Is "Torchwood" really good?

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Of course not, it's welsh. But then it depends on what you mean by sophistication. It's not so sleek and polished, but it can carry surprising emotional depth.

Wait... sophistication? The X Files? *Stifles laughter*

As for Torchwood, I was dubious at first but I actually really enjoyed the last series, although in my opinion it went a bit too Buffy The Vampire Slayer at certain points. (Personally I think better comparisons could be drawn between Torchwood and BtVS than the X Files, which I see as a good thing, but only to a degree and too much can just get ridiculous.) The ending seriously pissed me off, however.

Last edited by Aridarr on 09 Apr 2008, 8:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well next to Torchwood...

I agree with the BtVS comparisons; much more accurate.

I like the series, I have been downloading off of pirate bay, since the series started, some of the gay stuff with captain jack is annoying, don't know how that is going to go over in the states, but other then that, its a great series

The gay stuff rocks.

Torchwood can be fun to watch but I have to post this dead ringers clip which says a whole lot more
about the show than I ever could and its all 100% true too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKrEnBmST00[/youtube]

well what ever turns your crank, just doesn't turn mine, now if it was Gwen Cooper and Toshiko Sato I am there
I still like the show compared to the other crap on tv, I watch Torchwood, Dr Who, BSG, both Stargate Series, but have been getting into Primevil

Betzalel, that cracked me up even through I don't understand the "Welsh" jokes at all, and I wish I could have read the nametags (The only ones I could see were "annoying" and "welsh")
Does the trenchcoat really always flare out like that? I also had to assume the guy was "Jack" as he kissed the cop right off the get-go.
If it is all about who they've all "done" or are doing currently or "nasty-bits" it doesn't sound as intriquing to me. I don't need that for a show to be good. I just need a Good Show.

Some background info (that the team mostly doesn't have): Jack Harkness (not his real name, obviously) came from a human colony world in the 51st Century. When the viewers first met him (in Doctor Who, with Chris Eccleston), Jack had informally retired from the Time Agency, when he learned they had retconned away two years of his life (and now you know as much as we do - and as much as Jack does - about that). He was making a little money on the side, running a scam in WWII London (a popular place/time for temporal scam artists, as so much of it was destroyed in the war, and they know which spots). He became a Companion for a short time, along with Rose, until they encountered the Emperor Dalek aboard the GameStation about 200,000 years from now. The Emperor almost killed the Doctor (who had sent Rose away in the TARDIS), and did kill Jack. Rose, however, in order to save the Doctor, absorbed/joined with the Heart of the TARDIS, giving her the power of a god. She returned to the year 200,000, eliminated the Daleks (aside from four who executed an emergency temporal shift), and resurrected Jack, before the Doctor returned the power back to the TARDIS (and triggered his next regeneration, into David Tennant). Sadly, Rose didn't have much experience at resurrection, and fixed Jack's status to the point just before he'd been killed. As a consequence, no matter what happens now, he's stuck at that point - he is a temporal anomaly. This caused the Doctor to flee in fear. Jack was able to use his own temporal device to jump back toward the one era he was sure he'd be able to find the Doctor in - he was trying for WWII Earth - but the device was breaking down, and deposited him on Earth in the late 19th Century instead.

What the team does know is that he's been around for a long, long time - he's told them of things that happened to him during WWI - and that when he gets killed, he comes back. They've figured out some things about time travel, especially since his old partner, Captain John, came by in the Series 2 opener, and they know that he has a child (that he had borne). And they know that his sexual preference is "yes" (as the Doctor described it to Rose when they first met Jack, "So many species, so little time").

you have to understand that they are taking the piss a bit with the parody but it is sadly true that sex plays a big part in it. and yes the coat does flar out a bit but not quite as anoyingly as the dead ringers do it. you would really have to watch a few shows first and then watch the skit to understand whats going on.

you can find them online at 56.com or just google for torchwood with the duraction set to >20 minutes in the video search.

its a fun show sometimes but the sexual stuff does get a bit heavy at times.

and some of the characters can get quite annoying at times.

The BBCA website has Jack's "Captain's Blog" for each episode. In the one with the wedding, his blog read, among other things, "Gwen's mother taken hostage by alien. Must run in the family."

A question to anyone who watched the first series: What the f**k was the significance of the stopwatch?

primeval is really good aswell, the seasons are far too short though

What stopwatch? are you talking about the thing on Capt Jack's arm? thats not a stopwatch its a vortex manipulator
which is a neat piece of gear he got when he was a time agent. its a multifunction device that does time travel and teleportation. along with some computer/tricorder type functions as well.

the time travel functionality is broken on it however, but the Doctor does repair it for a while in the episode "The Last of the Time Lords" no idea at all if it is still working after thats sorted out.

also you would never know WTF that thing is on his arm even if you did watch the series. they don't really explain it at all and I guess its assumed you watched the relevant Dr Who episodes from before the series started.

It was a bit of banter between Jack and Ianto - apparently, it was somehow involved in one of their encounters (details best left to one's imagination, it would appear). In one Series 2 episode, Ianto described Jack's technique as "innovative, bordering on the avant garde."

That's the one I meant.

Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch...