Doctor Who Review – Torchwood – Series 1

The word Torchwood in large red capital letters on a background of black and grey stripes, above a photo of the 5 members of the Torchwood team, with John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness in the centre.

Welcome to the next in my series of Doctor Who reviews for the modern era. Following on from my reviews of The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 1-2 & Series 3-5, I’m now going to revisit Torchwood, the other much more adult spin-off created by Russell T Davies. The show includes sex, violence, swearing and topics that wouldn’t be at all suitable for Doctor Who. But it’s a lot of fun, with some really interesting stories, distinctive characters, great action, enjoyable humour, a solid soundtrack and beautiful high definition visuals.

I saw it on TV when it first came out and originally bought the DVDs, before I then got all 4 series on Blu-ray. So I already know I like the show, but it’s been quite a while since I last put time aside to watch it. Hence it’s nice to go back through it again, especially as I don’t remember all of the stories vividly. I’ve also compiled big Youtube playlists for Series 1-2 and Series 3-4, with episode clips, behind the scenes footage, music tracks and much more, as I’ve done for my other Doctor Who reviews.

So let’s get on with my in-depth review of the first series, and I hope you enjoy!

Contents

Doctor Who References

Captain Jack

The time travelling agent Captain Jack Harkness (played by the fantastic John Barrowman) is an intelligent, strong, courageous, handsome, flirtatious and very funny guy, who was first introduced in Series 1 of Doctor Who, when he rescues Rose during the London Blitz in World War II during the two-part Empty Child story (episodes 9 & 10). After helping Rose and the Doctor to save everybody’s lives, the Doctor then returns the favour by bringing him on board the Tardis, where he remains as a second companion for the rest of the series.

However, Jack is then killed by the Daleks in the final episode, The Parting Of The Ways, only for Rose to absorb the time vortex and use her god-like powers to bring him back to life. But because she’s out of control, she resurrects him permanently, as a fixed point in time, meaning he can never die.

Whilst we as viewers don’t yet realise that this has turned him immortal, believing him to have just one more shot at life, the Doctor knows otherwise, and leaves Jack behind as an impossible paradox. This is one of the issues that troubles Jack during the first series of Torchwood, knowing that he can’t die without understanding why. He only learns the truth in Series 3 of Doctor Who – which directly follows on from the final episode of this first series of Torchwood – when he and the Doctor discuss it fully in the three-part Utopia finale, after the Tardis has flown to the end of the universe to try and stop him from clinging on.

And in the very last episode of that series, it’s revealed that Jack will continue ageing even though he can’t die, and will eventually become The Face Of Boe, although it’s not clear if he himself has realised that yet. He has been made aware about the message to the Doctor from Boe though – “You are not alone” – so at some later stage he obviously remembers what message to give him. He just has to wait billions of years to deliver it!

Jack would go on to appear in some later episodes of Doctor Who as well, but for this first series of Torchwood that’s pretty much all the critical information you need to know. And of course we learn more about him as the Torchwood series progresses, including how he got his name, the impact of being immortal, and why it’s important that he kept the Doctor’s hand that was cut off during a fight in the Doctor Who special The Christmas Invasion.

Of course, there have also been reports in the last few years about John Barrowman’s inappropriate behaviour involving nudity on the set of Doctor Who and elsewhere, which are stories from a long time ago that John has already told himself, so they came as a surprise to nobody. But sections of the media picked up on them, accusing him of sexual harassment (which he firmly denies and has never been charged with as there’s no evidence of it). He did apologise as a result of the reports though, explaining that his actions were high spirits taken too far without any offence intended, and it’s not the sort of thing he would do now.

Whether you accept that or not is up to you, but I have no reason to disbelieve him personally, as I’ve long known what his sense of humour is like from things like the behind the scenes material and convention clips I’ve seen. That’s not a defence of his more risqué behaviour, but I’m happy to accept that he’s learned from it, and the reports about him are an awful lot tamer than the severe allegations against Noel Clarke (who has written one of these Torchwood episodes). But as I wasn’t there, I’m not qualified to judge or comment on any of the specifics, and it’s far outside the scope of a review post like this. I just couldn’t mention John without acknowledging his situation.

In any case, John has understandably had a tough few years as a result of the media coverage, and has found it very difficult to get work. But he’s now making a live comeback touring the UK with his cabaret-style show called Laid Bare. I understand that at one point during the show he addresses the events of the last few years and the impact they had on him, which I gather is very moving from the reviews I’ve read. But I’ll be finding out for myself anyway, as I’ve booked to see the show soon, because I’ve never seen him live before and it does look great. So I’m really looking forward to it, and I will of course share my thoughts afterwards. I also hope we get to see him back on TV one day, as he is an incredible performer.

Other Characters

A few other Torchwood actors and characters have also had significant roles in Doctor Who.

In Series 1 Episode 3 (The Unquiet Dead) we meet a character called Gwyneth who dies to save the Doctor, and she’s played by Eve Myles, who would go on to play leading character Gwen in Torchwood. That connection would later be acknowledged in the 10th Doctor’s big finale The End Of Time.

In addition, the Unquiet Dead also introduces the concept of Cardiff having a rift in time running through it, which the Doctor uses to refuel his Tardis occasionally during the series, and it’s beneath this rift that Torchwood has its base in the spin-off. The rift plays a central role in the series as that’s where all the “flotsam and jetsam”, as Jack calls it, falls into Cardiff from across time and space.

Then in the very next episode (Aliens Of London), Japanese actress Naoko Mori plays Toshiko Sato, when the Doctor encounters an alien pig and explains to her what it is. Toshiko then became a main character in Torchwood, and she recalls her space pig encounter in the Torchwood episode Exit Wounds from Series 2. It’s also during the second series of Torchwood that the Doctor’s companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) joins the gang to help them out a bit, so I’ll also be talking about her in my review of that series.

Torchwood Institute

The Torchwood Institute was also first established in Doctor Who – and indeed is an anagram of that show’s name, so the name Torchwood was used in early production material for the Doctor Who revival before it was more widely known, to avoid any secrets getting out.

The first fleeting mention of Torchwood is in the Series 1 episode Bad Wolf, when it’s the answer to a question posed by the Anne Droid in The Weakest Link. But it was in Series 2 where it was really pushed into the viewer’s consciousness with several references, beginning with the festive special The Christmas Invasion, when Prime Minister Harriet Jones commands them to shoot down the Sycorax spaceship.

