Heart for Art’s Sake

“Torchwood” seems to be attracting interesting guest stars. Last week, in Chris Chibnall’s well-titled “Countrycide”, Owen Teale popped up towards the end of the episode as the leader of a group of Brecon Beacon villagers intent on cannibalism once every decade, almost as though he’d stayed on at the end of “Vengeance on Varos” ready to appear in “The Two Doctors”! And this week, starring throughout Toby Whithouse’s “Greeks Bearing Gifts”, Daniela Denby-Ashe, best known for long running sitcom “My Family”, played exiled and abandoned alien “Mary” who worms her way into Toshiko’s affections, with the present of a pendant that enables the wearer to read the innermost thoughts of others, in order to eventually invite herself into the Hub of Torchwood itself to retrieve her ship. Said thoughts made for a depressing indictment of the human race.

The balance between the personal relationships of the heroes and the science fiction strands of the story worked better in “Greeks Bearing Gifts” than it has previously, in both “Torchwood” and new “Doctor Who”, maybe because the alien artefact was a direct link between the two elements, making it an excellent plot device. Toby’s script benefited from his earlier experience writing “Doctor Who” episode “School Reunion” where the balance wasn’t as well executed. Daniela sustained a convincing performance throughout, possibly not an easy thing to do when alternating between tearing out the hearts of her victims down through time with present-day lesbian liaisons in Cardiff cafés! She played it as a femme fatale, which worked well enough, eventually brought to book by Captain Jack resetting her transport home to burn her up in the heart of the Sun. Hot stuff!!

Out with the New…

So, “Doctor Who” has reached its 43rd birthday. What condition it’s in depends on your point of view. For years, long-term fans hoped for its return, me included, and now it’s up-and-running some of us feel it would have been better left alone. I still don’t feel as though the programme, as I think of it, is actually back. It’s “Doctor Who”, Jim, but not as we know it! Anniversaries should be a time of celebration but not necessarily if the recipient is terminally ill. “Doctor Who” has rarely been more popular than it is now, maybe because it’s an altogether different beast from the show that ran between 1963 and 1989, in that it’s supposedly much slicker in its present state, or maybe because the marketing machine that persistently tells us it’s brilliant is simply better oiled than previously, even than what now seems like the halcyon days of John Nathan-Turner back in the Eighties.

Russell T Davies has produced nothing that remotely touches the quality of “The Caves of Androzani” or “Revelation of the Daleks” despite hiring the same director to work on Tennant’s opening year, presumably hoping that some of Graeme Harper’s magic would rub off on the new format. Even when RTD has got close, the executive producer seems intent on throwing a spanner in the works. In “The Empty Child”, for example, in an otherwise inventive two-part story, the only thing this supposedly creative production team could come up with, when Nancy blackmails the homeowner, was a homosexual extramarital affair with the butcher. Does Russell really think it’s hip to fill the minds of ten-year-old children with what boils down to indoctrination through crappy writing? Playing with fairies at the bottom of the garden, in amongst the prickly roses, is perhaps left better to shows that go out later, shows like “Torchwood”.

I suppose it could be argued that “Caves” goes over the top with its violence or that “Revelation” was too explicit in Jobel’s intentions towards Peri. If that is the case, why don’t these stories leave a bad taste in the mouth like some of the scenes in new “Doctor Who”? It doesn’t surprise me that Michael Grade has given the new series the thumbs up. I am surprised that Colin Baker is a fan. There are four serials I would much rather watch from season twenty-two than anything that has been produced in the last couple of years. Maybe I see “Doctor Who” in 1985 through rose-red ruby-tinted spectacles because these were the first serials I had the opportunity to video. But despite retaining these recordings, I’ve still purchased “Revelation”, “Vengeance on Varos” and “The Two Doctors” on DVD! Now, what I want to know is when is “Attack of the Cybermen” going to complete this quartet?!!

