Written by Cathernine Tregenna
Directed by Colin Teague
“You really think you could go back to live your old life, before Torchwood?”
“I wouldn’t know any different.”
“I would.”
Meat is an episode that manages, more than any other, to showcase the worst kind of true evil that exists in our world: banality. The Adolf Eichman saga may have given birth to the phrase some 40 years ago, but it’s stories like this that truly bring home how utterly repulsive and horrific the ordinary man can truly become.
Just look at the showcase of the episode: a giant space whale (something Doctor Who attempted to do 25 years ago), chained in a warehouse…but not for experimentation…not for exploitation…
It’s there because someone has found a way to use it as an endless supply of cheap, edible meat! It’s being used to make a profit from butcher shops, by a bunch of back-alley, wanna-be thugs, with their geeky chemist friend in tow! We’re not talking evil from the dawn of time…or a new arch-enemy…or an alien invasion…but an abattoir’s dream come true. Sickening isn’t strong enough of a word to describe this ugly example of base desire.
The hacked-open back end of the creature is a repulsive enough sight…but it’s matched by the honest, aching pity & sympathy of the Torchwood team, trying desperately to help the creature (it’s howls of pain are incredibly disturbing), but forced into ending its life, in order to save the lives of others.
I believed that only a show like Doctor Who could make the audience weep over the fate of a CGI space whale…but it’s spin-off show comes through in spades.
Thankfully, the counter-point of the episode compares humanity’s darkest instincts with some of its most courageous…in the form of Rhys. Gwen’s fiancee, always put upon, always wondering what the love of his life is up to…is thrust right into the heart of the Torchwood universe, and comes out smelling of roses. He bumbles, he fumbles, he works hard to be brave, as the wonders of a massive universe are thrust into his hands…and he’s more than up to the task. Gwen realizes this, and she puts her position and her exciting life on the line, head-to-head with Jack…and she wins! Rhys gets to remember — he won’t get the amnesia pill — and the Torchwood dynamic changes forever. Kai Owen gives his finest performance to date…and the complications of his character bring out some amazing emotion between John Barrowman and Eve Myles. Between the two of them, we are well on the way to opening a disastrous can of worms…
Unexpected, delightful, and tragic…a superb Torchwood character piece, and another fine addition to a (so far) beautiful season.
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