Torchwood (Dr Who Spin-Off)

[Skyknight]

Torrents should be up soon for the yanks, but I have to caution some of you to treat "Day One" as a way of getting used to the characters, as it's plot simply rips off the movie "Species", the first episode "Everything Changes" is much more original and opens up a lot of mysteries ("Day One" includes another interesting aspect to Jack's past when the hand in the jar is stolen, the hand belongs to The Doctor after it was severed from him during "The Christmas Invasion", which he quickly replaced with another one)

An excellent beggining, this definatly has a darker tone than Doctor Who, with blood, profanity, same gender love making, and masturbation combined with the usual issues of death, life, and human error. The scenes with the Ressurection Gauntlet bringing a murder victim back to life for sixty seconds are chilling, the twist to the story is also fairly original.

 

[Misfits923]

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Kyusaku]

It was different from what I expected. I like it so far. It seems very well casted. So far it seems to have the power to stand on its own legs without trying to get Doctor Who to support it. It's like a scifi police mystery series.

And the glove brought people back for 2 mins, not sixty secs.

 

[Tenraisenpuujin]

Watched. Like. Though I gotta say, I'm not liking Captain Jack in this nearly as much as I did in his Dr. Who run. He's a lot less playful and more businesslike, and I LOVED the playfulness of the character. I'm sure they'll explain his more dour manner (and how he got back to 2006) at some point.

The Gwen/Carys snog? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWT.

I do have to point out that as direction goes, they're not being terribly original. If I didn't like it so much, I would have to call it a complete ripoff of Angel. As it is, I'll just say it borrows very heavily from Angel, but hey, if they're borrowing, at least they're doing it from one of my favorite series.

 

[otaku-smeghead]

was it confirmed that the severed hand belomged to the Doc ??

 

[Mikazuki]

Watched. Like. Though I gotta say, I'm not liking Captain Jack in this nearly as much as I did in his Dr. Who run. He's a lot less playful and more businesslike, and I LOVED the playfulness of the character. I'm sure they'll explain his more dour manner (and how he got back to 2006) at some point.

It seems he lost a bit of his "fun" when he died and was abandoned by the Doctor and Rose. This Jack is the Jack that Rose brought back to life because he can't die now and the first Jack (on Doctor Who) COULD and DID die. Question is, how did he get back to the 21st century? Steal another time travel ship perhaps? And the other question is that when Rose brought everyone else back, did those whom she brought back also become "immortal"?

 

[Tenraisenpuujin]

Yeah, I figured the whole death & resurrection thing is why he's not as happy as he used to be. I'm just saying I'm disappointed they took him in the direction they did. I liked the old Jack a lot better than the new one, and I think they could have done the series with fun Jack just as well. I know they're going for a darker feel... I'm just sayin'.

 

[Skyknight]

"The Ghost Machine" has aired in the UK

Another good episode, Jack is getting pushed back a lot, he's supposed to have a central episode to himself later, but for now the series is anchoring around Gwen more than him, and Torchwood was thought to have been Jack's coming out party, instead he's the most cryptic member of the team.

Both Gwen and Owen got the spotlight in this episode, with both recovering one half of a device that allowed them to see into the past history of the location they were posistioned at (Gwen seeing the early days of her marriage at her house, and Owen witnessing a murder in the 1950's underneath a nearby bridge), then they later find the second part of the device that allows them to see the history of what is yet to come...and Gwen sees herself with blood on her hands, repeating "He's dead...Owen had a knife, he was going to kill him..."

[hide]Naturally, she tries to avert this fate by saving the life of the person who swiped the device, who had forseen his death earlier at the hands of the murderer of the girl in Owen's vision, now old, and paranoid. Earlier in the episode Owen had tracked him down and terrorised him with the information he had. Owen became unstable when they stopped the murder attempt, but Gwen accidently stabs the murderer when she takes a knife from Owen, fulfilling the future image she forsaw[/hide]

 

[Skyknight]

"Cyberwoman" has aired in the UK

So Ianto, who looks after the base when the team are outdoors for any purpose or mission, is secretly harbouring a partially-converted Cyberman that nobody previously noticed, hoping to restore her to a human state. He contacts a surgeon to help with the process, and he stops her heart breifly and restarts it to reboot her mobility, allowing her to walk again, but this also activates the dormant Cyber-programming within her body and she accidently kills the surgeon when trying to convert him into a Cyberman. Ianto tries desperatly to cover the murder up, but when the team return, the Cyberwoman goes on a rampage.

The pacing and drama of this episode was very well executed in the writing and by the performances, except for the guy playing Ianto, who just went overboard in some parts, the bad kind of overboard. The character slowly became irritating, as he flat out refused to kill the Cyberwoman at all. The twist with the ending was rereshing though

[Hide]Even when he finds his love has transferred her brain into a human body (killing someone else) , he still does'nt kill her, but Jack and the remainder of the team completly blow her apart with gunfire[/hide]

 

[Skyknight]

"Small Worlds" has aired in the UK

[hide]This episode pretty much establishes further Torchwood, particulary Jack, are ruthless, but in dealing with alien threats this time, but allowing the enemy to take one of their chosen ones with them (a young child) in order to spare the planet from their wrath. Surprisingly, Gwen was outraged at this, but with the group being based on an organisation that goes to the extreme, she should be aware this would happen. Major downer for an ending, and it looks like Jack and the team will make ideal rivals for The Doctor at this rate.

I loved the flashbacks to Jack's past, though nothing concrete outside of a girl he once loved, now elderly, becoming a victim of the "Sprites", the young actress playing the girl was great in her role, a real bitch who understood where she was going and choosing her fate rather than fight it at the insistence of people around her.[/hide]