Frankenstein created “Cyberwoman”

“Cyberwoman” was possibly the most satisfying of the first four episodes of “Torchwood”. I say possibly because there was nothing in it to match the two minutes screen time allotted John Normington in last week’s third episode, “Ghost Machine”. It wasn’t his dialogue, either, that captured the moment but the history of his character was all in John’s facial expressions. Gareth Thomas, too, made the most of his few scenes in the final twenty minutes of the same episode. His body language, especially the stooped gait, was spot on. This week’s fourth episode was similarly structured, in terms of the introduction of guest characters, in that we meet a Japanese Doctor early on, who has arrived to save the half-converted Cyberwoman’s soul, and a pizza delivery girl, who actually achieves, temporarily, what the Doctor couldn’t, towards the conclusion.

“Cyberwoman” was a roller coaster of an episode only marred by the intrusion of attempted light relief. Gwen’s boyfriend phoning in order to get her to record “Wife Swap” was more of the same pop culture references that currently clog up new “Doctor Who”. Totally unnecessary; as was the need to engage the characters in yet more tedious tonsil tennis. I wonder if those scenes were written by the episode’s writer Chris Chibnall? James Strong’s direction lived up to the standard he set himself in “The Impossible Planet” except, here, he was allowed the luxury of more gore. The consequences of failed conversion were more explicitly explored in the demise of the two guest characters mentioned previously. What we really had in this episode was a reworking of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, with Ianto in the role of the obsessive Doctor character, of that novel, the Cyberwoman his creation, and the Japanese Doctor and pizza girl, not forgetting girlfriend Lisa, sacrifices to out-of-control science. “Doctor Who” has reworked “Frankenstein” before, of course, most obviously in “The Brain of Morbius” and therein lies the clue to the twist in this tale.

Some loose ends weren’t readily tied up. “Cyberwoman” required a big leap of faith for the audience to easily accept that Ianto had never before aroused suspicions or that some other thing hadn’t drawn the Torchwood team’s attention to the possibility of something nasty in the basement. I’m pretty certain there isn’t an Ice Warrior in my loft though perhaps I better go and have another look! There is no way on Earth that Ianto should be allowed to stay on the team after this incident but “Torchwood” doesn’t seem bothered by any moral implications. In the first episode, “Everything Changes”, it was explained by Tosh that the body of a hospital porter, having been killed by a rogue Weevil, would be reported missing before being washed up on shore a few days later. I would like to have known how the bodies of the victims in “Cyberwoman” were to be disposed? You could hardly explain the Japanese Doctor’s Cyber eye away too easily or the pizza girl’s brain transplant! Surely she would be missed at work, at the very least. Unless they’re totally stupid, the takeaway services who supply Torchwood must already be becoming suspicious!

Finally, I did enjoy the brief fight between Lisa the Cyberwoman and Myfanwy the Pterodactyl. It occurred to me that this was the dinosaur’s revenge for extinction in “Earthshock”, essentially at the hands of the Cybermen, and this provided the episode with an interesting cyclical aura; but maybe that’s just my fancy!

A Pat on the Back!

Whilst many people in the UK celebrate the suppression of conspirator Guy Fawkes, in 1605, there is another anniversary I would like to acknowledge! Forty years ago to the day, BBC1 broadcast episode one of “The Power of the Daleks”, the first story to star Patrick Troughton in the title role of “Doctor Who”. Pat’s successful continuation of the part made famous by predecessor William Hartnell, “the original, you might say”, ensured the survival of this family-orientated science fiction drama series through successive generations. His contribution to the legend that is “Doctor Who” shouldn’t be underestimated simply because his era of the programme isn’t well-represented in the BBC archive. A great number of programmes replace one actor with another, in the same role, without explanation simply because, in story terms, it’s unexplainable! “Doctor Who” built this necessity into the ongoing narrative, turning something potentially disastrous for the show into something positive.

