I’m still preparing my vacation pictures, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer to see them. Until then, here’s some Torchwood catch-up…
Written by Phil Ford
Directed by Ashley Way
“That’s what I love about Torchwood. By day, chasing the scum of the Earth. Come midnight, and you’re the wedding fairy.”
Phil Ford, fresh off of two successful episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, takes a leap into the dark side of the Doctor Who universe and gives us the maddest, craziest, loveliest Torchwood episode in some time.
Has there EVER been a television wedding that wasn’t a disaster? Well, I suppose you could count this one as a success…if success includes crazed, shape-shifting aliens, an impregnated Gwen, pissed off in-laws, lots of goo & gore, innuendo that’s off the scale, and some wonderful, quiet, emotional revelations…all in the midst of unrepentent madness.
The successful core of the episode is, once again, Gwen & Rhys, and Eve Myles pulls off another effortless triumph of acting. Always the heart and soul of the series, her journey from hormonal nightmare to jittery angst to confident resolution is a joy to behold…and Kai Owen compliments her with a great deal of everyman humour, Evil Dead-style. His chainsaw scene is touched with an insane sort of magnificence!
There are times when the episode threatens to explode into an depraved cauldron of gooey-gory alien chaos, and Keystone Cops antics (the alien make up especially treads a fine line between grotesque and ridiculous). But Ford’s script and the brilliant performances reign in the episode just enough to create a masterpiece of fun & frolic, with just enough of a moody undercurrent to keep things grounded. Jack’s obvious emotional turmoil over Gwen, and his final, silent revelation of a past marriage, are the perfect icing for this lovely confection of madness.
Written by Peter J. Hammond
Directed by Jonathan Fox Bassett
“Your eyes are older than your face.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Yes…it means you don’t belong. You come from nowhere.”
A game of two halves: one immensely successful, the other muddled and disappointing.
The success lies in the imagery and the mood. This episode is a nightmare of evil clowns, creepy showmen, jerky old film, looming shadows and morbid, terrifying close-ups. It’s a fusion of dark, German expressionism, Ray Bradbury creepiness, and a strange surrealism that some of the best Doctor Who episodes mastered a long time ago. In every way, the feel of this episode is a throwback to the triumphant bleakness of Peter Hammond’s dark 1980s fantasy Sapphire & Steel.
But the plot is too full of mysterious holes and dead ends. Jack’s past role in the freak show is never made clear, nor the reason he was sent to “investigate”; Ianto’s pro-active part in the episode doesn’t have a great deal of successful set up (though Gareth Lloyd-Davies works damn hard, and almost succeeds through sheer force of will); the conclusion is incredibly rushed, and the tragedy of not being able to prevent all the deaths isn’t a patch on the tragic nature of Hammond’s previous Torchwood episode, Small Worlds.
It ends with much foreboding, and I’m more than happy to contemplate a possible sequel…but I hope a future episode offers far more substance to match the dark & grandiose style on offer. It looks and feels both astonishing and terrifying…but those impressions don’t stick around for very long, once the episode concludes, and that’s a great pity.
Something Borrowed … 9
From Out of the Rain … 6
