Doctor Who Club of Australia

Greg · Last edited by Greg on Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:09 am; edited 2 times in total

Spooky circus stories are always likely to rate highly with me - and get one written by PJ Hammond (Oh, sorry, Peter J Hammond, these days) of Sapphire and Steel fame and you run the chance it'll be my favourite episode of this year's series.

Oddly enough, this episode had a definite S&S feel to it, with the Night Travellers being both like an enemy from S&S but with the initial two also a bit like Sapphire and Steel (the woman going by the name Pearl just emphasises that).

Now, the other thing about S&S is that the stories usually unfold and exactly where they'll end up is never that clear at the beginning, so I won't talk too much about the content.

The story features more hints about Jack's past and takes the opportunity to pick up on aspects of the characters already established this year (although both Gwen and Tosh don't get that much to do this time around) to fit into the story and make it a Torchwood story rather than something more generic.

While it is more of a mystery than an action episode, and hence won't appeal to people who want all-out action, it does focus on our heroes thinking through a problem to get to a solution, rather than relying on a big gun to resolve the problem.

And it doesn't have the same rushed conclusion that hurt Hammond's last Torchwood story, Small Worlds.

More like this, please!

meglos · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 670 Location: Perth

I love the slower pace of this one and Ianto is becoming a great character(my favourite). He has some great lines.

SharazJek · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 932 Location: Hobart, Tasmania

VERY Sapphire and Steel this one. It's very similar in concept to one of the S&S stories actually.

Very well done and looks like we may get a sequel, unless it's teasing in a similar way to the final few seconds of 'Blink'.

Travelling cicuses are CREEPY...........

Bring PJ back again for sure!

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 4567

There have been episodes of the current version of parent Doctor Who which was an adaption or adopted elements from Doctor Who stories from other media.

This episode the second from Peter J Hammond by contrast borrowing a plot element from a completely unrelated series, one that he created -Sapphire & Steel. From Sapphire & Steel he borrowed the plot element from Adventure Four which he also written.

The story is quite spooky and I thought the Ghostmaker looked like Vincent Price.

If there is one thing disappointing about the episode is that only one of the victims got his breath back. Would have been good if all got their breaths back.

Not bad the ending leaving things ambiguous about whether Jack and Torchwood does anything about the father and son which just bought a can of film.

montypython