Patrick also made the role his own. From being a grumpy old man, and I use the phrase with the greatest affection, used to dusting the TARDIS console with his handkerchief, the Doctor regenerated into an impish, recorder-playing, vagabond of the skies, whilst still retaining the respect of the programme’s many followers. Critics maintain that the Doctor you see first remains your favourite. My first was Bill but I’ve always found it hard to choose between him and Pat due to the fact that Pat’s middle season of three, season five, remains my favourite year of “Doctor Who”, and “Fury from the Deep”, from near the end of that season, my all-time favourite story. So many of my favourite “Doctor Who” stories emanate from the Patrick Troughton era. Another, “The Invasion”, raising the Cybermen out of the sewers to march against the backdrop of St Paul’s Cathedral, is out on DVD tomorrow.

Troughton confronted the Cybermen no less than four times so that his era became synonymous with the period of “Doctor Who” when those monsters of logic were at their most powerful in capturing the nation’s imagination. Of the twenty-one stories he recorded for television, between 1966 and 1969, ten featured what are now regarded as the four most popular monsters of the Sixties. The second Doctor battled the Daleks twice, both in his first year, and other “classic” confrontations pitted him against “The Ice Warriors” and “The Abominable Snowmen”. His second meeting with the Cybermen, in the Tombs on Telos, presumed lost forever, was miraculously discovered and returned to the archive for the benefit of enthusiasts everywhere, whilst his second meeting with those furry Yeti, in the London Underground, in “The Web of Fear”, is much loved by most fans blessed with a reasonably good memory! The aforementioned final black and white encounter with the Cybermen, as well as the second Yeti story, were directed with elegant precision by Douglas Camfield. In a month which also sees the collected DVD release of recent material featuring the Cybermen, if you could only choose one or the other, Troughton’s eight-part “Invasion” or the four Tennant Cybermen episodes, which would you prefer?

Who will kill Blake?

Episode three of “Torchwood”, “Ghost Machine” by Helen Raynor, was an improvement on the first couple of stories shown last week. It wasn’t perfect but held the attention more readily. The plot was reasonably involved, concerning an alien device which can initially enable its handler to relive past events but latterly to foresee the future. But just how complete a picture does it give of the shape of things to come? Will Jimmy White look-a-like Owen Harper (Burn Gorman) really avenge a past crime or will a certain leading lady, by the name of Eve Myles, be the one to accidentally twist the knife in?!

The direction seemed to move at a faster pace than previously (which isn’t necessarily a good thing), especially in the way the teaser was edited. Best of all, “Ghost Machine” featured a superb cameo from John (“The Caves of Androzani” and “The Happiness Patrol”) Normington and a star turn from a cigarette smoking, haggard looking, Gareth (“Blake’s 7”) Thomas as a guilt-ridden ex-teddy boy! The scene in which Owen exposes the terror of Gareth’s ways was terrific, a lot more fun than the chase through the back gardens of suburban Cardiff that was the focus of the following “Confidential”-like documentary “Torchwood Declassified”.

In “Ghost Machine”, John Normington played against expectations, a mild-mannered ageing evacuee, the complete opposite of the Trau Morgus character from his first “Doctor Who” - the embodiment of an ambitious, ruthless, corrupt politician best remembered for turning to camera and exclaiming, “The spineless cretins”. I also recall him in a play, made shortly after “Caves”, in which he co-starred with Patrick Troughton, about a jazz musician, played by the ex-Doctor, who loses his memory and goes missing only to end up at a pub called, appropriately enough, The Northern Star. It was on BBC2 but, unfortunately, brief research on both IMDb and Google has failed to reveal its title.

Gareth Thomas, on the other hand, as well as his most famous role, I remember in BBC dramas “The Citadel” and “Morgan’s Boy” as well as an ITV Sunday afternoon children’s serial, also co-starring Patrick Troughton (in his final role), entitled “Knights of God”. I still have a copy of the latter on a couple of Betamax tapes, which also featured Don Henderson, John Woodvine, Michael Sheard and Julian Fellowes, amongst others, and was directed by Michael (“Battlefield”) Kerrigan and Andrew (“Time and the Rani” and “Remembrance of the Daleks”) Morgan. Though it’s a long time since I watched it, I do remember it contained some plot inconsistencies but was nevertheless a fun, if undemanding, watch.

