Ianto-related stories
Posted Aug 3rd 2009 8:57PM by Hemal Jhaveri
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free

If you're a regular viewer of the BBC sci-fi series
Torchwood, you're more than aware of the recent dust up between fans and writers over a major character death in this past season's finale. Angry fans immediately ran to message boards to express their displeasure with the direction the show has taken, but now, that angry fan reaction seems to have taken a sudden and serious turn for the worse.
Before we get too far into this, I'm putting a spoiler warning on this post, even though the episode in question has already aired in the U.S. For anyone still saving it on their DVR, beware. It's a biggie.
Continue reading Angry Torchwood fans threaten writers with bodily harm
Posted Jul 24th 2009 7:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free

A certain something happened on
Torchwood, and I won't spoil it the plot development here. You can
read Mike's review of the episode (again, SPOILERS!). The show's creator, Russell T. Davies, says he understands that fans of the show might not be happy with what happened, but I don't think that his response to them will get him any new fans.
Continue reading Unhappy with Torchwood? Fine, watch Supernatural!
Posted Jul 24th 2009 9:03AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Doctor Who, Reality-Free

SPOILERS! No griping, all ye who pass here and have not visited episode four on their DVR.
Read Mike Moody' s review
here. Okay, last chance if you haven't seen episode four already, here we go....
Ianto isn't dead. He just isn't, okay. I know, I know, we saw him succumb to the gas and die in Jack's arms. I know they said their goodbyes, I know Gwen pulled back the sheet and he was all pale and looked not at all well, and he was in the room with all the dead people under the orange sheets. And I saw everyone talking about how they'll miss him in the
Torchwood special after the episode. I saw all the same things you did.
I don't know what's going to happen in episode five, but I can't conceive of it involving Ianto actually being dead. He and Jack are too much fun, and their relationship is too different from anything else on television, and it just got started. I don't know what kind of dues ex machine, Alec Guinness on Endor has to happen, but I'll be looking for it.
Continue reading A few thoughts on Torchwood going into Day Five
Posted Apr 6th 2008 1:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free

(S02E11) "Always room for one more. We could have used you an hour ago for naked hide-and-seek." Jack to Gwen after she walked in on him and Ianto having an intimate moment
Well, it was a vast improvement over
last week's episode. And it actually revealed some significant information about the rift and its activities, but that's not to say the episode was without some logistical problems and "conveniences." As seems to be par for the course on
Torchwood, there was at least one ridiculously convenient coincidence that the emotional hook of the episode hinged on.
Speaking of that emotional hook, you know how you can tell this is a British television show? Because it didn't get all wrapped up in the end in a nice, easy bow. This is a mainstream show in the UK. How many mainstream shows in the US would allow the whole show to get wrapped up in misery and shame and leave us there?
Torchwood has always been the darker, more mature cousin of
Doctor Who, and this episode lived up to that title.
Continue reading Torchwood: Adrift
Posted Mar 30th 2008 1:36PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews
(S02E10) I guess everyone at Torchwood Creative was still exhausted from the Owen three-parter, because this episode was even more of a letdown than the previous one. While the notion of these "night travelers" somehow being able to step out of old film and into the real world is interesting enough, it seems a better fit for a show like
Supernatural than
Torchwood, which tries to explain everything away with the Cardiff rifts and space aliens.
It was cool to think of Jack exploiting his immortality by performing as "The Man Who Could Not Die" in a traveling freak show a hundred years ago or so. It would make perfect sense that he'd go into that line of work. But then we learned that he did so while investigating the "night travelers," but he wouldn't say for whom and why he was investigating. Another layer of the Captain Jack onion
almost peeled.
Continue reading Torchwood: From Out of the Rain
Posted Mar 9th 2008 8:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews
(S02E07) The death of Owen Harper trilogy continued. But does death mean the same thing in the world of
Torchwood as it does in our world? Do you really need to ask? Aside from an incredibly hokey introductory sequence in which Jack stormed into the above scene, struck a very theatrical pose and said "Nobody touches him until I return!" before abruptly disappearing again, this was a pretty solid episode. I do have to say that the point of Martha's continuing involvement is escaping me as she didn't really have anything to add to this installment.
Continue reading Torchwood: Dead Man Walking
Posted Mar 2nd 2008 12:38PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews
(S02E06) "Let's say we were under the same Doctor." Martha Jones explaining to Owen how she knows Jack.
This was probably the most anticipated episode of the season for die-hard
Doctor Who fans. It marked the arrival of The Doctor's most recent companion, Martha Jones, for an extended run on the series. As fans of that series know, Jack met up with Martha during his most recent bout with The Doctor on
Doctor Who. At the end of that show's fourth season, Martha made the decision to leave The Doctor and stay behind on Earth. As such, it makes perfect sense that she would be available now to appear on the spin-off. And she fit in pretty seamlessly with the gang, even serving to lighten up Jack a lot.
Continue reading Torchwood: Reset
Posted Feb 24th 2008 3:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Torchwood, Episode Reviews

(S02E05) If you're one of those people who believes what I tell you then I apologize. As was corrected in the comments last week, this episode was not the one that featured the start of Freema Ageyman's run on
Torchwood, reprising her
Doctor Who role of Martha Jones. That one is next week. Instead we got a fantastic one-off episode that not only got into the inner workings of the personalities that make up the Torchwood team, but that also showed us some of Jack's mysterious past.
Continue reading Torchwood: Adam
Posted Feb 17th 2008 3:31PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews

(S02E04) When Gwen first joined Torchwood, she brought with her an element that none of the other team-members had, namely a significant other in Rhys. Since that time she has struggled to keep those two worlds separate, insisting to Rhys that she was still working for the police department and keeping him in the dark as to the otherworldly doings of Torchwood. Seems that would be difficult to maintain, right? Well, Cardiff is only so big so inevitably it would become impossible.
Continue reading Torchwood: Meat
Posted Feb 10th 2008 5:05PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews

(S02E03) The adventure starts in 1918, featuring the Torchwood of its era. We get to see the future from the perspective of the past and the end of the episode from the perspective of the beginning. Confusing? Good. It's time travel, you're supposed to be confused.
Torchwood continue its string of excellent episodes this run with this Tosh-centric installment. The inner struggles between team members seem to be a thing of the past, resolved while Jack was away, and what we have now is a real solid force that I can believe is prepared for whatever is coming.
Continue reading Torchwood: To the Last Man
Posted Feb 9th 2008 10:00AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Torchwood, Episode Reviews

Did you really think Captain Jack wouldn't be back? Now in its second series/season in both the UK and the US, we're going to do things a little differently with our
Torchwood reviews this year. The fine folks on both sides of the pond finally got things squared away so that new episodes air much closer in the US to their initial UK airing. The third episode airs this Saturday, February 9, on BBC America, which is a little more than a week after the UK airing. To minimize any "spoilery" concerns, the episode reviews will follow the US airings.
But before we can get to that, we need to play a little bit of catch up, so look for an overview of the first two episodes of Series/Season Two after the jump. And about that image up there spoiling the first episode? Hey, that might just be a flashback sequence. That's right, I got you there.
Continue reading Torchwood: The season so far