Written by: Cynthia Lee (SoSF Contributing Journalist)
I like that it’s the rest of the story. I like that it is what grownups do in the night. I like that it deals with the consequences of the grand things, and all the little things in between.
I like how it doesn’t avoid the awkward glances of all the awkward things in life, and that it’s worst monsters aren’t truly the things that go bump in the night but instead us, regular and irregular human beings.
I like that it takes the moments where Doctor Who would only give us that knowing glance with lifted eyebrow, and turns all that is behind such looks into an entire episode, or character growth, or even a look at our real motivations.
It challenges us, in the way that the oldest and the oldest of humanity’s stories have always challenged us — and it doesn’t shirk from the responsibility of carrying on that work and sharing them with us, one more time.
I like that it is true storytelling, not just flash-in-the-pan, shrugs and giggles info-bit entertainment which comes and goes with the latest fads.
I love the romp ’round the galaxy troubadour spirit of Dr Who, I do. But at the end of the day, I lead my real life and I will irretrievably and always want that reflected in my choice of stories. Books, movies, anime, television, radio, it doesn’t matter — but does it have a “meaty” story, with excellent characterization, a good plot and a believable despite the extremes universe for the story to exist in?
If it does, I am there, be it Torchwood, Dark City, Eon, Emergence, Wolfling, or Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. I am so there.
And Torchwood has it.
Torchwood wasn’t adult, it was childish. And for a secret government agency, they were completely incompetent.
I don’t know where I stand on thinking of it as adult or childish, so maybe I’ll ask. Anndra, what makes you think it’s childish?
I absolutely loathed Torchwood. It’s a pathetic excuse for science-fiction, adult drama, or television at all. Utter bollocks.
Torchwood. An anagram of “Doctor Who”, and not necessarily a good premise for a show.
However, despite the overly melodramatic characters, the dialogue that sometimes has a similar feel to the writing style of George Lucas and an maybe a little too much sexual content, it does what British SciFi has always tried to do, i.e. break the mold and forge new grounds.
Apparently, there will be major changes to Series Two so let’s not get too upset and give it another try.
If it will be half as good as ITV’s Primeval, we could be onto a new winner.
I just found it pants. It felt totally contrived.
I thought it was awful. Watching it turned into a forced exercise by the end, with that hypnotic train wreck fascination of, “Just where is this going?” I don’t plan on watching series 2, though my wife is curious to see the first show or two just to see if they actually improve anything. I fully agree on it being childish. It was simply unbelievable. A totally secret government agency designed to defend the world from alien threat, and they have FIVE employees? All of whom are unprofessional, untrained, and outright dangerous to each other and their team? From the first episode, where a teammate hooted and grinned over the spied lesbian kiss, rather than warning his teammate that he knew this contact was incredibly dangerous, it just went downhill. Scenes that were supposed to make the show “adult” (ie, the occasional bit of sex, boobie, or bottom) felt adolescent. Jack is not a leader anyone would follow, Owen made us flinch every time he spoke, the policewoman couldn’t handle a meter maid’s job, “Asian girl” was only present in the series for one gay sex scene, and the guy who lurked at the lab was only present to nearly kill his entire team by keeping a menace in the basement. Yet he kept his job, whereas real people get fired for being late to work. The sexual relationships are not adult, they feel written by a high schooler in high hormones.
There were a few good episodes. The ghost boy show was excellent – ironic, because it focused on someone NOT in the team. IMO the show just makes too many intrinsic blunders – unlikable cast, unworkable concept, inept delivery, and broken internal logic. How did Torchwood go from being a vast super-secret organization with hundreds of employees, as seen in Who (Remember, they built a city-wide giant laser cannon thingie), to being five people lounging around a wacky crypt ordering pizzas? They never even seemed to address basic questions like this.
What I like about “Torchwood”? More episodes in the Doctor Who ‘verse per year with two shows running.
I watched the first three episodes and then stobbed.
The show was too derivative. The second episode was done better by “Angel” in its second episode.
I didn’t care about the characters–even Capt. Jack.
So, I stopped watching.
I am one of a few who loved it. Even had a friend from Germany to make DVD’s of the entire first season and ship them off to me. While a lot of the show did seem contrived at times, I still have enjoyed it overall.
It was a decent show, although with the poorly written slasher movie episode I wanted to vomit.
I’ll watch season two just to see what happens. After all, season two had what made season one watchable…. Captain Jack.
I liked the characters (except Owen and I felt sorry for him by the end) and Tosh was a bit too much of a non entity. The slasher movie episode was my favorite. Some of the sex was a bit gratuitous, but then we’re all adults (I assume) and it was meant just as a bit of fun I’m sure.
As someone who has only seen 1 or 2 Buffy episodes and never in my life watched Angel, I am getting a little fed up with people continually whining that Torchwood copied them and they did it better. If they did, so what? I can’t be the only non Buffy et al fan out there and for me Torchwood was fresh.
‘Nuff said, I loved Torchwood, bring on season 2.
I’m with Sam. I thought Torchwood was actually quite good overall. Sure it had it’s issues, but what show hasn’t? The character of Captain Jack Harkness was a MUCH more well-developed character on Torchwood then he ever was on Doctor Who.
