STORY PLACEMENT

 FOR CAPTAIN JACK, THIS

 EPISODE TAKES PLACE

 MANY YEARS AFTER THE

 EVENTS OF THE DOCTOR

 WHO TV EPISODE "THE

 PARTING OF THE WAYS."

 

 FOR TORCHWOOD AND

 THE REST OF THE WORLD,

 THIS EPISODE TAKES

 PLACE AFTER THE EVENTS

 OF THE DOCTOR WHO TV

 EPISODE "DOOMSDAY",

 CIRCA 2007.

 

 THIS EPISODE IS ALSO
 SET PRIOR TO THE TV

 EPISODE "DAY ONE."

 

 WRITTEN BY

 RUSSELL T. DAVIES

 

 DIRECTED BY

 BRIAN KELLY

 

 RATINGS

 2.52 MILLION (BBC3)

 3.03 MILLION (BBC2)

 

 WORKING TITLE

 FLOTSAM & JETSAM

 

 RECOMMENDED 

 PURCHASE

 'THE COMPLETE FIRST 

 SERIES' BLU-RAY DVD

 BOX SET (BBCBD0015)

 RELEASED IN JUNE 2008.

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

  

 BLURB

 A BRUTAL MURDER
 LEADS WPC GWEN
 COOPER TO TORCHWOOD,

 A JOURNEY THAT WILL
 CHANGE HER LIFE
 FOREVER.

 

 PREVIOUS (DOCTOR WHO)                                                           NEXT

 

Everything Changes

22ND OCTOBER 2006

(50-MINUTE EPISODE)

 

 

                                                       

 

 

I really didn’t know what to expect when I tuned into BBC Three on Sunday night. Doctor Who ‘for grown ups’? And there was me thinking that Doctor Who is for grown ups! Either way, Doctor Who’s new late-night sister series, though a little slow to start, did little other than impress.

 

Stunning aerial shots of Cardiff Bay. An edgy, suspenseful score. It only took a few minutes for Torchwood to carve out its own unique identity.

 

 

Russell T Davies’ script for the first episode reminded me very much of another that he penned what seems like a lifetime ago now – Rose. Much in the same way that Rose introduced us to the Doctor’s life through the eyes of an external observer, Everything Changes introduces us to the eponymous top-secret organisation through the eyes of regular old Police Constable Gwen Cooper.

 

 

Just like Rose, Gwen has a life. A boyfriend. A job. And then she witnesses a ‘special ops’ team bring a murdered man back from the dead.

 

As through Gwen we learn about ‘Torchwood 3’, we also learn about a man that we, as the audience, abandoned just over a year ago. The Captain Jack Harkness that we meet in Everything Changes is a very different man to the Captain Jack Harkness that gave his life to buy the Doctor just a few more minutes back in The Parting of the Ways. In a sense, he

is much more like the Jack that we first met way back in the Blitz. He may not be a con-man anymore, but his experiences since Rose imbued him with all the energy of the time vortex and brought him back to life have made him a more clinical, a-moral figure. I have a feeling that Gwen is going to be ‘his Doctor’ in that over the course of the series, I expect that she will bring the good man back bubbling to the surface.

 

 

“Nothing. Oh my God there’s nothing!”

 

Though it is early days, the rest of Torchwood’s personnel look like an interesting bunch. Eagle-eyed Doctor Who viewers with recall the character of Toshiko Sato from the 2005 episode Aliens of London, but Doctor Owen Harper and Ianto Jones are two new fresh faces. Whilst he had little action in this episode, Burn Gorman’s Owen appears to be the stand-out character. Already he’s a great source of humour – just look at the “sorry I’m a twat” pizza gag, not to mention the whole ‘pheromone spray’ sequence. Priceless.

 

And as for Torchwood itself, having the hub underneath the Millennium Centre is a real masterstroke on Davies’ part. It means that in terms of cinematography, Torchwood can

truly showcase the most beautiful part of Cardiff. It also means that in this ever-expanding Doctor Who universe, Torchwood can cash-in on the Rift and the recent presence of the TARDIS to explain away an invisible lift, a pterodactyl, and a multitude of alien flotsam and jetsam… It really makes me wonder if this whole thing was planned as far back as Boom Town!

 

 

Flaws? Well if you’re only going to allow yourself fifty minutes for your pilot episode, as was the case with Rose, the characters are going to take precedence over incident. A ninety-minute US-style pilot would have allowed Davies to tell a better story whilst setting up the series, but considering the time constraints it’s hard to pick fault - particularly as the brutal, edge of the seat, finalé more than makes up for the back-seat plot. I was genuinely shocked when Suzie shot Jack in the forehead; and doubly so when he rose back up! It seems that Rose did more than bring Jack back to life. He can’t die. It’s his curse.

 

“I’m getting tired of following you.”

 

Stylish, sexy and shocking; Torchwood has it all. And on the strength of this opener, John Barrowman and Eve Myles could well prove to be the 21st centurys answer to Mulder and Scully. But Welsh, obviously.

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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