As for other cast members, John Barrowman returns as the glorious Captain Jack Harkness, once a time traveling scavenger, now a alien catching superhero, in more ways than one. Barrowman oozes charisma. It's no surprise that writer and series creator Russel Davies wanted to spin things off into a new series featuring his bi-sexual swashbuckler - the character and performance are both deeply watchable. Harkness' team are, like Gwen, mostly likeable.
Burn Gorman, who plays Owen Harper, has the look of a young Willem Dafoe about him, and is the only borderline irritating team member; Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori) doesn't get a great deal to do here, Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) is a likeable, well dressed Quentin Tarantino look-alike, and Suzie Costello (Indira Varma) features more than you'd think. It's a team with some potential, who you don't take an immediate dislike to, and that each have a clearly defined role and character.
The script is witty, effective, and not overly clunky. It's got that Doctor Who style humour, but can take it slightly further thanks to its adult targeted audience. It also nicely references its source; the Cyberman invasion from series two of new Who, the alien spacecraft from the Christmas special, the destruction of Torchwood (one of four offices, as it happens), and there's even a mention of the good Doctor himself. Fans of Who will already guess why this branch of Torchwood is placed in Cardiff, but there's an explanation for that too. The nice thing is, none of it feels forced. There's a pleasing lack of tedious exposition in Torchwood.
The only criticism of the first episode is perhaps that it doesn't have a great deal of time to produce a compelling villain, or plot. It takes its time to introduce the characters, establish who Torchwood are, why they're in Cardiff, and what they're going to do about the fact that Gwen has discovered them. There's a — seemingly tacked on — plot about some recurring murders in Cardiff that gets resolved, but it's secondary to the process of introducing everyone. And the episode just about gets away with it.
Article comments
1 - media_lush
personally I was very disapointed.....it was just like Dr Who with added sex and violence and ludicrous swearing...that is it maintained the level of writing at the same target audience of Dr. Who but seemed to add "adult" elements as an after thought. If you're going out after the watershed you can expect to have adults as your audience, not kids staying up past their bed time!
2 - Andrew Ian Dodge
I was tempted by that the bloke who plays lead really irritated me in "What to do about a Problem like Maria? However I will give it a chance based on this. I would rather it have been more Millenium than Angel but you can't have everything.
3 - Dirty Idea
Not impressed. The worst part comes first: the team. Their manner of introduction reminded me of the Spice Girls. This is Sporty Torchwood, Posh Torchwood… This much achieved, the episodes use any available plot twist to ensure that yes, we are still aware that Jack is Sexy Torchwood and that annoying little twat is ‘boyish but clever for his age’ Torchwood.
We are also to believe that they are so used to living surrounded by aliens that they don’t pay attention to a dinosaur flying around. I wasn’t able to join Gwen’s sense of awe and wonder, nor was I able to smirk at “how cool” these wild Torchwood guys are. All I could think was “Smack the conceited little mare” for her flippant copmment about the flying beast. This juxtaposition between the newbie’s sense of wonder and the seasoned pro’s complete ambivalence works with Doctor Who, though it wears thin. Here, with four people non-plussed by these amazing happenings, it grates before the end of episode 1. There’s only so many times you can hear “a transmimensional, blood sucking doo-dah…. so what?” before you start thinking “Yeah, yeah, we get it, you’re hardened to this, she’s new, you’re a pro, yadda yadda”.
Also painfully crowbarred in is the Jack/Gwen thing. It’s such a terrible cliche. She’s devoted to her man, who’s a bit boring, Jack’s gorgeous and exciting, but wait, she’s not leaving her man, but he must have her, he’s attracted to her like he never has been, blah, blah and I woke up and it was all a dream. For something that’s tagged as adult sci-fi the long term plot is transaprent and the characters are cardboard cut-out poor. Likewise, the Weevil is in place for later happenings, no doubt, as we are constantly reminded of it and Jack ensured we are aware of an open plot line by rubbing our nose vigorously in the fact that “we don’t know why! Eh? Eh?”. And “Twat-Kid… don’t you go taking that trap out again! Eh? Eh?” Oh please.
That said, there were some nice parts. The guy’s final remarks before his 2 minutes were over. The rough shagging in the toilets. Well, actually, that’s about it… not up to the mark yet.