Torchwood (Season 1-ish)

13 episodes of 4 seasons total. 2006.

Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) from the Doctor Who universe gets his own highlight with his underground investigative unit, Torchwood (named for Doctor Who S02E02, Tooth and Claw). Police Constable Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) stumbles across them in the pilot, and ends up joining them.

The characters in the team fit neatly into archetypes. Owen is the slightly arrogant, brash one; Toshiko is studious, Asian and good with computers; Ianto is Nice. Gwen Cooper is, I suppose, the emotional heart, but it's hard to tell. She is a little like Jenny Lee in the first season of Call the Midwife – no obvious archetype, always a little more emotionally involved than anyone else.

The stories in each episode are decent, even through the filter of 14-year-old visual effects. It doesn't have the wild inventiveness and imagined technological universes of Doctor Who, which is a pity as they had the scope for it – it is meant to be a collection of the brightest scientists and “operatives” (whatever that means) after all. Harkness tends to be the lynchpin. Dashing, conventionally handsome and flirty with absolutely anyone and possibly anything, he gives the group and indeed the stories some momentum.

#TV #whoniverse