Then in the second episode of Series 2, Tooth And Claw, we see the creation of Torchwood by Queen Victoria to investigate and defend the Earth from extraterrestrial threats, including the Doctor in her eyes. And then the two-part Army Of Ghosts finale is set in the Torchwood base at Canary Wharf.

For the purposes of Series 1 of Torchwood, that’s all the key information. But the organisation continued to be mentioned in Doctor Who. For example, they own the company Donna works for in the Christmas special The Runaway Bride), they are a key point of discussion in the Series 3 finale, and they play a major role in the Series 4 finale.

Episodes

Overview

Series 1 of Torchwood has 13 episodes, each around 45-50 minutes in length. In the Blu-ray set they’re spread across 6 discs with 2 episodes on each (apart from 3 episodes on Disc 2), plus relevant extra features on each disc. All of the episodes are on BBC iPlayer too, with audio description and subtitles available (sadly the AD isn’t on the Blu-ray). The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation are credited at the end of each episode, as they helped to fund the first series, just as they’d done with the Doctor Who revival.

The episodes are all separate adventures, although the last two form a 2-part finale because of the way they’re connected. Plus there are some character arcs that run through the series as well, which are interesting and lead to some intense emotions and confrontations in the second half of the series. The first story is written by showrunner Russell T Davies, and 4 are written by future Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall, while the rest are by a mixture of other writers, including a Doctor Who actor as noted earlier.

Much like we’re introduced to Doctor Who through the eyes of the companion, as they learn about the Time Lord’s incredible and often dangerous life, we’re brought into the world of Torchwood in this series by following Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) as she joins the team led by Captain Jack (John Barrowman). Under his authority, she works alongside medical expert Doctor Owen Harper (Burn Gorman), who goes on quite the emotional rollercoaster this series, technical wizard Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori), who is very clever but isn’t always given the respect she deserves by her colleagues, and support officer Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), who is hiding a dark secret.

They make a great team, each with their own unique personalities and skill sets, and we discover hidden and surprising sides to all of them as the series progresses, so you can’t fully judge any of them on first appearances. Gwen also has to keep her new job a secret from her boyfriend Rhys (Kai Owen), and that puts increasing strain on their relationship, especially as she also tries to come to terms with some of the horrors she witnesses.

The show also has a brilliant soundtrack, composed by Ben Foster and Murray Gold, and I have the album for Series 1 & 2, so I’ll mention the most relevant tracks with each episode, as they’re not presented on the album in chronological order. The theme tune is very cool for a start, setting the atmosphere perfectly, and the last track on the album is an extended version of that theme, combining the opening sting with the closing credits music, and then tagging on an completely new section at the end.

Ben Foster also has a playlist for Series 1 on Soundcloud with a lot of additional themes, which is interesting to look through, but the best music is on the album anyway. There are also quite a few rock, pop and dance tracks that appear in the series, often in the background but occasionally more prominently, which I’ve also mentioned in the reviews below.

The exterior artwork on the Blu-ray set isn’t much to speak of though, with just the Torchwood logo over the honeycomb lattice on the outside, and pretty plain discs that have black backgrounds with a bit of text on top. But the inner box at least has photos of the team and episode descriptions. And yes, their Blu-rays were sold with a “BBC DVD” logo, which might seem odd but also makes sense. After all, the DVDs and Blu-rays had the same content, just in higher quality on Blu-ray, so it was simpler to keep them under one banner.

Cover for the Blu-ray of Torchwood Series 1. The top half of the cover shows John Barrowman as Captain Jack facing us, but looking into the distance beyond us, with a grey cloudy sky in the background. The bottom half of the cover shows him standing with the 4 members of his team, in front of the tall metal tower below which the Torchwood base is hidden below ground.
The back cover of the Blu-ray set for Torchwood Series 1, with a list of all 13 episodes, including a very brief synopsis over 2 or 3 lines. Midway down the cover is a horizontal photo showing headshots of the 5 members of the Torchwood team, with Captain Jack in the middle.

The menus on the Blu-ray don’t show a lot either, with the Torchwood logo against a background flooded with blue light to obscure any detail, because their information is deemed classified. But in one corner, text does appear reminding you that the institute is independent of the government, police and United Nations, and there’s a camera feed of the hub in another corner.

Blu-ray menu for Torchwood Series 1. The Torchwood logo is in large letters across the centre though partially obscured by the blue light that floods the entire frame and makes it difficult to see if there's anything specific in the background. There is a camera feed in the top-right corner though, and text in the bottom left corner that makes clear the institute is beyond the government, police and United Nations. The various menu options then run across the bottom of the screen, in white when selected and a duller shade when not, with Play, Scene Selection, Special Features, Audio Options and Subtitles.
White uppercase text on a blue background, in the bottom left corner of the Blu-ray menu for Torchwood Series 1, which says Torchwood classified information. Separate from the government, outside the police, beyond the United Nations. If it's alien, it's ours.
A security camera feed in the top right corner of the Blu-ray menu for Torchwood Series 1, showing a view inside the hub with the Torchwood logo in large dark letters on a white tiled wall. Text at the bottom says Checking for rift activity.
A security camera feed in the top right corner of the Blu-ray menu for Torchwood Series 1, showing a view of a workstation inside the Torchwood hub, with paperwork and a computer monitor. Text at the bottom says Levels normal, purge disc.

1. Everything Changes

Police Constable Gwen Cooper doesn’t realise her life is about to change forever when a mysterious team seals off the crime scene of a murder, and from a high vantage point she sees them bringing the body back to life for a brief couple of minutes to ask the man some questions. And then later she witnesses the brutal murder of a porter at the local hospital, by someone she believes to be in weird fancy dress, but is actually an alien beast.

In both cases, she has a fleeting encounter with a man who calls himself Captain Jack Harkness, and is determined to track him down, along with his colleagues. They prove rather elusive though, even disappearing in front of her eyes when she follows them, not that anyone believes her. She refuses to give up, however, and eventually finds a way in thanks to a local pizza company called Jubilee Pizza (who are referenced a few times during the series and also in Doctor Who).

Of course, it’s difficult for her to comprehend what she sees in the Torchwood hub, and they all know she’s been looking for them anyway. But Jack explains everything to her, before giving her an amnesia drug to make her forget it. However, her memory is triggered by a sketch of the weapon used at the murder scene, and eventually she finds herself back at the Torchwood hub – where she’s held at gunpoint by Torchwood’s second-in-command, Suzie Costello (Indira Varma), who it turns out has a dark secret. Captain Jack intervenes though, in a scene that reveals to Gwen, Suzie and us that he can’t die, and it’s Suzie who takes a fatal bullet in the end (Indira’s name was included in the opening credits as a one-off to stop people predicting her demise). And so, with a team member down, Jack invites Gwen to join them, which of course she accepts.

