A Day in the Death

An absolutely outstanding story; I think this may be my favourite Torchwood episode so far.

It's such a deep and powerful exploration of depression, and suicidal thoughts, and finally we get a decent acknowledgement that Owen is a bit of a prick. And despite the fact that he treats Tosh like dirt and continues to flirt with Martha despite her lack of interest (both which the people in question call him out on), we still really feel for Owen with his depression. I was genuinely rooting for him not to jump with the woman who had tragically lost her husband, which made the twist at the end even more satisfying.

Such expert screenwriting throughout, and phenomenally acted by all involved. Totally sublime.

This episode that it is pretty well regarded by Torchwood fans and while it did get my attention on initial viewing, it hardly blew me away, either. I never really had that reaction to this episode much, but agree it does hold up pretty well. In my initial viewing of the series, I was so burnt out and uninterested in Owen's character by this point that this trilogy kind of threw me off. I do like the content, it's just a little hard to ignore how dark of a place they started Owen with in this series. It's hard for me to really feel as much sympathy for Owen as I should, but at least here, to Torchwood's credit, that's kind of the point. Owen doesn't really deserve this resurrection and it is far from a pleasant experience. I was impressed by the show's willingness to change one of their characters so severely and they don't really walk it back, which was cool. To the show's credit, I really had no idea how far they'd be willing to go for the rest of Series 2.

It feels like Martha wasn't very well used here, but her appearance was still welcome enough. I wish she was used more or just joined the team here though. That would have been fun. I don't really like the effects much and the way it was filmed was just kind of okay for me.

A Day in the Death struck me. Owen deals probingly with his depression and “undead” status. It in turn leads him to save a life. It’s worth noting how good the ensemble cast are in this - including Martha. I’d have to do proper individual reviews to adequately explain what makes each character tick but it’s the thing that holds this show together.