Torchwood season 1 overview

Torchwood season one has been an uneven ride.

Just like new Doctor Who, the weakest scripts have easily all been written by the same person.

Like new Doctor Who, the guest-writers have made it worth watching, although their wildly contradictory scripts suggest that none of them have been told the show's premise in any detail. For example, in some episodes Torchwood is a secret organisation. In others, the United Nations, (Greeks Bearing Gifts) the army (Day One)and even the cops (They Keep Killing Suzie) seem familiar with them. In several episodes, they actually have their top secret name "TORCHWOOD" written in large letters across the front of their car.

Jack gets a new back-story every few weeks, leaving the audience to try and reconcile, among other things, how he's both stolen someone's identity, (Captain Jack Harkness) and had flashbacks of their life. (Small Worlds)

And - someone has to say this - the high level of bisexual staff at Torchwood looks like discrimination of some sort.

To sum up, like new Doctor Who, the elements of Torchwood that don’t work are its embarrassing attempts to be grown-up.

Children are generally quite happy being children.

Teenagers, generally want to hurry up and become adults.

Adults, generally, either get on with being an adult, or spend their entire lives still stuck in that teenage phase, forever trying to fake maturity by childishly pointing at non-childish things.

Torchwood, with its super-pretentious saturation of swearing, violence, and sex, looks like it's being made by students.

If you want to make an ‘adult’ show, then please grow up.


Individual episode reviews:

Everything Changes
Day One
Ghost Machine
Cyberwoman
Small Worlds
Countrycide
Greeks Bearing Gifts
They Keep Killing Suzie
Random Shoes
Out Of Time
Combat
Captain Jack Harkness
End Of Days