@Trever – Torchwood never had “just” five employees … It was stated in the sreies that there are a number of branches, stations or what have you in the organization.
It’s a good show….just VERY different from the show it was spun off from. I think that’s a GOOD thing!
This was stated in the series? I must have missed it completely. I really was boggled at how the huge organization shown in Who had somehow shrunk down to these few characters who never interact with any other Torchwood people. I suppose I was expecting something more along the lines of Spooks, which has an equally small cast but still manages to convey the idea that they’re members in a great big organization due to all the extras and background noise and such.
The huge organization shown in Who got mostly destroyed at the end of Doomsday, leaving the little satellite stations like the one in Cardiff to pick up most of the slack. I actually liked that they were all horribly flawed, too; watching the team slowly fall to bits as staying together became more and more important to the safety of the world.
(Personally, I think Jack let them all off light there at the end. If I were him, I’d spend the entirety of the next series being extremely bitchy anytime anyone challenged my judgement. “Oh? What would you rather do, Owen? Bring about the end of the world? That sounds like a good plan.”)
Torchwood definitely had its issues, and I understand that the people going in expecting a cross between The X-Files and Men In Black ended up disappointed. But I really liked the first series and will be following it in future.
I did end up hating Owen by the end. And Jack and Ianto pairing up seemed… a bit premature seeing as how Jack killed Ianto’s girlfriend like 3 episodes before that.
They did say that the Cardiff branch was just one branch of Torchwood. Although it would be nice to get some sense of their larger mission. I don’t see how locking technology away is going to help save the human race in the future.
I rather like Jack. I just wish he’d talk to people more. I know he’s all screwed up what with being immortal and stuck far from his time, but that seems to me like something you should let your only friendly contacts in on every once in awhile.
Was it just me, or did the real Jack Harkness have 12000 layers of makeup and mascara on?
Yes they did say that the Cardiff branch was known as Torchwood 3, with Torchwood 2 being an old guy in Scotland and Torchwood 4 has mysteriously vanished. Allegedly a Babylon 5 reference, but I didn’t watch that either.
I agree that it seems daft to lock up all this alien stuff, but then, they are supposed to be keeping it safe and not allowing it out until the population is ready for it and, to be honest, I think it was just you with the real Jack Harkness, I didn’t notice that.
I love everything about Dr Who but Torchwood was very disappointing. I really wanted to enjoy it but couldn’t. The only episode I liked was “Random Shoes” but that hardly involved any of the Torchwood cast. Maybe that is why I liked it so much. I hated every cast member except for Captain Jack and Yanto but the rest were totally useless, wooden and amateurish. They have found some very rich acting talent for Doctor Who so why did they fail so miserably with casting choices for Torchwood.
To be fair, Torchwood is still very much in its infancy and the first series was also very rushed. They seem to be taking more care with season 2 so I hope they have learned lessons from this. For what it’s worth, Doctor Who has improved steadily with each new series, so let’s hope Torchwood follows suit. I will admit that Random Shoes is growing on me a little, however, its similarity to Love and Monsters (the bottom line in DIRE) is holding it down in my affections. The fact that the characters were so terribly flawed made them a lot more likeable for me.
I thought it was dreadful. I watched an episode where some chap’s girlfriend was half-cyberoided and he was prepared to risk everything for her.
The Torchwood crew are barely able to coordinate to walk through a door without US-drama-movie-style questioning of every order by the person ordered, and by overacting (or not acting at all) at every turn.
Stupid set, inane and poorly scripted action, and generally laughable. When the BBC logo came up I expected better than this waste of valuable time.
I hope it goes away soon.
Dear oh dear! I can’t believe any half competent director could actually utter “That’s a wrap!” after any episode in the first series and believe it when s/he goes home and tells their partner “it went rally well today dear”. In the words of John McEnroe; “You can not be serious!!!” It was/is an aberration. Not since “The Office” have I sat and watched an entire series through the cracks of my fingers – the difference being that the writers of The Office meant for David Brent to have that effect on us. And whereas “The Office” is a work of pure genius, Torchwood was seemingly written, produced, directed by rank amateurs. The ex-copper (the one with huge gap between her two front teeth) who is written in (I guess) to humanise the group, comes across as just plane stupid! Snog? Snog?? Snog??? Give me a break! The sobbing (not snogging) Welshman (The one with the sideburns) who just can’t seem to get fired, nearly drove me drives to self-mutilation. I kept yelling at the TV “Oh for God’s sake, will somebody please shoot him!!!” The token Asian shapes up the best because she doesn’t have to say or do much. If she suddenly vanished from the series without any explanation I don’t think anyone would notice. The only thing cool about Captain Jack is his name and the less said about the pommy fella – a poor rendition of the brilliant Spike from Buffy fame – the better. I can’t recall a screen event (at least not since the Exorcist – you have to admit, the demons came out with some great one-liners) where I so quickly sided with the Villains. In the episode where the cannibal says to the Welsh ex-copper “I’ll tell you why if you let me whisper it” (or something like that) and the idiot woman actually leans forward so the mouth of the cannibal is almost touching her ear, I was so hoping he would take a chomp. Instead he says something like “… because it makes me happy”. Her over-reaction was priceless though!!! The producers should can it and give the money to Jos Whedon so he can shoot a second season of Fire Fly.