Torchwood: Day One

(Originally written 23/7/13, modified 9/10/13)

I’m mostly okay with the silly sex alien plot of this episode – what I have more of a problem with is the things that happen around it. It is so irresponsible of the Torchwood team to look on when Gwen and Carys are kissing, even for a little bit. I found it funny enough that the bouncer was wanking to the CCTV footage, because he’s already been established as, well, a bit of a wanker. But Torchwood are meant to be professionals, even Owen, and they know how dangerous Carys is.

Owen’s slimeball behaviour continues when he refers to Gwen at the beginning as “sweetheart” and “sweetcheeks”, and my mind boggles as to why Gwen would want to sleep with this man. But despite his being an arsehole, especially insulting Gwen after her run-in with Carys, I still found it unacceptable that Gwen effectively grabs Owen by his neck and pushes him against the wall. Verbal bullying isn’t a good thing, but neither is physical bullying.

Speaking of assault, I’m not particularly keen on kissing as a means of thanks (seen several times throughout the Whoniverse recently, including this episode when Gwen kisses Jack). Even though it wasn’t as forceful as some of the kisses in the Moffat era (eg Amy/Eleven, Eleven/Rory, Eleven/Jenny), Jack clearly wasn’t expecting that kiss, and Gwen didn’t even do it to show romantic intentions. I personally view kissing on the lips as a consensual act between two individuals expressing desire and affection for each other – not as a substitute for the words “thank you” between two people in a platonic relationship.

I suppose it could be argued that Jack isn’t entirely blameless for Gwen’s affections, due to a comment he makes at the beginning. When an officer calls Gwen a “little girl”, Jack says she isn’t, because she has “all the right curves in all the right places”. This sounds kind of creepy to me – it’s basically saying you’re a grown woman if you have boobs and hips, which wouldn’t necessarily be true for some early developers. It also says nothing of her grown-up mind and intellect, because it all depends on her body.

But how smart is Gwen? In my review for Everything Changes I mentioned how she joined Torchwood mere minutes after watching Suzie talk about how the job completely takes over one’s life - then in this episode, she asks what everyone does to switch off. Now, Gwen believes the perfect solution is to have a boyfriend, and she's baffled that no one else has a partner. She came across to me in that scene as a bit elitist, like she's better than them for having a boyfriend. But even if Torchwood wasn't a 24/7 job, who's to say that out of a small group of people in their 20s and 30s, none of them would have long-term partners? 

(Oh, and Gwen ends this episode by telling Rhys "Let's go to bed". Because after watching all those people die from climaxing, she couldn't be more turned on.)

I would like to acknowledge that my previous review's comments on Jack's weird-sounding lines may have been a little premature, because he certainly uses some technobabble in this episode. However, he also acknowledges this, making it sound more like he’s trying to emulate his hero as opposed to actually being him. As for the “mystery” of Jack though, that comes across more like River Song or Clara. “Who are you, Jack?” After everything that happened in this episode, that’s really not a top priority right now. It doesn’t help that it was stated aloud, seemingly out of nowhere.

Given how problematic this episode is, I’d definitely call it worse than Everything Changes.