Torchwood 1x01 - Everything Changes [SPOILERS]

aidan_walsh

Rightio then, the long awaited Torchwood finally hit the screens last night. I know a couple of threads have already popped up on various boards about it, but in the fine tradition of the television show subforums, it deserves a place of its own to be discussed.

Personally, I was a little disappointed with the first episode. It did an alright job of establishing the characters, not such a great job of establishing the Torchwood Institute itself, and basically just felt like the first 30 minutes of Will Smith in Men in Black drawn out for an hour with ads. Only less exciting.

Plenty of overhead shots established that yes, this was indeed Cardiff, and bloody proud they are of it too - in spite of the somewhat derogatory humour aimed at it in the bar between Gwen and Jack.

Plenty of little hints back to the last two Doctor Who seasons kept reminding us of the shows origins, although I have to admit that the one that endeared to me most was the subtle[?] similarities between the hub and the TARDIS. Perhaps Torchwood isn't going to be such a seperate entity to Doctor Who as we might have been lead to believe.

All in all, it was acceptable as an introduction, but it could have been much more.

Diogenes

Someone please explain what exactly was the dogs abortion of an hour and a half of tv I just witnessed? It's as if the Doctor Who writing team took their lead for the direction of this show, from the writers of a Hollyoaks late night spin off. Torchwood, "Doctor Who; Let Loose".

Ohhhh lets have lesbians, and snogging and shagging, and single entendres

. Way to completely misjudge your audiences. Why yes, basically what the older DW who fan really wanted felt was missing from the series was the odd character swearing, and an occasional raunchy snog.

The characters were bland to the point of nonexistant

can we find anything to say about the asian girl aside from "computer expert?" the creepy looking freak was just an assh*le without any redeeming character features, the PC is just "gosh we have to do something, over and bloody over again", the Alfred character is just non existant, and whatever essentially all character and personality has been forced onto Jack's shoulders, who without a foil like Doctor comes off more than a little OTT

As to the plot the first episode

why does she use such a bizarre murder weapon?

and to the second jesus

why isn't jack, a man not known for his self control, or the alfred character affected by the pheramones

I was expecting adult Sci Fi, complex morally ambigious situations, difficult decisions, social and political allegories, what I got was Doctor Who with swearing. Look I'm not looking for "Cathy Come Home" with Phasers, but if you're going to call it adult Sci Fi don't just raise the gore and phowarr content, audiences expect more than these days.

popebenny16

Do you get the feeling that they went out of their way to stress the adultness of it in a very ham fisted fashion? Perhaps after about two or three eps it may settle down a bit in that regard.

Character-wise, the team do seem to be a bit by the numbers as diogenes says, and the city shots are very CSI Miami, strainge as they namechecked it in the opening scenes.

I wasnt convinced by having PC Gwen being used as the plot tool for intoducing everything, because the vast majority of the viewers are already going to know the background of Torchwood and Captain Jack, we didnt need basicly the entire first ep telling us all about it.

So, to prove we're all grown up we get

a throat torn out (more blood! more blood!!) A scuicide, Cpt Jack shot in the head, a couple of murders, gay snog and suggestion of a threesome, oh, and there's no afterlife.

Second ep, more gayness (enough already Russell, its like Peter Thatcher writes it) good **** joke, and yes Cardiff is sitting on a poor mans' hellmouth.

I did like the nod to Douglas Adams' SEP field from Hitchhikers and I guess that severed hand is the Doctors from The Christmass Invasion.

Timeline-wise the last Ep of Season 28 was referenced (My boyfrind says is was all drugs) so we can assume its bang up to date.

From what we can gleame of the trailer for ep3 there's a lot of running around. Oh, oh, Terry Nation third eps of a story curse already? Not a good sign.

Sesheta

I wasn't that gone on the first episode - but then it did have to introduce all the characters. The second episode worked well though. Would you guys get over the gay thing! We already knew Captain Jack was try-sexual from Dr Who.

Just a quick one - when Captain Jack and Gwen use the lift from Torchwood he describes the perception shift and his explanation refers to chameleon circuits. Question - wasn't this just about there the Tardis landed last time they visited modern day Cardiff (with Christopher Eccleston's Dr)? I know they featured that fountain before!

BuffyBot

Yes, it was. Which is why the technobabble residue thingy from the chameleon circuit from the Tardis causes the perception shift.

ixoy

Well I quite liked it and don't think the swearing was particularly overdone, even if I almost gave an involuntary start at hearing a swear in the show's universe.

First episode worked well enough by way of introduction - we're seeing it from the perspective of somoene who, like us, doesn't know these people. There's a certain detached quality as a result initially which will alter over subsequent episodes.

I liked the explanation for how the TARDIS' landing created the perception shift and the hellmouth's existence. I liked the basic plot as well, because it wasn't too important next to the point of the introduction. Liked moments of humour in it too, particularly how they were all set up to make her the pizza delivery girl.

As to the characters - perhaps they needed to be fleshed out a bit more. Making Cptn. Jack too mysterious isn't as in keeping with what we saw of his more light-hearted persona in the parent show. Still much may have happened since then. Computer Girl definetely needs more personality...

As to the 'adult' angle. I wasn't expecting particularly complex plots to be honest. I always thought they'd only be slightly more detailed and that the show's more adult license would merely go towards a bit more 'realistic' swearing/nudity. Hopefully there will be a bigger arc (more complex than the weevils) and somewhat more complex stories but it's not something I expect or need to enjoy the show (even if I'd like it).
I recall the anger/hostility which greated the novel 'Transit' years ago (the first, and indeed last, DW novel to feature multiple uses of "f*ck") but thought that the more adult-tone of the novels allowed for it. Here I think it should be okay too, as long as Jack himself doesn't swear as I'd have to try and reconcile it with why he didn't swear in other situations...

Good enough intro and more than enough there to keep me viewing.