Torchwood Season Two (DVD)

LABEL: BBC/2Entertain
RUNNING TIME: 650 mins approx.
RATING: 15
VIDEO FORMAT: 16:9 Anamorphic
AUDIO FORMAT: English 5.1, English 2.0
SUBTITLES: English HOH, Production Notes
DVD REGION: 2
AVAILABLE: 30th June 2008


Synopsis
Captain Jack Harkness and the Torchwood crew return for an encore performance of DOCTOR WHO's first successful spin-off. This box set contains all thirteen episodes from the show's well-received second season, originally aired on BBC3 last year.

Review
The advantage in these modern thirteen episode seasons, originally a concoction of Russell T Davies when DOCTOR WHO relaunched in 2005, is that watching a full season arc – and thus being able to appreciate the nuances and the storyline as a whole – is no longer a mission of days. Now a new viewer – or an appreciative fan – can watch an entire series over a weekend, and fully appreciate any story arcs, rather than taking them piecemeal. Some might argue that this defeats the object of a weekly series, but in these days of electronic planning guides, hard disk recorders, internet downloads and DVD box sets people's viewing habits have changed, and watching TV shows in chunks is a far more common practice now than it was ten years, five years, even a year ago. The shows themselves are written accordingly, with subtleties and nuances in the overall story becoming much more visible and relevant when taken together – which brings us to this latest series of TORCHWOOD, and the DVD box set thereof.

It's said that a year is a long time in politics, but it's fair to say that the old maxim is true of television as well. At the end of 2006, as the final episodes of TORCHWOOD's first season were broadcast over Christmas and New Year's, many viewers were calling for its cancellation. This venomous reaction is, in fairness quite understandable; despite a fantastic premise and a strong male lead in the irrepressible John Barrowman the series was poorly handled and, with the exception of two or three truly notable episodes, sadly descended into a mess of turgid plotting, half-baked innuendo and storylines hastily ripped off from other – better – TV shows and movies. TORCHWOOD could have been a new X-FILES, but instead,it ended up more like the aborted offspring of ANGEL and LEXX – lots of brooding with a side order of nob gags. No wonder viewers were turned off in their droves.

And then something quite surprising happened. Producer Chris Chibnall, in a move that his Whoniverse mentor Russell T Davies would *never* have considered, listened to the fans. There were plenty of people who were prepared to give the show another chance provided the flaws were corrected, and so Chibnall made the monumental decision to rest the series for year, with a view to coming back in 2008 after a complete overhaul. The move was inspired; January of this year saw TORCHWOOD returned to British screens to a rapturous applause, and in a direct mirror to that first year the public were treated to a fantastic season marred only by the occasional disappointment. Moreover, the show had been bolstered with guest appearances from genre favourites like James (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) Marsters and Alan (LOST) Dale, cementing its position as a Proper SF TV Show (TM). Finally TORCHWOOD had arrived.

After the mystery and enormity of season one's “coming darkness” arc – one that may be echoed in the current season of DOCTOR WHO – it was anybody's guess as to what this second season would use as its primary focus, and it's probably fair to say that whatever we were expecting it wasn't something as close to home as this. It's been previously established as far back as New Who's first season that Jack is missing two years of his memory, but it's never been revealed just which two years of his life those were or why – beyond general irritation and curiosity – he was so desperate to get them back. Now, in a handy little bit of creative writing, we discover that Jack had a younger brother and that the happy memories of their childhood are all that survive of him. On the surface that seems to be a little low-key for a show as big and brash as TORCHWOOD, but Chibnall puts it to good use, employing the device as the catalyst for some of the best (and surprisingly adult) television that the Whoniverse has yet produced.

Every aspect of the show has improved exponentially since its launch in 2006, and no matter what irritated you about it before you can rest assured that it's been tweaked, smudged or retconned away. The stories are stronger, punchier, with the predictable “Sleeper” and a slightly-misjudged comedy episode being the worst of a damn fine bunch, and Torchwood's rather laughable status as a “secret” organisation has been (*cough*) rethought a little, making for a couple of great moments of humour as the series progresses. The cast have been overhauled too -- Jack has returned to a character much closer to the one first introduced in DOCTOR WHO, thanks in part to the “year of hell” spent in the company of the Doctor and Martha last year; Gwen has developed a stronger, more authoritative personality; the criminally underused Toshiko is given much, much more to do; and the boorish and antagonistic Owen has been redeveloped into a fully-rounded human being (which is just as well, given how much of the second half of the season focuses on his character). The biggest surprise here, however, is Ianto Jones, who has morphed from unlikeable, whinging waste of space into TORCHWOOD's equivalent of Xander Harris – no super powers, per ce, but he packs a fantastic selection of one-liners and provides some geeky eye-candy for the fangirls. Believe it or not, you'll treasure every moment he's on screen this year.

If you've avoided TORCHWOOD this year, here lies your perfect opportunity to give it another go. Action-packed, thrilling, terrifying and heartbreaking in equal measure, and sporting enough sweaty man action to make even the most taciturn of fangirls squee their brains out (meaning that convincing your girlfriend to sit through it with you will be easier than usual!), it's the perfect example of how Britain is set to dominate the TV-SF scene both at home and overseas. So let's hear if for the fans – sometimes bitching in blogs and forums actually achieves results...!



Picture
A crisp, clear picture identical to the original broadcast. A little pixellation in the high-motion scenes, otherwise flawless.

Audio
The 5.1 audio is welcome, as usual, and well-engineered; great use of the rear speakers adds to the atmosphere, and there's no evidence of bleeding between channels.

Special Features
Two less discs means far less special features than season one, but we do get thirteen cut-down episodes of TORCHWOOD DECLASSIFIED and an (ahem) interesting featurette entitled “The Lives and Deaths of Captain Jack”.



Matt Dillon



Torchwood Series 2 is available from 30th June from Play.com, Amazon and all good stockists.

For detailled synopsis and analysis on all of the episodes contained in the box set, why not check out our episode guide?