TARDISMonkey's Torchwood Diary - watching Torchwood an episode a week from the start...

1.1: Everything Changes 

Rewatching this episode has really shown how incredible Russell T. Davies is as a writer. You want a 'grown-up' version of Doctor Who? Well, look no further. Gwen Cooper; a police officer working her way up through the ranks and tackling hard cases, like a murder that has just happened outside a multi-story car park. But this is no ordinary case; a mysterious team enter the mists and bring a dead body back to life. Gwen Cooper's life has dramatically changed, forever.

Torchwood establishes its more grown up audience from the violence Gwen encounters when she meets her first alien, the Weevil. She tries to establish some normality to the situation by claiming the Weevil is a man in a mask, until some unfortunate soul gets his throat ripped apart.

Captain Jack takes up the 'Doctor' role in the episode, claiming to be a dark and mysterious person who wants to keep his past life a secret. Being an established character in the series really helps Torchwood have a familiar face that the audience can relate to and have some foreknowledge of Jack's history. The establishing scene that builds up the Torchwood team in their Cardiff base, when Gwen is delivering pizza, makes a nice little icebreaker when it plays on the stereotypical cheesy reveal scenes, making light hearted comedy of the situation. Seeing the teams camaraderie as Gwen enters the Torchwood base proves they are very tight knit, very much like the first episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child – the existing chemistry of the gang proves they’ve already had many adventures.

Torchwood really builds itself as a series utilising these tropes, however it also throws in a grim twist to the universe we know and love from Doctor Who, with characters stealing, swearing and generally doing stuff that’s forbidden in a family show. This episode already has shocks, twists, turns and some amazing power poses from Captain Jack's figure on top of random buildings in Cardiff, which entices you to continue watching the next episode. You want to see Cardiff in all its glory? Well look no further than the fantastic amounts of establishing drone shots, which would make a good game someday.

(Also keep an eye out for the Doctor Who Experience sign in the background of some shots.) 

The first episode had everything it needed to establish characters, sets and the overall theme of the show. It’s still a little rough round the edges with slight exaggeration of the grown up themes.

Ellie (TARDISMonkey) 

 

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[Source: DWO]