TV Review: Torchwood - Episode 1, "Everything Changes"

It begins with a CSI-style sweep over Cardiff, and a crime scene. There's blood, a corpse, rain, forensics and the police.Before anyone can do pretty much anything, they're all cleared out. Torchwood, apparently, have told them to clear the area. Who are Torchwood? The attending officers are as in the dark as we, the audience, are. Special Ops, they say. As one Welsh accented forensics officer says in the opening five minutes of Torchwood's first ever episode: "There's no procedure any more - it's a f**king disgrace". Thankfully, the episode isn't.Over the next few minutes we're treated to the temporary resurrection of a murder victim via some form of mystical gauntlet, a bar fight, and a snarling creature with a nasty habit of biting people in the neck. With spurting arterial blood spray, and everything. 15 minutes in, and it's clear that this, if anything, is a distant relative of Doctor Who, at least in terms of content. Swearing, blood, adult humour, sexuality, and Welsh accents abound in Torchwood.Torchwood is, unapologetically, aimed at the adult audience. Perhaps this is why the BBC have chosen to air the series on its more cult focused, and digital only, BBC3 rather than going for a prime time BBC1 slot. It seems that they want to keep this as far from Doctor Who as possible, lest it be mistaken for cuddly, tea-time family entertainment.For those that don't know, the series is a spin off from the first and second seasons of the BBC's new Doctor Who. Taking the Captain Jack Harkness character from the first series, and the Torchwood institute from the second, it takes place in modern day Cardiff, and features a team of, essentially, misfits in their hunt to track down aliens. And presumably any other nasties that the script writers decide to toss their way.One other thing that links the series to the new Doctor Who is actress Eve Myles. She's previously appeared in the first season episode "The Unquiet Dead". At this stage there's no apparent link between the character she played in that episode and the character she plays here, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility. As Gwen Cooper (her previous character's name was Gwyneth, fact fans), Myles manages a likeable level of bemused confusion in the first episode. As the audience is discovering many of Torchwood's mysteries at the same time as she does, it's important that they can identify with her. Also, as she's given quite a lot of time on screen, it's quite important she's not irritating. Thankfully, she achieves both things well.As for other cast members, John Barrowman returns as the glorious Captain Jack Harkness, once a time traveling scavenger, now a alien catching superhero, in more ways than one. Barrowman oozes charisma. It's no surprise that writer and series creator Russel Davies wanted to spin things off into a new series featuring his bi-sexual swashbuckler - the character and performance are both deeply watchable. Harkness' team are, like Gwen, mostly likeable.
Burn Gorman, who plays Owen Harper, has the look of a young Willem Dafoe about him, and is the only borderline irritating team member; Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori) doesn't get a great deal to do here, Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) is a likeable, well dressed Quentin Tarantino look-alike, and Suzie Costello (Indira Varma) features more than you'd think. It's a team with some potential, who you don't take an immediate dislike to, and that each have a clearly defined role and character.The script is witty, effective, and not overly clunky. It's got that Doctor Who style humour, but can take it slightly further thanks to its adult targeted audience. It also nicely references its source; the Cyberman invasion from series two of new Who, the alien spacecraft from the Christmas special, the destruction of Torchwood (one of four offices, as it happens), and there's even a mention of the good Doctor himself. Fans of Who will already guess why this branch of Torchwood is placed in Cardiff, but there's an explanation for that too. The nice thing is, none of it feels forced. There's a pleasing lack of tedious exposition in Torchwood.The only criticism of the first episode is perhaps that it doesn't have a great deal of time to produce a compelling villain, or plot. It takes its time to introduce the characters, establish who Torchwood are, why they're in Cardiff, and what they're going to do about the fact that Gwen has discovered them. There's a — seemingly tacked on — plot about some recurring murders in Cardiff that gets resolved, but it's secondary to the process of introducing everyone. And the episode just about gets away with it.As first episodes go, Torchwood is a good one. We're sold the prospect of the ever likeable Captain Jack catching aliens, a team of charismatic assistants, a central character who's easy to get behind, and an atmosphere not a million miles from US team based sci-fi, like Angel.I've often said that the BBC could produce great Science Fiction. It used to — it had a history of some great television — but hasn't really done anything to impress of late beyond the triumphant return of Doctor Who. Hopefully, Torchwood will change that during its run. The potential is there, the intention is obvious after episode one, and thanks to its adult focus there'll likely be none of Russell Davies toilet jokes.Episode one gets my seal of approval, and there's not a man eating dustbin in sight.