Torchwood, episode 5: Small Worlds (Spoilers)

[Cthulhudrew]

Okay- maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not sure I got the point to this episode.

We start with Jack waking up and suddenly having a premonition that he needs to take care of this problem with fairies- whose presence he's known about for close to a century (possibly less, given time travel), but who he suddenly and unexplainedly decides are an urgent problem. Things happen, and in the end he lets the fairies take the chosen one, telling Gwen that "this is the only chance we have against them."

So, basically, if he hadn't done anything- hadn't gotten Torchwood involved- there really wouldn't have been any difference in the way things worked out, except for Gwen's apartment not getting trashed, and (possibly) Estelle not getting killed. In other words, kind of a pointless episode.

Also, I didn't get the throwaway line about "there won't be any more chosen ones" at the end. What was that all about?

In other news, we get a little bit of back story on Jack- we see him going all the way back to 1909 now (though we have no explanation of why he wasn't killed along with the rest of his patrol on the train; I'd assume it was because he wasn't involved in the accident that killed the little girl, but he says that it was only a few men that were involved, yet the whole platoon died.)

Estelle also mentions that he got back in touch with her "a couple of years ago", which would put his appearance on Earth post-Parting of the Ways prior to Rose. So why didn't he attempt to get in touch with the Doctor during the intervening period (as he's so eager to do, seemingly). Even if he was worried about altering the past by contacting the Doctor prior to their first meeting, he could have tried to get in touch with Rose's mom/Mickey/Rose herself sometime during what would be last season?

Nice bit of Dr. Who continuity with the mention of the Mara, though.

Aside from the evident pointlessness of this episode, I just found it rather boring. The pacing seemed really slow, the dramatic buildup and tension was nonexistent (to me)- I didn't really get much of an idea of the fairies as a threat. Even the attempts to "scare it up"- the green lens shots, the sudden dramatic declarations (Tosh declares "I've never seen anything like that before." Cut to Jack somberly declaring "I have" as the camera sloooowly pans upwards, lingering for just a little too long)- they just seemed like they were trying too hard to bring some pathos to a script that just didn't possess it.

Then, too, I got tired of Tosh being constantly bewildered by the sudden weather changes, when Jack had explicitly told her that that was the fairies at work, and put her to watch on it for that reason. Having a Scully on a team whose purpose is to seek out and take care of alien life forms doesn't really work when the presence of those lifeforms is a known fact. It only barely works for Gwen, and that's because she's the newbie.

I don't know if I'm going to watch next week's episode or not. This show just isn't really doing it for me, sadly. (Plus, I want happy Jack back.)

 

[Morrus]

This is another episode where Torchwood do nothing. The end result is the same as if they hadn't been involved at all. The same happened with the one with the ghosts. For an elite unit, they don't seem to do much more than just watch.

The Doctor would have handled it without all the tragedy. He's way more competent!

 

[sniffles]

I thought it was a very depressing episode, although I liked the additional info about Jack.
I'm hoping they'll have a future episode in which Jack's callous behavior comes back to haunt him, and he suddenly realizes that he hasn't been living up to the Doctor's example very well.

I think I see why Torchwood does nothing now. It's backlash from what happened in 'Doomsday'. Torchwood London touched too many things and tried to do too much, so now Torchwood Cardiff is going overboard trying not to mess with anything dangerous. I expect they'll end up regretting that.

I rather liked the tentative relationship between Jack and Ianto at the beginning of the episode. It hearkened back to the previous week without spending too much time on it. I also liked it that Gwen immediately twigged to Jack's subterfuge about pretending to be his own son. I'll be very interested to learn just what else has gone on in Jack's life previous to joining Torchwood. Or maybe he's been with Torchwood for decades? We don't know how he got back to Earth after being abandoned on that space station.

I only wished that when Estelle died Gwen had shown more emotion. She's the emotional one of the team, but she just stood by looking sad. And where did Owen and Tosh go in that scene? I wanted them to ask questions about Jack's relationship to the old lady.

