Torchwood

In the UK: Monday 6th July, 9pm, BBC1. Parts 2-5 airing Tuesday-Friday
In the US: Monday 20th July, 9/8c, BBC America. Parts 2-5 airing 21st-24th

You know Apple, right? Makes iPods.

Well, it was set up by a guy called Steve Jobs. You know him, right? He has a reality distortion field.

Anyway, he got thrown out – and the whole company fell apart. When he came back, it suddenly became great again. Insanely great.

All of Apple’s intervening bosses said more or less the same thing: Apple has Steve Jobs’ DNA. Only Steve Jobs can run it.

I’m beginning to wonder if Russell T Davies is the Steve Jobs of Torchwood. He created it. It’s his baby. He wrote the first ever episode, which was really very promising. Since then, he’s had minimal input and it’s range from absolutely horrifically bad to not bad but still not great.

However, has it ever quite achieved the heights we thought it could achieve?

No.

Essentially, it’s an embodiment of all his obsessions and interests: sci-fi, soapy relationships, sexuality, Welshness, action and Doctor Who. Who else could ever work with those themes as well as he can?

Well, guess what? After moving from BBC3 to BBC2 and now to BBC1, Torchwood once again has Russell T Davies in charge for a five-part, nightly mini-series called Children of Earth. I won’t pretend episode one was an absolute classic of television, but it really was pretty good.

See what I mean? He’ll be creating the TorchPod before you know it.

Continue reading “Review: Torchwood – Children of Earth – Part 1”