Doctor Who Club of Australia

[dave]

WOW. I really, really enjoyed this episode. Right from the beginning it was terrifically spooky, and just got better and better. Of course, it wasn't without flaws, but compared to other eps this one had few, and they were minor.

Nice to see the Cyberwoman and Ianto's involvement in that mess actually got some more screentime. And the developing relationships are good as well. I was surprised at the end, as I thought it a bit of a sudden development, but it worked within the context of what we've seen so far of Gwen's dissatisfaction in her relationship with Reese.

The SUV could only have been a trap if the villagers knew that the group had a tracking device for it. How many people just happen to carry tracking devices for their cars around with them?

I think what impressed me most at the end was that this wasn't put down to some alien threat (maybe), but to people. At least, I think that's the case. Towards the end I was beginning to think too many folks were showing up, but then it turned out the whole village was in on the Harvest. I hope we find out more about this later on.

[meglos]

Very creepy and I loved it!.The best episode yet. Some of the scenes were very similar to some of the great horror/thriller movies I have seen, which is a good thing . Plenty of twists and turns and shocks (eg: when Gwen gets shot) and the ending was a suprise as well. I've just got this feeling that we hav'nt seen the last of that lot.
9.5/10

[Tegan]

This is a storyline that has been around for ages, (Scottish cannibals, an episode of Supernatural, even Wolf Creek in some ways) and in my opinion was better done than most. Wolf Creek was just gore for its own sake.

The fact is that this episode, at least in the early part led you to beleive it was some form of aliens. The horror and tension was almost all in broad daylight. Or at least as much daylight as you get in Wales.

Very well done. Tight writing, a few red herrings, not too much gore, but what was there was right for the story. I found myself jumping when I wasn't expecting a "frightener", all in all a good solid 4 out of 5.

And Captain Jack showed a very dark side. The old grey Feurgy was unexpected, and the way he dealt with the villagers was totally shocking. A complete surprise to me!

Mark my words, the cybermen are not gone either, and Ianto will play a big role in the last episodes of this show.

I'm really getting excited about Torchwood.

[phase5]

Nicely done; but I have to admit to some disappointment at the resolution being a village of cannibals. Only because it's been done before. (Then again with only 7 plots in drama hasn't everything?).

I saw a low budget movie many years back at the Walker St. cinema in Sydney where the cast are chased and terrorised in an isolated township and at the end we find it's a annual cannibal feast and guess who's dinner?

And there was another one involving vampires where the hero escapes a vampire controlled village to find police & police car on the local road. They promptly drive him back to the village, being vampires themselves ...

To be nit picky:
- if the "harvest" takes place every 10 years; with (I assume) 10-20 people disappearring in the same location, you'd think someone would have noticed previously.
- who was looking after Torchwood Cardiff if the whole team was out camping?
- did anyone else feel the team came across as a bit hopeless?

[SharazJek]

This episode demonstrated that humans are far more scarier than aliens.

[phase5]

[Tegan]

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[Theta Sigma]

Oh my what a terrifying episode this turned out to be and what a shock that the monsters turned out to be human cannibals.
I also got shocked when Gwen got shot and wow what an entrance Jack made with that tractor and shooting the cannibals.
The guy who played Evan, Owen Teale looked very familiar that I had to look him up at IMDb - he was Maldak in Vengeance on Varos.
Gwen sleeping with Owen. Hardly a surprise as it looked inevitable from their kiss in Cyberwoman.

[Panecea]

I recently finished Torchwood series 1 and this episode was the most "terrifying" or at least the most disconcerting. Most "chilling" event was at the end when the head of the village gave his reason for carrying out the "harvest". Best episode, or episodes rather, are later in the series.

[Ickabod]

Wow!!!! Talk about "passive-aggressive"......so this is an episode to look forward too I gather

[Panecea]

[Ickabod]

[Odnet]

I loved this. Mostly. There were a lot of twists and turns. A few real shocks and a great sense of tension even though it was mostly in daylight.
Two things let it down for me.

1. Gwen and Owen. He is such a sleaze, what does she see in him. Gwen is such a great character. She should have the sexual tension bit with someone worthy.

2. Jacks big rescue. It was just too easy and expected. It could of topped off a fantastic episode had they come up with something as surprising as the rest of it.

One more thing. Is it just me or does Jack move kinda funny when in gun touting mode?

