion ("Oh, I've sent her into the sun. Sorted."). Can't help but think that the entire Mary storyline might have worked better if spread over 2 - 3 episodes: Tosh's initial meeting with her, subsequent exposure to the pendant, and their relationship, could have been a subplot for a couple of weeks, with an entire episode dedicated to the wrap-up, with Mary's identity and true nature revealed.
Hope I'm not alone in wanting to see Mary again. It wouldn't be too hard to bring her back. After a few seconds, perhaps she realised what Jack had done, and was able to redirect the transporter back to Earth. And there's another possibility. POSSIBLE SPOILERS: Apparently a later episode in the series has Jack and Tosh traveling back in time to WWII, where they encounter 'a familiar face'. Mary? As she's been around since 1812, it's possible.
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Post by fenris on Dec 7, 2006 20:26:58 GMT
Episode #8: They Keep Killing Suzie.
The most continuity-based episode yet, this is practically a direct sequel to the series opener, 'Everything Changes'. A trail of murders designed to get Torchwood's attention leaves the team with no option but to resurrect their disgraced former colleague Suzie Costello. But once the deed is done, they unexpectedly discover that her reborn status is permanent.
The screenplay effectively conveys the surprise, awkwardness, and unease that the team members experience by having Suzie amongst them once more, not to mention the unspoken inconvenience of what to do long term with a resurrected mass murderer who knows all of Torchwood's secrets.
However, as always there are plot-holes: one of the most memorable moments in 'Everything Changes' was the closing scene in which a rambling Suzie fumbled through her handbag (producing a gun) while tearfully bleating that Torchwood was the best thing that had ever happened to her, but now she'd stuffed it up. But 'They Keep Killing Suzie' reveals that she'd already spent several months coldbloodedly putting into place a back-up plan that would be activated in the event of her death. And Suzie's scheme, once revealed, is fiendish clever, but it's so complex, elaborate, and totally reliant on a very precise series of events occurring, that it's just too implausible. It only makes sense when seen for what it is - as a cunning piece of retconing by the scriptwriter. The extremely confident and devious Suzie who must have masterminded such a plan bears little relation to the distraught and desperate Suzie who blew her brains out at the end of 'Everything Changes.' A possible explanation could be that Suzie possesses two separate personalities, and occasional glimpses of a guilt-ridden, self-loathing side of her psyche are visible several times throughout Episode #8.
In conclusion, despite the odd narrative clumsiness, this is another strong episode, which suggests that Torchwood is continuing to settle in after a shaky start. And nice foreshadowing of a potential apocalyptic future storyline as well.
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Post by fenris on Dec 18, 2006 20:04:08 GMT
Episode #9: Random Shoes
A change in the series' format, this episode is seen through the eyes of Eugene Jones, a young UFO enthusiast who wakes up to discover that he's been knocked down and killed in a hit-and-run incident. Now an invisible ghost who's unable to remember the previous two weeks of his life leading up to the incident, Eugene secretly tags along as Gwen tries to piece together the events that resulted in his death.
Long-time genre TV fans are familiar with the concept of format-breaking episodes that either place a minor character in the spotlight or show the regular cast and their activities from an outsider's point of view. Buffy, Angel and The X-Files all did it several times, and New Who pulled off the same trick (with decidedly mixed results) earlier this year in the episode 'Love and Monsters'. However, considering that Torchwood is only two-thirds of the way through it's debut season, it's simply too early for this type of story. No doubt the writers and producers thought that the audience is so media savvy these days that they could get away with placing such a gimmick episode in the first series, and while it's encouraging for Torchwood's creators to credit the viewers with such intelligence, I still consider 'Random Shoes' to be a misjudgment.
The episode isn't helped by the fact that despite the best efforts of As If and Sinchronicity's Paul Chequer as Eugene, the character is never quite as likable as the writer wants him to be. And the moment at Eugene's funeral, when his estranged father hesitantly launches into a rendition of 'Danny Boy' is clearly supposed to tug at your emotions, but unfortunately it doesn't come close to doing any such thing.
'Random Shoes' also suffers due to Torchwood's insistence that it's stories be self-contained: we see in flashback that Eugene was vaguely known to the members of the Torchwood team, often hanging around the crime scenes that they attend, always on the other side of the police tape. Just think how much more effective it would have been, and what an impact Eugene's death would have had, if he had actually appeared in the background of several previous episodes.
Hmm. Just a unrelated thought - so far in Torchwood we've had evil faeries and now an invisible ghost, played by one of Jemima Rooper's regular co-stars. I know it's just be a coincidence, but wouldn't it be nice to think that someone on the Torchwood production team is a Hex fan?
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Post by fenris on Dec 25, 2006 11:20:24 GMT
Episode #10: Out of Time.
Another change of pace episode, but much more successful than the previous week's 'Random Shoes'. The premise - nicely established in the pre-title sequence - is that a plane that took off in 1953 lands in present-day Cardiff, having travelled through the rift. Now the pilot and the two passengers on board find themselves in a world half-a-century beyond their understanding. As Jack comments, "there's no enemy to fight, no mystery to solve. But these people are our responsibility."
The script cleverly makes each of the trio of timelost travellers a distinctly different personality, and then ties them together with a member of the Torchwood team. Captain Jack - also a man out of his time - finds a kindred spirit in shopkeeper John, a proud and decent man in his early fifties, who's doggedly set in his ways. John is simply unable to cope with a 21st century in which out-of-town superstores have killed off the corner shop, and not only does the credo that "children should be seen but not heard" no longer apply, but teenagers blatantly no longer respect their elders. Discovering that his fine young son is now a senile old man wasting away in a care home, a despairing John commits suicide, a saddened but understanding Jack by his side.
Female pilot Diane, who's used to breaking boundaries as a feminist pioneer and adventurer in 1953, finds that the world has overtaken her. Women now run entire countries, planes have gone supersonic, round-the-world flights are an everyday occurrence, and people have even stepped on the Moon. A romance with Owen (who's previously been portrayed as a total sleaze, but it's revealed here that all he needed was the right woman to draw out the decent person deep inside himself) brightens her mood, but ultimately she decides to fly back into the rift in search of fresh challenges and adventure, despite - or more accurately because of - not knowing where or when she'll end up.
The final passenger, innocent and naive 18 year old virgin Emma, is brilliantly played played by Sugar Rush's Olivia Hallinan, the second Shine regular to appear on Torchwood in successive weeks. At first, she seems the least able to cope with life in 2006 - as displayed in the genuinely touching moment when she bursts into tears and wails that she's missing her mum, her best friend and her dog. But ultimately, despite being initially bewildered by the changes in social behaviour and sexual mores (there's a wonderful scene in which Gwen explains her own sexual history to the young girl in an effort to make her understand that casual sex is no longer frowned upon - only to realise she's making herself sound like the local bike), Emma comes to see the 21st century as a land of exciting, limitless opportunities, and is last seen departing for London, with Gwen - whose material instincts have been awakened by the teenager - reluctantly waving her off.
Final verdict: Torchwood finally fulfills it's potential. The sudden and unsettling changes in tone between previous episodes now seems to have been deliberate - the producers apparently want this series to be as varied as possible, so instead of just tuning in to see alien-bashing every week, the viewer never truly knows what to expect. This is the first episode in which this policy truly succeeds. Full marks.
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