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snorkackcatcherSo I finally caught up with the last few episodes last night ... reactions below the cut. All episodes had their patented Torchwood WTF Moments, but overall it's been a reasonable sequence. Short comments follow.
Something Borrowed
Pleasantly surprised by this one. The previews looked like a rerun of TNG's painful S2 The Child, but it was actually Alien (albeit for the second time in four episodes) not The Midwich Cuckoos. I wasn't keen on the Jack/Gwen stuff getting in the way of the Gwen/Rhys development, because they've hinted at this so many times now they should probably either do something with it or drop it. And the team's tactics in the extended wedding fight scenes seemed strange again -- OK, you know an alien creature is going to try to get to Gwen. So ... you all charge off looking for it and leave her alone, instead of letting it come to you and laying an ambush? *headdesk*
However, nice stuff from Gwen (especially the gun in the bouquet), and from Rhys (using the singularity scalpel to dispense with the creature), and who couldn't like Nerys Hughes as a savage alien monster? (Is this series a BBC benefit for 70s sitcom stars?)
From Out of the Rain
A straightforward 'catch the alien' team episode, this, going for creepy and doing a passable job with it -- even if the aliens imprinting on film didn't make a lot of sense, well, TV scifi plots often don't. The sucked-out last breaths were an especially gothic element, and the parts where several were lost from the bottle, and where the MC tried to take Owen's breath and found he didn't have any were effective touches (it's good to see that they've kept their eye on the ball with Zombie!Owen, with a little reference each episode).
Was the little girl who took the ticket and went into the tent at the start meant to be the same one who crops up doing card readings for Jack? First thing that sprang to mind.
Adrift
Another straightforward episode, but I thought the character play with the mother and son and missing persons theme had rather more emotional depth and weight than Torchwood usually manages. And indeed, the scenes with PC Andy and Gwen were nice character moments, as were Gwen and Rhys arguing and working out some kind of agreement. (Then again, there's still obvious potential for that to go pear-shaped. I suppose that's where the Jack/Gwen might come in.)
There doesn't seem any obvious reason for Jack to keep the details of the island concealed from the rest of the team (except Ianto, apparently, who doesn't seem to agree), so that section of the plot was weak. And Jack inviting Gwen to join in when she surprised him and Ianto? His chat-up lines still rubbish, then. But overall it was nice to see an episode which wasn't about some terrible alien menace.
Fragments
I suppose at heart this was just a backstory dump, but it was an interesting backstory dump, so I don't mind -- and there were several surprises.
It was good to see some more background of the rather nasty original Torchwood (there has to be loads of fic potential there!) with the sketch of how a sort of Adam Adamant!Jack came to be recruited and then end up in charge in Cardiff needing to recuit a new team after the old boss went berserk at the Millennium (ah, if only Jack had been sent to San Francisco at that point and met Eight and the Master, eh? Would have caused a temporal paradox or something, I suppose). And that fortune teller subplot is now getting quite intriguing.
Tosh having fallen foul of UNIT was a real surprise, as was them throwing her into a prison quite obviously modelled on Guantanamo, right down to the orange jumpsuits. The current version seems a lot nastier than the one the Brig ran, who might have the first thought of blowing up aliens but gave even the Master a reasonably comfortable prison. Interesting to see that Jack asked her to commit for five years when he recruited her five years previously -- I'm wondering if that might play out at the end of the series somewhere?
Owen's backstory with his fiancé was intriguing -- which I suppose explains why he's been so much more bitter and cynical at Torchwood than he was there. He must really regret not having had the singularity scalpel handy!
And Ianto -- ah well, that was the comedy one, especially his "so you're not going to help me catch this pterodactyl, then?" line after Jack demonstrated his usual behave-like-a-dickhead management style (if he learnt that from the original Torchwood, it would explain a lot), and the now-no-longer-UST as they made the capture. Nice to have Suzie mentioned in passing for continuity. Also, of course, useful to know that pterodactyls like chocolate in case you ever meet one.
Gwen's still being rather dismissive of Rhys, isn't she, even when the poor sod's actually helping the team?
I'd been wondering if they were actually going to explain who left the bombs, and having it herald the return of Captain John was a pleasant if unexpected touch (I'd been expecting him to turn up again, but had kind of forgotten about him). However, it looks like we're going to have to wait until 4th April to see what happens ...
