Torchwood Season One Volume Two

Roadshow Home Entertainment / 197 minutes / 2 disc set / extras

cast
John Barrowman, Burn Gorman, Eve Myles

You wouldn’t of thought that Cardiff was the very epicentre for all alien activity throughout the UK but the Torchwood team know better as they work to keep the streets alien free. Spinning off from Doctor Who in dazzling style the seeds of Torchwood were laid throughout the second season with numerous references to the Torchwood organisation (even down to its genesis in the Victorian set Tooth and Claw) and the show itself starring the character of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman).

This second volume features episodes six to nine and of course things are now very set in motion. Captain Jack and his team, who include former policewoman Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and cocky Owen Hooper (Burn Gorman) work out of their super high tech underground base base (which has been mostly built using alien technology) which has been built right on a rift in the space time continuum.

The important thing to remember about Torchwood is that while Who aims at a generally family audience Torchwood is a post watershed BBC3 production where anything goes, theres ultraviolence, gore unlimited (especially in the first episode on the disc Countrycide where a madman is stalking the villages around Cardiff and leaving body parts in his wake) and sex of all kinds very much in your face. The show is stunningly well put together though, probably not as high budget as Who but easily the biggest show that has ever been seen on BBC3 and has certainly been one of the best shows of the last twelve months. All of the episodes are exciting and very watchable but the stand out episode is They Keep Killing Suzie which sees the return of former Torchwood alumni Suzie Costello (Indira Varma) who was killed off in spectacular style at the beginning of the series but is brought back to life by the team using alien technology but it seems she has a sinister agenda of her own which could see the end of one new Torchwood member.

Any fan of Who and TV scifi in general is definitely going to have this marked down as essential and we for one whole heartedly agree.

extras include bonus footage, Outtakes, Deleted scenes, ‘Making of’ documentary and character bios.