I quite liked it, actually - mostly for Captain Jack, whose character I find interesting. It's not at all like Doctor Who in tone or feel. Then they said some bad words, and I had to phone my parents to see if it was still ok to watch it.
Torchwood, the raunchy and violent Doctor Who spin-off, premiered yesterday in England and shortly thereafter made its HD-ripped goodness felt on the internets, to the joy of many nerds. We'll be doing the Radio Free Skaro podcast tomorrow night, and reviewing the first two episodes, but I thought it'd be a good idea to get people's reactions to the show beforehand, so we can include some opinions other than mine and Steven's in the discussion. Feel free to leave comments, invective, or praise in the comments...I haven't watched the episodes yet so I won't be able to contribute until later tonight.
I quite liked it, actually - mostly for Captain Jack, whose character I find interesting. It's not at all like Doctor Who in tone or feel. Then they said some bad words, and I had to phone my parents to see if it was still ok to watch it.
My frien JOhn couldn't get his comment into the system, so he mailed it to me, and i"ll put it here:
" Since your Freyburg.com still thinks I'm evil here is my
directed commentary.
I've only seen the first episode and waiting till later
to watch the second episode both run the first night. I
have too say there was far too much hype and it was a rather
understated opening with a tad too heavy on the incidental
music.
Seems Capt Jack isn't the only one who swings both ways
but his staff does as well. One is also left to beg the
question of who watches the watchers as clearly without any
form of oversite they all ran off and took work from the
office home, not good to play outside the office with stuff
that should stay locked in the office.
Don't ever give a caveman a cell phone and watch him
later build a maser and start cooking everything in sight
for his own benefit.
Capt Jack also seems too have become immortal since Rose
brought him back too life but one also wonders if they will
test the limts of that as well. Cut off his head and will
it grow back or will he go on to have a classic 'quickening'
ala Highlander.
Over all it was entertaining but it really didn't live up
too the hype and buildup it's been getting."
I've finally gotten around to watching the two episodes, and I'd definitely agree it's been overhyped. It's not a bad show... it's got some interesting characters and good action, but it's not a great show. It's lacking some sort of oomph (which you'd think would be difficult given episode 2 deals with a serial sex bunny). Not to mention what's with this supposedly super-secret organization just plodding onto crime scenes, the people saying "I'm with Torchwood" and the police/military just stepping aside? What's with announcing the organization's presence in general? What's with hyping 6 characters in the show to have one killed off at the end of episode 1? Jack as immortal... wtf?
I really can't say too much about Jack being immortal though, since we're dealing with a SF show here. Jack was, after all, the only one resurrected by Rose, and with what was running through her at the time anything's possible. As long as it doesn't get stupid, I don't think I can see having a problem with that aspect.
Still, I'll keep watching. I'm happy Russell Davies has less involvement writing-wise with this versus Doctor Who, so maybe we'll get some good and proper stories that actually have a well-developed beginning, middle and end.
Overall: 3/5.
There, for anyone interested in my $0.02, I've moderately expanded some thoughts on my blog. http://dubbayoo.blogspot.com/ (yep, I'm too lazy to post a blog under my personal vanity domain... or am I just too cheap to pay bandwidth bills?)
Well, I'll yander on tonight about the Wood of Torch, but I agree with Chris that it was pretty decent but not amazing. Though even tangentially-related Who is better than nothing, given I have to wait another two months for an Xmas special, and another three months after that for a new series.
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