Written by James Moran
Directed by Colin Teague
“It’s just like going to sleep…”
“Except a lot colder.”
Reasons to enjoy Sleeper:
(1) It’s the flip side to this season’s opener. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was all about the action, the outrageousness, the team dynamic, and the sexiness. Sleeper represents the darker, creepier, more thoughtful and profound Torchwood. It’s an episode that deals with identity and perception, what it means to be human…and how does one put it to the test. It does this without any great amount of preaching or soapbox moralizing. It’s a straightforward moral dilemma for a woman who desperately wants to be normal, but isn’t…and never will be.
(2) The wit factor has jumped by a factor of ten! The team rapport positively sparkles, and Ianto has become the master of the one-liners. He lets rip with some staggeringly good remarks (such as “no sniffing the sub-etheric resonator!”) but his best is easily the pithy sarcasm about all the phones not working:
“Mobiles, land lines, tin cans with bits of string, everything! Absolutely everything! No phones! Phones all broken. (Mimics telephone operator) Hello…anyone there? (Normal voice) No…cause the phones aren’t WORKING!”
(3) Bad Jack surfaces in the torture sessions…except not quite, because his exchange with Ianto suggests it’s all a rather convincing act…isn’t it? I love it that we’re never quite sure where we stand when Jack is dialed up to one hundred.
(4) A fabulous, touching, and poignant performance by Nikki Amuka-Bird as Beth. Her battle to retain her human identity…her realization that she can’t control what she is becoming…her final gambit to force suicide-by-threat…it’s all superbly executed.
(5) The action sequences prove that Torchwood can do quality as well as quantity. The waking of the sleeper agents – the simple end of their normal lives, and their ferocious single-mindedness to commit acts of sabotage and destruction – all exceedingly well done, yet it only takes up about one-fifth of the episode.
(6) The arm implants are simple, effective…and wonderfully disgusting! :D
Nothing ground breaking, but as a second introductory taster for the series, it satisfies on multiple levels.
8
