Torchwood Reviews

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Good Points: John Barrowman

Bad Points: Weak plots, too much emphasis on titillation, not enough on actual baddies and suspense

General comments: Torchwood is the first of a couple of Dr. Who spinoffs to hit our screens and it's based around Captain Jack Harkness who made his first appearance in the Christopher Eccleston series of Dr. Who and the secret alien research base founded by Queen Victoria in the werewolf episode. Somehow, it's not explained, Captain Jack, last seen heading into space, is head of the Cardiff branch of Torchwood. He has an anti-social staff of four, each with a different specialty - computers/maths, medicine, policework, security, etc. He's mysterious and lonely, he lives on the base and he cannot be killed. There's loads of references to his being out of his time but no explanation. His staff have no lives, they can't get away from their work, they squabble, they all have issues. The scripts try to bring out these issues but simply make every member of Torchwood out to be slightly pathetic and deranged. Everything is based around sexual tension, including more than half the scripts. The plots, instead of being comical or suspenseful, are practically non-existent. The big series finale, involving a devil-type creature coming through a rift to kill all of mankind was merely a sidebar to everyone's personal love relationships falling apart. It took all of 30 seconds to work out how to defeat the monster. In short, it was boring boring boring.