Torchwood Series 1

[Sheldon Finklestein]

I must say, though I liked it, the second episode was all wrong tonally. Half the time, the show was asking us to be sorry for the girl from planet Nympho and the other half it was making cracks at her expense. Maybe my unconditional love of Doctor Who is impairing my judgement, but I still like it.

[Alberon]

Generally I liked it. The second episode wasn't quite as good, but the bit about Indira Varma's character threw me as well. I was going, "Yeah yeah, this is the bit where Gwen gets tested".

As to being gritty and dark. Well, it isn't, at least this far. It also seems a little blurry at times, though I suppose that's an effect of the HD cameras? So far it looks like it's going to be fun.

[Bert Thung]

I thought it was great fun. Though that "New Adventures" comparison of BH's did send a shiver down my spine. At least it didn't give us an extra six unwanted years of The McCoy Era.

[difbrook]

Well.

Episode 1 was rather good, I thought. Nice setup, although the Captain Scarlet routine was definitely unwanted (and I'm one of the people who actually loves Gerry's cgi remake). Gwen was pretty good, in a sort of "viewer-identification" way - she learns what the audience needs to know to get the setup of the series. So far, so good. I presume the "weevil" or whatever he was called was meant to look like the Master from season 1 Buffy as a deliberate nod, given Russell's previously stated love for it.

Episode 2 though - EDIT - I've decided that if I can't say anything nice about it, I'm not going to say anything at all...

oh, and if we really don't want it to play like one of the early period New Adventures, pray that there isn't going to be 50 minutes set entirely in Cyberspace before too much longer...

[Huzzie]

Just finished watching them.

Awful awful, fucking terrible program!

I will never ever watch this show again.

And I just know that when I read what you lot have said I will see some "Well I thought it was great fun!"... Fucking "great fun"! That means nothing more than an excuse in denial.


EDIT: Sorry if no one has said this but I am even sorrier if anyone has.

[Rev]

The first was alright in a wobbly opening episode kind of way.  The second was a load of old cock, but I have to agree with what RTD said in the accompanying programme:  it's an adult-oriented sci-fi show, the intergalactic shagmonster is inevitable.  Best to get it out of the way early on.

The format's alright, really, but we're probably looking at a late-period X Files scenario here.  Mostly crap, with the odd good episode.  Which is why I'm still quite looking forward to Mr. Hammond's episodes.

[Bert Thung]

And I just know that when I read what you lot have said I will see some "Well I thought it was great fun!"... Fucking "great fun"! That means nothing more than an excuse in denial.

Yeah, I quite enjoyed it. No masterpiece but some really enjoyable stuff in the mix. The two leads are very strong I thought.

Denial? Don't be daft. I could care less whether this show is successful or not. In fact, just before I watched it, I was really pissed off at an infuriating interview RTD gave to The Independent where he went on some half-witted rant about the "snobbishness" of people who don't like Big Brother. And how reality television teaches you more than drama can.  His usual crap elevating, standard lowering bullshit opinions that did not put me in the best frame of mind for watching his new telly show.

If it comforts you, I don't think it's in the same league as stuff like Doomwatch or Sapphire and Steel. Though I do think it's much better than Spooks. A show, the few times I've seen it, can't decide whether it's telefantasy or docudrama.

No way did I think it was it the epic turkey some are making it out to be on here. And I think it'll be a hit show I have to warn you.

[benthalo]

The second was a load of old cock, but I have to agree with what RTD said in the accompanying programme:  it's an adult-oriented sci-fi show, the intergalactic shagmonster is inevitable.  Best to get it out of the way early on.

I can't agree. Why not act your age and just not commission it? That's an option too. The above RTD statement clearly translates as "It has to sit as episode 2 because of the character set up. We were just lumbered with the rest of it so made the best of a bad job." You have to subtract so much spin when it comes to BBC Wales.

Episode 1 had enough to hint at it possibly being OK as the series settles down, but... oh, I don't know. I just don't like any of the regulars beyond Gwen. The whole format seems wrong to me.

[lipsink]

The character of Gwen was simply a retread of Rose in the first few episodes of new Doctor Who: Young girl drawn out of her everyday existence and boring bland boyfriend by the excitement of a mysterious figure. For christ's sake can't we have a different way to start a story please? Captain Jack even basically said pretty much the same speech to Gwen that the Doctor gave in 'Rose'. Something about "Go home, forget about this. Eat lasagne." very similar to "Go home, forget me." and he kept refering to her with her full name like "Pleased to meet you, Rose Tyler". I really hope RTD doesn't do the same with the next Doctor Who companion. Yes, the Doctor's life is exciting compared to our mundane existence! We get it! Can we move on please?

