Torchwood, The 3rd Season DVD
TORCHWOOD, a BBC/Wales production, seen locally on BBC/America, just completed its third, and possibly last, season. A spinoff from the wildly successful DOCTOR WHO, it’s one of a glut of Brit Si-Fi series in which folk of today have to battle invasions of foreign species, which are knowingly, or unknowingly, bent on destroying the world as we know it.
The storyline has The Torchwood Institute based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by Queen Victoria, its job is to protect Earth from these (generally) criminal elements. Its leader, Captain Jack Harkness, immortal and from the 51st Century, leads a team of experts who dodge death to find more creatures. The first and second seasons were normal television, with a fine balance between action and intimacy, fun but not exceptional. But as the writer of the revival 31 episodes of DOCTOR WHO and the originator of the seminal gay/lesbian series, QUEER AS FOLK, the prolific Russell T. Davies has written most of the scripts for TORCHWOOD.
The show is quirky, using the talents of some terrific British actors, but focusing mostly on Captain Jack. The other stunning revelation of this show is that Cap’n Harkness -- in this century -- is emotionally attracted to men and as he is played by out-gay actor John Barrowman. The gay Mr. Davies knows whereof he writes. (Davies is also responsible for the six-episode Brit series, BOB & ROSE, in which a gayman falls for a single mature woman and the troubles they have with their friends and family accepting what they’ve built as a relationship)
The third season of TORCHWOOD, CHILDREN OF EARTH, was shortened to five one-hour episodes and, now out on DVD, is a must-rent/buy/see. The prologue, set in 1965, has Captain Harkness leading a group of children to be delivered in the hands of aliens. In 2008 they return, taking over the voices and bodies of all the children in the world, heralding their return, and demanding what no civilized country or parent would acquiesce to. The fascination lies in how the British government and its weasely Prime Minister (Nicholas Farrell) work to fulfill the aliens’ demands, so as not to be destroyed by them. The political machinations are utterly fascinating as written and performed.
At the end of Season Two, the producers shook up its audience by killing off two of the supporting team. In Season Three, they really let it hit the fan when they killed off another important team-member, letting loose an astonishing fusillade of invective from the show’s supportive fans. It’s why I suspicion that there will be no fourth season, more’s-the-pity.
The casting is superb: Eve Myles as a team member, her love-interest Rhys (Kai Owen), Harkness’ love-interest, Inato Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), and the superlative Peter Capaldi as a bureaucrat in over his head, who gives a compelling performance. But the standout is star Barrowman, known to American audiences for his musical-theatre work here. The suspenseful and intimate direction has been split between Andy Goddard, Ashley Way, Colin Teague and Jonathan Fox Bassett.
Obviously, if one is not willing to accept the science-fiction/fantasy premise, it won’t be worth your time. And if your non-acceptance of homoerotic relationships is too prevalent, you will recoil, but for everyone else, this splendid five hours is an investment in absorption of thrills and sorrow; human emotions that define the word “Art”.