Torchwood: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

A second series of Torchwood was not a forgone conclusion. Although it drew a regular audience on BBC3, the show’s first incarnation failed to achieve widespread acclaim (its BAFTA for “Least Whistle-able Theme Tune” notwithstanding). Instead of settling in, Torchwood’s second run is tasked with playing to strengths not always exploited in the original.

Right from the start, the Executive Team stressed that Torchwood Series Two would be very much the same show, and have been true to their word, with a consistent cast and scenario. The certainty of a pre-watershed transmission hasn’t brought the show visibly any closer to its parent programme, with Captain Jack’s opaque references to “my Doctor” pointedly retained. However, there’s been some tinkering with the details. While the Roald Dahl Plas concealed paving-slab lift is retained, there’s no mention of its TARDIS-imbued invisibly. Showrunner Chris Chibnall’s tweaking of the programme is quite subtle: Ianto is quietly promoted to fieldwork, while Toshiko receives a magical omnipotent PDA to make her more useful outside the Hub. The approach taken to reintroducing the audience to the show is instructive- explanation of Jack’s immortality is deemed unnecessary, but the script is carefully structured to show the location of the Hub, Torchwood’s interaction with police & local community and the temporal disturbances stemming from the rift. More so than first time around, the production team appear to be hoping that the Doctor Who audience will follow Jack into the show.

Most of Chibnall’s Series One episodes followed a similar pattern: tightly plotted thrillers, which were comprehensively kneecapped by the production team’s errors. Day One lost its way amidst uncertainty over whether to play the orgasm monster for laughs or horror, while Cyberwoman and Countrycide had their credibility shot by cyber-heels and John Barrowman’s tractor rampage. There are no such mistakes here, and the result is fast moving and consistent. This is just as well, as the episode doesn’t really have a plot to speak of. I’ve been trying to put together a concise summary of events, but every time I have to use the words “space diamond”, my concentration wanders and I have to start again. Bizarrely enough, this is an improvement on the original series opener. Everything Changes took the viewer through a gentle introduction to the world of Torchwood, only to hit them over the head with a complex murder mystery in the last five minutes. And then build an entire episode out of it. There’s no grinding change of gears here, and the light-hearted fun continues all the way through. Chibnall sometimes receives stick for his dialogue, (despite the fact that it was actually Russell T Davies who gave us the immortal “weevils and bollocks and shit”), but the script is strong in this respect. The only moment when the speech falls flat is Gwen’s “We keep coming back stronger” claim in the morgue, but the fault here rests with the director- the camera is far more interested in what Captain John is up to than listening to Cooper grandstanding.

Speaking of the guest star, there’s little praise to be given that hasn’t already been awarded elsewhere. Although giving life to a one-dimensional sociopath, James Masters makes it obvious that he was doing this sort of thing long before Torchwood was a gleam in a Welshman’s eye. Impossibly, Masters keeps John enjoyable to watch at all times, despite his casually KILLING THE MAIN CHARACTER STONE DEAD. When the Doctor asked Donna and Astrid to come with him, the audience winced. In contrast, Jack’s veto on John’s bid to become a regular is met with a disappointed sigh. His return can’t come soon enough.

With much of Series One written back-to-back, it was left to Chibnall alone to introduce character development and ongoing threads. For the show’s first run, the fictional Torchwood website was essential reading, as the emails between the characters fleshed out their interpersonal relationships in a way absent from the programme itself- for instance, Toshiko’s crush on Owen was previously only referred to in this additional fiction, not manifested in transmitted episodes. Here, the greater gestation time enjoyed by the second series is evident, with two new story stands emerging- John’s information on the status on the Time Agency and Gwen’s engagement. The former will be of particular interest to Doctor Who fans, being first time that a concept from the nineties spin-off novels has been incorporated wholesale into the new series (Presumably, it helped that the Agency evolved gradually, with no specific “creator”). The latter, however, will hopefully be expanded on as the series continues. The most obvious flaw in Series One was the failure to give the team consistent interaction with an individual outside Jack’s employment, and as yet, there’s no sign of a solution to this problem. Disappointingly, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang continues the unwelcome habit of shoehorning Gwen’s boyfriend Rhys into the action on the other end of a mobile. The Torchwood spin-off books have proved that the character can be included in the story in a meaningful way- it shouldn’t be necessary to force his presence when the plot doesn’t demand it. The same is true of Cardiff PC Andy, who continues to repeat the lines used every time he appears.

