Torchwood: Sleeper

(Originally written 16/9/13) 

In a lot of ways, this episode feels like it belongs back in Series One. We have a rip-off of a classic movie (Terminator II), the Convenient Weevil Powers are used to indicate that something is not right, and the final scene involves a chat between Gwen and Jack.

Meanwhile, Gwen’s sole purpose is to be the caring one - painfully so at some points. Everyone else feels for Beth on some level (except apparently Jack), but Gwen is the only one who truly understands her.

But this episode also sets up what to expect in Series Two when it comes to Ianto and Jack’s new rules of dialogue – the former delivering humorous one-liners 90% of the time, and the latter delivering at least one awful one-liner per episode. This episode’s contender is *shoots sleeper* “Factor that into your plans.”

Speaking of awful lines, the Torchwood team has a mind probe! And while this did eventually dig deep enough to reveal Beth’s true identity, part of me wonders why they didn’t at least start off with the lie detector from Adam...

Speaking of technology, when they mentioned the phone networks being down the first thing I thought of was radio. This is not because I’ve seen the episode before, but because one of the magazines we publish at work is a radio mag, so I know they’re important in an emergency.

Two questions about Beth as a sleeper agent:

• Why did she kill her husband? I don’t recall him having anything to do with their plans, and she was trying to get away from him anyway.
• With each sleeper agent surrounded by a force-field 1mm thick, this has me wondering about how, er, bodily fluids are exchanged.

 I’ve never really had much to say about this episode, but I will say that in Beth’s final scene, I really began to appreciate the acting of Nikki Amuka-Bird, and I finally felt what Beth must have been feeling. Pity I couldn’t feel it for the rest of the episode though.

Since this post is so short, I’ll go into the preview for To The Last Man. And this reminds us that Gwen needs to be told that Tommy is woken up once every 12 months, which means Jack couldn’t have been gone 18 months after Utopia, which means I need a new theory.

Torchwood: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

I actually have an excuse for not posting this time! My Internet was down for five days. Granted, it's been longer than that since I posted, but whatever. It's that time of year.

(Originally written 14/9/13, modified 20/12/13)

This episode feels like it’s very deliberately trying to be camp. The opening with the blowfish and the old lady is just hilarious  – though it’s unfortunate how his assessment of the Torchwood team members is quite similar to the Beast’s in The Satan Pit. Meanwhile, the amount of innuendo brought by Captain John is almost too much to take. Oh, and the name of the bar where he met up with Jack? Bar Reunion. Seriously???

It makes sense that with Jack having been gone*, everyone else had to step up and that’s why Tosh and Ianto go on to get more field work this season. But given how much Gwen was struggling to keep Torchwood a secret from Rhys before, how the hell has she managed as leader of the team? And given that in this episode she manages to get easily tricked by John this episode AND taken hostage, how did she manage to lead Torchwood at all?

Another thing that doesn’t make sense is the Gwack. I’m not even saying this as an anti-Gwack person (though it was soooooo painful when she said “Tell Jack I...”), but I’ve just watched all of Season 1 and there actually seems to be hardly any sexual tension between them at all. End of Days shows that she cares for him, sure, but not in a way that she’d give up Rhys for him (especially given her reaction to her boyfriend’s “death”). And the last time before that appeared to be in They Keep Killing Suzie, when she gives him a look across the room (right before Ianto uses a more direct method with the Stopwatch Line). It seems like something they brought in to stir up tension in Season 2, so I’m not looking forward to that.

I’ve got a couple of unanswered questions. Firstly, John and the blowfish appear to know each other, as the blowfish has the final piece of the “diamond tracker” in his pocket. I don’t recall ever noticing this, and I don’t understand what their relationship would have been. Was the blowfish working for the dead girlfriend, or for John, or for himself?

Secondly, Andy turns up briefly at the beginning, and he seems to have some recollection that Gwen deals in “spooky-dos”. Does this mean he remembers the events of End of Days and hasn’t been retconned? Does that mean he accepts that his former colleague deals with weird time/space events on a regular basis? Is Torchwood okay with this?

