Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Greg]

Another episode of Torchwood, and Owen Harper is still dead.

And not having much fun, either. In fact, Owen is becoming sufficiently a worry that he is relieved from his operational duties in Torchwood, rplaced by Martha Jones, and gets a lesson in the art of the barista from Ianto in order to become the Torchwood coffee boy.

The episode takes some time to explore what it means when you have everything taken away from you - Owen can no longer live his life as he used to - his body just can't do it.

And then - coincidence of coincidences - up comes a mission where Owen's new mode of existence puts him in a position where he can do the job where no one else could.

That bit doesn't ring particularly true with me. Now halfway through the second series, there have been plenty of missions that the team weren't properly equipped to deal with - and it hasn't stopped them before. This time: only Owen can do it. This and one other point (which I'll get to soon) were problematic enough that they really disrupted the flow of the story for me.

The other was a really simple point: Owen spends the episode talking and talking and talking. And we get to a point in the story and Owen not breathing is important. Dr Harper isn't very bright: if you can talk, you have to get air into your body and force it out again. You may not breathe automatically, but you can do it. I'm not a doctor, and I can work that out!

On the plus side, the characterisation of Owen, in particular, was good, the framing sequence worked well be apparently sailing in one direction then showing it was misdirection all along.

And oddly, Owen Harper is revealed to be a human being. He only had to die to prove it.

[dave]

I didn't mind this one, but things seem to have been going downhill, in my opinion, since Adam, which was just amazing. I guess that, after the production team learned how unpopular Owen was after the first season, they needed a story arc to 'redeem' him, and we've seen most of that now. I have no doubt he'll be returned to 'life' somehow in the near future. It did provide a nice excuse to get Martha on the show though, so it's not all bad.

I told myself last week not to point out the ridiculous nature of Owen supposedly being dead and yet still being able to do all kinds of things, but I can't avoid it now. No breath? Then how the hell does he talk? No nerves working? How on earth does he see and hear? No blood flowing, then why haven't his eyes gone glassy and his liver and pancreas turned to liquid yet, etc, etc. Not to mention that he won't heal from cutting injuries yet doesn't fry when exposed to large electrical current...It's just dumb, and conjures up the cardinal rule: Don't think about Torchwood.

Not sure why something which seems akin to a musical instrument would be putting out energy readings on such a scale either. Or how it was supposed to be a reply to our attempts to contact alien life.

Nice to see Richard Briers, though. Pity the rest of the story was fairly average. I was sad to see Martha leave, I think she worked well with the rest of the team. Next week's episode looks interesting, to say the least, and it seems we'll be getting another double bill, which is promising. Hope it's as good as the previous double bill.

[meglos]

Very Good. Had me enthraled until the end. What are they going to do with Owen now? You long is he going to remain dead?

[El_Zoof]

Well, that was a bit dull, wasn't it? Nothing important happened today, indeed...

[Panecea]

Although it was well scripted and acted, this week's episode seemed to deviate from the main storyline as though it was an after thought. While this has been Burn Gorman's best performance to date the construction and position of the story are better suited to a stand alone feature.

[Theta Sigma]

After having written many Big Finishes as well as writing the prologue for 42, Joseph Lidster finally makes his debut for the televised Whoniverse with this marvellous episode.
The words "mostly harmless" were used. Probably a Hitchhiker reference.
Quite disturbing what Owen had to say about Tintin and his dog (Snowy).
Quite harrowing to seeing the tragedy from Maggie's wedding day.
The incidental music for this episode is absolutely beautiful.
Excellent final shot for the episode.

This was the final of the three episodes (at least for this season) of Martha in Torchwood and I have to say that for the most part Martha's presence has mostly been unsatisfactory. While she did get a lot to do in Reset, she takes a back seat in Dead Man Walking & A Day In The Death. In A Day In The Death she serves as a bridgehead having replaced Owen temporarily as Torchwood's medical officer.

If she does comes back to telly Torchwood (as she is in the upcoming radio episode) let's hope she gets better material than she did in Dead Man Walking & A Day In The Death.

[montypython]

My dad predicted at the end of Reset that Martha would take over Owen’s role as medical officer. He was right.

It seems that in order to achieve deep levels of wisdom, all you have to do is die. It worked for the Doctor, it worked for Jack, and now it’s worked for Owen. The thing is, I think his character has changed too much this season. Unlike say Ianto, who has become quietly confident over time, Owen has gone from a selfish bastard to a reflective, somewhat melancholy character who actually cares about people. And while I much prefer this Owen, I question the ability of someone to change so quickly.

As El_Zoof said, not a lot actually happened in this episode. I think it focused too much on Owen’s dealing with being a zombie (hey, he’s the living dead isn’t he?), especially that scene at his place. And when it finally did get round to the main plot, it anti-climaxed. It was just used as a platform to talk more about death, life after death etc.

Excruciating when Owen broke his finger!

An okay episode – I wouldn’t call it bad – but not all that enthralling.

[Sulp Niar]

[montypython]