Episode 6: Countrycide

[Anthony Williams]

So, what did we all think of that?

[Rob McCow]

As the first out-and-out horror episode, I thought it worked well, though it was excessively nasty and grim with hardly anything in the way of relief, comic or otherwise.

Also, I don't buy into Gwen's new relationship at the end of the episode. It's all moved too fast and I reckon she's coming across as a bit loose.

[Andrew Curnow]

It'll be interesting to see where the Gwen/Owen/Reece (is it Reece?) thing goes. If the boyfriend finds out about Owen, will he end up stumbling on Torchwood itself? And in that case, will Jack decide he needs to be silenced....?

[Andy Frankham]

Missed this one, and oddly I'm not too bothered. Oh, and I expect it'd be "Rhys", being Welsh and all. Don't quote me on that, though, but check the end credits. I'd be shocked if it isn't spelt like that, mind.

[Paul Monk]

Yeah the Owen/Gwen relationship doesn't seem a happy one to me. There's a great deal of sadness there I reckon, with Gwen thinking that thats what she wants when really I think its a coping mechanism for her and her double life.
Its making her a very unsympathetic character I reckon and Owen is coming across and aggressively slimy more and more.
Anyway it was a cracking episode, with the final revelation absolutely shocking. Even if it was filled with cliches.
And just how many horror films did it rip off?

I can think of Blair Witch, Night of the Living Dead (and perhaps Shaun of the Dead) and mostly Texas Chain Saw Massacre but I'm sure there were others.

[Si Hunt]

It was an out-and-out scare fest really wasn't it? I thought it was fun, if very grimy, and I felt somehow shortchanged by there being no supernatural element at the end. A bit like reading a book you expect to have a happy end only for it to be snapped shut and told "and then everyone died". Sort of thing. I was hoping for some fantasy element to relieve the grimness, that said it was a fun episode and I am gruesomely if cautiously fascinated with body horror, so I enjoyed it.

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

and I felt somehow shortchanged by there being no supernatural element at the end.

That's what disappointed me most I think. I was watching what I thought was a Sci-Fi show & there wasn't any Sci-Fi in it. It was all too 'real' & plausible to be Sci-fi. It was a horror show & I might think better of it thinking of it in that vain the next time I watch it, but that will probably be on DVD because now I know the ending I'm not in any hurry to see it again anytime soon.

[Anthony Williams]

to be fair to RTD and co, they did say that there wouldn't always be a supernatural element to Torchwood. This was the first time there wasn't, and I think it worked all the better for it.

Ant x

[Dirk Gently]

It depends on what you think is supernatural or not.

[Anthony Williams]

It depends on what you think is supernatural or not.

well, Countrycide certainly had no supernatural elements. I think "supernatural" was perhaps the wrong word. Maybe "out of this world" would be a better phrase

Ant x

[Trudi G]

Scared the crap out of me!

[Rob McCow]

After years and years of the X-Files doing the 'it's always the supernatural explanation that is correct' kind of story, I found it very refreshing to have people as the monsters. Although that little force-field thingy from the Sex Alien episode would have been useful on a number of occasions this week!

[Trudi G]

I think it was more scary because it wasn't aliens.

[Logo Polish]

I quite liked it. Basic, and the sort of thing that's been done many times before, but a reasonably good horror story for what it was. Owen's annoying me though, and the team seem pretty incompetent, re: leaving stuff in the van and apparently not even being able to disarm one person in close proximity. Maybe they could do with going on a training course or something.

[Alex]

This was my favourite episode yet, really making use of the post-watershed timeslot instead of inserting the odd swear word or rudey bit.

It reminded me mostly of a mix of Straw Dogs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the disconcerting tone of it was my favourite part, for the first time I thought a character might actually die, or at least be severely messed up...!

And I loved the all action Schwarzenegger style Jack bit at the end, it made me smile lots...!

[Jason Thompson]

I too felt slightly short-changed by the lack of alien involvement, even though the episode kept me gripped for the whole duration (although it was a bit obvious that Jack was going to do a sudden 'burst in and save everyone' moment once everyone else was stuck in the pub with the mob). What I did like was the lack of certainty about the characters. The format is still new enough that we're never quite sure that everyone is going to survive to the end of the episode.

