Torchwood

So, there's a spin-off series to the new Doctor Who.

Of course, it's unfair to describe it that way... It's a new series based around an organisation proposed within the new Doctor Who 'universe'. It features a character from the new Doctor Who 'universe', Captain Jack Harkness. It's set in Cardiff.

The BBC decided to chuck it out at 9pm on a Sunday, on their Digital channel BBC3. You can look at this as either an indication of their lack of confidence in the product (fringe channel, late timeslot, not the best day in the week), or an attempt to get more viewers on their Digital TV channels. At first glance, I'd say it can only be a mixture of both.

Visually, it seems to be trying to ape the orginal, Las Vegas-set CSI. Lots of sweeping fly-by camerawork, over colourfully-lit nighttime Cardiff streets, and the canny storytelling technique of showing something past from a character's perspective, rather than just having them tell about it. But there's something about the presentation that's somehow slower than the glitzy American forensics show... despite obvious efforts to improve the pacing of the show.

The characters work well... Kinda. It's another ensemble of misfits with a mysterious boss and a newbie to ease us into the organisation. The dialogue was generally quite snappy, and had an amusing tendency to take pot-shots at sci-fi and crime drama.

The opening story was interesting, though perhaps rendered a little pointless and improbable by the hasty denouement. The second really tried to be risqué, but fell a little flat. Thankfully they only screened one 'sex scene', but it was so poorly done they should have done without it, were it not such a critical plot point later on.

Overall, it's watchable, just a little two-dimensional. It's not so much a Doctor Who spin-off as 'The Harkness Files'. Far better than the BBC's Robin Hood, though. Don't get me started on THAT