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Torchwood: Dr Who Spin-Off With Captain Jack

It was created by Russel T. Davies and he's exec producer... so a lot more involved than just writing one episode. It's his show.
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Yeh I know that but I was talking about the actual quality of the writing. Although I agree, Davies must be blamed for taking his finger off the ball I think.
 
Toshiko goes into bar. Bird tells Toshiko that she knows all about Toshiko and is a nerdy hacker type. Bird gives Toshiko a pendant which is really a powerful alien artifact. Toshiko fancies bird and tells her all about the wonders of Torchwood. What Tosh! :roll:

If it hadn't been for that bit, the rest of the episode would have been quite good, even if it does borrow wholesale from a Buffy episode.
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
If it hadn't been for that bit, the rest of the episode would have been quite good, even if it does borrow wholesale from a Buffy episode.
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Agree about the quality of the rest of the episode, if you're going to copy something you couldn't pick a better source.
 
I'm planning to stick with it - but then again I am the only person I know who watched all the episodes of "Star Cops".

I am actually enjoying Torchwood, but it isn't quite as dark as I thought it might be. I think they might give us some real shocks and revelations about Jack before the end of the series.
 
austen27 said:
I'm planning to stick with it - but then again I am the only person I know who watched all the episodes of "Star Cops".

I am actually enjoying Torchwood, but it isn't quite as dark as I thought it might be. ...
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Me too, except for the bit about "Star Cops", of course. :)
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
Me too, except for the bit about "Star Cops", of course. :)
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I thought Star Cops wasn't too bad, Space Precinct was rubbish though.

I recently found the old Moonbase 3 series on video in a charity shop, a bit slow and design like a 70s disco, but not too terrible. (The EU Moonbase is underfunded, and riven by political rivalries, which is actually quite believable).[/i]
 
Timble2 said:
I thought Star Cops wasn't too bad, Space Precinct was rubbish though.
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I'm sure I liked one of those two, but I can't separate them in my head. Which one was what? I've got this vague recollection of bright 90s costumes, like cast-offs from Total Recall, and large rubber heads with eyes in strange places. Which show was I watching? I've got a feeling that Gerry Anderson was involved...

On topic, I'll stick with Torchwood until the end of this series, as I'm expecting my patience to be rewarded with a massive end-of-season payoff. I'm fooling myself, though, aren't I?
 
Bistoinferno said:
It was created by Russel T. Davies and he's exec producer... so a lot more involved than just writing one episode. It's his show.
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Yeh I know that but I was talking about the actual quality of the writing. Although I agree, Davies must be blamed for taking his finger off the ball I think.
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Even an episode of his 'Century Falls' was better than Episode 1 of Torchwood. It shows his work probably at it's lowest ebb and then the rest of the series follows suit. It's all good and well for a brain fart, but does it really merit the second series it's apparently getting (seriously consider this in light of far, FAR better shows that don't get second seasons). Makes me wonder who the audience really is (bearing in mind it is on a license paying station). It all seems very 'contractual' to me. I mean, for a runaway success ....?
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
Toshiko goes into bar. Bird tells Toshiko that she knows all about Toshiko and is a nerdy hacker type. Bird gives Toshiko a pendant which is really a powerful alien artifact. Toshiko fancies bird and tells her all about the wonders of Torchwood. What Tosh! :roll:

If it hadn't been for that bit, the rest of the episode would have been quite good, even if it does borrow wholesale from a Buffy episode.
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It was OK, even if it was written by somebody who is barely SF literate (Surely he/she KNEW that all the tropes they used were clichés. Maybe not. Ignorance is bliss). Even the human weasel was less irritating than usual. The Welsh non-actor non-acted as if his life depended upon it but he's easy to ignore.

And then Cap'n Slut, er, sorry, Jack comes out with the number one big lie of SF. The one that SF luddites have used ever since, um, a long time ago:

"there are some things we're not meant to know!" :x

Oh, fer Gawd's sake!
 
Boulters_Canary said:
And then Cap'n / Jack comes out with the number one big lie of SF: "there are some things we're not meant to know!"
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It would appear there is rather a lot we're not supposed to know, if previous episodes are anything to go by.
 
Hm, maybe I shouldn't have watched Nicholas Craig's How to be Sci-Fi on BBC4 before tonight's episode, it made it seem a bit daft. But it's like that every week I guess.

How could Susie speak if she'd shot herself through the mouth? And considering the plot, wouldn't it have been easier not to shoot herself in the first place? Too many important story points thrown away tonight.
 
(Spoilers, if you're catching the repeat and didn't see last nights)

They always have huge plot holes. It felt a bit better though. Still, you had Gwen overcome by the situation and putting everyone at risk, the stupidly improbable notion it had all been planned beforehand, The silly, Kids' TV-esque "Maybe it's numbers" bit, and lots of "Don't you see Jack... Don't you SEE???", "All My life I'd believed...", "It's in my head... it's like...", etc, all the usual Torchwoodisms.

And the whole being dead thing was quite cool, but a bit Buffy. And done better. All I can say is that Jack's revelations which will no doubt come at the end of the series had better match the impact of Buffy's in the musical episode (I think that's where they revealed she didn't want to come back).
 
Mattattattatt said:
And the whole being dead thing was quite cool, but a bit Buffy. And done better. All I can say is that Jack's revelations which will no doubt come at the end of the series had better match the impact of Buffy's in the musical episode (I think that's where they revealed she didn't want to come back).
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Do you think with John Bannerman in the cast they might actually do a musical episode!

Wasn't the point of Susie shooting her self then being ressurected meant to be that she could then live for ever (or until the glove was destroyed)?
 
