1.04: Cyberwoman

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1.04: Cyberwoman

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Unknown to the rest of Torchwood-3, Ianto hides his half cyber converted lover Lisa in the lowest levels of the Hub. But when Lisa's Cyberman programming begins to override her humanity, Torchwood is placed in grave danger and Ianto must make a difficult choice.

From last weeks preview I had a bad feeling about this one and it unfortunately came true.

I thought the premise behind this was utter pants! How could Ianto have brought his lover from London to Cardiff, complete with her Cyber-Conversion unit, then kept it a secret in the basement for how long? (Over a year I would guess.) And surely he couldn't be blinded by love to see how much she had changed and was not his old 'Lisa' anymore?

When Star Trek introduced the Klingon females Lursar and B'Etor the concept of 'Klingon Kleavage' was invented. Here we had 'Cyberwoman Cleavage' with her Madonna Bra and S&M underwear.

Then Owen and Gwen start snogging in a body freezer. I wasn't sure if he was just trying to keep her quiet, or if she was reciprocating, but later it seemed clear from Gwen's comments that it was sexual harassment.

This is interchanged with Jack snogging Ianto while he was unconscious. Seriously, that is not how you perform CPR, with someone raised up. I have just re-trained in First Aid, and you don't even need to do breaths anymore, you can go straight to compressions.

I don't think we really need this stuff. It does nothing to advance the story and only gives titillation. It simply makes the characters of Owen, Jack and Ianto throughly unlikable. They are just adding sex to make it adult for no other reason.

And what exactly is so secret about Jack's immortality anyway? He already told Gwen, now he clearly was asking to be electrocuted again and again, simply so that he could get up and astound everyone. So, is there anyone left that has not guessed yet?

Finally, this 'black-ops' unit would all be dead by now. They don't follow orders, or their own rules and protocols, they have secrets from each other that endanger everyone. They are stupid, and do stupid things. Gwen is clumsy. Owen is a sociopath. There is no leadership from Jack. And they have a string of dead bodies they someone cover up. Covering up the Pizza delivery girl will not be easy, but that part of the story was avoided.
 
I agree.

The episode was complete and utter pants.

The Jack kissing Ianto part i'm assuming wasn't CPR it was more the passing of life force kiss he used on the Alien Girl in Episode 2. If he is going to go around passing out lifeforce like that he won't be immortal for long.
 
I thought it was a good episode, in fact, the best yet. Each to their own I guess
I don't think we've seen the last of the guy under the tarpaulin. Jack was obviously not giving CPR, as Lucien pointed out.

At least -thank god- it doesn't have as many continuity errors as Star Trek.... Yet
 
Lucien21 said:
The Jack kissing Ianto part i'm assuming wasn't CPR it was more the passing of life force kiss he used on the Alien Girl in Episode 2.
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It must have been the life-force thing then, but really I think it was just an excuse for a gay snog. RTD is a man obsessed!

The man under the tarpaulin - maybe, I hadn't thought anything more of him but it did seem a big introduction for a character so quickly killed off.
 
I've found it okay, on the grounds that I don't think about them too much, and merely try to enjoy the entertainment.

If I was thinking too much I'd notice things like they keep using the sky-lift to the pavement when the pterrodactyl is flying around (at least the second time) which is just asking for trouble...
 
I thought this was the worst so far and I cant say its been that brilliant even as yet :(
 
rune said:
I thought this was the worst so far and I cant say its been that brilliant even as yet :(
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I agree. Also each to his own but RTD, who takes every opportunity to flaunt his sexuality, does like to keep adding gay bits to lots of his productions. Why?
 
Valko said:
I thought it was a good episode, in fact, the best yet. Each to their own I guess
I don't think we've seen the last of the guy under the tarpaulin. Jack was obviously not giving CPR, as Lucien pointed out.

At least -thank god- it doesn't have as many continuity errors as Star Trek.... Yet
Click to expand...


I totally agree - the best episode yet, by FAR!

The series is still trying to find it's feet and I really don't think it will have achieved this until at least Season 2. So I'm willing to turn a blind eye to some of the pointless boy/boy, girl/girl, boy/girl, alien/human, snogging. I enjoy the premise, the storylines and the tone of the series. The concept for "Cyberwoman" was fantastic. As for getting the Cyberwoman from the Torchwood in London to Cardiff - who's to say that Torchwood don't have some kind of transportation device, not unlike the TARDIS except for the Time travel part.
 
I'll tell you what, though ; they're going to find it hard to get pizza deliveries in future!
 
