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10 June 2025
This review contains spoilers!
Disclaimer: This is less of a Review and more of my unfiltered Thoughts, if you want to read something more proper about this Episode, then I highly recommend @/uss-genderprise's Essay on it that you can find here! I don't think as highly about the Episode myself, but I think it's worth a Read!
I don’t think I surprise anybody when I say Torchwood so far didn’t do it for me, that said… this is the best Torchwood Episode so far and maybe for this whole Series.
Firstly, the big Elephant in the Room: What about the Costume? Well… I am conflicted about it, one hand somebody could argue they were trying to go for a similar look from a Movie such as Metropolis (which is by the way the best German Movie in my eyes and everybody should watch it at least once), but kinda failed at it. But it’s also hard to defend it too much, since it does kinda strike me sightly of the Issue with Torchwood at least in the early days when they do it because they can do it. I do think it could be designed much better and there is a way you can read much more into it, but yeah not that great but also far away from the worst. It is at least doing something with the Body Horror, which was really lacking in all the RTD1 Cybermen Stories.
And dare I say as a Cybermen Story it is one of the best in the Revival Time. There is something really nice seeing a Story remember the Core of the Cybermen, lack of Emotions, a Story such as Next Doctor just kinda forgot. The lack of Emotions should as often as possible being a vocal point of those Story, because why else should it be Cybermen and not something else like your regular “evil” Robots? Exploring Ianto’s Character here is really well done for the most Part. Do I think he behaves a bit too irrational? Yeah, but I think that’s kinda the point here and really fits well when put in contrast with the Cybermen. Their core idea is a lack of Emotion replaced with only Logic, having a Story with a Character just not being able to let go of their Lover and behaving very irrational because of it fits perfectly in my eyes. The Story is by no means perfect for me, there is a lot for it going, and I genuinely believe compared to the “Sex Gas” Episode it has a lot more about it to say and feels like a much better step into the right direction. Overall, my favorite Torchwood Episode so far. (Yes I know I mainly went with the Cybermen Aspect of this Episode, but honestly I am not quite sure what else to add here, since a lot of it was already covered or said by others here).
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