[Sulp Niar]

To be honest, it wasn’t terrible. I missed the first fifteen minutes or so, so I can’t comment on that, but from what I saw, there was nothing actually wrong with ‘Countrycide’. It was competently directed, it had wonderfully gruesome corpses, it had competent character interaction and it had a competent plot. The problem is of course the “competent”; so many of these things were passable, but rarely was anything brilliant, meaning that, rather ironically for an episode about cannibals with meat hooks and stripping skin from bodies, it’s all rather forgettable.

There were some excellent things, though. For a start, Owen Teale was grittily excellent as the main villain; it was a fairly typical representation of someone dirty, but it’s usually the thing you see for stereotypical perverts as opposed to cannibals, so it worked very well. When Teale waltzed on screen, I suddenly realised that ‘Countrycide’ reminded me of Ravenous; Teale just had that black comedy/gruesome villainy to him that Robert Carlyle showed in Ravenous. The problem was that, due to the time restrictions, Teale wasn’t actually on screen much; furthermore, despite his performance, the character wasn’t truly anything special – when Gwen asks him why he does it, he simply says it makes him happy, which is dirty, believable yet slightly disappointing. I wasn’t expecting a master plan or anything, but a little more dialogue on just why he enjoys human flesh would have been better, and more adult than the fridges of skin, for a start. I already said that the makeup and effects were great; true, there were no alien zaps or anything here, so basic believability was assured from the start, but the corpses were very well done, stylised and realistic at the same time. I quite liked the location too, with the dead pheasants (and the obviously added sound effects of crows and flies), and the stone walls. The acting, particularly of the scared extras, was rather good (and Teale’s wife or whatever she was deserves a mention too, seeming quite sympathetic at first – a twist of personality that works better than the policeman’s similar twist does later). Finally, the regulars do get good interaction here; the standouts are Gwen and Owen, who spend most of the episode staring into each other’s eyes before, at the end of the episode, we see her snogging him in what is presumably his flat. I think that this is the first romance that has convinced me so far in Torchwood; Gwen’s speech really shows that the Torchwood gang are really just social delinquents, and now that she’s joined the club, she’s forced to share her thoughts and body with the least social of them all (Owen had to basically rape in his first story, remember). The other bits of interaction were largely reactionary to the situations they were in, but it was a bit refreshing to see all of the main characters given a fair amount of acting and action to do this time (Ianto and Tosh in particular). Captain Jack also got a scene where he tortures a man for information, which, even though it was probably deserved, was a tad over the edge (he can’t die, so he doesn’t recognise that others feel pain, or rather he thinks if he can’t feel it others should? Just what does his lack of morality do to his morals?).

In a way, I also liked the idea that all of the villagers were cannibals, because it meant that we only ever saw one victim (other than the Torchwood gang) throughout the story, and everyone else was listening to their animalistic side within. On the other hand, the idea of a ritualistic cannibalism every ten years is a bizarre tradition, and almost seems like a nastier version of what the Pertwee era did to the rural areas (where everyone was stupid and the Doctor proved that he was much better than them). Other than being amusingly crap, Owen’s line which went something like “Just a normal day in the country... you sick fuckers” really illustrated this. I must admit that I liked the country setting, because it gave a more refreshing location than the city, but god, it doesn’t portray villagers in a good light – I notice that none of them protested at what they were doing at any point (even though realistically they would have already been killed for doing so, in TV drama it pays to have some level of sympathy for some in a group mentality).

Once you’ve thought about everything I’ve already mentioned though, it’s hard not to just remember the clichéd camera angles (complete with faster than lightning villagers – how the hell did they move so fast if they aren’t alien?) and fairly average ambition to the story overall. There’s nothing wrong with Torchwood doing a black comedy, but there’s nothing special about it either, so ‘Countrycide’ was passable entertainment and nothing more.

One last point; why did Jack tell Gwen to go into that shack first (leading to her being shot)? Jack, my man, YOU CAN’T DIE. So why do you keep asking your team members to move out in front of you? What sort of leadership is this from an immortal being? At least he tells her not to fight when she’s already wounded, but by then the damage has been done. He doesn’t really think these things through, our Jack.

[Ickabod]

OMG!!! lots to wade through there....hmmmm Jack and Gwen with her getting shot.....if the cannibles tore off a part of Jack's body would it grow back?

[Tegan]