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Ghost Machine

29TH OCTOBER 2006

(50-MINUTE EPISODE)

As fond as I was of the murderous, sex-crazed alien let loose in the sperm clinic story, Helen Raynor’s Ghost Machine clearly has the most fascinating plot of the first three episodes. Torchwood acquire a piece of alien technology from a young chav which allows them to see both past and future events by actually feeling what the people in their vision

felt at the time. Human emotion is powerful enough to survive across time, you see…

“Bernie Harris, the scarlet pimpernel of Splot”.

Like both Russell T Davies and Chris Chibnall before her, Raynor successfully manages to maintain that knife-edge balance between light-hearted comedy and exceedingly gloomy drama. On the one hand, we have the very slapstick chav, Bernie Harris. On the other, we have the depressed, agoraphobic murderer Ed Morgan. At times, Ghost Machine is laugh-out-loud funny. At others, it’s a first-rate thriller.

For me, the most interesting part of the story was watching Owen attempt to cope with what the alien device showed to him – Ed Morgan murdering a young girl back in the 1950s. So far Owen has come across as being brash and swaggering, but here he’s quieter - fewer lewd comments, much more action. Burn Gorman has to be given full marks for how well he unveils this emotional, unstable side to his character. In fact, it is Owen’s hot-headed actions that lead to the events of Gwen’s vision coming true - Ed Morgan runs himself through on the knife that Gwen is holding. 

Eve Myles’ performance here is her best to date. Gwen’s reaction to having ‘killed’ Ed Morgan is harrowing to watch; this is not something that she will be able to quickly forget. The beautiful closing shots of Gwen and Jack looking out across Cardiff Bay at dawn say

it all. Speaking of which, following on from last week’s kiss that Gwen gave to Jack, Myles portrays Gwen’s emotional confusion superbly; the shooting gallery sequence where she flirts uncontrollably with Jack, only to go home and use the alien device to remind her of all the happy times that she has shared with her boyfriend, is particularly well done.

All told, Raynor has certainly succeeded in building upon the series’ strong and stylish opening with a traditional science fiction thriller that is far less likely to court controversy

than the two preceding episodes. In fact, I think that even old-school Doctor Who purists would enjoy this one.

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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