Something Borrowed
Pleasantly surprised by this one. The previews looked like a rerun of TNG's painful S2 The Child, but it was actually Alien (albeit for the second time in four episodes) not The Midwich Cuckoos. I wasn't keen on the Jack/Gwen stuff getting in the way of the Gwen/Rhys development, because they've hinted at this so many times now they should probably either do something with it or drop it. And the team's tactics in the extended wedding fight scenes seemed strange again -- OK, you know an alien creature is going to try to get to Gwen. So ... you all charge off looking for it and leave her alone, instead of letting it come to you and laying an ambush? *headdesk*
However, nice stuff from Gwen (especially the gun in the bouquet), and from Rhys (using the singularity scalpel to dispense with the creature), and who couldn't like Nerys Hughes as a savage alien monster? (Is this series a BBC benefit for 70s sitcom stars?)
From Out of the Rain
A straightforward 'catch the alien' team episode, this, going for creepy and doing a passable job with it -- even if the aliens imprinting on film didn't make a lot of sense, well, TV scifi plots often don't. The sucked-out last breaths were an especially gothic element, and the parts where several were lost from the bottle, and where the MC tried to take Owen's breath and found he didn't have any were effective touches (it's good to see that they've kept their eye on the ball with Zombie!Owen, with a little reference each episode).
Was the little girl who took the ticket and went into the tent at the start meant to be the same one who crops up doing card readings for Jack? First thing that sprang to mind.
Adrift
Another straightforward episode, but I thought the character play with the mother and son and missing persons theme had rather more emotional depth and weight than Torchwood usually manages. And indeed, the scenes with PC Andy and Gwen were nice character moments, as were Gwen and Rhys arguing and working out some kind of agreement. (Then again, there's still obvious potential for that to go pear-shaped. I suppose that's where the Jack/Gwen might come in.)
There doesn't seem any obvious reason for Jack to keep the details of the island concealed from the rest of the team (except Ianto, apparently, who doesn't seem to agree), so that section of the plot was weak. And Jack inviting Gwen to join in when she surprised him and Ianto? His chat-up lines still rubbish, then. But overall it was nice to see an episode which wasn't about some terrible alien menace.
Fragments
I suppose at heart this was just a backstory dump, but it was an interesting backstory dump, so I don't mind -- and there were several surprises.
It was good to see some more background of the rather nasty original Torchwood (there has to be loads of fic potential there!) with the sketch of how a sort of Adam Adamant!Jack came to be recruited and then end up in charge in Cardiff needing to recuit a new team after the old boss went berserk at the Millennium (ah, if only Jack had been sent to San Francisco at that point and met Eight and the Master, eh? Would have caused a temporal paradox or something, I suppose). And that fortune teller subplot is now getting quite intriguing.
Tosh having fallen foul of UNIT was a real surprise, as was them throwing her into a prison quite obviously modelled on Guantanamo, right down to the orange jumpsuits. The current version seems a lot nastier than the one the Brig ran, who might have the first thought of blowing up aliens but gave even the Master a reasonably comfortable prison. Interesting to see that Jack asked her to commit for five years when he recruited her five years previously -- I'm wondering if that might play out at the end of the series somewhere?
Owen's backstory with his fiancé was intriguing -- which I suppose explains why he's been so much more bitter and cynical at Torchwood than he was there. He must really regret not having had the singularity scalpel handy!
And Ianto -- ah well, that was the comedy one, especially his "so you're not going to help me catch this pterodactyl, then?" line after Jack demonstrated his usual behave-like-a-dickhead management style (if he learnt that from the original Torchwood, it would explain a lot), and the now-no-longer-UST as they made the capture. Nice to have Suzie mentioned in passing for continuity. Also, of course, useful to know that pterodactyls like chocolate in case you ever meet one.
Gwen's still being rather dismissive of Rhys, isn't she, even when the poor sod's actually helping the team?
I'd been wondering if they were actually going to explain who left the bombs, and having it herald the return of Captain John was a pleasant if unexpected touch (I'd been expecting him to turn up again, but had kind of forgotten about him). However, it looks like we're going to have to wait until 4th April to see what happens ...
