cobolhacker.com

P.C. Gwen Cooper is providing security around the scene of another brutal murder in downtown Cardiff. Suddenly everyone is sent away from the scene and an ominous black SUV pulls up. She’s told it’s Torchwood, some kind of “special ops” group. Four of them get out of the mysterious vehicle and begin to work on the victim. Sneaking up into an adjacent car park, she watches from above as the team bring the victim back to life temporarily and ask him questions about his murderer. Stunned by what she has seen, she vows to learn more about this shadowy group.

Because I’m such a Doctor Who fanboi, I naturally had to check out Russell T. Davies’ new series, Torchwood. It’s the first Doctor Who spin-off since the ill-fated K9 and Company pilot and it’s set in the same universe and same continuity as the current series of Doctor Who. It follows the exploits of Torchwood Three in Cardiff, sometime after the destruction of Torchwood One in London (Doctor Who episode Doomsday). Numerous references to Doctor Who are made in the series, though Davies says there will be no direct crossover episodes (yet).

Following his resurrection by Rose (DW ep. Parting of the Ways) the dashing Captain Jack Harkness apparently found a way back to the 21st century and got himself a job running Torchwood Three. We discover that Torchwood Three is located under the Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff, right where the Rift is (DW ep. Boom Town). Aliens and alien stuff fall through the rift from time to time and it’s the job of Torchwood Three to clean it up and hide evidence of it. It’s also their job to figure out how to arm humanity with the alien technology they recover. As Jack ominously says, “In the 21st century everything changes, and you gotta be ready.”

Although John Barrowman is one of the main selling points, so far the show has been very restrained with Captain Jack. His experiences on Satellite Five (DW ep. Parting of the Ways) have changed him, literally. Gwen discovers under the most violent of circumstances that Jack cannot be killed. He says it’s because of something that happened to him “a while back, long story and far away.” He’s a less bombastic character than he was in Doctor Who, portrayed now as more mysterious, more private and more alone. His coworkers know practically nothing about him, and it is revealed that he lives in the Torchwood offices and doesn’t sleep, presumably working away in its tunnels after all the others have gone home. Maybe getting killed and brought back can have that affect on a guy. Still, we are occasionally treated to the happy, playful, naughty Jack of before; Gwen’s lesson on how to fire a handgun is a particularly good scene.

Like Rose in Doctor Who, Gwen Cooper serves as the surrogate character through which the audience can be drawn into the bizarre world of Torchwood. Same deal as Doctor Who, but hey, if the schtick ain’t broke… Gwen, an experienced policewoman, relentlessly tracks down the Torchwood team after their first encounter because she is convinced they can help her solve the murders. She doesn’t realise it at the time, but her first humiliating encounter with the team face to face is also her first job interview. “She’s actually carrying pizza!” teases Owen. She eventually beats Jack’s amnesia drug and returns to Torchwood in time to catch the killer. Convinced of her worth, Jack offers her a job.

Torchwood is ensemble show, but Gwen is effectively the female lead. While episodes in the first series have focused on characters Toshiko, Ianto, Owen, and even Suzie, Gwen is by far the most fleshed out character in the show, more so than even Captain Jack. One of the recurring themes in the series is the slow destruction of her boring girl-next-door life and the replacement of it with a racy Torchwood one. Not only is her innocence and virtue being drained away, but also her relationship with Rhys, her live-in boyfriend. Like Mickey in Doctor Who, you feel kind of bad for Rhys, like he doesn’t deserve all the lying and the sneaking. When it all goes down Gwen may well find herself living at Torchwood Three like Jack.

The role of Gwen was written for actress Eve Myles and she brings a lot of sincerity and spunk to the surprisingly complex character. She’s also a doe-eyed cutie, toothy grin and all. That might well be my inner fanboi talking (I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for girls with strong accents and you get Welsh from Myles by the truckload). Astute Doctor Who fans will recognise her from Doctor Who episode The Unquiet Dead, where she played a character named, interestingly enough, Gwyneth. No word yet if this is merely a coincidence.

Davies has described the show as “a British sci-fi paranoid thriller, a cop show with a sense of humour… dark, wild and sexy, it’s The X-Files meets This Life.” This is nicely sums up what the show is about. With the same “science fantasy” theme prevailing throughout, there are also many comparisons to be made with Doctor Who, with some reviewers calling Torchwood “Doctor Who for grown-ups”. Unlike Doctor Who, Torchwood’s sometimes silly humour is often sharply offset by a gritty viciousness. It is most definitely not for children. The characters swear and fuck, and people violently die. Davies has also said that that he wants to “knock down the barriers so we can’t define which of the characters is gay.” To this end, the show deals with GLB themes head on, with no holds barred. Even poor Gwen is not immune. Her first day on the job finds her dosed to the gills with pheromones, helplessly snogging some poor girl possessed by a sex crazed gas alien. I don’t think we’re supposed to believe she really fancies girls, but Gwen’s not freaked out about the experience either. Sexuality is often like that in real life, and Davies wants to make good and sure we don’t forget it.

At first, such outbursts of funny and queer broke me out of the narrative of the show and for the first five episodes, it seemed as if the writers were struggling to find the right groove. Now that the series is ten shows in, the writers seem to have struck a decent balance between the show’s quirky science fantasy underpinnings and its gritty cop-drama presentation. One could describe it as a cross between Doctor Who, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Bill. Only with sex and cussin’.

Though its actual subject matter is nothing new, Torchwood’s curious presentation is certainly like nothing I’ve seen before and it alone is worthy of recognition. The characters are interesting and the flow of the stories is rarely boring (though perhaps oddly paced at times). If you like the current series of Doctor Who and you’re the kind of fan who watched The X-Files less for the Cigarette Smoking Man and more for episodes like Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, you’ll probably dig Torchwood.