It’s a great story to launch the series, with all the little twists and turns along the way. Eve Myles is excellent as Gwen, even to the point of conveying a lot about the way she’s thinking and feeling with just the look on her face, as she processes everything that’s happening to her. And the show also makes clear that it’s not suitable for children, unlike its parent programme, with swearing, blood, violence and a sexually charged gay kiss, without any of it going overboard. This is an episode that’s laying out its stall for the series ahead, hinting at what we, and Gwen, are getting ourselves into.

There are lots of interesting little details too. Jack, for instance, notes that he’s seeking the Doctor to find out why he can’t die, and also suggests at one point early on that he’s been through pregnancy – “At least I won’t get pregnant, never doing that again.” The Torchwood gang also have some fun gadgets, with the glove that Suzie uses to resurrect the dead, a scanning device that Toshiko discovers can capture the entire contents of books just by placing it on the spine, and a pheromone spray that Owen uses to make himself sexually irresistible to other people, regardless of their gender or orientation.

Visually the episode is beautifully shot and edited as well, making the most of the HD format and introducing us to the stylistic tone of the series very effectively. The set design of the Torchwood hub is really cool, with lots of detail, including the Doctor’s hand that Jack has kept, a pterodactyl flying around and the invisible lift that brings them outside. There are also lots of beautiful helicopter shots of Cardiff to set the scene and establish the time of day, with the big highlight being Captain Jack standing on a narrow ledge sticking out from the tallest building in the city, looking thoughtful as he surveys his surroundings. There’s no reason for him to be there, though as he’s immortal he’s presumably not worried about falling off, but it looks cool anyway.

And the music is very atmospheric as well, including the Everything Changes title track, which gives an air of tension and mystery. Like many pieces, this is used more than once during the series, as is the ominous King Of The Weevils. My favourite track for this episode, however, is Into The Hub, which is a nice piano-led piece that reflects Gwen’s wonder as she sees inside Torchwood for the first time, though it does have a surprising ending.

A few pop and rock songs are also heard in the episode as well though, with We Are The Pipettes by The Pipettes during a pub brawl, She Moves in Her Own Way by The Kooks at the pizza place, and Spitting Games by Snow Patrol when Owen uses his spray on a lady at a bar. I don’t know the first song, but the other two tracks are pretty famous.

2. Day One

This was originally broadcast in a double bill with the first episode, with the closing credits for both combined at the end. But they’ve been kept separate on subsequent repeats and the Blu-ray. And from this point onwards, every episode has an introduction giving a quick reminder of who Torchwood are, with narration by Captain Jack over teasing clips from the series. It’s not really necessary after this episode though.

As the title suggests, this episode is all about Gwen’s first day on the job, and she doesn’t get off to the most auspicious start when she accidentally unleashes an alien gas from a meteorite they’re investigating. Scouring Cardiff for a host body, it targets a young woman called Carys (Sara Lloyd Gregory) and takes control of her. She then finds a young man in a club and takes him into the bathroom, where she quite literally shags him to death, because when he reaches the critical moment, he disintegrates – or as Captain Jack would later amusingly put it, he “came and went”! They learn that the alien feeds off orgasmic energy, and the more powerful it becomes, the more likely it is that Carys herself will meet a nasty end.

Torchwood manage to track her down and contain her in one of their cells, where Gwen interrogates her – only for an out-of-control Carys to make out with her as well, giving us the first all-female kiss in any Doctor Who-related story, which Gwen’s colleagues enjoy watching via the camera feed. Fortunately Gwen is safe, however, as the alien realises it can only feast on male energy. That in turn leads to her tricking Owen, enabling her to escape, which Jack feels doubly anxious about as she nearly takes the Doctor’s severed hand with her (a good way of making sure that’s put into the viewer’s mind for later in the series). It’s then a race against time to find her again and stop her, especially when they figure out where she’s likely to be headed, putting several men in danger.

It’s a good episode to further draw us into the world of Torchwood, as Gwen and the audience learn more about the team, getting a feel for each member’s strengths and weaknesses, and seeing how she fits in with her own skills and perspectives. Her colleagues are so focused on investigating and containing alien threats that they don’t always give enough thought to the humans who are being targeted, and she’s able to provide that knowledge and empathy, given her policing skills and her generally caring nature. The story also further illustrates the style of the show, dealing with subjects that Doctor Who could obviously never cover. What’s unusual, however, is that we as viewers know what the alien is up to before the Torchwood team do, and as discussed in the commentary that becomes less of a feature in later stories.

We learn interesting bits and pieces along the way too, for example that Torchwood have a stash of corpses they can use to pretend that people have met their ends in different ways to the alien-induced deaths they actually experienced. And Gwen’s colleagues confide in her that they don’t know anything about Captain Jack, but when she asks him who he is, he just dismisses the question. But he does give her some very useful advice, to lead a normal life as best she can outside of work, and not let the job consume her, though she’ll come to learn that’s easier said than done!

While the soundtrack album doesn’t contain music for this particular episode, there are a few contemporary tracks that are heard during the story, including Amsterdam by Paul Oakenfold when Carys is in the nightclub, Saturday Night by Kaiser Chiefs during the bowling scene, and Ooh La La by Goldfrapp when Carys is hunting around the streets.

3. Ghost Machine

After pursuing a young man through the city (and I love the chase theme they use for that) the team acquire an alien device that shows people very clear visions of emotionally-charged moments from the past at their current location. And they don’t just see the events, but they actually feel the emotions of the people they witness.

So Gwen first sees a lost child at a railway station, and is able to track down the elderly gentleman in the present day to discreetly verify that it happened, without telling him that she saw him. But it’s when Owen witnesses a girl being murdered under a bridge that things take a dark turn, because he discovers that the man responsible, Ed Morgan (Gareth Thomas) was never caught, and full of anger he sets out to find him.

In the process he also stumbles upon Bernie (Ben McKay), the man they were after in the first place, and this time is able to catch him, after an amusing chase across people’s back gardens. By chatting to him Torchwood learn there’s a second part of the device that sees into the future, and take it from him. Gwen fails to resist the temptation to look at what it shows, only for it to reveal a horrifying event that she then desperately hopes can be avoided. All the story strands then come together neatly at the end.