Everything Changes and Smith and Jones show how foolhardy it is to draw conclusions on an Upper Boat series based on its first episode alone. For now, only one judgement can be made: Torchwood can thrive without plot.

About this entry

By Julian Hazeldine
Posted on Tuesday, January 22 2008 @ 10:15 pm
Categorised in TV, Review
Tagged with torchwood
15 comments

Comments

Excellent stuff. I concur a lot. Especially on Rhys.

> Toshiko’s crush on Owen was previously only referred to in this additional fiction, not manifested in transmitted episodes.

I don't think is is true, though. I've just rewatched series on on DVD (and, in fairness, I've given that show a hard time when, over the second half, it was actually improving quite a bit).

> Torchwood can thrive without plot.

Indeed. Nor is it alone. The phlebotinum (a Whedonism I have to Google to spell) in a fantasy series often sits in the 'stop Bad Guy from collecting object A, introducing it to object B at time C; if fail, prevent bad thing D using set-up solution E' mode. Buffy, as the standard example, had this in some great episodes, including amazing finales; it doesn't matter if the themes, jokes, surprises and dramas are well handled.

Which is to say, I concur - the space diamond doesn't matter so long as the rest sparkles. This was flawed stuff, but showed a lot of promise.

By Andrew
January 22, 2008 @ 11:41 pm

reply / #

The Time Agency was from The Talons of Weng-Chiang, not original to the novels.

By Somebody
January 23, 2008 @ 9:39 am

reply / #

I really liked the episode. Seemed like the start of a PROPER series, although who knows if we'll get anything as good from the remaining 12 eps. My guess is that the PJ Hammond one will be good (he wrote the fairies one in series 1). James Marsters, you'd just kill to have him as a regular in this, wouldn't you? Of course, the preview showed him back in a later episode.

I'm wondering whether they're gonna revist Owen's Weevil tendancies. He kind of growled like one in episode 11 and it hasn't been referred to since.

By performingmonkey
January 23, 2008 @ 5:11 pm

reply / #

I agree. The first series was such a collossal disappointment because it had a strong idea and then seemed to be executed with little care. I remember sitting watching "Random Shoes" with a feeling of utter disbelief and the sense that the show had gone from a weak start to become beyond redemption. It did improve at the end (and there were a couple of strong episodes) but overall it was simply a Bad Series. I had little hope for an improvement in series two because the BBC seemed to be spinning the usual "it was such a big hit, we're moving it to BBC2!" line that suggested it would be carry on as before. As it turns out, they plainly took some criticism on board and acted on it and I'm glad they did.

Interesting that this series seems to be attempting to court more of the "Who" audience. "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" actually felt like more of an adult show than most of series one did. For all the talk, series one felt like a 5pm family show in tone and the "adult" stuff seemed more like a teenagers idea of what constituded adult than anything else - all swearing and shagging. It was like the kind of stuff 12 year olds boast to each other was in the film they watched over the weekend. It was interesting that the most adult-in-feel episode of series one, for me, was "Out Of Time" which avoided all the adolescent nonsense (and most SFX). A fun moment for me was the coke-fuelled blowfish alien driving around Cardiff because it was exactly the melding of the Whoniverse with a more adult world that I felt series one should have been.

I'm actually looking-forward to tonight's episode. A year ago it felt more like some sort of duty "in case it's good".

By Zagrebo
January 23, 2008 @ 7:17 pm

reply / #

And following episode two all I can say is:

*sigh*

After all the "finally, they've got it right" stuff from episode one and they've gone right back and repeated some of the worst mistakes of series one. To wit:

*"There's no such thing as aliens!" - except in the universe "Torchwood" is set in that's the same as saying there's no such thing as France. What the f**k did Gwen think all those Cybermen/daleks were?

*Gwen is a sleeper-agent. Good idea. And when she activates her human persona vanishes and the agent takes over. Good idea, nice and sinister and well-handled in the (actually quite-good) first half. SO WHY THE F**K DID SHE STAY GWEN WHEN SHE ACTIVATED THEN?!!

*Last but not least - what happened to Gwen's forcefield.

Disappointed. Again. I was enjoying it up to the point when Gwen activated and then it turned into "Countrycide" again as we were asked to stop thinking about anything much. Sadly, it looks like the writers still don't really care for the viewers' intelligence.

It might get better but.... gah!

By Zagrebo
January 23, 2008 @ 11:01 pm

reply / #

I meant Beth, not Gwen. Obviously. Doh.

