I'd forgotten the look and feel of this series. It's very of the time, but unlike Doctor Who it's trying so hard to be cool and edgy that it actually feels more dated. This is an entirely subjective complaint, but I really dislike this era in culture where things often wanted to be 'dark & gritty', only here I'd say the look is more 'grim & grimy' (seriously clean those cells, they look gross). So I don't want to complain that it's objectively bad, because there's clearly been a lot of thought and effort in the production design. They've really commited to the style of the show, and it does a good job of differentiating this show from Doctor Who. So objectively I think it's good work. But, subjectively this is a tone and aesthetic that I personally find annoying and ugly. So it'll likely have a negative impact on how much I enjoy rewatching this show.

I don't think this is an especially good episode for establishing the show. I don't think it's necessarily bad, but it falters in some ways. In particular in it's establishing of Torchwood itself. Outside of Gwen and Jack (Suzie maybe) I don't feel like I know these characters. We're told their names, job titles and then basically just told 1 very broad personality trait. Owen is horny (with a dubious grasp on consent), Tosh is a nerd who likes books, Ianto is... handsome in a suit. On top of that I don't really get a feel for what they do. Yeah we're told they do alien stuff, but this is a Doctor Who spinoff, this fact didn't require much establishing. Other than they don't really do that much other than occasionally bringing people back from the dead. A skill they don't really do after this episode.

I don't even think this episode actually explains why Gwen wants to join Torchwood, or why Torchwood would recruit Gwen. There's the scene in the bar between Gwen & Jack. Gwen is definitely curious about Torchwood in this scene, but she makes no attempt to join. She asks to be their liaison with the police. So she doesn't want to actually join Torchwood in this scene, then they erase her memory, one of the Torchwood team threatens to kill her at gun point, she witnesses 2 people get shot in the head and one of those people comes back to life. Why would having Torchwood mess around with and threaten her life, then witnessing some horrific deaths make Gwen want to join? I repeat, she doesn't want to join the Torchwood, then we're shown Torchwood being responsible for her having an awful time and she's now for some reason eager for more awfulness. It makes no sense to me.

As for Jack, I do buy that he likes Gwen in this episode. So that is arguably enough justification to ask her to join. But at the bar he decides she needs to have her memory wiped so that she can have absolutely nothing to do with Torchwood. What makes him decide afterwards that she's worth recruiting. She doesn't even solve the mystery really. She has no idea what's going on whilst Suzie is monologing and confessing to everything that's happened. Jack has to figure everything out and save the day entirely on his own, Gwen doesn't do anything except sorta remember something is going on near Torchwood's base and goes there confused. But her not actually doing anything except nearly getting herself killed makes him think she's now ready to be on the team apparently.

I'm willing to go with it because the show needs a POV character and they've established Gwen not only as a character, but as a character I like. So sure put Gwen on the team I guess. But it feels like the in universe explanation for why she's on the team is because they just lost a female member of staff and it's just quicker to just ask the next women they see to replace her.