Torchwood 1x01 - Pilot review

Torchwood, the first in several planned spin-offs of Doctor Who’s revival series, premiered on BBC Three last weekend with a pilot episode that can only be described as odd. Not good/quirky odd or bad/pretentious odd, but uneven odd, showing hints of both promise and mediocrity. The fault definitely does not lie in the lead actors: John Barrowman’s Captain Jack Harkness is just as charming and rakish as he was when traveling with the ninth Doctor and Rose. Eve Myles is a worthy companion as wide-eyed police cadet Gwen Cooper. Given two fun characters, a venerable joy of a parent show, and the pithy writing of Russell T. Davies, it’s greatly disappointing that the aliens, special effects, and general spectacle of the thing seem so flat and uninteresting.

The set-up is like an interesting hybrid of Who’s revival premiere in 2005 coupled with a hint of the police drama of Life on Mars and the paranormal-romance-investigation tone of early X-Files episodes. While investigating a serial killer, Welsh constable Gwen Cooper stumbles upon a party of intruders on her crime scene. The group, led by a mysterious American man in old-fashioned military garb, has revived the latest victim’s corpse and proceeds to question him about the identity of his murderer. From that moment on, Cooper is determined to discover the identity of the man, the group, and their supernatural powers, all of which lead her to the discovery of a secret alien investigation repository called Torchwood.

There is the sense that Torchwood is trying too hard to be “Who for grown-ups,” but forcing the adult tone by injecting random and misplaced sex jokes and words that the American broadcasts will undoubtedly bleep is not necessarily the way to go. The thing is, Who itself already appeals to adults, albeit somewhat differently than it does children. It manages to do this without extraneous material that feels shoehorned into the Torchwood pilot. Not that there’s something inherently wrong with adult content, but when setting the stage for the series of events that seeks to explain a science fiction show’s entire premise, one must be mindful of keeping the plot streamlined, direct, and to the point, lest you confuse people from the outset. It also has the effect of somewhat cheapening the series if the material has no bearing on the plot other than to be shocking. A naked man covered in slime was acceptable on a mid-season episode of The X-Files, because that series was never predicated on titillation and shock value. A randy scientist wearing an alien pheromone getting pounced on by both a woman and her boyfriend doesn’t fly in the Torchwood pilot, because it feels forced and silly. It’s a funny scene that might be great once the audience has warmed up to the characters and premise.

Comic relief and a kind of mischievous Benny Hill-inspired burlesque might very well have its place in a sci-fi show. But a show formatted as an hour-long drama? Not so much. The concept of the hybrid “dramedy” on American television is commonplace, with Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, and, in years past, Ally McBeal proving hugely successful. The secret to all these series, though, is that their common backbone is in a kind of “general” or “literary” drama highlighted by surreal comedy and humor stemming from quasi-realistic human foibles. Sci-fi comedy works best when it’s either subtler and dialogue-based, such as in Farscape or Firefly, or broader, such as Red Dwarf. If Torchwood’s goal is to have its more fantastic elements taken as serious, geek-obsession-worthy SF, certain things need to be toned down, reigned in, and made a little less goofy for the majority of episodes. Hopefully, future outings of the show will take a more understated tactic.