By Zagrebo
January 23, 2008 @ 11:04 pm

reply / #

> *Gwen is a sleeper-agent. Good idea. And when she activates her human persona vanishes and the agent takes over. Good idea, nice and sinister and well-handled in the (actually quite-good) first half. SO WHY THE F**K DID SHE STAY GWEN WHEN SHE ACTIVATED THEN?!!

The EMP damaged her implant to the point where she was able to control it herself. That's how she managed to wake up from the stasis chamber and go see her husband. (And then accidentally kill him.) And then at the end she pretended to be taken over by her alien side so that they would kill her and put her out of her misery. If she wanted gwen dead she would have sliced her head off straight away, not paraded her around Torchwood's base first and open herself up to attack. This was explained in the last couple of minutes of the episode.

> *Last but not least - what happened to Gwen's forcefield.

They deactivated it with the EMP, at the same time as it deactivated the tranceiver.

What I'm more interested in is the fact that they forgot to explain what happened to the other two aliens that were blowing things up. We can assume that they died, in the explosions that they caused - but if they weren't interested in survival, why go to the trouble of removing an explosive charge from their arm and placing it on the target? Why not just stand next to the target and detonate their arm? Surely there's less chance of someone intervening if it's not obvious that a bomb is about to go off? And why didn't their force fields protect them from the explosions? Why did the fat ones force field not protect his bones from being broken when they ran him over?

By Jeffrey Lee
January 24, 2008 @ 12:44 am

reply / #

... and Smith and Jones show how foolhardy it is to draw conclusions on an Upper Boat series based on its first episode alone

I'm not sure what you mean by this - Smith & Jones was great, and it augured for the best series so far! Are you saying you didn't like S&J but liked the series, or didn't like the series but liked S&J?

By Seb
January 24, 2008 @ 2:44 pm

reply / #

"I'm not sure what you mean by this"

Both Smith & Jones and Series Three as a whole are great, obviously, but if you were told after watching Smith & Jones that Series Three was the darkest season of Doctor Who yet, you've have laughed your head off. It's a brilliant season opener, but unrepresentative of the rest of the stories.

By Julian Hazeldine
January 24, 2008 @ 3:49 pm

reply / #

> Both Smith & Jones and Series Three as a whole are great, obviously

Tell it to the judge! Smith & Jones was a good episode, yes, and filled all the criteria for a series opener, however series 3 was filled with copious crap such as 42, the Daleks 2-parter, the Mark Gatiss Experiment, the lacklustre-one-minute-overblown-insanity-the-next finale 2-parter. The only great episodes were Human Nature/The Family Of Blood and Blink. Torchwood has already had a great episode in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang IMO.

The more I see of Who series 3 the more it annoys me. I like Voyage of the Damned more!

By performingmonkey
January 24, 2008 @ 5:37 pm

reply / #

>The EMP damaged her implant to the point where she was able to control it herself. That's how she managed to wake up from the stasis chamber and go see her husband. (And then accidentally kill him.) And then at the end she pretended to be taken over by her alien side so that they would kill her and put her out of her misery. If she wanted gwen dead she would have sliced her head off straight away, not paraded her around Torchwood's base first and open herself up to attack. This was explained in the last couple of minutes of the episode.

When was this actually explained, ie they said the EMP damaged her implant? I assumed that was going to be the explanation the whole time Torchwood were driving her around (without, at any point, pondering why she wasn't "activating" properly) and it wasn't forthcoming. All I recall as an explanation at the end was something about how Beth wouldn't kill Gwen because "you helped us beat the rest of them". I don't recall any actual explanation being given (and even if it was it was far too late - any explanation should have been given after she killed her bloke because surely Torchwood would have been wondering what the hell was wrong with her supposed personality-change not happening by then. Does anyone have a transcript so I can see if I somehow missed it?

>They deactivated it with the EMP, at the same time as it deactivated the tranceiver.

Ah, that's right because Owen was able to stick his needle into her (so to speak) at that point. Fair enough.

By Zagrebo
January 24, 2008 @ 6:05 pm

reply / #

The deactivation of her implant wasn't made particularly clear; everybody was too busy running around and getting in the Torchmobile. Hasn't that had its flashy lights taken off now?

By Tanya Jones
January 24, 2008 @ 9:55 pm

reply / #

The opening sequence was very reminiscent of the opening sequence of "When She Was Bad", the first episode of Buffy's second season.

Characters in peril, protagonist makes an unexpected and long awaited return, saves the day...

"Miss Me?"

By Peter Martin
January 26, 2008 @ 5:46 pm

reply / #

If John Peel was still alive, I'd expect him to have "John Barrowman's Tractor Rampage" in session at some point.