So in this episode Toby… I mean, Owen is taken over by Satan… I mean, Death and gains control over the Ood… I mean, Weevils. This is an entirely original episode with no links from any other episodes (*cough* Killed by Death *cough*), and the little girl doesn’t remind us of a certain creepy girl in Wolfram&Hart at all. Completely… 100%… original…

Expect for Owen, of course, as we’ve never seen anyone come back from Death before… *d’oh*! He’s peered into the darkness and seen something waiting… I really hope that that weeny Death wasn’t the real “big bad” that Jack saw (which was probably Abaddon anyway) as, as I said, that Death is really weeny and not worth the effort. Although points for spouting words from Thomas Covenant! (Shout out to Stephen Donaldson, best writer ever… although I didn’t recognise the words myself, it’s been a while since I read the books.) At least RTD… I mean, Matt Jones has taste in where he rips things from.

And this Death can intimidate the Weevils! Or was in Owen, following on from Fight Club… I mean, Combatand now coming to the fore again? Probably the writer was just trying to make DeathOwen impressive, by going up against a lot of Weevil. A really big lot of Weevil. All with their own outfits… which come from where, exactly? Do they have their own denim supply store back in their own dimension? Are the Weevils fashion conscious? And presumably there’s the matter of laundry… these questions must be answered! Or not thought about, that works too…

Aside from bringing Owen back, the rest of the episode is a lot of a fizzler. Here’s hoping the arc can only get better.

JE

Torchwood is currently also being screen in a “family friendly” format, in which all the icky bits are cut out, but it’s looking like not many shots will be missing from this episode (maybe some of the woman carking it) as Marsha brings not only a touch of pure British ak-sent but also associated Doctor Who values of family-niceness. At least visually, there is still the more mental horror of various races being exploited for medical purposes and random experimentation. I’m sure that’s what the producers are hoping families are sitting around and talking about (which is a serious topic – medical malpractice – see recent Stuff articles…). (That all said, consider that most Torchwood watches are sourcing the original episodes via ‘mad l33t skillz’, there is the proposal that safening the series is as an aide to not horrifying the kids. Or for wider appeal and more ratings. It’s a complex process.)

But… visually, yes, it’s now a safer series. Although I largely mean metaphorically as Martha-cam was really annoying to watch (and a lot steadier than her own vision would have been). I’m not sure who’s idea that was, but the directory should be shot for implementing it that way. At least the cgi-nteraction was better this episode. And a reference to UNIT (Considering Martha works for UNIT, does that make her the 21st Liz Shaw?)! And we all know that UNIT is really big in NuWho… only it isn’t. In fact, why bother? (Just a reminder for DW series 4?) Clearly UNIT aren’t that memorable in Wales, so either they’ve fallen on hard times (important people were wiped out by the Slitheen) or there are plenty of other societies. Better not be, ‘cos I’m sure Torchwood wouldn’t measure up well against them, and then we’ll be asking ‘where’s their spin off series?’ Better go for it being a series 4 reminder then.

Anyway back to Martha and her boyfriend. Yeah, like that’s not a reference to the Doctor. Poor Tom, not much in it for him. (Or is there…? Is that a ring on Martha’s finger in the new series preview?) Oh the character development! Speaking of, poor Tosh being set up by those heartless writers. Bet she was gutted at the end! (Oh wait, wrong one!) They keep saying Torchwood is a dangerous place to work, so Owen does a Gan… nice one, mate!

This could be (yet another) turn around in the life of Torchwood, and one, as long as Martha is there, that I like. It can’t last…

JE

It’s all about Jack. This whole episode is a setup to explore Jack’s past, Boeshane Penisula and explain about Gray (the same Gray Captain John mentioned). Almost a shame they have to include the other people really. But at least we get whacky Torchwood in which people have been reimagined courtesy of Adam… well, in which Tosh and Owen have been reimagined… well, in which Tosh and Owen have had their personalities swapped. Yeah, thanks Adam. At least Owen had the balls to actually ask Tosh out. I did like “assertive Tosh”, but “geek Owen” deserved a good slapping (even more so after he reverted back to normal).

I do have to inquire as to how Adam managed to infiltrate Torchwood: if he came from the Void, he still had to touch them to get into their minds, but he wasn’t Adam then, so… clearly Tregenna just wanted to get to Jack’s past and didn’t stop to think about important things like ‘coherency’. Adam himself was suspicious from early on, as soon as you have “this chap the audience has never seen” you are looking at Adam shiftily. Fortunately, the writer and director manage to flatten this impression into mere “probably, not definitely, evil” as the episode goes on until the Ianto moment. From then on, it was all downhill, but props to Tregenna for using the obvious camera footage. (Touches like that might suggest Tregenna should give Who a go.)

