Sunday, August 23, 2009

'Torchwood' team fights more aliens in summer series

In July, the creators of "Torchwood" aired a five-day miniseries instead of a regular season of the BBC sci-fi show. I just got around to watching it this weekend.

The show has aired on BBC America for three seasons (it's available on DVD), and I started watching it from the beginning. I happened across a preview for it while watching "So Graham Norton," a very hilarious talk show with a very hilarious Irish host. The series premiere of the sci-fi show starts out with a bang as Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), a Welsh policewoman, somehow gets in the middle as Torchwood personnel are tracking down an alien life form. That's what Torchwood is all about - a secret Britsh government force that keeps aliens in check. It is based in Cardiff, in Wales, where Torchwood staff explain their is a rift in the space/time continuum. I just recently learned that Capt. Jack was a character on the British show "Dr. Who," which I've never watched.

The team is led by Capt. Jack Harkness(John Barrowman), an American with a mysterious history. Also on board are Dr. Owen Harper (Burn Gorman), and computer expert Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori). Oh yeah, and Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), who mostly makes coffee for the first season. Soon Gwen is recruited onto the team. The first season is mostly the team running around chasing aliens - and making out with lots and lots of people. Pretty much everyone makes out with everyone else at some point.

The Welsh accents are hard to understand so I often watched it with captions, and it took me a while to get over the large gap between Myles front teeth. But soon enough, I was a regular watcher.

Season two explained more about how each of the members where brought into Torchwood, and viewers learn a bit more about Jack. It also goes into more depth about Gwen's relationship with her fiancee Rhys (Kai Owens). But by the end, the team is fractured and the last episode seems like it could be the end of the series.

I was surprised when I saw a commercial for the miniseries. For five days, BBC America aired an hour and fifteen minute episode. Torchwood is left with three members standing as an alien life form begins to speak through all the children in the world. Torchwood needs to find out what is going on and how to stop the alien life force.

The first three episodes of the miniseries kept me on the edge of my seat. Especially good is Paul Copley who plays an old man who narrowly escaped abduction by aliens as a young child in 1965. He is the only adult whom is used as a communication piece by the aliens, and the Torchwood staff try to find out way. But their enemies aren't limited to just aliens - for reasons that are explained as the episodes go on, other government officials are out to get them, too.

Episode four lagged a bit, but episode five picked up speed as more and more people begin to realize what is going on and fight it. The end of the miniseries again seems as though it could be the end of the season, so we'll have to wait and see if it comes back again.

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