In 2006, the Torchwood series had the onerous task of being the first spin-off from the legendary Doctor Who series post 2005. The main series had two seasons to introduce characters and concepts that would serve as an introduction to this spin-off, which would also be the first BBC series spin off to have an entire first season. With its desire to be more adult, does Torchwood manage to live up to its big sister?
First of all, the series opens with a shot that really struck me: a corpse bathed in blood. It's a shot that may seem fairly banal, but for a series in the whoniverse, it really sets the tone for what we're in for. The series doesn't start with dialogue or a funny montage about the life of a teenage girl, no, it starts with a victim who has lost her life. I think that sends a very strong message and is very stark when you go from Doctor Who to Torchwood.
This introductory scene is followed by some very interesting shots and dialogue. The most obvious is Jack's personality, which the viewer can understand from the first sentence the character utters. But that's not all: it also allows the series to take on a new dimension. It won't all be dark, it'll be fun too.
After the whole assassination sequence, we get to meet Gwen Cooper, the woman who will represent us this season. While her actions don't really stand out, it's still nice to see someone normal with a family. Normality and banality are so present that when the extraordinary happens, everything is rationalised. But I'm still puzzled that we don't explore Gwen more, even though the whole episode focuses on her and her obsession.
I don't have much to say about the other members. The episode doesn't manage to introduce everything at once, even if something that was really well thought out was showing their vices to show that they're deeply human and therefore fallible.
On the other hand, something really problematic about this episode is showing Owen behaving like a sexual predator without anything in the story showing him that what he's done is wrong and that he should suffer the consequences. Having already seen the whole series, I can understand why the writers wanted to make him a grey character, fluctuating between his role as protagonist and antagonist, but you can't let someone drug a victim to abuse her and pretend it's normal. I feel that if such an element is introduced into a story, it should be resolved in that story, or at least show that his behaviour will be dealt with in subsequent episodes. But here, nothing.
Script-wise, it's pretty good, even if I find it falls into the trap of exposition. Two scenes explain what Torchwood is, and both times it's just dialogue. Why not turn the plot so that Gwen discovers Torchwood through their actions? She would have been much more active and we would have had a much stronger episode. But hey, it's an introductory episode, we're introduced to elements and there are still a few scenes where we discover Torchwood through action, like when they drug a character to make him forget the last few hours, so it's not a huge problem, but they could've gone further.
I liked the character of Suzie, even if I found the plot twist centred on her a bit out of nowhere. There are no clues to help the viewer understand what's going to happen to this character. But I was very touched to discover this character who is so sad about everything and who has fallen into addiction. It's a mature subject that totally works with the idea of the series.
So, does this first episode manage to live up to Doctor Who? Well, I'm torn. On the one hand, the show manages to reinvent the universe, but on the other it makes a lot of missteps and gets a bit lost in the way it introduces things. I think the big problem with this episode is that it took 50 minutes to introduce Torchwood. I think a double episode would have been more relevant to allow us to dwell on more things.
Romy
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