Returning to the present, it was good to see both Gareth Thomas and John Normington again, and on such fine form, and a bonus that it was in an SF drama. I didn’t notice any direct references to parent show “Doctor Who”, this week, but next week’s episode couldn’t be more connected if it tried, the eagerly awaited “Cyberwoman”. I’m ever-optimistic!

In need of Resurrection

I have to admit a success on the part of Russell T. Davies! He successfully fooled me, and no doubt countless others, into believing second-in-command Suzie Costello (Indira Varma) would be a regular of the “Torchwood” team. But she’s not, and that’s why she wasn’t at the press launch last week and thus absent from the subsequent photo (see post before last). She was simply a guest in the opening episode, “Everything Changes”, despite the misleading publicity, appearing with the other five on the cover of the Radio Times and with a profile inside, equal to that of the truly-regular members of the cast. I’m not usually so gullible. At least, I hope not. As soon as I saw Tom Cruise confiding in Max Von Sydow, for example, (the previous evening) early on in “Minority Report”, I guessed the outcome. For all its SF trappings, Spielberg’s film is a very traditional affair. And it isn’t as if “Torchwood” is the first series to bump off a “regular” so soon. I’m sure fans of “Spooks” haven’t forgotten the almost immediate demise of Lisa Faulkner. So I was taken in, tricked, not surprised exactly because I hadn’t really had a chance to get to know the character. Was this ploy meant to endear me to the new series or irritate me into dislike? Alienating the audience is becoming a habit with RTD shows. It happened in the last series of “Doctor Who”, at least twice, at the beginning of both “Rise of the Cybermen”, with the humiliation of Mickey, and on arrival in “The Impossible Planet”, whatever the merits might be of the remainder of those two stories.

I didn’t really warm to “Torchwood”, regardless of being duped. The rain looked fake in the opening scenes and the blood spurting from the neck of a hospital porter, having been bitten by a rogue Weevil, the main creature in this new series, was over enthusiastic. Adult doesn’t have to mean copious amounts of gore, cartoon sex and what is euphemistically called strong language! For much of its original run, “Doctor Who” was, and still is, a far more mature affair than either new “Doctor Who” has so far proved to be or “Torchwood” looks like being. A secret subterranean base, the Hub, beneath the centre of Cardiff, reminds of “Batman” while the stone lift rising to street level, cloaked in invisibility until disembarkation, is reminiscent of “Thunderbirds”. Mix what is generally thought of as the province of children’s television with generous lashings of tonsil tennis and supposedly risqué ideas, in the second episode, Chris Chibnall’s “Day One”, lifted from “The Outer Limits” episode “Caught in the Act”, which starred “Charmed” actress Alyssa Milano, only goes to prove Mr. Davies doesn’t have a clue for whom his new series is intended. A person’s level of writing speaks volumes about their maturity. That’s why Claire Tomalin was able to successfully reveal on “The South Bank Show” (later the same evening), with great warmth, wit and enthusiasm, the true nature of Thomas Hardy, the poet, novelist and most-importantly the man, from his writing alone, given that he had destroyed all important documentation pertaining to his life. Unfortunately, there is too much on record for this to be the case with Russell T. (for “Torchy, the Battery Boy”) Davies!

Family Matters

The final instalment of the third season of “Who Do You Think You Are?”, the series in which celebrities trace their ancestry, follows actress Julia Sawalha on her voyage of genealogical discoveries. She comes from a multi-cultural family. Her mother is English but believes her side of the family is descended from French Huguenots. Julia begins a quest to find her family’s Huguenot heritage, and then embarks on a journey to Jordan, her actor-father Nadim’s homeland. His mother was a successful and well-known businesswoman who turned her back on the Bedouin tribal way of life, and Julia explores the context of her grandmother’s achievements. Unfortunately, the programme is on BBC1 on Wednesday 25th October at 9pm, the same time as the terrestrial repeat of “Torchwood” on BBC2, but is itself repeated on BBC2 on Thursday 9th November at 7pm and promises to be well worth watching.

