Episode Synopsis (spoilers abound)
Well, we got our grubby little mitts on the new Dr who Spin-off series Torchwood. It was quite good, and it didn’t distance itself too far from the original series to make it unrecognizable, Capt Jack was there, in all his glory.
To start, we enter a dark
The next day Gwen goes down to work, and makes an inquiry about torchwood and Capt Jack. No one in the police has a definite answer to what torchwood is, some sort of CSI her partners imagines. They have a police briefing about the latest ring of stabbings; all are done with a knife about 8 inches long. Later Gwen and her partner try and break up a bar brawl, Gwen gets wounded and has to get stitches. While at the hospital she sees a man running up a flight of stairs and she chases. When she gets to the top she finds the top floor sealed off. Chemicals or something an orderly tells her. Gwen tries to investigate, but finds what she thinks is a strange man. We can tell he’s not quite human, she thinks it’s a mask. He’s wearing some sort of blue shiny torchwood labeled jumpsuit. She tries asking him about the man in the coat. She doesn’t get a response. The orderly comes back and tells her that there aren’t any chemicals or anything, and they don’t know why the floor is sealed up. He starts talking about the guy in the “mask” and how good it is. Getting too close the creature (weevil) lunges for the mans neck and rips his throat out. Out of nowhere Torchwood jumps and subdues the creature. Gwen runs out of the hospital and tries to chase down the Torchwood van. She runs the registration over her radio, but gets nothing. The only thing that she has is that there was an American Captain Jack Harkness who disappeared in 1941. She follows them to the
A traffic cop distracts her and when she turns back they have disappeared. She tries talking to her partner about the hospital porter but there isn’t anyone missing. He thinks that she isn’t well and takes her home where here boyfriend is making dinner. She tells him that she has to work a night shift as they are short. She sneaks down to the place where she lost the Torchwood people. She spots a moped driving pizza delivery person, and decides to go to the pizza place. She flashes her badge and asks if they deliver to Capt Jack, or other versions of his name. She finally gets around to asking if they deliver to Torchwood. Of course they do them all the time, good customers. She gets their address from the pizza guy. Later on we see her walking with two pizzas. She goes through a door under the boardwalk, to some sort of tourist center. The place is all tacky, with brochures and post cards. When she is asked why she is there she says a Mr. Harkness ordered a pizza. Pushing a button a secret door opens, and she is guided through. After going through some mysterious hallways and self opening doors, and a brief elevator ride she finds herself at Torchwood.
The first impression of the place is it’s weird. She has to go through a bank vault rolling door, with a cage that closes when she enters. It looks like a disused subway station that’s been reconditioned as a lair. Inside she sees a severed hand in a bubbling glass display case with a matching head behind it. There is a waterfall through the middle of the place, someone doing welding on a computer, and finally Good ole Captain Jack, who of course seems to be ignoring her. It’s all rather ominous, until they start to laugh. None of them can hold a straight face. They remark that she actually had pizza with her.
She asks what happened to the porter, and they say that he was killed. They planted information making it look like he was never there and when they find his body in the
Capt Jack takers Gwen around Torchwood and introduces her to all the main players. She’s concerned of what they are going to do to her, as it is all very very top secret. Jack takes her to the scenic route, which is an elevator that takes them up straight o the spot where the TARDIS once was. Jack explains that no one can see them when they stand there; some sort of perception filter is there. He thinks that a dimensionally trancesndentant chameleon circuit was once in that exact spot and it welded its perception properties to the spatial temporal rift. He likes to call it an invisible lift. Gwen is concerned that people don’t see the hole when the lift is there and they fall in. Jack tells her that is typical Welsh, show her something fantastic and she finds fault.
Later in a bar, cpt Jack tells her that she should know about aliens, the alien ship on Christmas, the cybermen. She tells him that her boyfriend thinks its some sort of terrorism. They do their introductions, and she tells him that Cpt Jack Harkness disappeared in 1941. He tells her Torchwoods mandate, to scavenge technology to help mankind move into the future. Gwen worries that Torchwood could abuse the technology; Jack assures her that none of it can leave the base.
We then cut to a few scenes showing each Torchwood agent at home, unpacking clearly alien technology.
Back at the bar Jack tells Gwen that
Owen Harper is at a bar, and his perfume bottle of glowing particles is some sort of love potion. He walks off with the most beautiful girl in the place, when confronted with the jealous boyfriend he sprays himself again. The boyfriend kisses him, and says “I’m so having you” The girlfriend chimes in “I’m having him first” He calls for a Taxi.
Toshiko’s item seems to be some sort of alien scanner. She places it next to a book on her shelf, a tale of two cities, and then takes it to her computer. The screen comes alive with the scanned pages of the book.
Lanto is secretly intercepting Gwen’s email, and deletes it before she can get it out. The next day Gwen remembers nothing. She goes to work, and there is an artist’s concept of the weapon used to kill the recent murders. It’s rather an elaborate affair, and Gwen obsesses over it all day. Later that night she is awake, drawing the blade, and having a flashback of seeing it somewhere. She sees the word remember written on a pamphlet which leads her to the waterfall where the Torchwood is. She has more and more flashbacks till she meets Suzie Costello. Suzie admits that she found the artists conception of the knife and pretty much admits that she did it. Suzie loves the job, but hates that she has to run. She laments that they only get shit, there is better things in the universe, but they don’t come to earth. She admits that she killed the people to test the glove that revives people. The more she uses it, the more she can control it. She wants to get to the point where she can make it permanent. Capt Jack is standing between them in the perception filter, but it doesn’t work on Suzie. She shoots Capt Jack in the forehead. He gets up, and the bullet hole in his forehead heals. He tells her its over, and she commits suicide. At this Gwen Remembers. Then we go to the Torchwood facility, everyone starts to turn in their borrowed alien technology. They bag Suzies body, and put the glove under lock and key. Jack didn’t tell them he was shot in the head. He admits that he can’t die. That somewhere far away, he was killed, and something brought him back to life, and since that time he can’t die. He’s looking for a doctor.. the right sort of doctor to explain it. He doesn’t tell anyone because it freaks people out. Then he offers Gwen a place in Torchwood.
Pretty awesome episode, it didn’t lose any of the Dr Who charm, but it was clearly of a more adult nature. There were more thane one definite reference to bisexuality, and we clearly saw all the blood. I really enjoyed it, and can’t wait for more,
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