Torchwood: 3 episodes mega-pack (spoilers)

[Broomstick]

They Keep Killing Suzie
Possibly my favorite so far. Minimal gratuitous sex, freaky alien tech, and just dark and weird.

A couple of points - I'm wondering if the reason the resurrection gauntlet didn't work more than 2 minutes for Suzie while it allowed Gwen to actually bring Suzie back is because Suzie is a selfish sociopath and Gwen, for all her other multitudinous faults, is tender-hearted enough to engage in some self-sacrifice for others.

And while I loathe the sort of individual Suzie is, I like the fact that she was revealed to be that scheming and evil. I like that fact that the Torchwood crew, themselves not a really cuddly lot, are creeped out by bringing Suzie back.

Best line "There's a knife sticking out of my chest!"


Random Shoes
This one reminded me of Doctor Who's "Love and Monsters" episode, possibly because it's from outside the title characters' viewpoint and it's an angsty young man. Not one of my favorites, but at least no one suggested receiving fellatio from an animated paving stone this time.


Out of Time
Probably one of the better written episodes in the whole series so far. However, I have a couple quibbles:

1) Gwen really should have told Rhys about Emma. It is really, really bad she did not. Seriously - "Rhys, I know this is awkward, but although I can't tell you about the Super Secret Stuff I do at work, we're trying to help this young lady who has no living relatives and is stranded in Cardiff. Do you mind if we let her sleep on the couch for a night or two?" Cripes - is it THAT fucking hard to do? If not - get her a fucking hotel room! At Gwen was not fucking Owen this episode.

2) I was not keen on the suicide-by-car scene, but that's probably because that's the way my sister killed herself. That is most likely an idiosyncratic reaction on my part. Well, that, and when John Ellis is dead it looks like they grayed up his skin tone - not accurate. If you die from carbon monoxide poisoning (which is what they're implying) you actually look flushed or slightly pinker than normal because you're hemoglobin remains very bright red. Not the usual weird dead-person skin tone. Um... yeah, my sister again. And that's all I'll have to say about that, m'kay?

3) If Torchwood has the ability to generate new identities for these people why the hell can't they get Diane Holmes a pilot's license?

I did like the bit about Cessnas having hardly changed in 50 years - it's actually true for the most part, for the small single engines. HOWEVER - our out of time folks are from 1953 - the model Cessna Diane was looking at, a 172, dates from 1957. I suspect even a lot of pilots wouldn't notice, it's just that this happens to be my area of expertise. In 1953 she might have owned or been familiar with the C-170, but the landing gear are arranged in a very notably different way. A C-172 is a tricycle gear airplane, and C-170 is a tailwheel and sits on the ground with the fuselage at a notable angle. The airframe has "hardly changed" but the landing gear is significantly different. (The avionics 1953 vs. 2007 are also hugely different, but Diana was obviously referring to exterior appearances)

[Stark]

Summation in one line:

Gwen is cripplingly retarded and it's all directly or indirectly her fault.

They Keep Killing Suzie - 'I'm back now and I'm not evil. Can I go see my dad'

'okay'

'OH NO THE PSYCHOTIC SERIAL KILLER HAS KILLED HER FATHER'

...

'what's death like'

'nothing. oh wait, no, finale foreshadowing! oooooo spoooky!'

'so nothing at all, really?'

[Big Orange]

"Out of Time" is perhaps the only genuinely good Torchwood episode so-far, but I found "They Keep Killing Suzie" to be ridiculous, devious fun, and I thought Indira Varma did a great job (I just wonder how Suzie became such a deranged and fucked up character in the first place, generally better written than the rest of Torchwood Three's clowns).