Born in London on 9th September 1968, Julia made her television debut in 1989 in the role of Lynda Day, the editor of a school newspaper, in ITV children’s drama “Press Gang”. She played this no-nonsense character for five years but has since become better known as Saffy in anarchic sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous” alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. Regular work was found, with Lynda Bellingham, in ITV sitcoms “Second Thoughts” and spin-off “Faith in the Future”. Along the way, she appeared in costume classics “Martin Chuzzlewit”, in which, as Mercy Pecksniff, she ill-advisedly married pop singer Lily Allen’s dad Keith, the current Sheriff of Nottingham, and then ill-advisedly married again, as Lydia Bennet, a year later in BBC1’s extremely successful 1995 adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice”. Most recently, Julia has worked with Alan Davies on latter episodes of “Jonathan Creek” but is well-remembered by “Doctor Who” fans for her role as assistant Emma, to Rowan Atkinson’s Doctor, in the affectionate 1999 Comic Relief parody “The Curse of Fatal Death”.

Countdown 2 "Torchwood"

The press screening of episode one of “Torchwood”, “Everything Changes” by Russell T. Davies, took place in Cardiff earlier in the week. The above picture features five of the six regulars who we’ve been introduced to, with great rapidity, in the trailers. From left to right are Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Naoko Mori as Toshiko Sato, Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones and Burn Gorman as Owen Harper. David Tennant, Billie Piper and Noel Clarke, author of episode ten entitled “Combat”, all attended but Torchwood’s second-in-command Indira Varma as Suzie Costello doesn’t appear to have been present. There are no less than seven opportunities, all within the first week, to see the first two episodes of "Torchwood", six of them back-to-back; the first four and final two screenings on BBC3, beginning on Sunday 22nd at 9pm, with a terrestrial airing on BBC2 on Wednesday 25th, also at 9pm.

Since my two previous posts, episode four has changed its title from “The Trouble with Lisa” to the more obvious, and more revealing, “Cyberwoman”! No chance of keeping that little twist a surprise for the general viewing public now!! It reminds me of the “Doctor Who” story-title change, back in the mid-Eighties, from “The Androgum Inheritance” to “The Two Doctors”, the former being a much more inspired choice and the same is the case now. Anyway, “Cyberwoman” is directed by James Strong, who previously helmed “The Impossible Planet” two-parter, so the signs are good for this episode. Series regular Ianto is protective of the Cyberwoman because, before her part-conversion, Lisa and he were an item… This episode of “Torchwood” premieres on November 5th, the 40th anniversary, to the day, of Patrick Troughton’s debut as the Doctor. A fitting tribute, seeing as the Cybermen were this incarnation’s most frequent adversary!

Attack of the Cyberwoman

Obviously, I don’t know (yet) whether or not it’s a good or a bad thing but, certainly, one of the most interesting developments of the “Doctor Who” universe, in its spin-off series “Torchwood”, is the introduction to television of the first Cyberwoman. The female of the species has already appeared in comic strip form, gracing the pages of “Doctor Who Magazine”, and, in a few weeks’ time, is set for even greater stardom in Chris Chibnall’s “The Trouble with Lisa”, the fourth episode in the show’s opening season. If you read the synopsis in my previous post, the storyline does sound a little like the “Doctor Who” episode “Dalek”, or even “Paradise Towers” from back in the late Eighties, with Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) fulfilling the role of billionaire collector Henry van Statten (Corey Johnson). As the face of the Cyberwoman has been left unmasked, the suggestion is that, as Christopher Eccleston’s sixth episode explored the feelings of the inhabitants of Skaro, “Lisa” will be an exploration of the emotional side of the Cyber race. Excellent! To begin with, she has a name. “I, Robot”, anyone? But, if you’re going to borrow, borrow from the best and “Dalek” is the finest single episode story of new “Doctor Who” to date.