So it’s another good episode, with Gwen and Owen showing great emotional depth given the stresses they’re put through. It’s quite the contrast for Owen in particular, who’s normally quite cocky and doesn’t let anything get to him, so Burn Gorman plays him brilliantly here. We also see how Gwen’s random hours in her new job is putting a strain on her relationship with Rhys, but she’s certainly grateful to be home with him after this particular investigation is over. She does also have fun during the episode when Jack trains her in the use of guns, which is a bit of light relief from the heavier main story, although still with a serious purpose.

Aside from the chase music, which is the only significant piece from the episode on the soundtrack album, some more pop and rock songs appear fleetingly in the background as well, with Sing by Travis during the chat with Bernie in the pub (which can be heard in a few episodes), then Can’t Stand Me Now by The Libertines and Feeling A Moment by Feeder when Owen and Toshiko are chatting in a bar.

4. Cyberwoman

Up until now, Ianto has been the quiet organiser of the group, the admin guy who keeps the hub in order and makes amusing quips here and there. But he’s been hiding a dark secret in the hub – his girlfriend Lisa (Caroline Chikezie). She was captured by the Cybermen during the war at Canary Wharf (in the Doctor Who Series 2 finale), but they were defeated before her conversion was completed, leaving her still partly human. So Ianto rescued her and hid her in the bowels of the Torchwood hub, and since then has been looking after her as best he can, with her still attached to the conversion unit that’s keeping her alive.

He then invites Japanese expert Dr Tanizaki (Togo Igawa) to come and look at her, and between them they manage to get her off life support so she can function unaided. But she’s been biding her time, and seizes the opportunity to go rogue, killing Dr Tanizaki and then turning her sights on the hub as a location to rebuild the Cyber race.

To say that Jack is furious when he discovers Ianto’s deception is an understatement, but Ianto won’t back down in his support for Lisa, convinced that there’s some way to save her, leading to some very tense confrontations between them. But in any case, the team have to work together as they try to find a way to defeat the Cyberwoman, made all the harder as they’ve had to place the hub in lockdown by turning the power off. The team see Jack dying more than once as he tries to buy them some time, and he also gets the resident pterodactyl involved as well.

So it’s a wonderfully tense and dark episode, which is almost entirely set within the hub, giving us a great tour of the space in the process, and the design of the Cyberwoman is quite cool too. Gareth David-Lloyd‘s performance as Ianto is fantastic as well, including the twist at the end that forces him to make an extremely difficult decision. You do feel sorry for him by the time it’s all over, even though his earlier actions had been incredibly stupid.

The soundtrack album contains two pieces of music specific to this episode – Another Day, Another Death and Look Right, Then Leave. The latter is my favourite given its steady rhythm, but they both evoke the right atmosphere for the episode. The episode also notably features We’re No Here by Mogwai when Ianto enters the room where Lisa’s being kept hidden, while Chocolate by Snow Patrol plays in the bar where his colleagues are having a drink.

5. Small Worlds

This episode turns from sci-fi to the supernatural, so it is a bit silly as a result really. But it questions whether fairies are really the sweet and happy creatures they’re perceived to be. Because if you upset or harm a child who believes in them, you might discover that they’re among the ‘Chosen Ones’, whom the fairies have formed a close bond with and vow to protect.

In this case, the kid in question is Jasmine, played really well by young actress Lara Philippart (who also appeared in Doctor Who, playing a member of Tommy’s family in The Idiot’s Lantern). Jasmine lives with her mother and stepfather, and goes to school like a normal child, but is very isolated, only playing with her fairy friends in the forest. So when a strange man tries to pick her up on her way home from school one day, the fairies wreak their revenge, filling his body with rose petals so he chokes to death. And when some of the girls pick on her in the playground, the fairies whip up a storm to strike fear into them.

Jack becomes aware of this from an old lady called Estelle (Eve Pearce), who has enjoyed taking photos of the fairies, without realising they have an evil side. She also doesn’t realise that Jack was her husband during the Second World War before he disappeared, believing the current Jack to be his son instead. After all, her husband couldn’t look so young now, could he? Gwen figures it out though, and after Estelle also comes a cropper to the fairies, he admits to her that he’s a time traveller. He tells her about an incident from 1909 where a squad he was in charge of were all killed on a train, again by choking with rose petals, because some of them had got drunk and run over a child, who had turned out to be a Chosen One.

So it’s interesting to learn a bit more about Jack’s past, and also to see that he’s truly scared of the fairies, because he knows what they’re capable of and there’s no easy way to stop them. Indeed, he has to make a heartbreaking choice at the end, one which is necessary to save the world, but which still makes his team angry with him. And Gwen also gets scared during the episode when she and Rhys get home to find that the fairies have trashed the place as a warning, which is putting further mental strain on her as she’s unable to tell him the truth about it.

There isn’t any specific music for this episode on the soundtrack album, but there are a few tracks on Ben Foster’s Soundcloud playlist. In terms of other songs, we hear Lord Of The Dance at the school, and then during the big party scene near the end there are some contemporary tracks playing in the background, including Better Do Better by HARD-Fi, Born To Be A Dancer by Kaiser Chiefs and Ooh La by The Kooks.

6. Countrycide

The opening scene of this sick and sinister story sees a lady called Ellie Johnson (Emily Bowker) driving through the countryside at night, only be killed when she gets out to look at a body in the road. That scene features the only two rock songs in the episode – That’s What She Said and The Monster by The Automatic, the latter by far the most recognisable and appropriate.

The Torchwood team then arrive in the daytime to investigate, as there have been several reports of people going missing in the area. They set up camp first of all, which results in a bit of revealing banter about them as they discuss who last kissed who. That leads to a confrontation between Gwen and Owen in the woods, although that’s quickly interrupted when they discover a human carcass, stripped of its flesh and organs. We’ve seen some blood in previous Torchwood episodes, but this one is more gory, and there is some discussion in the extra features about how far the design team wanted to go with it.

The team’s van is then stolen as well, and they track it to a nearby village, where Gwen, Jack and Owen discover even more corpses as they search the houses, which are so horrific that they make Gwen throw up. And as if her day isn’t going bad enough, she’s then shot by the one remaining resident, a young man who mistakes them for the attackers when they burst into his house. Fortunately, as he was firing in a random panic, he didn’t strike her fatally, and Owen is able to patch her up and calm her down a bit. They then have to try and stay safe while the unknown villains hunt for them.

Tosh and Ianto, meanwhile, are kidnapped while investigating another building, and thrown into a secure cell. Tosh claims to be an expert at breaking out of places, though cannot find a way out of this one. And when they’re taken to a barn, they discover that the two attackers – Evan and Helen Sherman (Owen Teale and Maxine Evans) – are cannibals. Tosh bravely attempts to escape, and is found by Gwen and Owen, but then they’re all captured as well.

