Torchwood Episode 1

Falkus · Oct 24, 2006

How Jack acts in the second episode pretty much confirms it, without actually outright saying it.

Brown Jenkin · Oct 24, 2006

JEL said:
I don't watch Sci Fi Channel. What sort of content standards to they have? This show would definitely not fly on broadcast television.

I'm with everyone saying the first episode was awesome, and the second was much less so.

Anyone pick up the not quite cameo of the Doctor?

Cable has weaker standards than broadcast. Horror, gore and adult themes are all fine. The only real standard seems to be no nudity. Normally this can be bypassed with strategic cutting. I don't know if you are familiar with Sex and the City, but that show is now showing reruns on broadcast TV with some editing. I can't imagine that Torchwood has more nudity and sex than Sex and the City, or gore than all the crime dramas or Heroes.

JEL · Oct 24, 2006

Brown Jenkin said:
Cable has weaker standards than broadcast. Horror, gore and adult themes are all fine. The only real standard seems to be no nudity. Normally this can be bypassed with strategic cutting. I don't know if you are familiar with Sex and the City, but that show is now showing reruns on broadcast TV with some editing. I can't imagine that Torchwood has more nudity and sex than Sex and the City, or gore than all the crime dramas or Heroes.

It's still going to depend on what standards Sci Fi Channel has for itself, which was my question.

sckeener · Oct 24, 2006

JEL said:
I'm with everyone saying the first episode was awesome, and the second was much less so.

(I haven't watched them yet) Was it just the acting or was it the plot that made the second less?

If they follow the methods other shows in the states are done, then the second episode actually might have been the first they filmed. Typically for new shows they film them out of order to give the cast time to bond together off camera and then film the first episode.

horacethegrey · Oct 24, 2006

Just watched the first two episodes. All I have to say is... meh. :\

Honestly? I was expecting something better. I was expecting something that could knock my socks off in terms of what a scifi show could achieve. Yet all we got was some standard MIB/X-Files copycat with a some swearing and sex mixed in.

Don't get me wrong though, I think the show is quite decent in some places. John Barrowman is pretty good as Jack Harkness, who seems to have matured from the sex-crazed conman we were introduced to in The Lonely Child to a fine team leader (

SPOILERS it was quite a shocker for me to see that he can't die this time. Obviously Rose did too good a job bringing him back to life.

SPOILERS.) Eve Myles also impressed me as Gwen Cooper. Being the closest to a human link the audience has, she does a fine job in making all the strange happenings relatble on a human level. The rest of the cast I could take or leave. None of them really left an impression on me to even care about them.

Another thing I think is wrong with the show is that it can't seem to decide what tone it should take. Is it serious and scary? With an emphasis on the fear of the unknown much like the X-Files was? Or is it tongue in cheek? Focusing on humor and the witty dialogue, much like Doctor Who? Perhaps they were trying to mix both, yet couldn't quite succeed (SPOILERS a good example of this is the scene with the Weevil SPOILERS).

Now I have grown to respect Russel T. Davies recently for his work on Doctor Who, but lately he's just been annoying me over his boasts on how Torchwood would be a more adult kind of scifi. In my opinion though, having a bunch of soft core sex scenes and same sex kissing on the program doesn't count for mature programming. I'm not bothered per se by such scenes, but really they come off kind of juvenile more than anything. Perhaps Mr. Davies ought to watch Farscape and Battlestar Galactica as examples of how to pull off mature scifi for future episodes.

Gah. Anyway, I'm ending my little rant here. I'll probably catch the rest of the episodes to see if they improve. But in all honesty? I don't think this series will capture me in the way the new Doctor Who did.

sniffles · Oct 24, 2006

Morrus said:
OK.. I missed that entirely! I saw the hand, but I didn't put two and two together. I remember Jack saying it had sentimental value to him or something. Was anything else said to indicate that was the Doctor's hand?

I don't recall that he said anything else to confirm that suspicion, but that's immediately what I thought of when he said it was important to him. The writers could just be leading us on, though. It will be fun to see if my guess is right.

Oh, and as far as references to the Doctor, when he explained how people couldn't perceive the lift he remarked on a 'dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit parked near a spatial rift' as the probable cause of the perceptual disfunction.

JEL · Oct 24, 2006

sckeener said:
(I haven't watched them yet) Was it just the acting or was it the plot that made the second less?

If they follow the methods other shows in the states are done, then the second episode actually might have been the first they filmed. Typically for new shows they film them out of order to give the cast time to bond together off camera and then film the first episode.

The story wasn't very strong and it felt very gratuitous. Like they were just out to show how adult they could be (which inevitably comes across as anything but).

delericho · Oct 24, 2006

Falkus said:
The severed hand that the Doctor lost during The Christmas Invasion.

I assumed that it was Mark Hammill's hand, and Jack was just a really obsessive Star Wars fan.

sniffles said:
Oh, and as far as references to the Doctor, when he explained how people couldn't perceive the lift he remarked on a 'dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit parked near a spatial rift' as the probable cause of the perceptual disfunction.

I did think that line was particularly clever.

sniffles · Oct 25, 2006

JEL said:
The story wasn't very strong and it felt very gratuitous. Like they were just out to show how adult they could be (which inevitably comes across as anything but).

I could have done without the graphic scene, but I did find the reactions of the characters amusing. If they don't do that kind of thing every episode I won't object.

I thought the 'threatening alien' plot itself wasn't what was important about that story. The important part of the episode was how Gwen was already finding a niche for herself on the team, and how she is destined to bring them together on a human level and become their conscience.

Huw · Oct 25, 2006

JEL said:
The story wasn't very strong and it felt very gratuitous. Like they were just out to show how adult they could be (which inevitably comes across as anything but).

My theory is that episode 2 is the controversy generating one. Let's see (spoilers):
1.

Exploding cute animal

2.

Explosive orgasms

3.

Alien Sex

4.

Lesbian Kiss

5.

Masturbation

And let's not forget the line "He came and went".

That was just evil

I think both episodes have set the scene nicely. Good characters, good jokes and an attitude. Just need some good stories now.