"Torchwood" Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2008)

Director:

Ashley Way

Writers:

Russell T. Davies (creator)
Chris Chibnall (written by)

TV Series:

"Torchwood" (2006)

Original Air Date:

16 January 2008 (Season 2, Episode 1)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

A conflicted Torchwood team is surprised to see Captain Jack suddenly return to their lives, and though...

Plot Keywords:

Gay | Renegade | Cardiff | Investigation | Bisexual Male

Cast

John Barrowman	...	Captain Jack Harkness
Eve Myles	...	Gwen Cooper
Burn Gorman	...	Owen Harper
Naoko Mori	...	Toshiko Sato
Gareth David-Lloyd	...	Ianto Jones
Kai Owen	...	Rhys Williams
James Marsters	...	Captain John Hart
Menna Trussler	...	Old Woman
Paul Kasey	...	Blowfish
Crispin Layfield	...	Mugger
Nathan Ryan	...	Victim
Inika Leigh Wright	...	Hologram Woman
Sarah Whyte	...	Teenage Girl

Runtime:

50 min (approx.)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15

Company:

BBC Wales

Trivia:

According to James Marsters at DragonCon 2008, he broke a tooth when he lost his balance and fell face first whilst getting into the Torchwood SUV handcuffed.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The slide on Gwen's gun is locked back while the team is advancing on Captain John Hart in the bar. Thus Gwen's gun was clearly empty.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Gwen Cooper: [to old woman] Excuse me, have you seen a blowfish driving a sports car?
[woman points]
Gwen Cooper: Thank you.
[they drive on]
Old Woman: Bloody Torchwood.

Movie Connections:

References Star Wars (1977)

Fast-paced and fun

This was an outstanding episode - a perfect mix of action and wit, tension and humour. The opening sequence with the blowfish and the old lady was just perfect - especially the "Bloody Torchwood!" comment.

James Marsters is great as Captain John Hart, and right from the start manages to be equal parts despicable and weirdly likable, though perhaps personality-wise a little too reminiscent of a certain other character he's well known for playing, who had that same style of friendly amorality. The interaction between him and Jack is highly entertaining, especially in the scene where they first meet.

Only two things annoyed me a bit: First, Jack's persistent refusal to open up at all to the other characters about his past or his reasons for doing anything, which is understandable to a point, but starting to get to a level where you really want to smack him. He makes such a point of how he values the Torchwood team and how they're so important to them, but he can't get it together to trust them enough to say anything whatsoever about his past? Despite the fact that they deal with weirder stuff than that on a daily basis? It's really kind of aggravating...

Second, the odd and sort of random way that his relationship with Ianto seems to be developing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not objecting in the slightest to the two of them getting involved. I actually get really annoyed with people who complain about the gay/bi elements of Torchwood - in case they haven't figured it out yet, that's one of the show's major themes and one of the reasons a lot of us watch it! Anyone who can't handle that should probably stick to watching Doctor Who.

But I just think the development of this particular relationship hasn't been handled as well as it could be. First it seemed like Ianto hated Jack (in Cyberwoman), and then just a few episodes later (in They Keep Killing Suzie), you have that odd little innuendo about the stopwatch which seemed to just come out of nowhere, at a time when you'd still expect Ianto to be grieving for Lisa. And now in this one you have Jack kissing Ianto when he first reappears, which suggests they already have some level of romantic involvement, but then the exchange while searching the office sounds like they don't yet and Jack's still testing the waters. It's all kind of confusing and hard to follow, and you don't really get any sense of a relationship naturally evolving the way you did with Gwen and Owen in the first season.

However, those are only small complaints about an otherwise great show and episode.