And what exactly were Jack and Ianto going into the office to do with the stopwatch :shock:
 
Bistoinferno said:
And what exactly were Jack and Ianto going into the office to do with the stopwatch?
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I thought that - the mind boggles! Maybe Jack was going to raise his usual level of campery all the way up to 11, and they were going to see (to the nearest tenth of a second, no less!) how long it took Ianto's face tocrack from the usual slightly puzzled, slightly wooden mask.

Actually, if you ignore the fact that most things in this show have been done before, tonight's episode wasn't too bad at all. At least it was entertaining enough to pass the time pleasantly. Not sure about the preview of next week's show, though - it looked a bit limp. Still, after a marked improvement tonight, I'll be quite happy to give the next story the benefit of the doubt.
 
If i was making long term plans to be resurrected so as to live for ever, I wouldn't be blowing my brains out. I'd have gone for electrocution.

How did Suzie manage to function above vegetable, at all? I'm probably being a bit pedantic, I know, but why did everything go back to the way it was before the artefact got used, at the end of the programme? Or, was Gwen's vacant stare, off into space, supposed to be suggestive of a certain empty headedness?

Too much working out the plot backwards from the conclusion, for my liking. :confused:
 
I think next week's episode will be this series' Love and Monsters by the looks of it.
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
If i was making long term plans to be resurrected so as to live for ever, I wouldn't be blowing my brains out. I'd have gone for electrocution.

How did Suzie manage to function above vegetable, at all?
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How did she manage to talk with a bullet wound that would have passed through her tongue?. Why couldn't Capt jack just use the 'magic kiss' he used on Ianto in the cyber woman episode? I don't expect a sci fi/fantasy show to be realistic, but I find the way this show claims to be adult, then treats in audience like dim 5 years olds to be a bit much.
 
gncxx said:
How could Susie speak if she'd shot herself through the mouth?
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When she was drinking coffee I was expecting it to come dribbling out of the hole in her chin.
 
Mike_Pratt33 said:
When she was drinking coffee I was expecting it to come dribbling out of the hole in her chin.
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So was I!

I was very disappointed with it. I think it's the worst one yet, and there's stiff competition. I was actually hoping Gwen would die, just to make things more interesting.
 
I didn't watch this episode, despite the umpteen repeats, and to be honest I don't feel my life is at all poorer for that.

i think I'll just read this thread and if everyone suddenly goes "Fock me! That was brilliant!!" I'll make the effort when they show it again the next day on BBC3.
 
Well tonight's wasn't brilliant, but it was, against expectations, not bad at all. Pretty damn good in fact. Played around with the format in an effective way and a decent detective story too.

I looked up the writer on the IMDB and she was Jacquetta May, who's an actress with only two other TV writing credits. She should keep it up, she's got talent. Why couldn't it have been like this six weeks ago?
 
Excellent episode - they could have actually shown him in previous episodes, though, rather than telling us out of the blue that he'd been stalking torchwood for ages and that they regarded him as a bit of a nuisance.
 
I've enjoyed the last three episodes. The characters are starting to get a bit more fleshed out. The gaping plot holes are still there, but as the people and the storylines get more interesting I'm more willing to forgive them.

I liked Eugene Jones as a character, which makes it a bit of a shame that he's dead. He would have made for an interesting addition to the team. He's got more sense than the rest of them put together, for a start.
 
Well there's gonna be more - even though I haven't been watching it....Do these Programme commisioners not listen to a word I say?

BBC confirms second series of 'Torchwood'
Tuesday, December 12 2006, 12:34 GMT

By Neil Wilkes, Editor


Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood will return for a second series in 2007, the BBC has confirmed.

The news comes as the show - from Who guru Russell T Davies - reaches the end of its first run on BBC Three, where it has drawn a peak of 2.4 million viewers and an average audience of around 1 million. It has also garnered regular ratings of over 2 million for BBC Two on Thursday nights.

The BBC also confirmed that the second series will premiere on BBC Two, ending speculation over which channel would get to screen the show first. As with the main Doctor Who series, it is still expected to have a repeat window on BBC Three.

Describing Torchwood as "inventive, intelligent and unpredictable", BBC Two controller Roly Keating said he was "delighted" to have secured first run broadcast of the series. Meanwhile, BBC Three head Julian Bellamy said he was "proud" that the channel had helped to "build Torchwood into one of the most talked-about and eagerly-anticipated series of recent years".

Russell T Davies, who will continue to executive produce with Julie Gardner, added: "The whole team is bristling with ideas and we are delighted that Cardiff is going to be home to more monsters and mayhem."

Filming of the second series will begin in the Spring for transmission towards the end of 2007.
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http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds40680.html
 
Can they get new writers and change the cast, please...?

Last weeks was at least consistently bad. I especially enjoyed the fact that they accidentally put the "CBBC" logo in the left corner for the first 5 mins of the episode...
 
Describing Torchwood as "inventive, intelligent and unpredictable",
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Typo. That should read, "uninventive, unintelligent and predictable," surely?
Russell T Davies, who will continue to executive produce with Julie Gardner, added: "The whole team is bristling with ideas"
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So, does that mean we might actually see some ideas next series? I can remember reading somewhere that RTD also said "We're not allowed to call it Doctor Who". Damn f**kin right you're not. My Gawd, this show is shite.

Come back, Sea of Souls, all is forgiven!!!
 
I'm reading the Making of the new Doc Who at the moment. S'very good, very interesting. Found something out....

SPOILER ALERT


According to the season three preview at the end of the book Captain Jack re-unites with the Doctor in the final episode! I'm asuming that the stories of Torchwood are going to cross over into Doctor Who.

mooks
 
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