Jack, however, heroically saves the day by driving a tractor into the barn and unleashing a blaze of gunfire. It gives us our first taste of Captain Jack’s Theme, my favourite piece of music on the soundtrack album, which Murray Gold later revealed was composed by playing notes to the rhythm of “here he comes in a ruddy-great tractor!” It’s very clever, and hard to unhear when you know that!

Anyway, Gwen has to stop Jack killing the cannibals so she can question Evan about why he’s doing it. But what she hears only makes her feel worse, and as she can’t talk about any of it with her boyfriend Rhys to try and process it, which has become an increasingly difficult aspect of the job in general, she ends up confiding in Owen, and they get very intimate as a result, which has ramifications in subsequent episodes.

All in all, therefore, it’s a very unsettling and disturbing episode full of suspense and tension, and feels like a mini horror film, so it’s great. It’s all the more impactful because it takes place away from the Torchwood hub without any sci-fi elements, meaning that it’s just a couple of human beings who are responsible for, and find senseless joy in, such barbarity.

7. Greeks Bearing Gifts

Now it’s Toshiko’s turn to get an episode to herself, and actress Naoko Mori handles it brilliantly, as her character is really put through the psychological mill. It’s also a great way of exploring what it would be like if we could actually read other people’s minds, which is a superpower a lot of us would love to have yet would probably regret if we did.

After a falling out with her colleagues, Tosh goes for a drink in a local bar, where she’s greeted by a lady called Mary (Daniela Denby-Ashe) who seems to know all about her, and we get to learn some interesting background about Tosh as a result of Mary summarising her history.

Mary then gives Tosh a pendant which enables her to hear the thoughts of everyone around her – some of which are very amusing, but on the whole it’s quite overwhelming, especially when Tosh makes the predictable mistake of wearing it when she gets back to the Torchwood hub. Not only does she learn of Gwen and Owen’s affair and their sexual activities but, worse still, she gets a snapshot of what her colleagues are thinking about her. And as Mary is the only person who knows about the pendant, Tosh gets physically and emotionally intimate with her, while also getting increasingly distressed about the entirely new light in which she’s experiencing the world around her.

Of course, Mary actually has an ulterior motive, revealing to Tosh that she’s an alien using the lady’s body as a host, and is after a transporter that Torchwood are holding. Specifically she’s an Arcateenian, and another member of that race also appeared in the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. So she convinces Tosh to take her to the hub to retrieve the device.

Jack, however, has become suspicious about Tosh’s change in behaviour, especially after learning of an unusual act of heroism that she had also used the pendant for, while Owen has discovered something rather disturbing about a murder they were investigating, which Mary had a hand in (pun intended – you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen the episode).

So Jack is ready and deals with Mary accordingly. He then takes the time to listen to Tosh and give her some reassurance, as does Gwen, and ultimately the pendant is destroyed to stop it doing any more damage. You really do feel for Tosh, because she’s a lovely yet lonely character, so it’s nice to see a couple of members of the team bonding with her a bit.

In terms of music, the soundtrack album includes a nice piece called Toshiko & Tommy, which appears for the first time in this episode. Meanwhile, when Mary and Tosh are meeting in the bar, Spitting Games by Snow Patrol and Sing by Travis are heard in the background for the second time this series, as well as Drag by Placebo. In addition, Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall is playing when they’re in a café together, which is another good, well-known song.

8. They Keep Killing Suzie

As the title implies, this story is a follow-up to the first episode, and opens with a murder scene in a house, where the word Torchwood is written on the wall in the blood of the victims. It certainly gets their attention, and Gwen persuades the other reluctant members of the team that they’ll have to try using the resurrection glove to wake up the victims briefly, in order to question them – though it turns out only Gwen has the knack to make it work.

However, the investigation comes to a dead end, so to speak, when they find a connection with Suzie Costello (Indira Varma). It leaves them no choice but to get her body out from the morgue so that Gwen can wake her up as well – only this time it works a little too well, as Suzie doesn’t then die again.

It at least gives them time to question her further, however, and she helps them to confirm that a man called Max is the killer (played by an actor simply known as Shend), who one of the victims had named. It transpires that she had been offloading her stresses about Torchwood to him, as there was nobody else she could talk to, and giving him the retcon amnesia drug every time to make him forget, but the side effect is that he’s become psychotic. The team then find Max in a club and bring him in, sticking him in one of their cells – where he remains silent unless he hears the word Torchwood, at which point he goes crazy for a few moments.

So it seems that the only remaining dilemma for the team is how to make Suzie die again – until she turns the tables on them, revealing that she’s had a very elaborate plan all along. Not only has she formed a rapport with Gwen – despite initially being scornful that she was her replacement – but she’s actually maintained a connection with Gwen’s life force because of the glove, and is slowly draining the energy from her so she can gain strength.

Unaware of this, Gwen is persuaded to take Suzie for a drive to see her father, who is in hospital with cancer, during which Gwen asks her what happens after death. And the Torchwood team are prevented from following thanks to Max, who is able to lock down the hub through voice commands that Suzie had put in his head. So it’s a tense race against time for the Torchwood team to escape and get to Gwen before it’s too late, especially as Suzie has other surprises in store. Suffice to say they eventually do make sure that Suzie is killed and the resurrection glove is destroyed, but not before she gives Jack a warning of something coming in the dark.

So it’s another good episode, if perhaps a bit slow now and again while they’re talking to Suzie at length in the hub. It’s great that they brought her back for one more episode though, and it’s also nice to see a flirtatious connection between Ianto and Jack at the end – though Ianto also makes the ominous observation that gloves tend to come in pairs, so that might not be the only resurrection glove in existence.

In terms of music, there’s nothing unique to the episode on the soundtrack album. But Red Is The New Black by Funeral For A Friend plays when the team are searching in a bar, and Sing by Travis plays again as well. Later on, Soley, Soley by Middle Of The Road plays on the car radio when Gwen is driving, and we learn it has a connection to Suzie, then Górecki by Lamb is used to score the aftermath of Suzie’s death, with lyrics that fit well.

9. Random Shoes

This story is unusual in that it’s mainly told from the perspective of a non-Torchwood character, and the Torchwood team don’t appear too heavily. It’s a similar situation to the ‘Doctor-lite’ episodes of Doctor Who, which resulted from 2 episodes being filmed at the same time, and this particular story was being made alongside episode 12 (Captain Jack Harkness). Only Gwen from Torchwood has a heavy presence in this episode, and therefore a reduced role in episode 12.