It all gets very religious at the end, with Jack (the episode is about him, after all) becoming the team’s saviour. He takes their deepest confession and hands out the Eucharist… I mean, retcon, and forgives them their sins. (But it does raise a point that if Gwen didn’t remember Rhys, and professes love for Jack, why didn’t she make a move on Jack?) However, one wonders what Rhys will spill when he gets his normal Gwen back. (Although he can only explain “there was this guy Adam” that probably won’t cause too much trouble.)

In many ways, this episode is an excuse for Jack’s backstory to come out (the Time Agent stuff might have to wait until Captain John returns, oh what fun the production team will have then). Clearly the production team are going all-out for the character stories, although I would like to see a decent plot-based episode. So far, series two has been superior (for most episodes) to series one. I wouldn’t mind if series one disappeared, but we aren’t done yet, and the series may yet completely fall over…

JE

Rhys finally finds out there are aliens! Er, didn’t the rest of the world find that out during The Christmas Invasion and the like? Or was that only London? Well, I suppose in order to a) keep the Torchwood series at least nominally independent, and b) make it a dramatic moment (and the drama level was high), it was best to play it as something innovative. This is, after all, what the episode is all about. Yeah, it’s another character piece, as Rhys essentially makes his Series 2 debut. There was a dangerous moment at the end which nearly pushed the reset button (as episodes are so want to do), as the expected retcon drug makes it reappearance (they are nominally a “secret” organisation after all – ha!), but the writer/producers make a brave decision and leave that plot point open to screw things up down the line. (One wonders if Gwen and Rhys split up, would the retcon be retcon-sidered? (Boo!))

Ah, Gwen and Rhys… this episode does bring up the many love “relationships”. Gwen and Jack look set to get hot and heavy, and once again we are reminded that Tosh has a thing for Owen… which is really getting boring. Either move that relationship on, or give it up, people! As for Gwen and Owen… that seemed to disappear around the time of Out of Time, and we haven’t missed it since. At least there’s still Jack and Ianto, with Ianto slipping from comedy fumbler to action hero with merely a scene change… which really smacks of inconsistency. One or the other, people, and preferably not the slapstick version, as that’s really not working.

But what the episode is really about is Peter Davison. Or rather, the Space Whale episode that never happened, as we now know what Space Whales are just whopping huge hunks of meat! Which can be readily carved out, tossed in a wheelbarrow, carried and shoved with bare hands, without any need of refrigeration, and still be fit for human consumption. Ew. The lack of hygiene was one of the more disgusting aspects of the episode. Oh, and there was probably something about feeding off a living being, but the Declassified shows that the point really was the Space Whale, not what was done with it (and also highlighting a huge continuity blunder by showing Rhys throwing his hands out when getting shot then quickly shoving them behind his back where they are supposed to be tied, which they show again and again… and again). Eh, who needs morality lessons when you’ve got a huge CGI Space Whale! (And what obvious CGI it was…)

A decent episode from the character point of view, a bit of a fizzler from the point of view of actual plot. I can’t entirely decide if this is a good episode yet or not, that will have to wait until we can see if there is impact from the Rhys decision.

JE

Okay then. Screencaps from the series 4 cinema trailer have begun to appear online, so now’s as good a time as any to begin rummaging through the goat entrails to see what’s in store this year. The following is a little bit of confirmed stuff, a little bit of rumour, some speculation and, I hope, not a lone voice in this exercise. It would be great if Jono was here as he used to do this bit, but British Rocket Group have got their own problems, apparently.

Needless to say, after the break there are images and there may also be spoilers.

PA Read the rest of this entry »

Helen Raynor delivers a smashing script that demonstrates the changes brought to season 2 Torchwood. Although there is still no sign of the humour of the first episode (perhaps when Captain John comes back), but we are treated to a far more mature team of Torchwood crew than we ever saw in season 1. In particular, this is a Toshiko episode, and she has grown up a lot since Greeks Bearing Gifts. This is something we have definitely needed. As yet, we can’t tell is Owen has developed that much (he certainly seems more adult, but I’m waiting for the inevitable Owen-centric episode), but there is plenty to see for Tosh. Jack comes across as rather harsh to her (especially considering the more usual ‘soft-touch’ approach), but I like that. Jack is being the team-leader, and these are the kind of hard decisions a leader should be making. This could easily lead to the team fracturing, but hopefully this more mature grouping will recognise (and I do think Tosh did acknowledge, if not like, Jack’s reasons) as a necessity.

Helen Raynor (and, frankly, I might be inclined to see Evolution of the Daleks in Manhattan as a hideous, hideous aberration) also treats us to early Torchwood, with two incredibly English characters of George and Harriet. Fine, we only see them briefly (and at first I thought of them as local Ghost Hunters, although quickly realised they were Torchwood), but they do come across as more competent that our own Torchwood team. It’ll be nice to explore the wider Torchwood universe (and, yes, there is still that missing Torchwood haunting fan-obsessers’ dreams), so wouldn’t turn down another chance to see that pair in action (although I don’t think we could manage another Torchwood spin-off).

