Chimpomatic

Torchwood

Season One, Episode One

New Doctor Who spin-off series (oooh it's an anagram). Captain Jack Harkness (the American one who snogged the Doctor) is in charge of another one of those super top secret alien police organisations where everyone wears long trenchcoats and spends their time reverse-engineering alien technology and ordering pizza.

Feels similar to Who, with added swearing, which feels a bit pointless - it's not much more graphic than Who, and seems almost mean to make a spin-off that kids can't watch (or won't be supposed to). It's got the same sort of budget (ie not enough for large crowd scenes, so there's a bit in the pilot where a cop is trying to usher people away from a crime scene, but there's no-one to actually usher away, which is quite odd), and mines the Men In Black secret HQ idea, except it seems to be hidden under the Cardiff cultural centre. For some reason they keep having meetings on top of buildings, perhaps because they stretched the budget to include some helicopter shots.

It's not bad, and might build into something worthwhile, but it's hard not to feel like we've seen all this done much better w the X-Files, MIB, Dark Skies etc… That said, would rather see BBC3 making this than another series of A Packet Of Crisps, or Dogtown…


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10th Oct 2006 - Tumblr

2.5

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