This show was shit. I shan't be watching again.

[Still Not George]

It's a gay metaphor, innit. Bloke with bland girlfriend and boring life meets strange mysterious bloke and is swept up in strange world he knows nothing about. Alright, alright, I'm stretching a point there...

So, we had a bunch of people over to watch this as most of them either don't have digital or didn't have as many friends as me. The general mood was that it was OK, not brilliant but certainly not shit.

The first episode seemed to me a combination of Rose with the first episode of Ultraviolet. Certainly not a combination to be sniffed at in my opinion, and it had nods to all sorts of other shows in it - Neverwhere (the "they can't see us" bit), Babylon 5 ("We don't know where Torchwood 4 is - we might find it again, one day") , and so on. I missed a lot of the first part of it while cooking burgers, but it did seem OK.

The second ep... well, it was a direct and very faithful copy of an episode of The Outer Limits - Caught In The Act. Although the sex was more graphic in Torchwood, and the woman a good deal skankier. Beyond the unoriginality (and the rather irritating and predictable Woman Kissing Woman scene), there wasn't much too it. Still, for once it wasn't all resolved using the Power Of Love, like it was in TOL.

Still, since all of the crowd in my living room were either a) Male, b) Bisexual Female, or c) Cerys, it went down remarkably well. I was distinctly unimpressed by two things, both of which have already been mentioned - firstly the Time Vortex Wankery, and secondly the gay bloke being killed by the alien slutwhore.

Still, I have to give Torchwood credit for allowing me to type the words "gay bloke being killed by the alien slutwhore."

[Sivead]

hmm, was that gun at the end of episode 1 the old namco arcade light gun? http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Domino/3173/gun1.gif

[lipsink]

I hate the way all RTD's marketing of it is trying to sell it as groundbreaking and subverting cliches etc. when in the first scene of episode 2 we had the age old cliche of: Man and woman having a meal when the woman show interest in sex ("Shall we go home and have an early night?") to which the man instantly shouts "Cheque please!" to a member of staff. It's just little things like this that fuck me off about Doctor Who as well. Just avoid these lazy cliches please.

[Alberon]

According to MediaGuardian, the opening two parter got 2.4m viewers. Apparently it's one of the biggest ever for a multichannel (as they put it).

EDIT - MediaGuardian is now saying its the biggest multichannel audience ever for a "UK-originated, non-sport" programme.

[goldfish]

Did anyone spot any major blatant Who references? There was the hand, of course, and a nod to the TARDIS, but I didn't spot anything else.

Guppy mentioning that gases can be pretty dangerous, with a pointed look at Gwen.

[Cerys]

Having geared myself up to be disappointed by it, I found myself enjoying it immensely.  Just goes to show what having the right attitude will do for you.

Edit -

Guppy mentioning that gases can be pretty dangerous, with a pointed look at Gwen.

Guppy - that was his name.  Thankyou!  I loved him in Bleak House but had a mental block when it came to remembering the character's name.  Plus being too lazy to move the few yards it would have taken to look in the book, blush.

[lazyhour]

Oh, that's a shame -- I assumed the 'gas never hurt anyone' line was a reference to the holocaust, and I must admit I chuckled.  What would the Doctor Who reference be?  I think I'll continue to believe it was a holocaust reference, as I'd prefer that.

I go along with the (almost) consensus that episode one looked like it could have been setting up an above-average show, but episode two let things down a bit.

On a very base, sexual level, I am finding Gwen extraordinarily appealing, and that might explain why I came away from Torchwood with a broadly positive feeling.

Certainly better than RTD's Doctor Who, which is in the main appallingly-scripted shit.

[goldfish]

Oh, that's a shame -- I assumed the 'gas never hurt anyone' line was a reference to the holocaust, and I must admit I chuckled.  What would the Doctor Who reference be?  I think I'll continue to believe it was a holocaust reference, as I'd prefer that..

The woman playing Gwen Cooper played a girl called Gwyneth in DW's 'The Unquiet Dead.' Gwyneth was killed by aliens (who she mistook for angels, being a Victorian girl) who existed in a gaseous state and had to possess corpses or hide in gas pipes to survive.

[lazyhour]

Oh yeah.  Bollocks to that then!

[The Duck Man]

I don't think it was specifically a Doctor Who reference. I took it just as a general "gas does kill people, actually" line.

[Entropy Balsmalch]

but I have to agree with what RTD said in the accompanying programme:  it's an adult-oriented sci-fi show, the intergalactic shagmonster is inevitable.  Best to get it out of the way early on.

The thing is though - I couldn't think of anything more purile than the idea of a shagmonster.

It's about as aduly orientated as a line drawing of a cock and some balls.

[samadriel]

The thing is though - I couldn't think of anything more purile than the idea of a shagmonster.

It's about as aduly orientated as a line drawing of a cock and some balls.

Quite, quite.  RTD's the gay bloody Mark Millar of TV. (...comics reference.  n/m)

I enjoyed the first episode, didn't see the second.  The thing is, tho' -- it's not an 'adult sci-fi show'.  It's certainly no bloody Battlestar Galactica, to pick a contemporary example, and I don't mean because it's not a space opera and it's set in Cardiff.  It's just a gorier, more sexually explicit Doctor Who with a few crowbarred-in swearwords. (that forensics bloke in the first scene, talking to Gwen -- "It's a fucking disgrace" -- came off like Roy Chubby Brown as the Mayor of Royston Vasey.  "Thanks for speaking with us, Mr Mayor." "It's a fucking pleasure.")

If one can overlook that, and the utterly, utterly duff "Lalala, welcome to my magical world, these are the token GI-Joe-esque roles taken by my staff, I showed you something amazing and you pointed out a minor premise hole, that's so Welsh" type babble from Jack, then it's not a bad little watch.  It'll comfortably fill the time between now and the next season of DW, at least.

And that Gwen is a bit of a goer, in't she.

[Catalogue Trousers]

The odd thing is, the first episode might have worked better dramatically if it had all been a test to see if Gwen was Torchwood material. I can't help but think of the UFO episode Exposed, which deals with Paul Foster - following his sighting of a UFO and his friend and co-pilot's subsequent death - being sacked from his job, having his story mocked by his "girlfriend", getting his apartment ransacked and being beaten up by apparent thugs just to see how far he's willing to go to find the truth.

The kicker there, of course, is that it was all a test, and the episode ends with Foster's determination being rewarded by his enrolment into SHADO. Dramatically satisfying and intriguing where it counted. This didn't quite measure up.

[Alberon]

I dunno, the 'it's all a test' storyline has popped up a lot over the years, if not in such a big way as the UFO episode. The finale was the one big unexpected bit for me in the first episode and I was thrown precisely because I was expecting it to be a test.

As to the whole bit about Jack's immortality, that will probably have a pay-off in the third Doctor Who series. There have been some vague hints that the Doctor isn't happy Jack is up and walking around after he was exterminated by the Daleks. Jack's two missing years as a Time Agent will probably be revealed by the end of the third series of Doctor Who, though it might be dealt with in Torchwood.

[the hum]

I thought the first episode was pretty good, although I picked up pretty quickly on it being partly a re-hash of 'Rose', it held my attention all the same.  The direction was the strong point, very stylish, liked all the aerial stuff around Cardiff in particular.  I'm not familiar with Brian Kelly's other work, but I'd say they should get him working on future episodes of Who.  Nice to see a bit of blood and gore, something which is lacking in DW-proper, lord knows why.  I can remember a few instances in classic Who of people with gunshot wounds etc.

The second episode however had me going 'oh for christ's sake' in a number of places.  Actually if I hadn't known I would've said it was the Davies-scripted one.  And they may be digging themselves a hole by making Jack 'a man of mystery'.  Lines like 'who are you? where are you from?', should not be used for anything other than addressing the good Doctor himself.  Jack aint the Doc, and, as far as we know, isn't a Timelord either.

[Bert Thung]

Torchwood scores digital first

Jason Deans, broadcast editor
Monday October 23, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk

BBC3's Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood launched with 2.4 million viewers last night - believed to be the biggest ever multichannel audience for a UK-originated, non-sports programme.

The heavily promoted BBC3 drama, about a bunch of alien hunters in Cardiff, is thought to be second only to an episode of Friends, broadcast on Sky One six years ago, which attracted 2.8 million viewers.

Multichannel ratings are traditionally dominated by live football and US imports such as The Simpsons, so the success of the homegrown Torchwood is a real boon for BBC3.

The BBC digital channel's previous best is thought to be the 1.9 million viewers who tuned into an episode of Little Britain in October 2004.

