(S01E12 / S01E13) I really only have one minor complaint about this end-of-season double-bill of Torchwood, and it's barely worth mentioning. For a debut season of a large budget sci-fi show on the BBC, scheduled late in a poor slot on a digital channel with limited viewers and decidedly adult themes, strong language and graphic violence, this show succeeded where so many others fail miserably.
And it achieved its success by giving viewers a taste of something usually only witnessed in much higher-profile shows, such as its big sister show Doctor Who; originality.
Sure, we can all cite the references and influences (or "rip-offs", as they're more commonly known), but I don't really care about all that; all I care about is passing an hour without feeling like I'm watching an episode of King of the Rocket Men or Flash Gordon from the 1950s.
Two major things happened in this well-rounded two parter which stand out as significant in the overall 13 episodes of Torchwood; firstly, Captain Jack turned out to be human after all, if only in the emotional sense, and we got a cliffhanger so good that it'll be worth waiting a year to experience he conclusion.
It all started when Toshiko and Jack found themselves accidentally transported back in time to the Blitz in 1941, while the rest of the Torchwood team searched for long-lost clues in the present which would aid their return.
At the heart of the story was a mysterious (and rather creepy) old chap called Bilis Manger, who seemed to be able to bridge the time gap between the two eras and cause mayhem.
Meanwhile, Jack made an unfortunate discovery, when he found himself being introduced to none other than Captain Jack Harkness -- and here is where my review meets with its only complaint. In meeting the man whose identity he stole before venturing back and forth through time, Jack found himself falling in love. Worse still, the real Captain Jack fell in love back.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for strong gay characters and more mature approaches to sexuality in science-fiction; but it all seemed unnecessary, out of place and, well, weak. It felt entirely an indulgence on the part of Russell T Davies.
But as I said, it was only a minor complaint, and in some small way gave us a deeper insight into Jack's psyche, but not before he was yanked back to the future thanks to some ad-hoc manipulation by an obsessed Owen of the 'rift' in space and time above Cardiff.
Despite the meddling with the rift allowing the return of Jack and Tosh (along with some fairly basic time-travelling tricks which really should have been better thought out), all of this spelled certain doom, not only for Torchwood, but for the world.
When things picked up in the second half, everything was in turmoil. People from all across time were being sucked into the future; plague victims, Roman gladiators and UFOs -- causing all sort of chaos.
And then mister Manger played his trump card and gave everyone in the team a vision of the future, which in Gwen's case meant death for her partner, and the incentive to open up the rift against Jack's wishes, which bought about the release of a terrible creature I haven't seen the likes of since the Stay Puft Marshmallowman in Ghostbusters (second complaint: please don't make the villain at 80-foot demon who stomps on people).
Despite these minor discrepancies in an otherwise entertaining finale, I simply wanted more, and when the end came -- cute cliffhanger and all, I truly felt like I'd taken a ride with the Torchwood team over the last three months which ended with me jumping eagerly to the back of the queue to do it all over again.
And as for the cliffhanger for next season?
Well, let's just say a familiar materialisation sound from Torchwood's big sister show made an appearance at the very end and a prominent character vanished into thin air.
Season Two can't come soon enough for me.












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-03-2007 @ 11:01PM
Scott said...
Minor quibble, the 80ft demon seemed to be killing people with its shadow for the most part.
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1-03-2007 @ 11:01PM
Beatriz said...
He was killing people by it's shadow , remember as jack was dying he was doing it in front of the shadow. I just liked the interaction between Gwen and Jack about he people they loved and what would have made Jack open the riff and all he said was "The right kind of Doctor", and then the TARDIS sound came over, I kind of hope Jack takes part in the looking for a new partner for the doctor.
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1-04-2007 @ 1:20AM
David said...
Dr. Who is going to show up?1 Sci-fi better pick this show up otherwise I'm gonig to find a place to download it.
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1-04-2007 @ 3:40AM
Lexis said...
I adored the interaction between Toshiko and Jack. They had some light, sweet moments between them (twirling her round, the joke about how she was dressed) and then some much deeper stuff (him promising to protect her if they were stuck for good in the past, her comforting him about the other Jack). It was nice him in these moments with a character other than Gwen.
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1-04-2007 @ 3:40AM
Justin,,, said...
"but it all seemed unnecessary, out of place and, well, weak"
Couldn't have been as bad as the 1,000,000,000 weak hetersexual story lines I've had to endure on TV.
Indulgence?? Come on.
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1-04-2007 @ 3:40AM
4ham said...
You should be finding a place to download it anyway David.
I felt the whole gay undertone to the real Captain Jack and the kiss wasn't so bad, it's just they drew it out like a tacky soap.
