I’m not one for giving spoiler warnings, but, in the interests of global harmony, this and all future Torchwood reviews and commentary are apt to have spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The BBC aired the first two episodes of the new Russell T. Davies’ Sci-Fi series, Torchwood, Sunday. The overnight ratings are in and they are good, really good. Record-breaking good, in fact. The story follows Capt. Jack Harkness, late of Doctor Who, as he runs Torchwood 3, a ultra-top secret organization designed to collect alien technology and utilize it for mankind’s defense.
Mention of Torchwood made nauseatingly regular appearances in last season’s Doctor Who episodes, culminating in a battle between the Cybermen and the Daleks which destroyed Torchwood 1.
Despite the two episodes being run back-to-back, even sharing the same end credit space, I’ll treat them separately.
Episode 1
Everything Changes by Russell T. Davies
Everything Changes is a basic pilot episode, told from the viewpoint of Gwen, a Cardiff police constable who sees too much and can’t let the mystery go. Her investigations lead her deeper and deeper into the mystery that is Torchwood until she finally discovers Capt. Jack in their secret base at the Cardiff Millennium Center – the place which, not coincidentally, the Doctor, Rose and Jack parked the TARDIS two years ago on top of a temporal rift for recharging. Rather like SHADO from the classic 60’s series, UFO, the super-secret base is underground. Security is absolute and unwitting witnesses have their memory erased by amnesia drugs. In fact, the story reminded me a lot of the UFO episode “Exposedâ€, which told how the character of Paul Foster learned about SHADO and then doggedly investigated until they reached the point they had to kill him or let him join.
Like RTD’s first episode of Doctor Who, Rose, this story is also told from the perspective of the outsider being drawn in. It’s a tactic he likes to ground the story with the viewer and, while generally successful, the episode still suffers from pilotitis, that malady that afflicts most shows that need too much introduction, yet at the same time must have a conventional mystery to solve, too.
In this episode, the secondary mystery is so underplayed as to make the viewer not really care, it’s incidental, and that’s good. The second good thing is that, rather than try to cram the extra story in the pilot, the showed two episodes back to back, allowing Torchwood to have a proper introduction, without leaving the viewers cold for a week.
In general, I enjoyed both episodes, but I have my reservations. The signs are already showing that a series-wide hook will be running through the episodes. With luck, they won’t be as awful as “Bad Wolf†and “Torchwood†from Doctor Who. Jack, we learn, is now immortal (probably because Rose revived him in Parting of the Ways) and is waiting for a special kind of Doctor (Who, could that be, I wonder) to help him out. We also see that he’s got the Doctor’s severed hand in a jar. (Alright, they don’t specifically say it’s the Doctor’s hand, but Jack is awfully attached to it.)
Jack spends an inordinate amount of time on completely impractical rooftop locations, so that the camera helicopters can dramatically take in the scenery. The cameras spend a distracting amount of time pointlessly flying over Cardiff.
What about the celebrated “adult†aspects of Torchwood or perhaps the much-blogged “RTD Gay Agenda�
“Adult†drama can mean several things. It could mean profanity, gore and violence or, of course, sex. Everything Changes was consistent with a PG-13 rated movie in the US. Profanity, some blood and violence, kissing and implied sex. Consistent, that is, apart from one thing. It was fairly tame, but certainly not for my 4-year old.
The “one thing†of course was that some of the kissing was man-on-man action, with implication that it would lead further, much further. Was it the “RTD Gay Agendaâ€, or an effective way to demonstrate just what an amoral slime Owen Harper is? Only more episodes will tell for sure.
Looks like they won’t be selling this series to the Sci-Fi channel, though.