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"RANDOM SHOES: EUGENE’S SLIGHTLY DULL LIFE, DEATH, AND UNLIKELY AFTERLIFE"

Random Shoes stands out in Torchwood Series 1 for taking a bold structural swing—it places the spotlight not on the Torchwood team, but on an awkward, alien-obsessed outsider named Eugene Jones. Told from Eugene’s posthumous perspective, this melancholic detour tries to emulate Love & Monsters from Doctor Who Series 2, focusing on a nobody’s brush with the extraordinary. But where Elton Pope’s tale was equal parts funny, sad, and whimsical, Eugene’s story leans more heavily into sentimental introspection and doesn’t quite land with the same impact.

EUGENE JONES: THE INVISIBLE MAN

Eugene is your classic socially awkward nerd: a maths prodigy, failed Torchwood groupie, and hoarder of alien tat. His death by traffic accident is the mystery driving the plot, but his personality—while perhaps intentionally underwhelming—isn't quite engaging enough to carry an entire episode. His constant narration offers some insight into his hopes and regrets, but his slightly smug, overly earnest tone makes him a hard character to warm to. He’s not a bad person—just not a particularly interesting one.

GWEN TAKES THE LEAD

With Eugene observing the action as a ghostly narrator, Gwen steps into the protagonist role, digging into Eugene’s life to uncover the truth behind his death. While most of Torchwood is relegated to the background (Jack and Owen have little to do, Tosh gets sidelined), Gwen’s compassion and persistence are the emotional core of the story. Her slow realisation that Eugene was duped by his so-called mates—and that he felt invisible all his life—gives the episode its heart, even if their supposed “connection” feels one-sided and underdeveloped.

THE PLOT THAT SHUFFLES ALONG

Narratively, it’s a bit of a plod. The investigation follows Gwen as she interviews Eugene’s mum and his friends, eventually piecing together that Eugene was tricked into selling a mysterious alien eye—an artefact that’s never properly explained, but which he later swallows. It turns out that eye is what’s keeping him around as a ghost, which he eventually uses to… save Gwen from a car crash. This final act of heroism briefly grants him visible form at his own funeral, before he’s spirited away into the sky like a glowing angel. Whether that’s touching or slightly absurd is up for debate.

SENTIMENTAL OVER SUBSTANTIAL

The real emotional through-line is Eugene’s estranged relationship with his father, and the sweet, if predictable, reveal that his dad did care after all. This is genuinely moving, if a little heavy-handed. Thematically, it’s all about how people can feel unseen, unimportant, and how everyone’s life has value—worthy ideas, but not delivered with much nuance.

ALIEN EYE, SHALLOW TIES

The sci-fi elements are barely there. The eye is more magical MacGuffin than meaningful plot device, and Eugene’s unexplained ability to interact with the world in his final moments—saving Gwen from being hit by a car—feels unearned. The ghostly mechanics aren’t explained, and the glowing angelic send-off feels tonally at odds with Torchwood's usual grit and cynicism.

📝VERDICT: 5.6/10

Random Shoes is a gentle, introspective ghost story with a heart, but not much narrative muscle. Its slow pace, bland central character, and limp sci-fi twist stop it from soaring. Gwen gets some solid material, and the premise—viewing Torchwood through an outsider’s eyes—isn’t without merit. But despite its emotional ambition, it doesn’t quite pack the punch it wants to. A slightly awkward oddity with a glowing heart but not much fire.

Like, it's fine, I guess, but really Random Shoes is a nothing of an episode. I get the point made but I truly didn't give one about the character making the point

I don't get why the RTD Whoniverse stuff thought Love & Monsters was such a great idea. Because that's essentially what this episode is. Torchwood's version. It just doesn't work when a personification of fandom becomes the lead character. It becomes too much like a parody.

This episode also suffers from a lack of peril. There's no real stakes. It's just Gwen investigating the death of someone who is a fan of Torchwood's operations, and happened to get his hands on an alien eye.

The ending isn't quite as bad as Love & Monsters, but doesn't make much sense. So now as soon as Gwen nearly dies, they can all see Eugene? Why? And now he's seemingly back to life, why does he decide to somehow send himself back to his state of death? Why does Gwen kiss someone she barely knows? Eh?

Random Shoes is hardly terrible. I had a fun enough time and think the comparisons to Love and Monsters is a little unfair. This episode works a lot better on the whole, and while not overly substantial, it is quite sentimental and I think our actors really carry what could have been a much more mediocre affair on the whole. I think the investigation nicely pairs itself with the outsiders perspective Eugene provides. There's some value in looking at how entities like Torchwood or the Doctor are viewed by the outside world, and this story does a pretty adequate job of exploring that.

I am in love with the magnificent and unfairly underrated Random Shoes, which is Love & Monsters but with a more satisfying narrative and conclusion, written by the actor / writer Jacquetta May who (presumably due to her splitting her time between two professions) has surprisingly few writing credits to her name. There was so much pathos and love in this story of a dead boy.