Eugene Jones (Paul Chequer) wakes up in the road, only to discover Torchwood looking at his dead body nearby, so he seems to be some kind of ghost. We, the audience, can see and hear him, and we’re even privy to his internal thoughts, but nobody in the show has any perception of him. So Torchwood has no idea that he’s following them around.

They’re involved because while he was alive he had tried unsuccessfully to get their attention on several occasions, particularly through Gwen, as he wanted them to look at a mysterious alien artefact shaped like an eye that had been given to him by a teacher many years previously. But they had just dismissed him, and indeed most of the team still aren’t convinced he’s worth spending too much time on. To them, and to many people who knew him, he was a nice enough guy but also rather a geek or a nerd.

But Gwen is convinced that something isn’t right, and continues to dig deeper, learning how he got the eye, what happened when he tried to sell it online, and why he has some photos of random shoes on his phone. And we come to understand why Eugene is able to watch all of this unfold. A slight connection also forms between the two of them, as Gwen subconsciously picks up on a couple of things he’s telling her to do, and at one point even wonders if he is somehow with her. She’s left in no doubt by the end, however, when Eugene saves her life.

So while it’s not one of the most exciting episodes of the series, it’s still an interesting story about what it might be like to have the opportunity to look back on your life and the impact you’ve had. Producer Richard Stokes did have the old film It’s A Wonderful Life in mind in that regard (which I’ve also seen before). And Eugene is played very well.

It also features one of the most famous tracks in the entire series, with Starman by David Bowie playing when Eugene is scouring space for aliens after his father has left home. Meanwhile Hope There’s Someone by Antony & The Johnsons is heard when Eugene is watching his colleagues at work and then his distraught mother through the window at home. And finally Eugene’s father sings Danny Boy at his funeral. There aren’t any unique tracks for this episode on the soundtrack album.

10. Out Of Time

The concept of involuntary and permanent time travel, with no way back to the present day, has been touched on in Doctor Who with the Weeping Angels in stories like Blink, who send their victims back into the past. But here, with travel in the opposite direction, we get a real sense of what it might be like to have to adjust to such an unexpected and monumental change.

Three people in a biplane from 1953 find that their leisurely flight has taken them a lot further than they expected, when Torchwood greets them at an airfield and informs them that it’s now the 21st century. It transpires that a patch of turbulence they had experienced was caused by them passing through the rift by sheer chance without realising it. So it’s up to Torchwood to give them a crash course in modern life, by bringing them up to date on how the world has changed. Just going to a huge supermarket, for instance, is totally mesmerising for them, with its automatic doors and the huge variety of products.

The trio are then split up, each being assigned a member of Torchwood to act as their mentor, resulting in three stories running parallel to each other.

Gwen looks after the youngest, Emma (Olivia Hallinan), developing a mother-daughter type of connection with her, as she has to educate her about society’s modern attitudes towards sex, and helps her to find work. Gwen has to lie to Rhys about where she’s come from of course, and so he’s rather displeased when he figures out that it’s a lie and Gwen won’t tell him the truth. But Gwen and Emma part on good terms, as the young lady sets off for her new career.

Owen, meanwhile, pairs up with pilot Diane (Louise Delamere), and they get on so well together that they inevitably end up having sex. But Owen also finds that he’s falling deeply in love with her, which scares him as he’s not used to having feelings beyond just carnal desires. And Diane is eager to get back up into the sky to see if she can somehow fly back home or at the very least just explore her new world. Owen tries to stop her, but her determination wins out, and the fallout from losing her carries over into the next episode.

But it’s John (Mark Lewis Jones) who has the most heartbreaking story. He’s very set in his ways, even having a go at Emma for embracing some modern attitudes, and is finding it very difficult to acclimatise. He’s particularly keen to find his son, to see how he’s grown up, but his desperation turns to devastation when he meets Alan (Sam Beazley) in a care home and discovers that he’s suffering from Alzheimer’s. Consequently, as his son is unable to recognise his own father, and with no other family around, Alan reaches the conclusion that there’s nothing to left to live for. Jack does his best to stop him committing the ultimate act, but eventually has to concede to his wishes, and stays with Alan to ensure that the moment is as dignified as it can be in the circumstances, so at least he doesn’t die alone. It’s a very powerful scene.

So it’s another interesting concept explored through a good story. I didn’t find myself connecting strongly with the visiting characters necessarily, in the sense that I’m not fussed if we see them again or not. But they are all nice people, it was fascinating to see how they all adapted (or not) to their unexpected journey into the future, and Alan’s story in particular is very moving.

On the soundtrack album there’s just a single short track for this episode, lasting just 1½ minutes, which was used for the montage of the trio at the conclusion of the story. However, composer Ben Foster has a special playlist for this episode on his Soundcloud, presenting a lot more of his beautiful score.

There’s quite a lot of other music as well. John listens to the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven on the radio, while Owen has Trouble by Ray LaMontagne playing in his apartment with Diane before he dances on a roof with her to The Good Life by Tony Bennett. As a complete contrast, I See You Baby by Groove Armada is blaring out when Emma’s in the nightclub, but earlier Emma also sings I Just Blew In From The Windy City from Calamity Jane when she’s bonding with two young girls in the hostel.

11. Combat

This episode is written by the same guy who played Rose’s boyfriend Mickey Smith in Doctor Who, although Noel’s not in a good place these days given the misconduct allegations against him (which he denies) and his upcoming defamation trial against the Guardian. I’m not getting into any of that here, obviously, but his Torchwood episode is pretty good.

It focuses on the Weevils (played by Paul Kasey), one of which Torchwood has had in captivity throughout the series. While it was assumed to be the only one to fall through the rift, they discover that there are more out there. But when Jack attempts to catch one (enlisting the help of Gwen on her night off, to Rhys’ anger), the alien is kidnapped by a gang who make quite an effort to cover their tracks.

After trying to investigate further, Jack and Tosh find a man’s body in an abandoned warehouse, only for Jack to receive a phonecall telling him to back off, which he refuses to do of course. Instead, he then uses their own Weevil – nicknamed Janet (which isn’t the Weevil in the erroneously titled Youtube clip above) – by sending it out into the streets with a tracker implanted. And while it does indeed get kidnapped, the gang discover the tracker and remove that too.

With Jack, Gwen and Tosh now known by the gang, Owen is enlisted to go undercover as someone looking for property – once Jack eventually gets hold of him that is. Owen is still reeling from Diane’s departure in the previous episode, given the strong connection they had, and so avoids taking calls from Torchwood while he tries to relax, not helped by the fact that he has to overpower a guy who tries to attack him in a bar. So when he does return to Torchwood, he’s quite prepared to escape from his normal life by being a different person for a while, and Tosh sets up a fake website and other information online to back up his new identity.

