Torchwood: Web Of Lies

10-part online sister series to Miracle Day, consisting of animated cut scenes embedded within a game. (this is only a review of those scenes, not the game itself) (I'm rubbish at computer games)

And game is the operative word. When Holly's brother Miles is shot undead (nobody can die following Miracle Day remember), she sets out to track down his would-be killer, and re-unravel the conspiracy that he had uncovered. (the same conspiracy as being unravelled in the main series - it's not much of a secret is it? ;) )

The extent to which Miles has encoded his findings is extreme to say the least, hiding a phone number in a sudoku puzzle, setting his laptop to self-destruct after three uses, and secreting a gun in the enemies' base with only a lie to reveal its location.

How Holly successfully cracks all of these riddles is a miracle in itself, but that's only the A storyline.

The sub-plot is set four years earlier in 2007, and this is more what I was up for. Jack has been captured by one of the Family, and it's up to Gwen to race across Europe to Chernobyl to save him. This ties into the main series better, forming as it does a lost episode from sometime during series one and two. Tosh is referred to, but neither seen nor heard.

At the end, Jack and Gwen are overcome by retcon gas, and awaken realising that they have lost a day, and seem to be in Chernobyl. Hey-ho. (they take this extremely well)

Surprisingly, the two storylines never seem to converge.

For what they are, I found these cut scenes increasingly holding my attention towards the end. Miles' puzzles at least kept my brain switched on, while the Jack / Gwen scenes inevitably held greater interest, purely because I'm more familiar with those characters.

To this Brit, Eliza Dushku as Holly sounds very similar to the main series' Alexa Havins as Esther Drummond, and that they shared so much computing prowess didn't help to clarify things.

The comic-book style animation is awkward, often giving the impression that a character is wearing a life-size picture of their own face over their actual face, but beyond that I was quite interested. The way Jack uses an electromagnet to shoot his captor is genius.

I guess each of the ten episodes are meant to be watched after each TV episode of the same number, but chronologically, as I say, I'd place Holly's scenes after episode 1. Jack and Gwen's 2007 scenes, from memory, I'd place after Out Of Time. She doesn’t seem to have her engagement ring, but I really haven't looked at the material or the episodes too closely. It's Torchwood, I just don't care enough. Heck, I don't even have series one any more.

Spin-offs from spin-offs, where does it all end. Would it be cruel, arrogant and unkind to hope for here?