The only real weak parts were the whole finale of the finale. Abbadon the Destoyer- Come on, it looked too similar to the 'Devil' in the Doctor Who episode The Satan pit and the way that was solved? I couldn't take it seriously. And the whole TARDIS thing, it would have been better if the Jack hadn't gotten up, Torchwood team hears the sound and finds him gone. That way it makes the cliffhanger even more unbearable instead of the way it happenned.
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1-04-2007 @ 5:13AM
edd said...
Russell Davis' gay agenda is rammed down our throats more often than a... won't go there.
But seriously, he feels like he needs to chuck it in to every thing he writes. He's a good scriptwriter but his agenda makes me feel squeamish. Like you, I've got nothing against interesting gay roles but he seems to do it with a chip on his shoulfer or a mission to preach.
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1-04-2007 @ 5:48AM
x said...
yes my point exactly this 80ft demon thing cant remember its name was killing people with its shadow and not stomping on them whoever put that down obviously wasnt watching properly. yes also rtd always tries to put gay stuff in his shows all the time i dont no why but he could be gay him self. if you watch doctor who season 2 deleted scenes it has something about parallel mickey being gay
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1-04-2007 @ 7:56AM
Discosis said...
Yes RTD is gay. Big deal. Most every character on Torchwood's had a same-sex encounter now (and now, including Ianto). There's no gay agenda, it just places the show into a more contemporary setting.
As for Abbadon looking like the devil from The Satan Pit ... funnily enough Bilis namedropped "that" devil and identified Abbadon as his son. Family resemblance in CGI design is therefore allowed...
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1-04-2007 @ 8:38AM
Douglin said...
I still think homosexuality was handled much better on Buffy with the whole Willow/Tara relationship, but I thought the Jack stuff in this one was pretty good, and I thought the Ianto kiss was a nice relationship bit.
Anyway I liked these two episodes and hope the show can continue to improve next year.
And for those that don't know; Doctor Who will never appear in torchwood, they don't want kids to try and watch it, but the crew of torchwood can be in Doctor Who. It's been confirmed that Jack will be in three of the final four episodes of season 3 of Dr. Who, so I assume that's where the cliffhanger will resolve
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1-04-2007 @ 10:06AM
Nitin said...
Every character having a same-sex encounter is as unlikely as every character never having one--either way it's just unrealistic.
It's curious to me that the more recent recaps aren't placed under the Torchwood category. Simple mistake?
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1-04-2007 @ 10:59AM
The Dude said...
First off, Jack isn't exactly "gay" but "pan-sexual" as the Doctor explained in 'The Doctor Dances' (hey, he's from the 51st century: his horizons are a bit wider than ours) But, hey, if he's gay I have no problem with that... I do, however, have a problem with Torchwood: it sucked.
Sorry, it did. I watched 'em all and it is just, for lack of a better word, weak. Its shot all wrong and on the wrong film stock, the plots are all too similar, the stories were so formulaic, endings too deus ex machina, the characters are poorly developed (or just outright annoying), bad acting, too much goes unsaid and taken for granted (Ianto & Jack? Really?), etc., etc., If this is the best British X-Files Davies can attempt he should just quit now.
Don't get me wrong:I love the premise of the show and I love Captain Jack, but I do not love the show. I'm wondering why I bothered to bittorrent it: only 3 or 4 were strong worth the time and effort (and only Small Worlds & Countrycide were remotely original).
As for crossovers, Apprently the Doctor will never be seen on Torchwood (according to interviews too adult) but Jack appears in the final few episodes of the upcoming series.
One thing: I'm wondering why they didn't play up a connection between Gwen & the rift given that she played 'Gwenyth' in the Unquiet Dead... Series 2 perhaps?
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1-04-2007 @ 11:34AM
FAP said...
I'm a who fan and I hated this series. The plots were weak, the dialog par, but the biggest flaw was the internal character interactions.
First why would this dopey group be given responsibility for the rift with such a small staff and little oversight.
And why would the yuts who kept a cyber-woman in the basement (that he could keep such a thing in the basement for months also stretches credulity) not be fired/killed/made to forget torchwood after he threatens to kill jack sometime in the future when he's vulnerable.
Unless torchwood is out of cash it'd be hard to find a group of less capable or professional people to run this opp.
It wanted to be Doctor Who meets X-files, sadly it took the worst of both shows and wallowed in it. I'm disappointed to hear it was renewed.
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1-04-2007 @ 12:00PM
FAP said...
I'm a who fan and I hated this series. The plots were weak, the dialog par, but the biggest flaw was the internal character interactions.
First why would this dopey group be given responsibility for the rift with such a small staff and little oversight.
