Hello there, Faithful Reader!
It's fair to say that this series of Torchwood took some time to dig in. The jarring from Cardiff to America, and the involvement of the CIA, particularly Rex Matheson, definitely took some time to get used to. Rex was brusque, unlikeable and unheroic, despite his grim expression and gritted teeth, and Esther Drummond was a bit wet and scared and pointless.
So, by episode ten, are they, actually, Torchwood? And if they are, are they heroes?
Damn right they are.
By episode nine we know that the Blessing is something that connects Buenos Aires and Shanghai and it is something that needs, and calls for, Jack's blood. We have Torchwood split in two and in strategic places, helped randomly by an increasingly pointless Oswald Danes and hindered by an increasingly confused Jilly Kitzinger. Back at Langley, the closest we have to a HUB, John de Lancie - for whichever character John de Lancie plays it is, without a doubt, John de Lancie - barks orders out Picardlike and seems the stony faced, unmoving, granite chiselled Secret Service man of old. We also know, finally, that the Three Families, after seeing Jack in 1928, have used the knowledge of his immortality, given to him by Rose Tyler, to create and distribute the Miracle. Why? Is it to enhance the finances of the pharmaceutical giant Phicorp? To create a Messiah in the form of paedophillic murder Oswald Danes? Or, perhaps, something else?
Well, actually, it's something else. But nothing too taxing.
Torchwood Team One and Two, now with the help, albeit knowingly of Langley thanks to Rex, eventually find there way to the hub of the matter - the reason both cities are important - and find a way to destroy the Miracle - and with the Miracle gone, everything, it seems, snaps back to normal, including the Category Ones now becoming, actually death. With one bullet, it seems, Gwen Cooper can bring death to the world. But at what cost? Who has to die to bring back death? And if Jack's blood is needed on both sides of the world at once, what do Esther and Rex do if they find themselves without it, and a gun at their head? Have, in fact, the families won?
You know, this is another episode which uses the words "The Doctor said," and it also uses the words, "Racnoss", "Silurian" and "Hibernation Matrix" and well as "a sympbiotic morphic field, fed on the blood of an Immortal." But when Gwen turns to Jack and says "You don't know, do you?" Jack has to smile back.
With Davies AND Espenson at the helm for this one, all neatly wrapped in a story by RTD, we know we're getting epic, we're getting emotions, we're getting sharp dialogue and we're getting twists. Desperately, I didn't want the soul sapping emptiness I was left with at the end of Children of Earth, I wanted it to be triumphant, to be magnificent, and I wanted a punch the air moment.
There are at least three of those in this episode, but not all of the Torchwood team survive. Even more are changed for ever. But this story is complete, with a neat segue into Torchwood Five, should it ever emerge, and the Doctor Who anniversary year, because, let's face it, it won't be the same without Gwen. Or whatever shape Torchwood takes.
John Barrowman is as good as he's ever been, here, and this is a sharply cut, brilliantly edited piece of heart thumping, air punching, adrenalin whooping actioner as you'll ever see. It is this best this new Torchwood will get, and, probably, insures it another series of this type. It's sad, of course, it has it's casualties, and it has at least two WTF??? Moments that will absolutely resonate back to the Doctor.
As an experiment, it was patchy at times, and it changed gears too often and it was probably too long. Ten or thirteen mostly individual episodes (can we see the US order 22?) would be better, and, for what's left of the Torchwood team, and to add new faces, would be the best way to go.
Roll on the next time we see "that" man, who cannot die, and who's a bit pissed off about it.
Phew. Torchwood made it!
So, by episode ten, are they, actually, Torchwood? And if they are, are they heroes?
Damn right they are.
By episode nine we know that the Blessing is something that connects Buenos Aires and Shanghai and it is something that needs, and calls for, Jack's blood. We have Torchwood split in two and in strategic places, helped randomly by an increasingly pointless Oswald Danes and hindered by an increasingly confused Jilly Kitzinger. Back at Langley, the closest we have to a HUB, John de Lancie - for whichever character John de Lancie plays it is, without a doubt, John de Lancie - barks orders out Picardlike and seems the stony faced, unmoving, granite chiselled Secret Service man of old. We also know, finally, that the Three Families, after seeing Jack in 1928, have used the knowledge of his immortality, given to him by Rose Tyler, to create and distribute the Miracle. Why? Is it to enhance the finances of the pharmaceutical giant Phicorp? To create a Messiah in the form of paedophillic murder Oswald Danes? Or, perhaps, something else?
Well, actually, it's something else. But nothing too taxing.
Torchwood Team One and Two, now with the help, albeit knowingly of Langley thanks to Rex, eventually find there way to the hub of the matter - the reason both cities are important - and find a way to destroy the Miracle - and with the Miracle gone, everything, it seems, snaps back to normal, including the Category Ones now becoming, actually death. With one bullet, it seems, Gwen Cooper can bring death to the world. But at what cost? Who has to die to bring back death? And if Jack's blood is needed on both sides of the world at once, what do Esther and Rex do if they find themselves without it, and a gun at their head? Have, in fact, the families won?
You know, this is another episode which uses the words "The Doctor said," and it also uses the words, "Racnoss", "Silurian" and "Hibernation Matrix" and well as "a sympbiotic morphic field, fed on the blood of an Immortal." But when Gwen turns to Jack and says "You don't know, do you?" Jack has to smile back.
With Davies AND Espenson at the helm for this one, all neatly wrapped in a story by RTD, we know we're getting epic, we're getting emotions, we're getting sharp dialogue and we're getting twists. Desperately, I didn't want the soul sapping emptiness I was left with at the end of Children of Earth, I wanted it to be triumphant, to be magnificent, and I wanted a punch the air moment.
There are at least three of those in this episode, but not all of the Torchwood team survive. Even more are changed for ever. But this story is complete, with a neat segue into Torchwood Five, should it ever emerge, and the Doctor Who anniversary year, because, let's face it, it won't be the same without Gwen. Or whatever shape Torchwood takes.
John Barrowman is as good as he's ever been, here, and this is a sharply cut, brilliantly edited piece of heart thumping, air punching, adrenalin whooping actioner as you'll ever see. It is this best this new Torchwood will get, and, probably, insures it another series of this type. It's sad, of course, it has it's casualties, and it has at least two WTF??? Moments that will absolutely resonate back to the Doctor.
As an experiment, it was patchy at times, and it changed gears too often and it was probably too long. Ten or thirteen mostly individual episodes (can we see the US order 22?) would be better, and, for what's left of the Torchwood team, and to add new faces, would be the best way to go.
Roll on the next time we see "that" man, who cannot die, and who's a bit pissed off about it.
Phew. Torchwood made it!
Happy Times and Place
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