Cast in the role of Cyberwoman Lisa is Caroline Chikezie. She is probably best known to television viewers for her role as Elaine Hardy in season three of “Footballers’ Wives” but, following a little research, I realise I’ve already seen her in Channel Four’s teen drama “As If” in which she played Sasha Williams. Caroline has also appeared in a two-part “Holby City” and an earlier episode of “Casualty”. She is not without SF credentials, however, having appeared on the big screen as Freya in last year’s “Aeon Flux” in which she does appear to be carrying something not dissimilar to a Cyber gun, circa “Earthshock”. I’m guessing RTD saw her in this role and thought of her for the part in “Torchwood”. The revealing nature of the Cyber costume also suggests that RTD is after something akin to Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) in “Star Trek: Voyager”. Maybe the production team should cast Caroline as a regular!

"Torchwood" Episode Guide

EPISODE 1: 'Everything Changes' by Russell T. Davies
When Torchwood arrives on the scene of a brutal murder, WPC Gwen Cooper's burning curiosity is challenged. Their attitude, their approach and their technology is at odds with everything she believes in. But investigating the investigators leads her into a dark, paranoid world she never imagined existed.

EPISODE 2: 'Day One' by Chris Chibnall
An alien addicted to sex is let loose on Cardiff's nightlife. Torchwood must track down the creature's new host and in doing so, confront a violent new form of love in the 21st century.

EPISODE 3: 'Ghost Machine' by Helen Raynor
Torchwood discovers a machine that allows them to view the ghosts that walk among us. Using it, prompts Owen to investigate an unsolved crime - one that could change all their futures.

EPISODE 4: 'The Trouble With Lisa' by Chris Chibnall
There's a dark secret in the basement of the Hub. Even Jack is unaware of it, but Ianto knows. And he'll go to any lengths, sacrifice anything and anyone, to protect what's down there.

EPISODE 5: 'Small Worlds' by Peter J. Hammond
Jasmine is a withdrawn but intelligent child whose new 'friends' exploit her suppressed anger, and while investigating this, Jack encounters elemental enemies from his past that are determined to harm those closest to him.

EPISODE 6: 'Countrycide' by Chris Chibnall
Upon entering an apparently deserted village in the Brecon Beacons, the Torchwood team is separated. Finding his people are the prey in a savage game of cat and mouse, Jack faces a team of ruthless hunters far more skilled in surviving outside the confines of the city than he.

EPISODE 7: 'Greeks Bearing Gifts' by Toby Whithouse
Tosh gains the ability to read the minds of those closest to her but as she becomes party to their darkest secrets, she realises not only is this a powerful curse, but one impossible to break.

EPISODE 8: 'They Keep Killing' by Paul Tomalin & Dan McCulloch
Using alien technology to interrogate the victims of a serial killer, Gwen learns that the common link is dangerously close to home. And the resurrection device has a deadly secret of its own.

EPISODE 9: 'Invisible Eugene' by Jacquetta May
A hit-and-run victim, Eugene, was a bit of a nobody, and always convinced that aliens were coming to Earth, specifically to retrieve technology in his possession. Now Gwen finds herself drawn into his world and realises Eugene may still be helping her locate the 'aliens' - despite him being dead.

EPISODE 10: 'Combat' by Noel Clarke
The team discovers a ring who are kidnapping Weevils - wild alien creatures that have come through the Rift and are hiding on Earth - which leads Owen down a dark path to confront the future of his own existence.

EPISODE 11: 'Out of Time' by Cath Tregenna
A small passenger plane from the 1950s flies through the Rift and lands in Cardiff 2006. Torchwood is drawn into strong personal relationships as they help the three temporal immigrants adapt to contemporary life.

EPISODE 12: 'Captain Jack Harkness' by Cath Tregenna
Transported back to the Blitz, Jack and Tosh find themselves facing a dark secret from Jack's past, one he hoped and believed had been buried for good.

EPISODE 13: 'Apocalypse' by Chris Chibnall
The Rift is violently fracturing further, and Jack realises that Torchwood is destined to be drawn into one vast battle that will leave nothing and no one at Torchwood unchanged...