Owen is then able to form a connection with a guy called Mark Lynch (Alex Hassell), and to his horror discovers that Mark’s got a Weevil imprisoned at home for use as a punching bag. However, Mark has also figured out that Owen isn’t who he says he is, and forces him to join him at the main event – a cage fighting competition, where people try to stay in a cage with an angry Weevil for as long as possible.

Owen is then ordered to get into the cage, where he finds himself at peace with what’s about to happen to him – only for Jack and the team to burst in and save him, which he isn’t pleased about. But interestingly, it’s then revealed that Owen has some kind of connection with the Weevils, as back at Torchwood he’s able to frighten the one they’ve returned to its cell by growling at it. His relationship with them is explored further in Series 2.

So it’s another great story for Owen, who has become quite the multi-layered character this series, exhibiting a range of emotional states, and is clearly quite vulnerable despite his bravado and laddish behaviour. And he’s not the only one to be vulnerable, as Gwen is really struggling to balance her work and home life. She breaks down in tears on her own in the hub after confessing to Rhys at home about sleeping with Owen to get it off her chest, while having also spiked his drink with an amnesia pill so he doesn’t remember it. And then there’s also a mysterious mention from Mark to Owen that there’s something coming in the darkness, which isn’t the first time we’ve heard that this series.

In terms of music, the ominous-sounding King Of The Weevils from the soundtrack album makes its second and more prominent appearance this series in this episode. Meanwhile Over And Over by Hot Chip plays during a bar scene and Assassin by Muse is playing when Owen goes into the warehouse for the first time. There’s also a funny moment when the irritating Crazy Frog ringtone plays and Tosh asks Jack if it’s his phone, which offends him!

12. Captain Jack Harkness / End Of Days

These episodes form a two-part finale. Technically they’re 2 separate stories, but the manner in which they solve the problem in Episode 12 has colossal ramifications that have to be dealt with in Episode 13, and there’s a particular guest character who plays a pivotal role across both episodes, so they are linked.

The episodes were also first broadcast as a double bill, with the credits merged, just like the opening pair of episodes of the series. They also happened to be broadcast on the same day as the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, not that they have any connection with each other beyond their parent show. Jack wouldn’t meet Sarah Jane until the Series 4 finale of Doctor Who over a year and a half later.

Anyway, this story begins with Jack and Tosh going to an old abandoned dance hall, where people claim to have heard music from the 1940s. As they arrive and begin to explore, we see “Vote Saxon” posters on the wall outside and “Bad Wolf” graffiti on the staircase walls inside, which are nice nods to Doctor Who (and the Saxon posters do have relevance later on).

They then suddenly find themselves transported to a packed dance hall in 1941 with no way back, and there’s a man there called Captain Jack Harkness – the real one (Matt Rippy). He’s the guy who the Torchwood Jack took his name from after the real Captain was killed in the war, which will be happening the very next day. It’s a shock for Torchwood’s Jack at first, but a strong connection blossoms between them during the first episode, it’s a sweet love story.

Tosh meanwhile – apart from supporting Jack and having to deal with people’s reactions to a Japanese woman being in the room at that time – knows that the way to get them back is to open the rift. She’s even figured out the equation to do it in a reasonably safe way, having been working on such a project for a while as it happens. Trouble is, half the equation is at the Torchwood hub in the 21st century – the only place where the rift can be activated – and the other half is with her in the 1940s, and she has no way of contacting them directly. Her only hope is to leave the equation somewhere for her colleagues to find in the future.

In the present, Gwen, Owen and Ianto learn that Jack and Tosh are stuck in the past when they look at newspaper records of the dance hall and see a photo. And they also find the first half of Tosh’s equation on their computer system. So Gwen goes to the dance hall and starts to find the rest of Tosh’s solution. She also encounters an old man called Bilis (Murray Melvin), who unknown to her is the same man who took the newspaper photo and is somehow hopping across time periods. Jack and Tosh have already figured that he’s not quite right though, observing that his camera is too modern for 1941 for a start.

Owen, however, is very impatient and angry, his emotions still raw from the loss of Diane, and sets about trying to open the rift regardless. When he discovers a piece of the machine is missing, he also goes to the dance hall, and finds it hidden in Bilis’ office, so takes it back to the hub, where he then has to break into the safe in Jack’s office to find the blueprints for the machine as well. Ianto desperately tries to stop him from doing it without Tosh’s equation, in case it goes wrong, and even shoots Owen after a tense confrontation. But Owen is still able to set the machine going.

The operation is successful, as the time window opens in 1941, just as the two Captain Jacks are having a romantic dance together. And there’s a lovely tender moment when the two of them kiss passionately before they part company, providing a bit of calm amongst all the drama, with a beautiful score underpinning it (Jack’s Love Theme on the soundtrack album).

Owen’s reckless actions have come at a severe cost however. Without Tosh’s equation, the rift is unstable, and time begins splintering, causing people from history and UFOs to appear all over the world, along with cases of the Black Death that spread rapidly. And getting in an argument about it with Captain Jack gets Owen fired.

On top of that, some of the Torchwood team see visions of dead people they love, who tell them that the only answer is to open the rift. More disturbing still is the vision of the future that Owen is given by Bilis when she and Jack pay him a visit, as she sees her boyfriend Rhys murdered at home, covered in blood. They bring him to Torchwood and lock him in a cell for his own protection, but even that turns out to be inadequate to stop the prophecy coming true, to Gwen’s inconsolable distress.

It all brings the team to breaking point, and they rebel against Jack’s fierce opposition as they work together to open the rift fully (including Owen, who has come back in a desperate bid to repair the chain of events he set in motion). The hope is that it will suck all of the anomalies back in and restore the world to the way it was before – and it does, but any relief over that is short-lived. Not only is the Torchwood hub destroyed – and that stunt sequence looks really cool – but, as was always Bilis’ plan, they discover their actions have unleashed a huge monster called Abaddon from his prison beneath the rift, and his shadow kills whoever it touches.

However, as Jack’s immortal, he’s able to offer himself to the creature, who absorbs Jack’s life force until it overwhelms it, causing him to disappear and everything to return to normal, properly this time. It seems to have been too much for Jack though, who remains dead for so long that most of the team are convinced he’s gone for good. But Gwen doesn’t give up, staying by his side for days (scored by the track I Believe In Him on the soundtrack album) until eventually a kiss from her provides the spark that brings him back.

