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Oh dear, it's later than I thought it was. Never mind. Rambling about Torchwood at stupid o'clock, whilst making progressively less sense, is an old tradition. "To The Last Man", then. The second Torchie script from Helen Raynor, and there were certain echoes of her first one. Both episodes featured ghosts that weren't really ghosts, and both episodes featured a certain sense of tragedy. In "The Ghost Machine", which was the third episode of season one, just as this was the third episode of season two, the tragedy came from a murdered girl, and a broken man suffering for his crime. In "To The Last Man" it comes from Tommy (did they really have to call him that?!) mixed up in a time rift, and destined to die in front of a firing squad. Not sure why Helen Raynor would give him that fate. It felt like laying it on a bit thick at times, but it was a good episode, so I'll forgive that. The denouement was a little harder to forgive, but again, it was a good episode, and the ending didn't spoil that too much.
Nice to see Tosh take centre stage. Here she falls in love with a man that she only sees for one day each year, when he's temporarily taken out of his cryogenic suspension. An odd relationship, perhaps, but it seems perfectly natural. After all, nothing is normal when you're a member of Torchwood; and they've already made it perfectly clear that Gwen's very normal relationship with Rhys is weird by TW standards. Tosh's relationship with Tommy fits her. It's nice seeing them spending a day together, with Tosh having fun out of the office for a change, and Tommy celebrating his one day a year out of the freezer. His fate hangs over them, though, when it becomes clear that whatever it is that Torchwood have been keeping him for for the last ninety years is looming closer. Tosh has to accept that he's going to have to go back to his own time, and he has to accept all that that means. Not just never seeing her again, but having to return to the war, and to the trenches, and everything that nobody should ever have to go back to. He doesn't want to go, understandably; and Jack's lack of compassion seems rather uncharacteristically heartless. He's desperate, sure, with a world to save again; but Tommy's scared, and it shouldn't just be Tosh who cares about that. It didn't seem right for Jack at all.
Good performances all around in this episode. I haven't seen Anthony Lewis since he was in Emmerdale. Can't remember when I stopped watching that, but it was a long time ago. I imagine he's no longer in it. He was always good in that show, anyway. In fact the standard of acting in Emmerdale was always good back then. Goodness knows what it's like now, with five or even six episodes a week. I shudder to think. Shame that it was always the big soaps that used to win the acting awards, which always seemed to be voted for by the public. Of course the shows with the most viewers are going to win awards where public votes are involved. How unfair can you get?! Especially since Coronation Street and EastEnders contain some of the worst acting on television. And can we say "off at a tangent"?! Sorry about that...
So off Tommy goes in the end, being a hero and heading off to meet his fate in 1918, leaving Tosh behind in 2008 (probably, though Torchie dating is a minefield. Not quite as bad as UNIT dating, but give it time). Oh, if they'd only left it there... Problem was that they'd already said he'd be returning to his 1918 shellshocked self after he went back (they need that, if they're to give him his firing squad fate), so consequently he loses all his memories of 2008, and doesn't have a clue what to do with the whacky bit of machinery he's been sent back through time with. Oops. Now see, if they'd just said that he'd died in battle or something, he could have kept his memories, and that wouldn't have been an issue. But no, they wanted to get the shellshock thingy in. So Tosh has to go back through time herself, sort of, by psychic projection thanks to a vial of Tommy's blood. Huh?! It's best not to ask, really, but the jumble of technical jargon, and yet another goodbye scene between Tosh and Tommy, didn't really add a great deal to anything. If it hadn't been for the very good performance by Anthony Lewis in that scene, it might have fallen very flat indeed. Anyways, Tosh and her psychic time travel flip flops did the trick, and all is well and good, and the world is safe once again. A very good episode, all in all. Just not as good as it would have been without the nonsense at the end...
Ah well. Picture time.
Gerald and Harriet. Torchwood, 1918.
Nothing important. Just a nice scene between Ianto and Gwen.
