Torchwood: Small Worlds
14th Nov 2006, 03:25 GMT
Filed under: Drama, Science Fiction, Programming, OpEd, BBC (S01E5) It's difficult not to find yourself comparing Torchwood with the X-Files, since both shows investigate paranormal happenings, alien sightings and other 'unexplained' activity. And while I could never put my hand on my heart and say Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper come anywhere near the quality of Mulder and Scully, I'm starting to feel that Torchwood is capable of hitting much higher notes when it comes to the fear and terror factor, bringing slightly more of an edge to its so-called adult theme. "Small Worlds" was one of those episodes where the comparisons to the X-Files couldn't have been more obvious -- the 1996 X-Files episode "Paper Hearts," with Tom Noonan and 'Invocation' from 2000 both immediately came to mind. The recent episodes of Torchwood have all carried a similar theme, namely that each member of the team carries a dark secret. This week, it was Captain Jack's turn to release his demons, when mysterious fairies appeared in Cardiff, killing off people who threatened the life of a little girl. The first victim was a convicted pedophile, who attempted to abduct a little schoolgirl called Jasmine, but soon found himself suffocated to death on flower petals. Next up was an old friend of Jack's, Estelle Cole, a woman who knew his father during the war who made a hobby of photographing fairies in the woods -- which is where the audience started discovering that Jack has been father back in time than the 1940s; since he appears to have been in charge of a troop of 15 soldiers back in 1909 in Lahore, India. Little Jasmine soon exacted her revenge on some bullying school colleagues, and then turned her attention to her rather bossy step-father -- all of whom met fairly nasty fates (although, thankfully we were spared a grisly death for the schoolgirls). I won't bore you with the details of where the nasty fairies allegedly originated, but Captain Jack explained that they were from all across time; evil spirits who controlled the elements and plucked children from the ethereal plane to join their midsts. Naturally, their next 'chosen one' was little Jasmine, and when her step-father was attacked and killed by some pretty impressive looking demon-like cgi fairies, Captain Jack made a hasty deal with the malevolent entities to take the life of little Jasmine in return for an end to their horrible behavior of snatching little children and killing of their chums. Some iffy dialog aside, this was a stand-out episode in the series so far, with some blunt and grisly ends for a few of the players, and a further insight into Captain Jack's mysterious past and his powerful motivation to protect Earth. However, I don't think we've seen the last of the little fairies for this series, and Jasmine may well make a return visit to the Torchwood team at some point further along the way. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Torchwood: Small Worlds related news:
- Young People, Imagination and Inner Worlds — Ohmynews International
- Worlds first Hydraulic Height-Adjustable Shower Thermostat — BornRich
- Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS Launches Dramatic Appeal to Smokers — StratWire - Business of Healthcare NewsFeed
- News: Two Worlds dated () — Eurogamer
- Worlds Most Expensive $150,000 Turntable — BornRich
- More Than Second Life in IBM's $100M Spend — internetnews.com
- The Emerging Virtual Worlds — PLANetizen: Front Page
- Conference: InfoSecurity India 2006 — Help Net Security - News
- AMD Abandons Low-Cost PC Project — BetaNews.Com
- IBM heavy into Virtual Life — Technocrat
Latest news from TV Squad:
- Family Guy: Whistle While Your Wife Works
- Moral Orel: God's Image
- Creators of 24 developing comedy for ABC
- It was a guest-a-rama on SNL... and NBC ruins the surprise
- Henson company aims for puppet primetime
- Degrassi scribe takes on The Best Years
- The Amazing Race: Being Polite Sucks Sometimes
- Desperate Housewives: Children and Art
- Alan Moore to guest star on The Simpsons
- The Simpsons: G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)