The cast of TORCHWOOD.
© BBC
Mania Grade: A
Episodes: 1 thru 9
Starring: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori, Gareth David-Lloyd
Episodes: 1 thru 9
Starring: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori, Gareth David-Lloyd
Let’s Talk TORCHWOOD #1 - 9
By: Stephen LackeyReview Date: Monday, October 08, 2007
Being a fan of science fiction, fantasy, and horror media, I’m fairly used to elitism among fans. The vast majority of fans of the various shows in these genres are just regular folks who just so happen to prefer these types of series. Lately though, I have been among the fans that seem to be the most elitist of the elite fans: these are Doctor Who fans. I have friends who are just regular fans too, but when I bring up the fact that I’m going to start checking out Torchwood, I always get a few who say “well you can’t truly appreciate Torchwood if you haven’t seen the proper episodes of Doctor Who, and you can’t appreciate those episodes of Doctor Who unless you’ve watched the entire series”. Well, as many of you know, I don’t really care for Doctor Who so I didn’t listen to those elitist fans and I just dove into the first nine episodes of Torchwood. Let me say this right away, I had no trouble getting to know the characters and following the storyline of Torchwood having not watched Doctor Who.
So, here’s the setup. Torchwood is a special ops group located in England that specializes in catching aliens that are running rampant across the U.K. The team also archives any alien technology they come across and they try their best to figure out how to use the technology to protect the world against encroaching aliens. In the first episode, Torchwood the team hits the streets to investigate a murdered man. They push the regular cops back so they can have some private time with the body. One beat cop, Gwen, is more curious than her partners and not willing to just step aside for this covert group so she sneaks around to get a better view of what they are up too. The team is actually just looking to test a new piece of alien tech not to investigate the murder. Gwen changes modes from investigating the murder to investigating the group, the leader Captain Jack Harkness (anybody else thing this is an odd name?) in particular. Her investigation eventually gets her to close and by the end she’s a member of the team.
I’ve really gotten into serialized television such as Battlestar Galactica, LOST, 24, and others. So, of course I was hoping for some long term storyline to follow and their really isn’t one, at least not so far. Now, there are some personal dramas to follow and the mystery about whom, or what Jack Harkness really is. On the personal drama front, Gwen’s story really isn’t handled every well outside of her work as a part of Torchwood. The series starts with her having a boyfriend and we do get a bit of the struggle they have maintaining their relationship. She eventually cheats on him and finally he just disappears from the show. The ending of her boyfriend character was a stumble for an otherwise well done series. No one in the team seems to know anything about Harkness, but Gwen is able to find out quite a bit, even if he doesn’t admit she’s right about her discoveries. He has to admit to her that he can’t die, and eventually she discovers just how old he really is, but that’s about it so far. Speaking of Gwen’s investigative skills, they seem to be where her place is on the team. Initially she, and I, wondered what she could do on a team that seems to be a world different from her all with knowledge outside of her realm. What she brings to the team is a level of humanity that has been lost to the rest and her skills as a police officer with interrogation and investigation. To the point of the lack of a heavily serialized mythology, this series, at least so far, doesn’t need it. Shows like Smallville need a serialized mythology because their story of the week is usually really lame but the alien of the week episodes of Torchwood are universally satisfying. Before you start commenting, without giving away spoilers, yes some early stories do get returned to in future episodes for final closure so not every week features an all new story.
If you are new to British TV, the first thing you’ll have to get used to are the production values. Torchwood is a mixed bag of low budget video and surprisingly good CGI. Many British television shows are shot on video which is still mostly only relegated to reality shows in the States making the series appear cheaper than genre shows shot here. I know that BSG is shot on video, but it’s hi def video which doesn’t look nearly as cheap as the standard def video that is used for Torchwood. Once I got used to the video look of the show, I was surprised at the quality of some of the CGI. Another thing, a sort of nitpicky thing, is that anytime these people wield guns they look pretty ridiculous. It makes since that Gwen should appear untrained because she is but Captain Jack is supposed to be a pro and he just looks clumsy when he’s holding a gun, as do the rest of the cast. Speaking of Captain Jack, I know a lot of people just love this guy but I’m not completely sold on him. He can really be an ass in general pretty often and in many serious situations he has this really irritating smirk on his face. I get that there’s something different about him and maybe his reactions are a part of that but I can’t completely like him because of it. It’s fine that I don’t like him so much though; in fact it makes the team more interesting than if every character was just great. Gwen, on the other hand, is very likable right away.
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I really enjoyed the first series and am looking forward to the second. It was fun, but there some things that bothered me (like the gun-weilding), such as Capt. Jack's pronunciation of "estrogen" in the pilot with the long 'e' sound. If he's American, he'd pronounce it with a short 'e'. Additionally, for a really specialized team of 'experts,' they sure seemed mighty petty sometimes.
I'd suggest, Stevey, that you give the new Who (starting w/ Eccleston) another shot. I really, *really* didn't like Who up until I decided to see what the revival was about, which was sometime into Series 2. While it's not necessary to watch Who to appreciate Torchwood, there is a lot of good Capt.' Jack stuff that happens on Who, and with the appearance of Martha Jones in Cardiff for S2 of Torchwood, we're bound to get even more soon.