Gwen encounters a time echo in a long disused hospital.
The ill-fated Tommy.
Jack gets a temporal mail delivery, courtesy of Gerald and Harriet.
Tosh and Tommy make the most of Tommy's last night before he goes back to 1918.
And Jack and Ianto do much the same thing. For different reasons. :D
Tosh helps Tommy face up to his destiny.
So that's Torchie for another week, then. Next time, some kind of illicit trade in alien meat, apparently. Yummy.
Nice to see Tosh take centre stage. Here she falls in love with a man that she only sees for one day each year, when he's temporarily taken out of his cryogenic suspension. An odd relationship, perhaps, but it seems perfectly natural. After all, nothing is normal when you're a member of Torchwood; and they've already made it perfectly clear that Gwen's very normal relationship with Rhys is weird by TW standards. Tosh's relationship with Tommy fits her. It's nice seeing them spending a day together, with Tosh having fun out of the office for a change, and Tommy celebrating his one day a year out of the freezer. His fate hangs over them, though, when it becomes clear that whatever it is that Torchwood have been keeping him for for the last ninety years is looming closer. Tosh has to accept that he's going to have to go back to his own time, and he has to accept all that that means. Not just never seeing her again, but having to return to the war, and to the trenches, and everything that nobody should ever have to go back to. He doesn't want to go, understandably; and Jack's lack of compassion seems rather uncharacteristically heartless. He's desperate, sure, with a world to save again; but Tommy's scared, and it shouldn't just be Tosh who cares about that. It didn't seem right for Jack at all.
Good performances all around in this episode. I haven't seen Anthony Lewis since he was in Emmerdale. Can't remember when I stopped watching that, but it was a long time ago. I imagine he's no longer in it. He was always good in that show, anyway. In fact the standard of acting in Emmerdale was always good back then. Goodness knows what it's like now, with five or even six episodes a week. I shudder to think. Shame that it was always the big soaps that used to win the acting awards, which always seemed to be voted for by the public. Of course the shows with the most viewers are going to win awards where public votes are involved. How unfair can you get?! Especially since Coronation Street and EastEnders contain some of the worst acting on television. And can we say "off at a tangent"?! Sorry about that...
So off Tommy goes in the end, being a hero and heading off to meet his fate in 1918, leaving Tosh behind in 2008 (probably, though Torchie dating is a minefield. Not quite as bad as UNIT dating, but give it time). Oh, if they'd only left it there... Problem was that they'd already said he'd be returning to his 1918 shellshocked self after he went back (they need that, if they're to give him his firing squad fate), so consequently he loses all his memories of 2008, and doesn't have a clue what to do with the whacky bit of machinery he's been sent back through time with. Oops. Now see, if they'd just said that he'd died in battle or something, he could have kept his memories, and that wouldn't have been an issue. But no, they wanted to get the shellshock thingy in. So Tosh has to go back through time herself, sort of, by psychic projection thanks to a vial of Tommy's blood. Huh?! It's best not to ask, really, but the jumble of technical jargon, and yet another goodbye scene between Tosh and Tommy, didn't really add a great deal to anything. If it hadn't been for the very good performance by Anthony Lewis in that scene, it might have fallen very flat indeed. Anyways, Tosh and her psychic time travel flip flops did the trick, and all is well and good, and the world is safe once again. A very good episode, all in all. Just not as good as it would have been without the nonsense at the end...
Ah well. Picture time.
Gerald and Harriet. Torchwood, 1918.
Nothing important. Just a nice scene between Ianto and Gwen.
Gwen encounters a time echo in a long disused hospital.
The ill-fated Tommy.
Jack gets a temporal mail delivery, courtesy of Gerald and Harriet.
Tosh and Tommy make the most of Tommy's last night before he goes back to 1918.
And Jack and Ianto do much the same thing. For different reasons. :D
Tosh helps Tommy face up to his destiny.
So that's Torchie for another week, then. Next time, some kind of illicit trade in alien meat, apparently. Yummy.
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