Not that he stays around for long, as he suddenly disappears, to the surprise of the team. They are unaware that he’s seen the Doctor’s hand glowing and has heard the unmistakeable sound of the Tardis landing (while we also hear a snatch of The Doctor’s Theme), so he’s dashed off after him. Viewers then had to wait 6 months to see what happened to Jack next, in the Series 3 finale of Doctor Who, which included an explanation for the Vote Saxon posters, as they also appeared in that series. It’s a shame they couldn’t do a crossover edit between the two, either at the end of Torchwood as a teaser, or at the start of the Doctor Who episode, but some fans have had a go, such as DoctorBlue as one good example.

So altogether, it’s a good way to end the season. Not as epic as the Doctor Who finales, and I think Abaddon is dealt with so quickly and easily that he doesn’t really have much of an impact in the end, when there’s potential for a bigger story there. But the two episodes are very entertaining nevertheless, with great performances, action, tension, music and effects, along with several nice callbacks to earlier episodes. So it’s a satisfying conclusion, especially considering that this is only their first series, so they’ve been finding their feet as they go along.

Apart from the pieces of music on the soundtrack album mentioned above, a few songs were also used in these episodes. In 1941, along with an instrumental of Take The A Train, singer Melissa Moore performs My Melancholy Baby, The White Cliffs Of Dover and A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square (the latter having also featured in the Doctor Who Series 1 episode The Empty Child, when Jack first meets the Doctor). John Barrowman also performed a song with the band, which I’ll mention in the extras. And in the final episode, the only song of note is Begging You by The Stone Roses, which is playing in the bar when Diane appears to Owen. So there’s been a pretty decent selection of contemporary tracks throughout the series, many of which I’ve known.

Extras

Audio Commentaries

The Blu-ray has commentaries on every episode, with 3 participants each time, including cast members, writers, the composer, producers and directors. They’re all very engaging and interesting, as they talk about how different aspects of the series were designed and brought to life, what went well, what they would do differently in hindsight, anecdotes from filming, and more. Chris Chibnall appears the most, in 5 commentaries (equal with Richard Stokes), and is quite self-critical sometimes, acknowledging that he’s learned a lot while writing this series, though on the whole he’s rightly proud of his work.

The participants are as follows:

Bonus Features

As well as the commentaries, the Blu-ray set is crammed full of nearly 5½ hours of other extras, spread across all the discs, usually with the episodes they relate to. Disc 1 has 1 hour 20 minutes of bonus material, and Disc 6 has an hour’s worth, while the other discs in between have 40-50 minutes each. The features are as follows:

  • Torchwood Declassified – This is a very interesting series of behind the scenes documentaries about each episode, in the same style as Doctor Who Confidential. These were only 10 minutes long on TV (and thus included in full here), unlike the 30-45 minutes Confidential had. It’s a pity they’re not as long, but they’re still comprehensive and are supplemented well by the other features. As well as all the regular editions shown after each Torchwood episode, the Blu-ray also includes two versions of Welcome To Torchwood – the 10-minute edit shown on TV, plus a longer 15-minute version, which has everything from the shorter cut and more besides, so it seems pointless having both when just the longer one is sufficient.
  • Out Of This World / The Team & Their Troubles / Moments In The Making – These collections of roughly 5-minute features are basically Declassified extensions, because some of the interviews and clips are duplicated, but the additional in-depth material makes them worth watching. For episodes 1-5, we learn about the design and production of the alien beings and devices encountered by Torchwood. Then for episodes 6-9 the features examine the interactions between individual members of the Torchwood team and particular guest characters. And finally for episodes 10-13 there’s a closer look at the filming of a key scene in each story.
  • On The Scene – This 15-minute feature takes an in-depth look at Gwen’s arrival in the Torchwood hub for the first time and the amazing design of the set, combining interviews with a lot of footage from the read-through and a design meeting.
  • Sex, Violence, Blood & Gore – A 15-minute feature talking about how they approached subject matters that they couldn’t have done in a family show like Doctor Who, and how far you should or shouldn’t push things. There’s a particular focus on episodes 6 and 7, so it’s on the same disc as those, and some of the material is replicated in the relevant Declassified episodes.
  • On The Road – A 9-minute feature all about Torchwood’s iconic vehicle, the black SUV, looking at how it was designed and the challenges of filming in it.
  • On Time – A 10-minute feature about how they created the set and evoked the right atmosphere for the 1940s dance hall in Episode 12. It ends with John Barrowman singing Anything Goes with the band, adapting the lyrics slightly to include a mention of Torchwood, and that’s really good.
  • The Captain’s Log – John Barrowman’s video diary on his last day of shooting, including a lot of amusing banter with his co-stars and crew members. Within this 10-minute feature, the diary clips are interspersed with praise and admiration from Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and fellow cast members about his acting ability and how much fun he is to work with.
  • Deleted Scenes – Here we get an interesting variety of scenes that were filmed but cut from nearly all of the episodes (except Small Worlds), and usually with good reason as they would have slowed things down or were just unnecessary. Unlike the other features, however, they’re not divided across the discs in the same way as the episodes. The deleted scenes for episodes 1-4 are alongside the first two episodes on Disc 1, while those for episodes 6-9 are on Disc 4, and the ones for episodes 10-13 are on Disc 6.
  • Outtakes – Last but not least, there’s 5-minute compilation of fluffs and general messing about on set, which is very funny. They clearly enjoyed themselves during filming, which is why the chemistry works so well in the episodes.

Conclusion

So that’s it for my long review of the first series of Torchwood. While some episodes are naturally better than others, generally it’s a pretty solid series to start with really. I’m sure if you analyse it really closely you can find all sorts of plot holes and imperfections, but as a piece of entertainment it’s a lot of fun and sometimes quite moving or thought-provoking as well, with a good variety of stories, a great central cast of characters and a wonderful soundtrack. It’s still not as amazing and as epic as Doctor Who, obviously, but it is a very enjoyable show to go alongside it.

I also know that it gets better over the next couple of series, before dipping in quality a bit for the last one, so I’m very much looking forward to revisiting them all. I’m going to try to complete all 4 series before the next season of Doctor Who begins airing in April, or at least be close to finishing it, but we’ll see how it goes. In any case, I hope you enjoyed my synopses and rambling thoughts on this first series, and I’ll see you for Series 2 soon!

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Author: Glen

Love London, love a laugh, love life. Visually impaired blogger, culture vulture & accessibility advocate, with aniridia & nystagmus, posting about my experiences & adventures.