PREVIOUS                                                                                  NEXT

Countrycide

19TH NOVEMBER 2006

(50-MINUTE EPISODE)

What a brilliant bit of telly. Chris Chibnall’s scripts get better and better with

each and every episode that he writes. Not only did I find Countrycide shit-your-pants scary, but Chibnall’s misdirection kept me guessing right up until the big reveal. Is the rift actually spreading? Are aliens and psychopaths being dumped outside Cardiff? No. This is a grim tale about humans. Humans eating humans.

“Only in the bloody countryside! You sick fuckers.”

Well over half the episode is build-up and tension. Chibnall uses the time not only to crank up the fear factor but also to explore the strained relationships between the regular characters. Ianto’s sadness about Lisa’s death is touched upon, as is Toshiko’s obvious crush on Owen. Owen also reveals to all his colleagues that he snogged Gwen, and then…

Owen and Gwen shagging really shocked me; I thought that, if anyone, she had a crush on Jack. Still, there was certainly something between the pair in Cyberwoman, but it comes to

the forefront here when Gwen gets shot and we see her lovingly stroking Owen as he tends to her wounds.

“I can’t share it with anyone…”

The baddies themselves are brilliantly written and fiercely realised by the actors. Owen Teal is particularly memorable as Ewan – the leader of these ‘Harvesters’. The character is so vile that it’s almost incredible, yet somehow Teal makes the monster seem real. Some of

his scenes are real shockers; although a lot of the horror is not explicitly shown, we still see, for instance, the chilling look on Tosh’s face as Ewan approaches her with a baseball bat and informs her that she is going to be ‘tenderised’. Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd

in particular shine here with their terrified performances.

“He’s meat. We’re all just meat.”

In an episode such as this one, shot almost entirely on location and not featuring any special effects to speak of, it is the performances that count and each and every member of the cast excels. Eve Myles is once again wonderful, especially at the end of the episode where she

is visibly torn apart because she cannt get her head around why people are eating other people. And as for John Barrowman – talk about kicking ass. That rescue sequence would put any Hollywood action hero to shame!

Taken as a whole then, though Countrycide is outside the show’s regular format, for me it is the best episode of the first six and a wonderful showcase for just how good Torchwood can be. Highly recommended indeed.

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.

Unless otherwise stated, all images on this site are copyrighted to the BBC and are used solely for promotional purposes.

‘Torchwood’ is copyright © by the BBC. No copyright infringement is intended.