Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Greg]

Another quiet-ish story... whatever happened to Torchwood?

So, your partner works for some hush-hush anti-terrorism organisation and it's a worry, but you cope with it. More or less. And then one day you discover that everything she told you was a lie...

Rhys finally steps away from the sidelines in this story, which puts the Gwen-Rhys relationship under the spotlight, with a story about food from a questionable source more or less as background.

The idea of someone working for a secret organisation and maintaining a healthy relationship was going to wear thin at some point, so having Rhys stumble upon Gwen's secret before things got too unbelievable was a good call. And it is good to see that Kai Owen is an actor capable of playing a variety of emotions as I'd found Rhys pretty gormless before this. Not unduly excited about him now, but I can imagine him rising to the occasion if ever the story demands something more substantial from him.

The whole prospect of alien meat isn't the freshest idea, but it was reasonably well handled here - although I'm not convinced anyone who stumbles across a mysterious slug/whale creature is likely to respond with, 'Let's cut it up and sell it for mince!' Obviously I'm not the alien meat merchant kind...!

At the heart of it, it's a story about trust - the real issues arise when Rhys and Gwen are hiding things from each other. And so when Jack gets out the amnesia pill for Rhys at the end... well, you'll have to watch to see what Gwen chooses!

Trailer for next episode seems to indicate that some of the hints dropped in Kiss Kiss, Band Bang will start to pay off. I didn't expect any more from them until quite late in the piece, so it'll be interesting to see what is revealed - and whether it later turns out to be misdirection!

[dave]

Whilst this was enjoyable and quite amusing, it was also possibly one of the stupidest stories they've come up with yet. It's bad enough that someone found that thing and decided to cut it up for meat, but even more ludicrous, to me, was the idea that it continued to grow without consuming anything. There goes the conservation of mass...

Those guys were cutting into it for meat, apparently for weeks and it did nothing but moan, yet when it gets shot a few times it finally breaks free? Right...

Of course, assuming stupid was the theme of the episode helps me understand Owen's reactions to Tosh...

It was good to see some development in the Rhys/Gwen relationship, although I couldn't really understand Rhys's reaction to Gwen saying she hunts aliens after he'd just seen something which was quite obviously alien, but there you go. I also enjoyed seeing someone standing up to Jack for a change as well - both Rhys and Gwen.

Wasn't sure why throwing the thing back into the rift was the humane option, but I'm not sure you're supposed to actually think about a TW episode, just enjoy it whilst it's on.

And I found Jack's flirting with Rhys's secretary was really funny.

[meglos]

Very Enjoyable

[Panecea]

Well, I can say I was pleased with seventy five percent of this episode. the premise developed well, with Rhys finally confirming his suspicions. Come to think of it, the alien whale meat became a secondary issue (as strange as it was).

The episode to recovered reasonably well each time Gwen and Rhys clashed. They dealt with Dale and company well but then Gwen seemed to lapse back into last season when it came to dealing with Rhys. In my opinion the ending fell away under the weight of the rest of the story. It seemed to lose direction. All in all, I feel the ending could have been handled much better.

On a lighter note, it was good to see Ianto had some fight this time, a credit to the development of his character.

[Theta Sigma]

Overall a very passable episode.
Very amazed on how big that alien was.
Not quite sure whether to be delighted or not that Rhys knows about Gwen's work on Torchwood but definitely pleased that Gwen did not give him the amnesia pill. After all she gave him one before in Combat and repeated dosage is not healthy given what happened in They Keep Killing Suzie.