Totally Frakked: "Torchwood" And The Beginning Of Things

Torchwood
Title: "Everything Changes"
First Aired (US): 09/08/07

Something I like about British TV, it's made with a belief that the viewers have a neuron or two rattling around in their collective heads.  The premiere of "Torchwood", the new "Doctor Who" spinoff, is a fine example of this; refusing to spend its time drowning the story in exposition out of a fear that the audience won't get it.  They do still provide us with a cypher for our confusion, in the form of Gwen Cooper, a beat cop who stumbles onto the world of Torchwood and tumbles down the rabbit hole filled with aliens and good looking immortal captains, but they don't waste any valuable time beating us over the head with information.

Gwen spies the Torchwood team bringing a murder victim back from the dead (albeit briefly) with a magic glove and assumes they're some kind of X-filesesque investigators.  As it turns out, they're just testing the glove, but it takes Gwen, and us, a bit of time to learn that.  After witnessing the round of post-mortem 20-questions, Gwen has a few of her own, and once she sees a man nearly eaten by a big ugly beastie called a weevil, she's got even more.  Unfortunately, Captain Harkness - an occasional "Doctor Who" guest star - gives her the slip.

Like any good detective, Gwen tries to dig up information. The name Captain Jack Harkness turns up a seeming dead end -- the only Harkness is an American who disappeared in 1941 -- but she does find out who delivers Torchwood's pizza.  She sneaks into their underground facility with a pizza box, but of course they're on to her.  There's a good moment of comedy as the team cracks up after trying to play it straight while she not-so-slyly sneaks in.  We meet Jack again, along with Owen Harper, Toshiko Santo, the computer genius, Suzie Costello, the second in command, and Lanto Jones, the guy who looks good in a suit.

We do get a bit of exposition of course, Torchwood is a private entity, there's a lot of spooky stuff in Cardiff (where the show takes place), and this is Torchwood 3, in charge of investigating said spooky stuff.  Captain Jack sternly notes that this isn't a game, and no alien technology is allowed out of the Torchwood facility, so of course we know the opposite is true.  Sure enough, we see Owen using some kind of alien pheromone to pick up a girl (and her boyfriend - racy!) at a bar. Next, Toshiko has some sort of alien scanner she's using to copy her library, and Suzie took home the resurrection glove to play with dead insects.  Of course, none of this will matter much to Gwen, since Jack slipped her a mind-erasing mickey.

Gwen does what any sensible person would do, and runs home to write it all done, but Torchwood manages to erase the files from her computer.  Next time, use hard copy.  Gwen wakes up with a hangover and a gap in her memory, but Suzie slips some information to the police which happens to be just enough to jog the hapless cop's memory.  She tracks Torchwood down, yet again, but it turns out that Suzie was leading her down the garden path.  For reasons not really clear to anyone, Suzie tells Gwen that she has killed several people, in order to test the glove and learn how to use it.  Suzie is about to plug Gwen when Jack shows up to save the day.  Suzie shoots Jack between the eyes, but he's conveniently immortal.  In an act of desperation, Suzie turns the gun on herself and presto!  Torchwood has a new opening.

Of course Gwen comes on board, as we knew she would from the start.  "Torchwood" doesn't pack a lot of surprises, but it is sharp, funny and cleverly written.  You can't help but be drawn in by John Barrowman's charismatic turn as Captain Jack Harkness, and the "Torchwood" mythology seems compelling so far.  You don't need to be a "Doctor Who" fan to get "Torchwood" - they're very different shows.  "Torchwood" bears more in common with "X-files" than "Doctor Who", with its alien chasing investigative bent.  Anyone looking for a breezy, charming scifi show that doesn't challenge much will come away from "Torchwood" well satisfied.