I don't think the Cyberwoman costume is bad. A word I've heard people use to describe this costume is dehumanising. It's definitely not the most common word I've heard, but I have heard it said more than once. I think this is great word to describe the costume, I just don't see why some people use the word as a pejorative. The costume is dehumanising, which is thematically appropriate for a character who has very literally been dehumanised.

Yes there's a lot of skin on display, but at points in the episode this is used very effectively to portray the humanity (even the lost humanity) of the character and the body horror elements of the Cybermen. There are shots in this with the flesh and metal mashed together that are genuinely creepy. As much as people talk about how the flesh on display is used to titillate, it's also used effectively to look uncomfortable and make the viewer uncomfortable as well.

And yes, it obviously is also used to titillate. I'm sure this is the main reason so many people have a hard time with the costume. But that's not an issue with it being badly designed. It's supposed to be titillating, so if anything the fact that it is only demonstrates that the design works. People may not like it, and that's completely valid, but this is Torchwood. Especially in it's early days Torchwood was expressly designed to be sexy. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to make your show sexy, although I accept that Torchwood sometimes misses the mark in doing so.

For example Owen & Gwen kissing in the morgue drawer in this episode doesn't work for me. But I don't like that because it just seems like an incredibly dumb thing to do both for the story and the characters. These characters have never seemed to share any chemistry or even like each other (their apparent dislike for one another isn't even fun or flirty). Even worse is the cirumstances surrounding the kiss. They're in fear for their lives, silently hiding so that they're not found and killed by a killer robot. So why would they decide to aggressively make out? The show gives no reasonable justification for this moment. I'm not pretending the Cyberwoman costume is amazing or anything, but I think there's enough in universe justification for it. So it doesn't bother me like the kiss does. Apart from the heels, I don't like the heels.

If you ignore the costume (which I think is fine) then this is a really good episode. The character work here is very good. Ianto obviously gets his best episode to date. But I think Jack does as well. The scenes between the two of them have the best human drama in the Series so far.

This is also a fun and exciting base under siege story. The characters feel truly desperate in the scenario and it sells how dangerous the Cyberwoman is. Look, I'm a simple man. You give me an episode of television where a robot lady punches a dinosaur and I'm probably going to have a good time watching it.

I had a good time watching this.