Unfortunately, even without the alien elements, you still have to overlook a hugely unlikely conceit upon which the whole episode is based. Specifically, with that many people disappearing in the area there should be a huge police presence in the village, surely? Even if one of the local police is part of the setup, surely that many travellers disappearing, all with routes that pass the village, should have attracted some more attention than just Torchwood? Especially if it happens every ten years. In fact, thinking about it, this episode seems more like a detective drama in the vein of Frost or Morse that has had Torchwood put in in place of the police forces.

[Dave Lewis]

This was a vast improvement on last week's episode, thank God!

Things I liked...

"Monster" by the Automatic - it's been crying out to be used in Doctor Who or Torchwood ever since I first heard it, and it worked even better that the monsters were, in fact, human.

The swearing - there was a lot of it, but it seemed to be used better than in previous episodes. Hot damn, I love a good cuss, especially f... oh sorry... none of that here.

Some genuinely creepy bits - typical corner-of-your-eye glimpse of someone or something rushing past, standard horror stuff I agree, but very effective.

The visuals - I'm a sucker for moody, cloudy shots of hills, and lonely, deserted farmhouses, stone walls, bare trees, and that kind of chilly, mournful quality that one gets in quiet country places. This episode had all that in spades. There was also a realistic quality to the interiors, and the interiors of people - from homely village pubs to drab cellars to gory human innards and limbs, it looked excellent, and it profited from having no shots whatsoever of Torchwood HQ, I felt. One other thing about the visuals - when Ianto was going up the hill behind the houses, immediately before Tosh disappeared the camera turned slightly on its side to film him. For some unfathomable reason, it reminded me of being a kid and on holiday in the country, and imagining filming Doctor Who or something out on the lonely fells. Strange little memory link there.

Tosh's running - Gwen didn't really get to do any this week, but Tosh made up for it. Worryingly, after Gwen had been shot, and she was lying on the ground, the camera in soft focus pulling away above her, I thought she looked fit as f... well, you get the general idea.

Things I didn't like...

The dialogue - although the story itself was good, some of the dialogue was awful, none more so than the bit when Owen 'had' Gwen up against the tree at the beginning. It just sounded ridiculous, and although I could quite believe Owen believed what he was saying, Gwen didn't look at all convinced. Maybe seeing them together at the end was something of a baked bean ending, but it was a bit of a twist that it's Owen she starts seeing behind Rhys' back, rather than Cap'n Jack, and there has been a distance between them after recent events, rather than the initial closeness. Maybe Gwen found Jack's alien qualities appealing initially, but was then a bit repulsed by them and wanted something more Earthy. Or maybe it's just the Florence Nightingale effect because of the caring way he pulled the buckshot out of her.

Sorry, I wandered off at a tangent there. What else didn't I like?

Oh yeah, nothing really. Second best episode of the series - I'd give "Countrycide" eight bags of human flesh out of ten.

[Paul Clement]

I'm agreeing with Dave here. Second best story of the series. I loved the way it was built up to be an alien threat when the actual resolution was more mujndane and because of that, all the more horrifying.

[Larry]

finally sat down and watched it to day and it was a fairly enjoyable and well written tale had some very grusome moments but at the end of the day the revelation it was the villages should not come as a shock as this kind of things been done before/

[Perry Vale]

Finally got round to watching this on friday night, and it was so scary it left me feeling a bit sick. Bad camerawork always does that to me though. Sadly, although this was a better story than some earlier episodes, it was ruined for me by some awful direction, camerwork & dialogue.

Who uses the word "snogging"? Probably the same people who use the word "screwed" instead of f***ed.

[Jon Masters]

With nothing much to do except marking ( ), I'm finally getting round to watching the rest of Torchwood.

This was a load of old pants though - trying far too hard to be mysterious and spooky when it very much wasn't. And lots of cheating camerawork to make the 'monsters' capable of doing things they couldn't do really.
Summed up by the A Team style ending really

Might have been funnier if the nutter had whsipered "its coz I'm Welsh and me mum's me sister"