But not everything can be about the characters (although even the Declassified is forced to talk about the characters and not rave on about the effects for the entire episode), so we must look at the plot sometime. What there is of it keeps moving along (although I notice that only Gwen gets the “scary ghost” moments, have to pick on some woman, I suppose, and Tosh is otherwise occupied), but there are a few deus ex machina plot elements dropped clunkily into the episode. The rift manipulator springs immediately to mind (I hope Torchwood retrieved that!), and Owen’s fridge makes a second appearance this season as the hold-all of useful items. Considering all the alien-tech Torchwood has (and already has proven prone to using this season despite earlier protestations), must it all come down to the blood? Is this some extended metaphor for bringing the team together or just a sign of co-incidental plotting? Time will tell (ObQuote: it always does).

Three episodes down, and only one forgettable episode so far. Torchwood is off to a good start, although we have yet to see real evidence of a lighter atmosphere. Still, as they say, keep watching the skis!

JE

Behold the Season Four trailer, in all its phone-cam goodness!

News highlights of the past month – now with click-along-a-pictureness!

Read the rest of this entry »

What then of the second episode of Torchwood? The first obvious question is: where’s the humour gone? One episode (by one of the creator’s admittedly) does not a vision make, but one would hope that there would be a consistence approach to the episodes by all writers.

Or was this left over from last season? Certainly, this story could fit into the first season, with its grim and gritty team, and the focus on one human going through emotional problems and identified with by Gwen. She (Gwen) is the easy link for the writers and has been set up as the “human element” among the more emotionless crew. When in doubt, go to Gwen pointing out that the human view is the good one.

(And let’s be in no doubt that the alien view is the wrong one. Once again Encyclopaedia Jack knows exactly what’s going on and that the alien menace is indeed an alien menace. No wonder that the old woman in episode was complaining about Torchwood, how did they ever manage to do anything properly without Jack explaining everything they had to know?)

Unfortunately, the main story itself isn’t at all original. A sleeper agent that wakes up but the cover element dominates their thinking… (for some reason, I want to make a Total Recall reference here, but mentioning Arnie isn’t a sufficient excuse). Frankly, you could eliminate the second half of the episode, and go straight from Beth finding out she was an evil alien to her dealing with it in the only sensible way. But we needs our action sequences, and so we get an entire Declassified episode dedicated to blowing up a Cardiff high-street in one shot.

There is a hint that this might speak to a bigger arc, but given the speed with which the cell moves in this episode, I would think the other cell members around the world would have taken over everything before anyone had time to react. Torchwood does follow up on past episodes, but usually from a character arc point of view, not a plot-element perspective. More likely the writer threw in “there are more cell members out there” to allow for future call-backs, but not with any definite plan in mind.

The focus of this episode is on Beth, with the Torchwood crew taking a background role to allow her story to be played out (and, frankly, her story could be told in nearly any series). Unless this story proves to be vitally important to the development of Torchwood, this episode ranks as unexciting filler material.

JE

It’s 2008, and the series and fandom is swinging slowly toward Doctor Who‘s 45th anniversary. Russell T Davies has promised a great series cliffhanger ostensibly to mark the event, although some might note with concern that the word “fanwank” was used by him to describe it.  Indeed, there seems to be a significant number of fans viewing the promised series finale with its confirmed returning companions, rumoured villains and speculated links with next year’s TV specials with no small amount of circumspection. You can see also on the Doctor Who Forum the existential questions being formed along the lines of: what do the ‘Not We’ (non-fans) think of x?

It’s nothing that new, but recently this divination of audience figures and reviews seems to be more cautiously oriented towards the opinions of the general public and major dailies rather than the usual SF media. Need it be said that at the end of the day and despite our enthusiasm for the series, we know full well that its fate is not ultimately in our hands. Perhaps an all-star finale for this year will be every bit as succesful if not moreso than the patchy ratings darling Voyage of the Damned, and maybe that’s all that matters in the larger scheme of things? Beyond the immediate future lies the likelihood of a new production team, with Phil Collinson having already doffed his hat in farewell. The series has so far survived a change of lead and a change of companion; the inevitable challenge must now be a change of producer. When that occurs we may have an answer.

For now though, welcome back to the blog. There have been some changes for the new year. After co-editing Zeus Blog for 2007 and being the driving force behind Zeus Plug, Jono has announced his plans to leave New Zealand for the UK in April, and has stood down from blogging duties. Joking aside, I and the other regular contributors will miss his presence – although it’s strange to be writing this in the knowledge that in the online world London really is no farther away than Auckland, or even the other side of town.

Despite one’s best efforts though, blogs can sometimes be quite static things, and as one-sided as a lot of Web media, something we’d like to address in some new features. Zeus Blog will continue to review the new series as well as Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures; Fast Return will remain as well as the occasional editorial, but with Battle of the Seasons now finally complete it’s time for a new head-to-head competition. This time the votes will be open to you the reader, and so the search for the ultimate winner can be something we’ll all be able to participate in and enjoy together. The new competition starts in February, and it’ll be Monstrous!

PA