Well, watched Everything Changes. Good setup, Gwen is likeable, most everyone else isn’t. Torchwood, home of rapists and murderers, apparently. May as well head into the next episode…
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I’ve finally made a start watching Torchwood (mainly because it’s an area of the Whoniverse I’ve not really engaged with before now[1], but also because I want that pride badge and this seemed the quickest way to get through ten stories). I thought this was a really fantastic opener, personally - Gwen being our audience surrogate works very effectively here, as we get an outsider’s view of Torchwood for most of the hour. Eve Myles and John Barrowman are both really great, and Indira Varma is fantastic in her confrontation with Gwen and Jack. The rest of the cast don’t really get a lot to do, but I think we get a decent enough sense of them as characters for the first episode. I’m not sure introducing Owen by having him drug two people to sleep with was the best choice though (to put it mildly!) - I appreciate that we’re getting some bisexual representation in 2006, but the whole moment is definitely very gross.
Otherwise, I don’t think I have a bad word to say about this episode - the central plot is compelling, with plenty of great scenes, and it definitely left me wanting more. I know the next few episodes are supposed to be a bit rougher, but I’ll see how it goes.
I’ve only seen Gwen and Ianto’s appearance in the series 4 finale, a few episodes of Children of Earth, and listened to Ghost Mission ↩︎
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I still remember first watching this on DVD as a kid. Hearing the phrase “■■■■■■■ disgrace” felt like my brain was being opened to just how flexible this franchise is… again, I was a kid when this took place; we all gotta start somewhere.
Really good introduction to the show, its characters, and Gwen especially. Quite interesting to go back to this one, knowing just how much she would change over the course of four seasons.
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I don’t think this is a particularly good introductory episode. It’s not terrible by any means, but I don’t think it sets the show or it’s characters up that well honestly.
What it does setup well is the tone and aesthetic of the show. It does a very good job of giving the show it’s own identity that is seperate to mainline DW. Unfortunately it’s with a tone/aesthetic that I really don’t like. Now I admit this is an entirely subjective complaint, objectively I actually think the production team do a pretty good job. It’s just very much not to my taste. The 2000’s were the start of an era in culture where everything was being described as ‘dark & gritty’. Here however I think the show would more accurately be described as ‘grim & grimy’. It’s an aesthetic that I personally just find incredibly ugly to look at. With a tone that is trying too hard to seem adult & edgy, but all too often I think it plays as juvenile & annoying.
This is a complaint I have about the entire series, not specifically this episode. But it is setup here, and it does negatively affect my enjoyment of the show.
But honestly I don’t think this episode does a good job to establish the Torchwood team either. Here’s how Jack describes what Torchwood does in the actual episode
“We don’t just catch aliens. We scavenge the stuff they leave behind. Find ways of using it. Arming the human race for the future. The twenty first century’s when it all changes, and you gotta be ready.”
Except I don’t think this is a very accurate description of what the team actually does this series (I’ve only seen the 1st series at the point). I’ll give him the scavenging tech thing, Torchwood does a lot of this. But they almost never capture any aliens. In fact there’s surprisingly few actual aliens in the 1st series of the show. Besides a couple of Weevil’s, I think the only alien they capture is the sex gas alien thing in the next episode. This episode makes it seem like Torchwood are going to be fighting aliens all the time. But, apart from the Weevil’s, who are mostly a subplot, I think there’s literally 2 episodes in Series 1 where Torchwood actually fight aliens.
What do we actually see of Torchwood and what they actually do? Nothing much honestly. They like to revive people for interrogation, but the whole resurrection glove thing is only important for 1 other episode. We don’t get to know much about the characters, just very broad strokes. Tosh is a nerd, Owen is a date rapist (which is apparently charming here) and Ianto is there.
To be fair Gwen, Jack & even Suzie to some extent are well setup in this episode. Gwen especially is a very likeable and relatable character. But here I have another complaint about this episode as an introduction to the show. The episode fails to adequately explain why Gwen joins the Torchwood team.
In the scene that I quoted from earlier, where Gwen & Jack are talking at the bar, Gwen doesn’t ask to join the team and Jack doesn’t offer. I accept that Gwen is clearly interested in Torchwood, but she just wants to be their police liaison, that’s all. Then Jack wipes her memory and she gets a vague calling to go near the Torchwood HQ before being held at gun point, having her life threatened and watching 2 people she kind of but not really remembers get shot in the head. And apparently having her memory wiped, then witnessing some traumatic events that she doesn’t really understand are enough to make her eager to join up for some reason when she wasn’t before.
As for Jack, he clearly doesn’t want Gwen joining when they talk at the bar. He definitely likes Gwen, but instead of trying to recruit her, he wipes her memory in order to be rid of her. What changed his mind? Because Gwen doesn’t solve the murders in this episode, Jack does completely indepentently of Gwen. Gwen just gets some vague memories telling her to go back to where the Torchwood base was and finds Suzie who starts monologuing. Gwen doesn’t even understand most of what Suzie’s talking about. She doesn’t really do much of anything to resolve the plot of this episode, she just wanders into the climax unknowingly. It honestly plays to me that the reason Jack recruits Gwen is because he needs to replace a female team member, and Gwen was there.
This isn’t an awful episode. I really like Gwen & Jack here, and there’s some good scenes. I just don’t think it’s all that successful as an introduction to the world (or team) of Torchwood.
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Works as a brilliant intro to the team of Torchwood three. I love how we are introduced to the team just as Gwen is. It makes us feel very sympathetic towards her as we are experiencing everything with her. I think the plot works well and I love Suzie so this being one of her only episodes makes me love this story even more.
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I liked it! torchwood is fun imo and I’m enjoying the new characters introduced! plus I enjoy jack harness content quite a bit so I’m glad I get more of him!
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I watched this ages ago, but I think I’m finally gonna dive into torchwood!!! (Cause I said to myself that I’d start it after finishing SJA, only got around to it now)
From what I remember this one serves as a great pilot and I really like gwen as a character. The darker elements are hit or miss but it’s still largely enjoyable!
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Decided to rewatch Torchwood since I haven’t seen it in a while. It is an okay introduction for Torchwood, having Gwen see and get intrigued by Torchwood before following them to learn more. It also doesn’t great job at setting up both how out of touch Jack is with his team and how strange he is to them. He makes comments that the team clearly are used to hearing but not understanding, and when he tells Gwen about how nothing ever leaves their labs we can see that the entire team just does what they want, him knowing or not.
I also love the pizza scene so much.
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