2.12: Fragments

[Lenny]

*WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS THROUGHOUT*

A booby trapped building explodes and knocks the team unconscious. As their lives flash before their eyes, we learn how each of them was recruited to Torchwood. Capt Jack's initiation into a shocked Victorian Torchwood in1899, Toshiko's daring mission to trade alien technology for her mother's life, how Ianto woo'd Jack with coffee and a flair for alien-catching, and the medical revelation that changed how Owen saw the world.

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Take that, Dave! I was going to wait until the last episode to break your run, but I can't wait another two weeks.

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Anyway... whilst it felt like an excuse to just introduce the characters a lot more, I liked this episode. Not much happened, but a lot happened, namely all four characters other than Gwen joined Torchwood in a "life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die" moment. And quite a few questions were answered.

Jack
A century?! Wow, poor thing. Explains why he got mixed up with an organisation set out to eliminate the threat of the Doctor, though. I liked the touch with the blowfish - reading off a list of offences, including "joyriding with a horse and carriage". But does every head of TW3 have to be homosexual? Plus, we also came across the little girl from Dead Man Walking, which explains Jacks link with her, but nothing about her.

How Jack became leader of Torchwood was interesting, and we found out where he got his "It's the twenty-first Century when everything changes" line from. Nice to see some more TW operatives, too.

Tosh
I was expecting the scenes with the pig from the Doctor Who episode, but instead she built a sonic modulator, which she always the plans of on one of her computer screens in the Hub. We saw her mother again (first time was in the Series One finale), who again spoke in Japanese rather than English.

Ianto
Haha. Woo'd him with a cup of coffee and comments about his jacket. Nice. Also explains how TW came into possession of the pteradactyl. I'd forgotten that he'd been part of TW1.

Owen
No wonder he's so bitter. Although we've already seen it this series, it's still a bit strange to see a caring side to him, and his loss gives reason to all his one night stands and non-commitment in relationships.

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Kudos to the make-up team - they managed to make all of the characters look a lot younger (Jack and Tosh stood out as looking much younger than their modern day looks).

All in all, I enjoyed the episode.

Just a word on the finale - they've taken their time bringing James Marsters back in. Rather than have an underlying theme cropping up in every episode, we've had two (and a third in two weeks) out of eleven episodes dealing with Jack and his past. I thought we were going to learn a lot more about him.

I look forward to the last episode, regardless, and although I'll be a bit sad that it's over, it will mean that the next thing to look forward to will be Doctor Who!!

 

[Pyan]

I thought it rather neatly pulled the team together, after a few individual episodes this series, and was a nice change from a couple of episodes which, if not exactly dull, had fallen from the rather better overall series quality.
Nice to see the red berets of U.N.I.T. again, as well.


But changing the broadcast day, and making us wait two weeks until the next episode? Why us, BBC? If you messed around with Eastenders like this, you'd have people baying for blood......

 

[The Ace]

Well yes, but just because we face heavy fines for not paying for TV doesn't mean we can watch what we like (sorry, my license is due).

 

[Dave]

Take that, Dave! I was going to wait until the last episode to break your run, but I can't wait another two weeks.

Ha! I didn't even watch it. I wasn't in and I didn't bother recording after last Wednesday's episode. Now it looks like I may have missed something good. When is the BBC2 repeat? There were probably quite a few people who didn't know it was on last night. Nothing new though, Science Fiction on TV is always messed around like this. I would go further than the point made about Eastenders - I would say that BBC3 wouldn't even move that dreadful Lilly Allen show around the way they have messed about with Torchwood in the last few months.

 

[Pyan]

that dreadful Lilly Allen show

I watched ten minutes of that, once....and that was nine minutes too long....

Next Friday (28th), BBC2, 9 pm, Dave....

 

[Dr.Jackson]

A nicely done episode, a lot of character back story despite the limited time. I have to say that I really enjoyed this episode, gave me a number of questions that I hope will be answered in the finale and the next series.

With Tosh, it does seem that she must have been working for Torchwood when she encountered the porcine pilot in 'Aliens of London', but working alongside U.N.I.T. must have been difficult for her after what they put her through.

Jacks' flashback did answer a few questions. I thought he'd been sent by TW to investigate the 'Night Travellers', and this episode made it implicit. However, it did raise more questions than it answered, such as why has the psychic girl not aged either?
It also seemed that he only recruited the pleading Ianto after they almost had 'a moment'... ahem.

I'm a bit confused as to why Jack didn't Retcon Owen after his fiancee died, or didn't it exist then?

