Is it just me or is Torchwood friggin boring?

[Atrahasis]

I wanted the show to be good, but somehow it just isn't doing it for me.

[James Smith]

See, I've found some episodes to be great, then others....I've just wandered off in the middle of. Which episode are they up to on your side of the pond?

[Atrahasis]

I liked the one about the Cyberchick, but that's about it. I've been viewing internet downloads and I think I've seen up to episode 7. Imo they should explore more of the Doctor Who universe, the remnants that all of those countless alien contacts over the years that must have been left behind.

[CaptainPierce]

I haven't seen a lot of the show yet, but from what I'm hearing it seems they're treating it less as a Dr. Who spinoff and more as "hey, we're in a later timeslot, how much sex can we get away with?" If that's the case, I can't even see why they'd bother doing it as a Who spinoff, except (the cynical side of me says) as a way to jumpstart the ratings...

Also, if that's the case, they're not going to have an easy time of finding an American station to broadcast it...

[Don Karnage]

the first torchwood was the one who open a windows for the darlek and cyberman, for the other tochwood we have no idea what happen and how much time past betwen each of them, how much technologie was salvage from the previous tochwood?

the only episode i like what with the cyber woman, but the rest where a bit boring.

[James Smith]

Dear Star Trek writers,

That is how you do a cliffhanger ending. No Alien Nazi silliness, nothing desperately weird. Just a call-back to the past that will take your character off on a new adventure.

Yours,
James Smith


My impressions of Torchwood's first season overall?

Could have been better. Some episodes just didn't grab me at all. There was some very weird stuff going on at times. But....

By the same token, there were episodes that did grab me. And I can live with the kind of weirdness they were putting up - hell, I've watched every single episode of Doctor Who that survives today, I'm more than capable of watching 'weird'!

As sci-fi/fantasy series go, this one isn't doing too badly. At it's worst, Torchwood so far has been infintely better than a lot of Trek franchise episodes. If they can get a few slam-dunk, absolutely brilliant episodes in during the next series, and if they can dial out a lot of the boring stuff, then I can see Torchwood doing very nicely for itself. If they have another series like that, with some decent spots in a big ol' patch of bland, then it won't be lasting into a third series.

[MajorRacal]

Torchwood is a morasse of poor writing, aimless direction, gaping plotholes and sub-juvenile tittering - quite simply an apallingly wasted opportunity.

I've watched the complete run, and after a less than glowing start, the series descended to unfathomable depths - Cyberwoman (which I note appears to have accrued some appreciation here) was largely greeted with dismay by more ardent followers of the Doctor Who universe, but things did improve to a degree of bland mediocrity until another quirky format episode (reflecting this years' critically mauled Doctor Who experiment, Love & monsters). Clearly the production team haven't tried to learn from their mistakes, and so this episode (Random Shoes) went down like a cup of cold sick with audiences. Although still not axactly shaking the firmament, things did improve again with the final 3 episodes which culminated in a largely over-hyped finale.

A criticism levelled at the show is that for a top secret team, there is very little indication of team work (self absorbed dysfunctionalism, perhaps with an unchecked and apparently non-discriminatory libido). Every member of the team has had at a same-gender tryst across the span of the 13 episodes, which strikes many as merely gratuitous, particularly when it serves little purpose in the story or series direction - for example the emergent relationship between Jack and Ianto.

The series has proven popular enough to warrant the comission of a second series, but it is hoped that the tone and direction of the stories will settle and nature of the series mature to reflect the intended adult audience. We'll see.

[MajorRacal]

donkarnage said:

the first torchwood was the one who open a windows for the darlek and cyberman, for the other tochwood we have no idea what happen and how much time past betwen each of them, how much technologie was salvage from the previous tochwood?

The Torchwood cell portrayed in the series is a separate unit of the same Torchwood organisation featured in the finale of Doctor Who. It seems a little odd that the team seems so under resourced with only five people and no other support or relief staff to cover the whole city, and no apparent reporting structure or line of accountability (but that's just a personal gripe).

Events from Torchwood (and any episodes of Doctor Who featuring Rose's family) are intended to be viewed as contemporary with our own. The events of the series Torchwood are clearly identified as being set in the aftermath of the Dalek/Cyberman dabacle at Canary Wharf. Tech levels aren't a big concern, particulalrly as all they have to do is invent a new piece of alien technology crashed to Earth as a get-out clause whenever required.