Now that we have finished the first season of Torchwood in the TV Club, I thought it would be a good idea to have a place to share our overall feelings about the season. Maybe some ranking and other stuff like that.
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It definitely has potential to be an adult-oriented Whoniverse answer to X-Files. Does it try too hard sometimes? Definitely. Would I call it fun? Not necessarily. However, there are some good ideas in here and sometimes it’s brilliant.
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I have made no secret that I was not a fan of this. But I liked that we got a spin-off at all. It is fun that we got an expanded TV universe and even if the two first seasons were not for me, I really like the two last ones.
Here are my ratings for the season
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This is unironically my fav season of the show. Season 3 I consider its own thing, and season 2 loses me a bit, it becomes a bit lighter and has more cosmic elements which (imo) detract from the gritty Cardiff realism setting.
I love how none of the team really know eachother yet, how they all kind of have secrets or grudges, they’re more hostile, and seeing them gradually evolve alongside eachother is soo nice. But I think with the dark 3AM setting, always at night, it kind of lends itself to this feeling of tension, and vulnerability.
Sure, there were some episodes I didn’t like as much, but that’s gonna happen with any range.
And the music is so amazing imo.
I think the only Torchwood period which recreates this kind of feeling for me is “season 2.5”
Ig I just like the pessimism of both these periods. And the dark Cardiff nights…
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Although season one of Torchwood felt like a middle schooler’s idea of what adult tv shows are at times, it had some genuinely good episodes, and I had a fun time watching all of the episodes.
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Probably the most mixed bag series, with some really low lows, but the good episodes stand out by a mile, Countrycide and Captain Jack Harkness especially
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I really need to finish catching up on the club threads, but yeah, I think the biggest problem with Season 1 is the fairly weak start
Everything Changes is a solid opening, but then you get Day One which… yeah, Ghost Machine which is solid but has some tonally really weird moments and feels a bit too edgy, Cyberwoman which has that costume, and small worlds which also feels kinda edgy.
Each of those episodes has their moments, and I honestly do really like some of them, but the fact it’s one after the other after the other doesnt’ do them any favours.
Content Warning: Rape Mention
Especially since episode 2 is about an alien that kills people through sex, explicitly raping at least one person which gets played as a joke, Owen’s subplot in Ghost Machine revolves around a rapist/murderer, and Small Worlds has a pedophile in it.
And that’s not even touching on Owen’s use of attraction pheromones in Everything Changes, or the fact that a character is stripped of their autonomy and put in an extremely sexualised costume in Cyberwoman.
After those opening five episodes, it does get a lot broader in terms of the adult themes it touches on: Cannibalism, Parental Trauma, Feeling like you don’t have a place in the world, Love, Sexuality, and Repression, etc etc, but the fact those first five episodes (or at the very least least three of them) zero in on that one specific idea of what adulthood is, and really only talk about lust and not love (or at least when you do show love, it’s either portrayed as something that gets in the way, and/or is completely divorced from lust) is very much to the season’s detriment
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I think this is also one of the reasons Out of Time is of (if not my most) favourite episode of the season. It’s a story all out love, lost, finding your place, being without a place. It’s not a story that’s got a monster to fall back on, the only ‘antagonist’ is time. It’s an episode that really relies on the characters and the acting. There’s no sudden fight scenes, there’s no flashy CGI, it’s just very quiet and sombre, and I think the final scenes with each of the three characters from that story are perfect, and completely heartbreaking in seperate ways.
What do you do when you’re faced with a world you don’t fit into and can’t change. Do you change yourself to fit in? Do you run away to find somewhere new? Or do you give up, accepting that there’s no place for you anymore?
It’s also (in my opinion at least), the first story that really gets the rawness of love, and shows how it can be portrayed in an adult context, paving the way for Combat where the impact of the loss of love is really felt, Captain Jack Harkness which is entirely about love, sexuality, and repression, and then of course Season 2’s renewed focus on Gwen and Rhys’ relationship, Ianto and Jack’s lust becoming love, and Tosh and Owen’s will-they-won’t-they.
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Guys, guys, hear me out. What if Doctor Who… but sex? And guns too?
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Looking at this, I think Series 1 of Torchwood is much better than I had it in Memory, sure it has some big-big Lows, but its Highs are often quite high for me. Admittedly, it’s very clear that this Show is still searching for its footing and its own Identity, the Idea is superb: An adult orientied Spin-off of Doctor Who sounds great, but at times the Show tries too hard, Things like the infamous Sex Gas come to Mind, which I think COULD have been done well and could have lead to some interesting Things.
Going through Series 2 I think you can tell they have found their Footing much more and know exactly what they want to go for with this Show, looking forward to seeing how the Rest of the entire Show goes!
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Overall positions of Torchwood members as far as how much I like them at the end of season 1.
- Ianto - Always there to support people, loves his girlfriend, and shoots Owen. Top notch character.
- Tosh - She may be in the background a lot, but she’s not a bad character, even if I didn’t like her feature episode.
- Eugene - Taken from us far too soon.
- Suzie - She was a homicidal maniac, but she was our homicidal maniac, and overall a fun character. Would resurrect again.
- Myfanwy - I mean, she’s a pterodactyl. Who doesn’t love a pterodactyl?
- Captain Jack Harkness - Everyone’s favorite bisexual sexual harassing transphobe.
- Gwen Cooper - Lost a lot of points for her treatment of Rhys and affair with Owen.
- Owen - Well, this guy sucks, doesn’t he?
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It’s been a while since I last watched Torchwood Season 1, but I’ve seen it three or four times now—enough that my impressions are pretty settled.
What stands out most about Season 1, in my mind, is how everything just goes to shite for the team. Gwen is the prime example. In most shows, she’d be the one to lift everyone up and hold the group together. But Torchwood takes a more realistic—or at least more plausible—approach, where the team’s collective brokenness ends up dragging her down instead. Her absolute low point comes when she drugs Rhys, a moment that’s both uncomfortable and deeply human. (Minor spoiler for Season 2: the way that plot point is brushed aside without a real redemption arc left me a bit soured on Gwen’s character. There’s redemption, but not the journey you’d expect.)
I’m not judging her, by the way. The situations Gwen and the others face are so extreme that it’s impossible to know how any of us would react in their place.
That’s what makes Torchwood a genuinely mature show—not the sex and violence but how the folks in Torchwood react to a cruel and unrelenting universe (at least that’s all they get to see). The series invites viewers to reflect on their own moral boundaries and choices.
This is what makes Torchwood Season 1 special. It’s so different, so against the grain of what Doctor Who fans might be used to. I remember thinking during my first watch, “This could only exist because of the main show’s massive success—no one would have greenlit something like this otherwise.”
I’m glad it exists, even if I personally prefer the more mainstream vibe of Season 2. Season 1 is raw, unpredictable, and uniquely Torchwood.
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