TW members being shot this season so far: 1 (Owen). I’m going to try and keep a tally in order to prove my point that they really should invest in some bulletproof vests.

So not a great set-up for the rest of the season, but it’s nice to have a new mystery in “Who is Gray?” Makes a change from “Who is Jack?”, in which most of the audience knew enough about him not to care about much else.

*Has anyone ever managed to figure out how long Jack was gone for? I always got the impression that hardly any time should have passed between Utopia and the end of LotTL. A friend of mine suggested that The Sound of Drums is actually set months after Utopia, to which I replied that maybe it's set some time after the election if it takes a while to come into power (I don't know how British politics works) - but that still doesn't explain how the last place the TARDIS travelled was "right here right now", which was to pick up Jack (in Cardiff). I personally always thought the "18 months" line in Sound of Drums was to do with the TARDIS bringing the Master back 18 months earlier, but maybe it was to do with the Doctor bringing the others back 18 months later? That could work if Utopia is set way before Doctor met Martha, though I never thought Jack could be away for 18 months. If anyone has any thoughts on this vital matter, please let me know.

Torchwood: End of Days

Three weeks? I don't believe it. But as the 50th anniversary celebrations are (almost) behind me, hopefully I can find some more time for this.

(Originally written 10/9/13)

I like that this is a season finale which draws on lots of things which have been happening throughout the season, as opposed to One Underlying Mystery. Though I’m not one who subscribes to the idea that Torchwood Three are fundamentally crap at their jobs (unlike some people I know), it is funny to think that this is the climax of that crapness. Whoops, we opened the Rift and now people are out of time, whoops, we opened the Rift again and now Abaddon is killing everyone.

But what is it that finally causes one of Torchwood’s employees to get the sack? Not secretly bringing a Cyberwoman/alien lesbian into the base, or misusing alien technology – no, it was Owen asking Jack who he is (after defending his opening of the Rift). I have to admit that I side with Owen on this one, as Jack never actually says that they should have been left in 1941 (in fact he didn’t seem to mind Tosh leaving the equation everywhere at the time). Furthermore, Jack wasn’t helping in the slightest – he wouldn’t say who he is and he wouldn’t offer an alternative. Besides, why does the Rift Manipulator even exist if they’re not allowed to use it?

There were a lot of big moments for Gwen this episode. She got totally burned by Jack when she argued “All your staff have feelings, Jack - even Owen” and Jack retorted “Well, you would know” (I didn’t know anyone besides Tosh knew about the affair?). Then she finally realises how important Rhys is to her when he’s so brutally killed – what a heart-wrenching reaction from Gwen. A bit of a shame though that it’s so similar to Rory’s death in Amy’s Choice:

• Amy/Gwen have been fooling around behind their boyfriend’s back
• Boyfriend is tragically killed
• “What is the (fucking) point of you?”
• Boyfriend comes back to life

There was also a similarity to Combat – in that episode the Weevils were said to be telepathic and to feel each other’s pain, whereas in this episode they’re said to be time-sensitive. I can’t tell if the writers are trying to actually make the Weevils more interesting creatures, or just giving them new powers every time they need to explain something in a hurry.

And if we’re talking about parallels, I’ve got to mention the elephant in the room – Jack as Jesus. First he’s betrayed by those closest to him, then he has to die to save us all, then he comes back to life after a few days. That’s painfully obvious.

And why was Jack so weak coming back after being shot? Pretty sure he’s always been fine coming back from the dead, except after Abaddon. I wonder if it’s just so they had an excuse for him to lean on Ianto? I certainly got my usual warm fuzzy feeling when they kissed.

This season was honestly a lot of fun. Even when the characters did stupid things, the stories were interesting and went in a lot of different directions. I’m a bit more familiar with Series 2, so we’ll see if it gives me as many surprises as this one did.