I think perhaps the producers are falling prey to the same fault as Lost, of trying to keep their secrets too long. They need to start letting the audience in on more of the backstory or they'll lose their less patient viewers.

 

[JEL]

Also, I didn't get the throwaway line about "there won't be any more chosen ones" at the end. What was that all about?

The fairies were threatening to wipe out all life on Earth. Jack was telling them that if they did that, there'd be no more children, therefore no more chosen ones.

In other news, we get a little bit of back story on Jack- we see him going all the way back to 1909 now (though we have no explanation of why he wasn't killed along with the rest of his patrol on the train; I'd assume it was because he wasn't involved in the accident that killed the little girl, but he says that it was only a few men that were involved, yet the whole platoon died.)

I figure he was killed and the event was after he became immortal.

Estelle also mentions that he got back in touch with her "a couple of years ago", which would put his appearance on Earth post-Parting of the Ways prior to Rose. So why didn't he attempt to get in touch with the Doctor during the intervening period (as he's so eager to do, seemingly). Even if he was worried about altering the past by contacting the Doctor prior to their first meeting, he could have tried to get in touch with Rose's mom/Mickey/Rose herself sometime during what would be last season?

I imagine he probably was trying, but always managed to be too late. He had to have been around long enough to get the Dr's hand at the very least. I see no problem here.

I thought it was a good episode overall. I like that there's stuff that Torchwood simply cannot handle. They're basically operating by the skin of their teeth trying to deal with things the best they can, which isn't very well. Being able to fix anything works great for Dr. Who, but this isn't that show.

My only problems with the episode are that the little girl was a brat and that the fairies were much more frightening when we didn't see them. As soon as they came out and attacked the party at the end, they lost their edge.

 

[Iku Rex]

Also, I didn't get the throwaway line about "there won't be any more chosen ones" at the end. What was that all about?

The faeries were threatening to turn the Earth into a frozen wasteland if Jack didn't give up the girl. Apparently they felt this to be a more effective tactic than just using their godlike powers to push Jack away and take the girl. Or something.


One nitpick: Houdini was used as an example of a faerie "believer". I seriously doubt if notorious skeptic Houdini believed the silly Cottingley Fairies hoax the episode was based on.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

The fairies were threatening to wipe out all life on Earth. Jack was telling them that if they did that, there'd be no more children, therefore no more chosen ones.

I missed that. Thanks, it makes more sense now.

I figure he was killed and the event was after he became immortal.

As I understand it, he is only immortal post-Parting of the Ways (when Rose brought him back), so unless he's been time-traveling since that episode, he should have still been mortal at the time?

My only problems with the episode are that the little girl was a brat and that the fairies were much more frightening when we didn't see them. As soon as they came out and attacked the party at the end, they lost their edge.

Yeah- they tried to redeem the little girl a bit by making her willing to make the sacrifice so no one else died, but it didn't really fit her character.

The fairies reminded me of Gollum.

 

[Falkus]

As I understand it, he is only immortal post-Parting of the Ways (when Rose brought him back), so unless he's been time-traveling since that episode, he should have still been mortal at the time?

Well, obviously he has been time traveling since then, since he's currently in the twenty-first century, and Parting of the Ways took place in the far, far future.

 

[Falkus]

Hmm, according to the letter on the Torchwood Website, Jack's time in 1909 was part of his conman days, a diamond mining scam.

Here's a new theory: Since the fairies aren't bound by linear time, perhaps the reason they spared Jack in 1909 was because he let them take Jasmine in the present.

 

[dravot]

What did Estelle do that warranted her death by the faeries?

Just uncovering their existence?

That seemed weak to me.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Here's a new theory: Since the fairies aren't bound by linear time, perhaps the reason they spared Jack in 1909 was because he let them take Jasmine in the present.

Works for me.

(Haven't checked out the Torchwood site in a while. Guess I'll have to do so again, but now I'm curious- his "con man" days. I wonder if that's what he was doing as a Time Agent, or if that was supposed to be during the 2 missing years?)