Torchwood

There are pretty much two writers’ names that can instil fear into the heart of a discerning Doctor Who or Torchwood fan: Chris Chibnall’s and Helen Raynor’s.

Chibnall has been responsible for some appalling pieces of work, with awful plots, awful characterisation and awful dialogue (cf Countrycide). But at least he’s fun. The opening episode of this series of Torchwood, which was one of Chibnall’s best, we all assumed would be a template for the show this series: daft, silly, but well paced and fun.

But no. At Torchwood, it seems “the script editor is out”, so consistency of tone and characterisation is something that we can’t possible hope for. Because here comes another of Helen Raynor’s massive worthy tomes.

Oh no.

The former script editor of Doctor Who, she was also responsible for last year’s tedious third episode, as well as the Who stinkers Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks.

As I remarked then,

“There’s something about Helen Raynor’s writing. It’s always nicely put together, doesn’t insult your intelligence too much and has a certain sensibility about it that makes you think she’s trying to write proper drama. But it’s absolutely dull to watch.”

And so it was with last night’s Torchwood episode, To The Last Man.

Continue reading “Review: Torchwood 2×3 – To The Last Man”

My wife: Torchwood’s a bit rubbish, isn’t it?

Me: Yes

My wife: Can we keep watching it?

From a conversation with my wife this morning

Oh dear. And it was going so well. Pretty well, anyway. Okay, it was a little nonsensical at first and the acting could have been outshone by any of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion creations from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. But it was fun, well-directed, reasonably intelligent and raised some interesting ideas.

For half an hour.

Then it turned into an old episode of UFO.

Continue reading “Review: Torchwood 2×2 – Sleeper”