Watching Doctor Who

This is the Reaction Post for Torchwood Series 2, Episode 3: To The Last Man. It was a pretty straightforward episode this time around. Why not come and discuss it with me?

Another good episode. That’s three in a row, now. One might almost call it a pattern. Heavens! Helen Raynor is getting better all the time. She did Ghost Machine last year (and the 2 Dalek episodes in Doctor Who series 3.) I like this one best of hers so far. (No, I’m not going to be thinking too closely about how the “key” works. I can accept that it is some sort of dead useful tech, and leave it at that.)

This week’s episode was the Tosh-centered one for the series. My favorite of the last series was hers (Greeks Bearing Gifts.) They never get the easy moral choices in this show, do they? Poor Tosh. Here she is, the designated date for a guy that is only unfrozen for one day a year, and she has to go and fall for him. Then she has to decide what to do to comfort her soldier before he goes off to do what needs doing. And she does it all with the sure knowledge of what will happen to Tommy later.

For a basically Toshiko-centric episode, though, it did a pretty good job of incorporating everyone. I was especially amused by the little scene between Jack and Gwen where she tries to open the temporally-locked box. The bits with the different members of the team and the ghosts where occasionally a bit freaky. Oh! It was also interesting to see the old Torchwood folks. Ianto knows too well that folks who work for Torchwood rarely live very long in the job. I suppose that is one of the hazards of being the one in charge of the archives.

Owen is still on his arc of worrying about Tosh, I see. He even came out into the cold to talk to her in the end. She had such a crush on him before. I wonder if she still does. Well, that another story arc I’ll be keeping an eye on. It’s like…Owen’s mellowed a bit or something. Hmmm…

Nice little moment between Ianto and Jack. Not just the kiss, but also the conversation about Jack going home if he could or not. That’s one thing this episode did. It talked about Jack being out of his time. Even earlier, there was the part where Jack told Gwen that he was in WWI. At one point he even seemed to “tune into” the hospital as he was talking about 1918.

This was an episode that was more about the human side of Torchwood, than aliens or time. Yes, it was about a wound in time, but it was more about how Tosh and Tommy (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the team) are affected by the events of the episode.

Next week’s episode should prove…interesting.

Torchwood, To The Last Man