Anyhoo, looking forward to the series finale.... two flamin' weeks away!

 

[Lenny]

I'm a bit confused as to why Jack didn't Retcon Owen after his fiancee died, or didn't it exist then?

Maybe he was already thinking, at the time, that he wanted Owen in his team?

Give the kid a while to mull over what had happened (who cares if he spouts about aliens in her brain, we saw what happened when he did - trauma brought on by grief, didn't the doctor say?), and then talk to him. If he refuses to join then you can RetCon him.

Anyone pick up on the throwaway comment in the scene when Owen was talking to the doctor, who didn't believe about the aliens?

Owen: What about [the doctor who took her into surgery]?
Doctor: He's in Cardif.

 

[ctg]

Why is that Owen (the undead doctor) didn't get hurt more? He has his deathwish, has he not?

 

[Kostmayer]

It does seem that whenever any character becomes immortal, he or she will die way more then everyone around them (well, everyone else can only die once but you know what I mean).

Captain Scarlett, Duncan Macleod, that cheerleader in Heroes - maybe immortality makes you reckless.

 

[Dave]

I've seen this now and liked it a lot. It does explain much about the characters, but especially Owen.

I'm a bit confused as to why Jack didn't Retcon Owen after his fiancée died, or didn't it exist then?

Maybe he was already thinking, at the time, that he wanted Owen in his team?

I thought exactly the same thing and then I came to exactly the same conclusion.

However, it did raise more questions than it answered, such as why has the psychic girl not aged either?

That one is much harder to explain.

It does seem that whenever any character becomes immortal, he or she will die way more then everyone around them - maybe immortality makes you reckless.

Yes, I think it would make you reckless, and probably not the best leader.

How Jack became leader of Torchwood was interesting, and we found out where he got his "It's the twenty-first Century when everything changes" line from. Nice to see some more TW operatives, too.

But it didn't explain what the previous leader was so afraid of in the Twenty-First Century. It surely can't be the 'sleepers'? It must be something we haven't come across yet.

 

[Harpo]

It does seem that whenever any character becomes immortal, he or she will die way more then everyone around them (well, everyone else can only die once but you know what I mean).

Captain Scarlett, Duncan Macleod, that cheerleader in Heroes - maybe immortality makes you reckless.

Imagine if, say, Harry Potter died before the last few books. Then those books would be entirely lacking in their titular character. Would it work?

The death of a character is a major dramatic event, and it usually happens (if at all) at the very end of their story. Immortal characters can continue beyond their "deaths", which means you get more dramatic events.

 

[Pyan]

Then those books would be entirely lacking in their titular character. Would it work?

I can only think of a couple of examples, but both were TV series...Taggart and Blake's Seven - and even there, Blake vanished, but was brought back right at the end.

 

[Kostmayer]

Never saw much post-Taggart Taggart.

Blake's 7 was probably a little different in that Avon was arguably a stronger character then Blake.

 

[Dr.Jackson]

Having watched this episode again, and assuming that Tosh wasn't locked up for over a year before Jack came to see her, I'll correct myself in saying that he may not have used Retcon on Owen because it didn't exist then. When Jack visited Tosh in the U.N.I.T. prison, he said that her mother wouldn't remember being kidnapped as he had given her a little pill that wiped it from her memory.

On another note, to pick up on the discrepancies with the established time-line, Jack may have briefly left TW to fight in World War 1, which may be why he didn't know more about Tommy from episode 3, or appear in the team photo from that time. I could, however, just be trying to tape over holes in causality , which may be what the writers will have to do!
*okay, who damaged the time-line?*

 

[Dave]

On another note, to pick up on the discrepancies with the established time-line, Jack may have briefly left TW to fight in World War 1, which may be why he didn't know more about Tommy from episode 3, or appear in the team photo from that time.

I got the impression that he didn't become a 'team' member until recently. When we saw him with the Blowfish and the lesbians he was certainly working under duress. He could have continued to work as a kind of mercenary or special operative for the rest of the Century, yet still take time out to fight in the War or any number of other events that the writers may care to invent in the future.

 

[Pyan]

Changing the subject slightly:
Why on earth would the Blowfish be wearing a Victorian suit? Was it trying to blend into the background?

 

[Ursa major]

On the other hand, Pyan, what other clothes would it be able to get hold of? (Its own clothes may have needed replacement, given the one-wayness(-ish) of the rift.)

 

[Pyan]

What, like a Terminator?
I was under the impression that the Rift allowed inanimate objects, such as clothes...certainly Captain John seemed to bring his own through.