Torchwood: Day One
After some further thought, here's my commentary on episode two of Torchwood, Day One. Contains spoilers, naturally, and much approval.
It's very plain that we're meant to draw a connection between Jack and the Doctor. There were plenty of small visual and script clues that have previously been associated with both the Ninth and Tenth Doctors - the holding hands motif cropped up, Jack uses Gwen's full name in exactly the way the Doctor says "Rose Tyler", Jack stands apart from his "companions" in Torchwood, nobody knows anything about him. Every time you think he's dead, he comes back. And of course, he has the Doctor's hand in a jar. I do wonder what he intends to do with that.
I was defintely expecting Indira Varma's character - Suzie Costello - to show up again by some means in this episode; cloning or resurrection or whatever. The peculiar thing is that she's listed in IMDB as appearing in this episode, as well as three others yet to be broadcast. She was in all the publicity material, so I'm rather puzzled by the whole thing at the moment.
The plot of the episode wasn't all that original, but I thought the treatment was excellent. Particularly, Gewn's repeated emphasis on how the people involved feel, and on what happens to them afterward. It's a concept often brushed under the carpet in Doctor Who (except, I have to admit, in Love and Monsters, much as I disliked it otherwise) and in scifi/horror TV in general.
There are definite aspects of both The X-Files and Buffy about the series. Indeed, you could draw some very definite parallels to Buffy, if you were inclined; Gwen isn't quite Buffy - she's more Scully - but Jack can easily be mapped to Angel, and Toshiko to Willow. And Gwen's boyfriend - whose name I haven't yet caught properly - even looks like an older Xander.
There's really a lot to see in this episode, in both obvious plot and less obvious side details. I'm going to have to re-watch it, which is something I very rarely do.
Posted by Drew Shiel at October 24, 2006 8:36 PM
