OK, we have now watched the first two episodes – “Everything Changes” yesterday and “Day One” tonight – and we really enjoyed it.
I haven’t read anyone else’s lj entries about it except my wife‘s (will now go back and add assenting or dissenting comments as appropriate).
“Day One” – I have already glimpsed critiques decrying this as a rip-off of the typical Buffy plot-line of the perils of sex, with the supernatural forces of our setting representing the onrush of adulthood. This is most unfair. The perils of sex are something we always have with us from puberty to old age; it’s a universal theme that long predates Buffy and will still be written about long after Buffy and Torchwood are forgotten. The shots of the little piles of dust in the fertility clinic mingled humour and horror in just the right way. Also, both Gwen and Captain Jack are really coming on as simply fascinating people to watch – the camera just loves Eve Myles. Gwen’s relationship with Rhys is clearly destined to implode horribly. And I have to say that I have a pretty good idea whose (or rather Who’s) hand is in the jar…
Well done to my cousin Brian who is the script editor.
We’ll keep watching.
I am sure all of that is true; I wonder also if he had become aware of his own limitations – a difficulty with strategy rather than tactics, and clearly not a great team-builder or team player. The effort of building anew at a point when the security situation had reached a grim stability and the five-party system was established was surely offputting.