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To The Last Man

30TH JANUARY 2008

(50-MINUTE EPISODE)

Back in 2006, Helen Raynor was given the task of building upon the series’ sexy

and chic two-hour premiere with an episode that had to prove that the show is capable of telling stories every bit as plot-driven and as emotionally resounding as those that we see

in Doctor Who. And with Ghost Machine, she did just that. And his year, Raynor is again allocated the third episode of the series to tell a story which is just that little bit quieter than the preceding fortnight’s offerings, but which is also all the more powerful for it.

“We brought you from 1918 to now and when you go back to 1918,

your life will be like a thread stitching time back together again.”

Raynor has a distinct gift for using time itself to weave the most wonderful and engrossing emotionally charged stories. It’s ironic then that her Doctor Who two-parter, Evolution of the Daleks, was a wholly linear affair whilst both her Torchwood episodes, which are supposed to be more limited in their temporal scope, have been complex chronological conundrums.

Personally, I think that To The Last Man is by far the best script that Raynor has contributed to either series. It has the perfect blend of all the disparate elements that make Torchwood such a compelling show, yet I could happily sit down and watch this one with the whole family.

To The Last Man is a story about Tommy Brockless, a young British Private frozen by Torchwood towards the end of the Great War so that one day he could be thawed out

“when needed”. Now you can’t really get a more appealing premise than that in my book – intrigue galore. As far as the science-fiction element of the story goes, Raynor is already ticking those key boxes.

“First year they woke up… Told me it was all over… We won…

And then three weeks later you had the second world war. After all that.”

But what makes the episode really special is its heart. Tommy – great name for a Great

War soldier, by the way – is held in cryonic storage. To check that he is still in good health, every year Torchwood need to thaw him out and give him a full medical examination. This means that poor old Tommy sees the best part of a century fly by in just three subjective months. He sees those who wake him up each year age and eventually be replaced, and

he sees the world change more than he ever thought possible. But every time he wakes up, there is always one constant: war.

“So I’ll be saving the world in pyjamas. How daft is that?”

Neville Longbottom’s big brother, Anthony Lewis, gives a spectacular performance as Tommy. He imbues the character with such weather-beaten charm that it’s impossible not

to like him; impossible not to feel sympathy for his predetermined plight. Jack knows that

just three weeks after Tommy goes back to 1918 to repair the rip in time, he is going to be executed for cowardice. Tommy may not know this explicitly, but he is no idiot. He knows

the war. He knows his chances. He is just a twenty-four year old young man. He doesn’t

want to save the world; he just wants to have his way with Toshiko. Lewis gives Tommy

such a brutal sense of honesty that it is hard not to relate to him.

And as for Toshiko, To The Last Man is probably her strongest episode to date so far as her character development is concerned. In a way, her feelings for Tommy help to progress her relationship with Owen to the next level. She has had a crush on ever Owen since day one (and I mean that figuratively, by the way, I am not quoting an episode title), but until Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang it looked like her feelings were not reciprocated. In this episode, however, it is Owen who takes the initiative and, somewhat surprisingly, it is not in a selfish, covetous way. He’s genuinely concerned for Tosh after what happened between him and Diane in

Out of Time (an outstanding episode from the first series with which To The Last Man has much in common) and he doesn’t want her to get hurt as badly as did.

And there is so much other cool stuff going on here that I haven’t mentioned – Torchwood 1918; Jack’s own memories of the Somme; a creepy one-legged ghost… All told, To The Last Man is definitely the pick of the first three episodes this year for me. Fair dues, the last five minutes do feel heavily padded, but I suppose there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a bit of extra bang for your buck. Indeed, any minor gripes that I may have with this episode

are utterly outweighed by its overwhelming class.

One of Torchwood’s very best.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2008

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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