Due to the jiggery pokery of BBC3 that’s two new episodes of Torchwood in one week, so hurrah and another thread.
Interesting episode and one that has probably been overdue for a while - how’d it all start? I liked Jack and Tosh’s stories, Ianto and Owen’s not so much. I have to say as much as I enjoyed Jack’s bit I seriously rolled my eyes in a few places. One - why are there two women running a Victorian operation? That’s hardly likely is it? Also I nearly threw something at the TV at the “He’s pretty… but you’re prettier” obligatory same sex remark - it’s like Torchwood is funded by the World Gay Council or something, why can’t they just not do it at every instance? I’m also confused as to why Owen wasn’t retconned, that’s the standard procedure when Torchwood has to deal with a civilian isn’t it?
Of course the best part was the very end - big John Hart return! It’s going to be good in the final episode in TWO FUCKING WEEKS (damn you BBC and your spasmodic scheduling approach). I’m hoping there’ll be some explanation as to quite why John is so intent on tearing Jack’s world apart - currently it seems a bit "we need a villain"ish.
Continuity error detected! I’ve just realised something, in this episode during Ianto’s story Jack says 21 months ago that he’d severed all links with London Torchwood. Fine, but then why at one point in a previous episode was he on the phone to the Prime Minister talking about Torchwood’s position within government agencies?
Whilst we’re at it the timeline seems a bit out of whack for Doctor Who/Torchwood. In the first series of Doctor Who it’s implied that the storyline is set in the current day, and in the episode with the Slitheen where Harriet Jones becomes Prime Minister the Doctor says that she runs the country for three terms which, at a minimum, would be 12 years.
So, in the xmas episode of Doctor Who where the big floating rock ends up over London, Harriet Jones is still PM and then at the end of it the Doctor brings her down. The implication therefore is that this is 12 years later at the end of her Premiership, but it all seems to have happened concurrently with the TV series as Rose’s mum isn’t 12 years older. Then at the end of the episode those lasers below the rock up and we find out eventually that that was Torchwood. Again, this would mean that the end of series 2 of Doctor Who where he meets Torchwood and it is destroyed would be 12 years in the future, and that the TV series Torchwood would have to be set 12 years in the future.
Also, I think Doctor Who is supposedly set about a year into the future. So for instance the Christmas special broadcast 2006 actually happened in 2007. And in a parallel universe.
Tosh’s story was both my favorite and the one that was almost too painful to watch. Seeing gentle, lovely Tosh sitting at the table with her face all bruised up made me want to reach into the screen and cradle her in my arms. I hope future episodes explore her relationship with Jack in more detail (and show her getting over zombie boy and finding a non-psychopathic, non-ghostly man or woman who will appreciate her [del]like me[/del]).
Though speaking of the zombie, I liked Owen’s back story a lot. I thought it was brilliant, the way that the show somehow managed to avoid making the alien brain parasite a ridiculous joke by showing how painful and bewildering it would be to have to deal with the effects of that in this real world. Burn Gorman was great as usual.
Ianto’s backstory was made by that final shot of his face crumpling as he walked away from Jack. I thought that totally nailed both his relief and his horror at the lengths he would go to for Lisa. It also puts an interesting spin on their relationship now – though I believe that his feelings for Jack now are genuine. (Especially going from what he said in “Adam” – “Torchwood gave me meaning again…you.”)
I started watching Torchwood in the first place for Jack, but the more I see, the more I like everyone. (Heh, even Gwen. :)) I don’t have a favorite character.
My turn to just get around to watching this one and speaking of continuity errors:
Didn’t we just establish like two episodes ago that zombie boy needs to avoid any type of injury because he can’t heal? I guess it’s no more ridiculous than any of the non-Jacks just getting up and walking away after standing at ground zero of a good-sized explosion, but now it seems that whole character flaw is irrelevant (up until they decide to pull it out of their ass that it’s relevant again). Just another case of the maddeningly sloppy writing I’ve come to expect from this show. grumblegrumble*