And why would the yuts who kept a cyber-woman in the basement (that he could keep such a thing in the basement for months also stretches credulity) not be fired/killed/made to forget torchwood after he threatens to kill jack sometime in the future when he's vulnerable.
Unless torchwood is out of cash it'd be hard to find a group of less capable or professional people to run this opp.
It wanted to be Doctor Who meets X-files, sadly it took the worst of both shows and wallowed in it. I'm disappointed to hear it was renewed.
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1-04-2007 @ 12:34PM
Gene said...
I think that people are missing the forest for the gay trees -- the culmination of the short-lived "relationship" between the two Captain Jacks was the courage that the first Jack showed in opening embracing the second Jack in front of a room full of people in 1941, knowing that it might be his last day. He finally embraced who he was rather than who people expected him to be. It was a wonderful moment.
The monster... well, it seemed pretty pointless and silly, didn't it? I was expecting far more after the "something is coming in the darkness" that they'd been hitting us over the head with. I mean, it would have been marginally better if it had been the same satanic monster from "The Satan Pit" on Dr Who. Instead we got a throw-away, 80-foot monster that frankly reminded me of watching "Ultraman" when I was a kid.
As for the cliffhanger -- I don't think we have to wait a year for the resolution, we only have to wait until this spring's season of Dr Who, since that's where Jack will turn up next...
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1-04-2007 @ 2:46PM
John said...
The real problem with Torchwood was evident in its second episode. A vicious alien who killed every man she could have sex with escaped from the Torchwood facilities by stripping Owen down and tying him up. Why didn't she kill him like all the others? Why wasn't anyone paying attention to this alien - other than when she was snogging Gwen? Sloppy. Sloppy. Sloppy. So concerned with tacking on "adult" content for shock value that it didn't bother to notice that the rest of its content was of a pre-teen mentality, though with none of the joy of "The Sarah Jane Adventures." What can you say about a show where even the positive reviews are filled with caveats and nit-picks? Torchwood is a low point in an otherwise wonderful television writer's career.
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1-04-2007 @ 9:08PM
Alex S. said...
I have to disagree about Captain Jack Harkness (Ep 12). I enjoyed that episode more than any other in the season, including the finale. I don't think that 'our' Jack truly fell in love. He never had to face the man whose identity he stole until now. It was about painful regret, remorse, and sorrow that he had stolen someone's name and life without a second thought, just to fulfill his cons. It was Jack's way of saying, "I'm sorry." I saw it more as a realization that the life Jack is living as "Captain Harkness" used to belong to someone else - a real person, whose death Jack never had to think about. Why else would he try so hard to encourage Cptn. Harkness to live the night like it was his last?
As for the finale, I thought it could have been done better. It highlighted all the weakpoints of the season. The show doesn't know what it wants to be just yet. The characters haven't been fleshed out enough, the episodes were barely tied together, and there was very little foreshadowing to the BIG MONSTER at the end. That doesn't mean the show is entirely horrible. I still enjoyed watching it every week (minus Cyberwoman, Small Worlds, and Day One).
Oh well. In spite of how disappointed I was in the last episode, I laughed very hard during John Barrowman's flailing at the big CGI monster.
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1-05-2007 @ 1:05PM
cmk said...
I have to agree with the other posters -- I find Torchwood to be so full of promise but so full of holes. I keep watching it anyway.
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1-05-2007 @ 6:02PM
Roland Hulme said...
Of course Torchwood has a gay agenda.
Russel T. Davies is an incredibly talented and visionary man, as he's shown us with Queer as Folk, Doctor Who and Sarah Jane Adventures. But with Torchwood, he's combined sloppy writing with over the top, totally out of character gay adventures that snap us out of any belief in this series.
John Barrowman is an attractive and charismatic lead and the only reason I keep watching this badly written tripe. It's got a Welsh (bloody, hell, it's so Welsh, and there's nothing wrong with that, but can they tone it down) agenda and it's got a gay (nothing wrong with that, but characters shouldn't change their sexual identities like they change pants) agenda. It's all ridiculous.
How Russell could have gone SO FAR WRONG boggles my mind.
Captain Jack was cheerful, bisexual and lovable. Now the ONLY good thing about Torchwood has been shoved aside and replaced by a cast of incompetent, unlikeable characters who bumble uselessly through various sci-fi fantasy storylines and hackneyed 'relationship' plotlines that lack any credibility, even for a sci fi show.
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1-06-2007 @ 9:02AM
Luke said...
i think that jack will only travel with the doctor for a few episodes becoz they sed there going to make a series 2 of torchwood. btw did anyone know that some of the actors in torchwood were in doctor who series 1!
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