Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Tegan]

Well. Where to start?

There were a whole lot of twists in this episode, most of them I didn't see coming. A few of them that, even in hindsight, I wouldn't have thought would or should be written into a script.

There were two writers credited, and that might explain the somewhat schizophrenic nature of the story. It may have been deliberate at that.

The one big flaw I found with it is that I couldn't feel any sympathy for any of the characters, other than for Suzie when she went to see her dad in the hospital. I can only guess (probably correctly) at what the reason for her actions were. But within seconds, any empathy was gone. Strange.

The whole basis for the story line was empathy through the glove, but I felt virtually none.

The whole Suzie "planned for her death, subsequent resurrection and escape" was just a little bit to Mission Impossible for my liking as well.

What I liked, despite the schizophrenic script, was that it kept you guessing right to the end, and kept the tension up as well. And just what was Ianto suggesting to Jack?

It seems that it has set up the denouement of the series. What is out there "in the darkness" that is coming for Jack. And does he know already? He has said that the 21st century is when everything changes.

What was the look he gave Gwen? Has she got some of Suzie Costello left inside her? I think probably so.

This was an important episode. I just wish I could have gotten into it more. Overall I liked it, but in a technical sense, rather than an emotional response.

[dave]

Whilst I was glad that they did they an episode looking at the repercussions of some earlier events, some of the plot holes seemed too glaring for me to really enjoy this story.

I couldn't understand for the life of me why Jack didn't ask the police to stop Gwen's car. That really stuck out at me for some reason, it seemed the sort of help the police might be well suited to provide. Nah, lets get them to read a book of poetry for us instead...

[meglos]

Very good. That Suzie is a bit of a nut is'nt she . I think we will be seeing another glove turn up soon, RTD mentions something about it in Torchwood Declassified.

[Tegan]

[Theta Sigma]

This was pretty good. However I did not like the conversation between Gwen and Suzie in the car.

The woman who played Swanson looked familiar until I realised that it is Yasmin Bannerman, Jabe in The End of the World. Nice to see her again in the Whoniverse.

This had some gory bits especially with the number of times that Jack shot Suzie.

The episode ends with Ianto saying that there could be another glove as gloves do come in pairs. Be interesting to see if a future episode about the other glove does happen.

[montypython]

This was a really interesting episode. There was just so much to it!

The way Gwen managed to handle the glove made me suspect even more that she's somehow related to Gwyneth from The Unquiet Dead.

I'm very intrigued as to what's coming for Jack.

That last bit was Jack and Ianto was random.

[Odnet]

I liked at lot about this. Susie is a great character. But the whole Torchwood lockdown bit annoys me. I mean it happens a far bit doesn't it. Surely they could come up with a better system. The dialogue is a bit iffy at times as well. Although the "Gloves come in pairs" bit was nicely put. The Jack and Ianto bit was weird. At least Ianto seems to be getting over his lost love at last. Maybe.

[Sulp Niar]

Although I haven’t properly caught up, yesterday I had the opportunity to – finally – watch the next Torchwood episode, ‘They Keep Killing Suzie’. To my surprise, I thought it was largely great.

Criticisms out of the way first; Suzie’s plan to bring herself back to life was a bit silly.

Er, hmm, I suppose that’s it. In fact, despite being a half-convoluted plan, it definitely worked in the sense of the tone and build-up of narrative. I was astonished at the heartlessness involved in bringing Suzie back to life, treating her like crap, then treating her even more like crap when she stayed alive, inexplicably. I was nervous, even though I knew Gwen would survive, when it was revealed that Gwen’s life force was being drained away.

See, interestingly, ‘They Keep Killing Suzie’ was full of things that I thought would be resolved rather poorly, but weren’t. The first was scrawling “TORCHWOOD” on the wall; I had decided that this was a ploy for attention, when in fact it’s all about subliminal messaging, a particular word that would set off this designed killer. Then there was the fact that she was brought back to life; although I felt sorry for her, I couldn’t help but suspect she was dastardly. To my surprise, even though she was, she still felt like a real person, whereas Mary from ‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’ simply didn’t. The stuff that she had said to Gwen felt honest, even if she was trying to keep herself alive. Evidently the idea of death frightened her to pieces. At first, it seems that this is linked to her father’s terminal state due to cancer, but when she sees him, she pulls out his life support and kills him outright. So what was her reason? Well, just because she hated him doesn’t mean that she was afraid of him dying, at first; also, there may have been some genetic link in terms of the cancer, where she herself was highly susceptible to this. I’m not entirely certain, but for some reason, it worked for me. And I liked the fact that although she says there isn’t Heaven, she does imply that there’s a Hell. I doubt that either is as true or false as the other; I think that, quite simply, she’s preying on Gwen’s fears in this scene.

Oh, and another thing that I thought worked really well; the ending. Throughout, Jack showed callousness towards Suzie, being perfectly prepared to kill her, and he yelled that out at the end. When she stood there and incoherently argued that she had the last vestiges of Gwen inside her, to my surprise, he didn’t listen; her speech was cut short as he simply shot her. And again. And again. Geez.

I also didn’t mind the police making fun of Torchwood, because it seemed to me that someone should finally point out just how crap but pretentious (arrogant, then) organisation Torchwood actually are (as I’ve said many a time, Torchwood are crap, but Torchwood isn’t). Other bits that worked for me included editing the flashbacks of Suzie’s death so that they didn’t look as fake as they did in ‘Everything Changes’, Ianto’s brief few lines about gloves and mittens, the whole discussion on what happens to a member of Torchwood after death (cabinets and cabinets of previous members; geez, that’s creepy), and the fact that Suzie used to sleep with Owen, which just points out, deliberately, how socially inept and sexually odd these people are. Despite largely being an episode about Gwen, Jack, and Suzie, I was impressed that we got lots of lovely moments for Owen, Tosh and Ianto as well, which made them feel more a team than other episodes usually do. That said, I’m a bit nonplussed about Ianto’s sudden desire to screw Jack at the end – that came from nowhere, and even though I understand that these guys’ sexuality is random and dodgy, even for them this felt out of the blue.

All in all, a well-written, well-acted and well-directed piece that, funnily enough, had no aliens in it, and revolved around escaping death and members of Torchwood, including Gwen, using an alien device which results in flashbacks – much like ‘Ghost Machine’, no? And, funnily enough, I’d say that these two are my favourite episodes of Torchwood so far. Which is almost bad, because it seems to lump me into a very categorised type of fan. Hmm. Well, surely liking Torchwood is open-minded in itself...

[Kaileena]

I don't believe I've seen this eppy.

Is it the one with the 'Risen Mitten' and the 'Life Knife'?

I prefered the Ressurection Glove for a name. Owen just takes Ianto too seriously.

Hey just a thought: I thought Ianto was spelt 'Janto'? I mean with welsh phonics it could be either. I also though that Owen could have been spelt Eoin like the children's writer Eoin Colfer, but then again Owen's got more of an English than Welsh accent.