Last night's first episode of Torchwood was the third most watched show on any UK network in its timeslot, between 9pm and 9.50pm, beaten only by ITV1's Prime Suspect and Channel 4 movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Torchwood also tied for third place with BBC1 drama Wide Sargasso Sea on 2.4 million viewers.

A second instalment of the new BBC3 drama, shown back to back with the opening episode, attracted 2.3 million viewers from 9.50pm - an encouraging result, suggesting that Torchwood held most of its audience over nearly two hours.

Torchwood's stellar launch ratings boosted BBC3 to a 3.5% share of multichannel viewing yesterday, compared to the network's three month Sunday average of 0.9%.

The new BBC3 drama was up against multichannel competition including the second episode of Ruth Badger's new Sky One business reality show, The Big Idea, which attracted 164,000 viewers in the hour from 9pm.

From 10pm on Sky One, Ross Kemp on Gangs was watched by 375,000 viewers.

Sky One's highest-rating show yesterday was a new episode of The Simpsons, which drew 870,000 viewers in the half-hour from 6.30pm.

On Five US from 9pm, a CSI: NY repeat drew 160,000 viewers, while on Living TV at the same time another chance to see an episode from CSI was watched by 103,000.

Five US continued at 10pm with a CSI: Miami repeat, attracting 210,000 viewers. In the same slot on Living TV, a Grey's Anatomy repeat drew 54,000.

On UKTV Gold TV's Greatest Christmas Moments was watched by 203,000 viewers over two hours from 9pm, and on E4 Ghost Whisperer drew 129,000 in the 9pm hour.

ITV2's repeat of its previous night's Xtra Factor: Results show drew 150,000 viewers between 9.20pm and 10.05pm, with Entourage then following up with 49,000 and The Office: An American Workplace attracting 45,000.

Earlier yesterday, live coverage of Manchester United's 2-0 Premier League victory over Liverpool attracted 1.8 million viewers between 1pm and 3pm on Sky Sports 1, while Arsenal's 4-0 win over Reading drew 1.4 million in the two hours from 4pm on the same channel.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/overnights/story/0,,1929356,00.html

[Jack Shaftoe]

I really enjoyed the first episode, but am now a bit worried about watching the second, mainly because I like my SF to include metaphors for sex, not depicting it directly.

My view on it after the pilot: pretty good for current UK telly drama (damming with faint praise there), not a patch on US stuff like BSG or Buffy.

And the lighting was annoying.

[Dusty Gozongas]

I really enjoyed the first episode, but am now a bit worried about watching the second, mainly because I like my SF to include metaphors for sex, not depicting it directly.

Watch out for any episodes that make it to the U.S. then. They have a knack for that sort of thing over there (minus the metaphors too, sometimes).

Errr.. I mean the way Torchwood would be hacked to pieces if it ever made it to the US.  Re: League of Gentlemen via Comedy Central (I recall it being CC, but could be wrong. It's all on the wife's ntsc videotapes though... Pixellated and parred down to a pale and disjointed imitation of it's former self.)  There's nowt wrong with blatant innuendo and borderline soft porn a la BBC. You'd miss it if it were gone... :-)

[My Giddy Aunt]

I really enjoyed the first episode, but am now a bit worried about watching the second, mainly because I like my SF to include metaphors for sex, not depicting it directly.

I too enjoyed it without being blown away. The trailer for ep3 looked pretty encouraging.

Out of interest why do you want a specific type of treatment of sex in SF over other genres?

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

I enjoyed Torchwood, but for me, it's on the same level as RTD's Who: sackfuls of potential, bags of talent (on-and-off screen), flashes of genius...but something about it jars. See, I can easily except Jack being immortal, I can easily except the sex monster (as Malcolm Hulke once said, all you need to write sci-fi is an original idea; but of course, it doesn't have to be your original idea), but bad acting (e.g.: the dead guy in episode 1) and bad writing (e.g.: why the fuck would Gwen react that way when she first sees the Weevil? Fake plastic mask my arse, you'd run a fucking mile if you saw that thing in front of you) I cannot stand. I agree with whoever said the lighting was all wrong as well, I don't know why stuff like Who and Torchwood look so shit when the BBC's costume dramas look all moody and expensive. That said though, I still preferred these two episodes to most of Series 2 of Doctor Who.

[Still Not George]

I'll be watching it again tomorrow, but something did occur to me - they're filming this in HD, right? Anyone know if that causes things to look a bit odd? Because I definitely noticed something was... off... with the picture quality. No, not quality. I mean feel. Argh, you know what I mean.