Why - who's to say the girl arrived at the office? "she must have got lost en route, officer"
 
SpaceShip said:
I agree. Also each to his own but RTD, who takes every opportunity to flaunt his sexuality, does like to keep adding gay bits to lots of his productions. Why?
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I think he's going for shock factor, its not just the gay references, its sex in general.
 
Oh good lord, anyone would think there's gratuitous nudity in every scene, the way some of you are carrying on :rolleyes:
 
I get the impression he's trying to justify the later time-slot with noticeable adult content, rather than writing a balanced adult-orientated story which in practice only occasionally justifies the rating.
 
I've lost count of the amount of plot holes my wife has pointed out...Loudly...But as I keep telling her...I don't care...If you just sit there and let yourself just watch it without thinking about it...Which I will admit is very easy for me;) :D ..It's brilliant stuff...Who the hell cares if the Cybermen were unlikely to have fitted her with a suit that had the belly button hole placed that precisely...Or why they'd have given her heels?...Who cares really whether the pizza girl went on the table first or the Cyberwench?...I don't...I got a Pterodactyl fighting a Cyberwench...And Jck being majorly cool!!...I went to bed happy I tell ya!!...Aaaaand, right, Gwen said that line...I don't care I tell ya!!!...

I liked this one...Can you tell?...:D ...You can see if you look hard enough:D ...
 
Upon re-watch, it wasn't as bad as I remembered... then again, it may be the hindsight kicking in. And so, without further ado, for the fourth time tonight, the now patented spoiler alert pops up, and this time if anyone uses it without permission then it's a 50p royalties payment or the prospect of a lawsuit. :) You know, I think I might set it as a programmable button. I've got one for "rolleyes", so why not this? :p

*SPOLIERS FROM SERIES 1 & 2*

The first thing I will say, is this - who cares about a line of bodies in Torchwoods wake. No, seriously...

To me, however much I like the show, this is one of the failings of Torchwood - we see nothing else outside of the main team. There have been countless times when something happens to the people they're dealing with, and yet we're left in the dark each and every time. I suppose there's no time in each episode to go around tying up the loose ends, but it would be nice to know.
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The one flaw I dislike reared it's head again. This time in the form of a dead doctor (I keep on fighting the urge to capitalise the d!), and a pizza delivery girl. Now the doctor I wouldn't expect to hear much outcry about; he checked out of his hotel and was never seen again... but the delivery girl? She was sent to deliver the pizzas to Torchwood, and she's a local. Then again, TW can make things up and provide evidence for them (they do have a stack of bodies, after all).

Just a couple of things I noticed before I go on about a couple of other things:

- Jack's earpiece. In episode 1.03 it was a big, black monstrosity that went round the ear with the microphone poking out from underneath the ear. This episode (and in subsequent episodes, I think), it's a sleeker, silver model with a nice blue light where the mic is.
- The device Tosh uses to open the door in 45 seconds will be seen in Series 2 (she uses it to decode what Owen is saying when possessed by death in Dead Man Walking), and it made it's first appearance as possibly the same device as in Series 2, when she used it to make a copy of a book by just placing it on the spine. Re-using props for different purposes? Now come on! I'm keeping an eye out for the alien scalpel, by the way. :p
- Thirdly, I mentioned this in my 1.01 comments - Jack did actually get up quickly after Lisa deleted him for the first time. It was the second go around that he got up a lot slower.

Now then, the Series 2 stuff. I saw 2.12 on Friday, which showed flashbacks of how the different team members, excepting Gwen, joined Torchwood. Without giving too much away to those who won't see it until next week, Ianto near enough begged! Yet his actions in this episode make him seem a tad ungrateful... though they do give good reason as to his begging to join. I think the episode showed good character development for Ianto. Before this episode, he was just a grey blur in the background, tidying up, butlering, producing miraculous coffee. In 1.04 he was given a personality, well, one side of it at least. It boggles the mind how he was able to put it all behind him and eventually get down and frisky with Jack a few times, after what Jack said to him.

Talking about Jack, I do believe this is the first time we've seen him as something other than that "charming American", to quote from someone in the 1.03 thread. As we saw in 2.11 (Adrift), Jack can be mean when he wants to be. Very mean. Sure, he's been cold-hearted all the time, but his black-heart hasn't shown through until now.
 
And so, without further ado, for the fourth time tonight, the now patented spoiler alert pops up, and this time if anyone uses it without permission then it's a 50p royalties payment or the prospect of a lawsuit. You know, I think I might set it as a programmable button. I've got one for "rolleyes", so why not this?

*SPOLIERS FROM SERIES 1 & 2*
Click to expand...

What, you've patented "Spoilers" spelled like that?:D

And I agree about the bodies thing...look at Banana in "Something Borrowed"....I don't think that RetConning is going to bring anyone back to life....
 
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