2.7 Dead Man Walking

[Master_Rose]

I do not get why there is a church full of Weavels in South Wales protecting the second glove (although one of a pair but different) when it is TW's job to sort out the Weavels. Furthermore it's not that difficult to get the glove.... you just wait till they are all asleep !!! Apologies if you are on BBC2 time but I am on BBC3 time.

[Wayne]

There was some character stuff in tonight's ep, but the story was

I laughed when they burst in to evacuate the hospital proclaiming 'Ladies & Gentlemen, we're Torchwood!'
The patients would be like: "Torch What?" "Toch Who", "Wtf are these guys on?"

[Master_Rose]

And you saw when there was no TW medic they had to go NHS..... that means Owen recovers eventually OR new character.

[Master_Rose]

And what's with the tarot girl ? Maybe it's setting something up for future episodes but it don't make sense to me. Was the tarot girl actress the same actress as the girl with the red balloon in Family of Blood ?

[Jason Thompson]

I was disappointed with this episode for a number of reasons. The acting was as good as ever, there were some good bits in it, but I just wish I hadn't seen the glove coming. I suspected, and as soon as Jack ordered them not to cut him up I knew it was coming.

However, the real reason I'm disappointed is not to do with the series, but with RTD. Every time I hear him say something about the shows he sounds less and less sincere. In Torchwood Declassified after Reset he made the point that the team faces life and death, and it's good to have death occasionally to remind the viewers that they really are in danger and no-one is safe. That's fine. It was the same reasoning JN-T used for killing Adric, or Terry Nation used for killing Gan in Blake's 7. It shocks the audience and really is dramatically effective.

And then they resurrected him in the very next episode, thus undermining it all. We already have one character in Torchwood who actually can't die so can be shot, stabbed, electrocuted etc. and we know he'll be back on his feet in a few minutes. Now, from the looks of the trailer for the next episode, we'll have another. Now if another character dies we'll be waiting for them to be resurrected later on. There'll be no drama in the death. And RTD knew what was coming, so was talking out of his arse. He made good points, but we don't realise until later that he's not actually applying them to this show.

[WhiteCrow]

Seems in line with John Barrowman's appearance on Jonathon Ross where he said the most frightening monster he'd seen were Cardiff girls "fighting seagulls for chips", it seems the most frightening predator once again are the women of Cardiff. Is the place THAT bad?

[NorthernStar]

Seems in line with John Barrowman's appearance on Jonathon Ross where he said the most frightening monster he'd seen were Cardiff girls "fighting seagulls for chips", it seems the most frightening predator once again are the women of Cardiff. Is the place THAT bad?

You've never been on a Hen Night! Trust me, that girl showed restraint in comparison!

Loved the "no blood flow" bit, No-one ever pointed that out to Angel.

[WhiteCrow]

You've never been on a Hen Night!

I did get kind of mobbed by a Hen Night once, but yes that was many, many years ago now I come to think about it.

Obviously you've been involved with one more recently around the merry delights of Aldershot (scarey)!

[NorthernStar]

I did get kind of mobbed by a Hen Night once, but yes that was many, many years ago now I come to think about it.

Obviously you've been involved with one more recently around the merry delights of Aldershot (scarey)!

Guildford, thankfully. I dread to think what sort of Hen would think Cheeks (well, Vox now) was the place to go for such an important night!

[Dirk Gently]

Now if another character dies we'll be waiting for them to be resurrected later on. There'll be no drama in the death.

Well kind of. They destroyed this glove (I seem to recall them saying there was a pair last series) & they threw the other one away. So unless they find the other one (which is possible) then dead means dead.

As for this episode, it was quite good. It wasn't as good as last weeks but still very watchable. Freema was on excellent form even if I did see the ageing of her from the second the glove made contact.
The un-dead Owen is obviously going to run for a couple of episodes (or until the series end) but by the looks of the trailer he needs to absorb energy from time to time. This is likely to be the focus of the next episode & two Owen-centric episodes might be a bit much. We'll see.

[WhiteCrow]

Hmmm - am I the only one who feels that Martha doesn't really seem to fit into Torchwood.

[Jason Thompson]

Well kind of. They destroyed this glove (I seem to recall them saying there was a pair last series) & they threw the other one away. So unless they find the other one (which is possible) then dead means dead.

Yes, they destroyed both gloves (both with an unusually destructive bullet too...), but so what? The glove was a plot device. We don't know where it came from. We just know it brings people back to life. It's a more stark plot device than the hexachromite gas on Seabase 4, which at least was given some practical reason for existing there. What stops another plot device turning up? Rhys and half the population of Cardiff died at the end of series 1, only to magically reappear when Abaddon was destroyed. Captain John Hart's return to the rift magically reset time so that the guy he killed wasn't dead, etc. Similarly, there is no dramatic tension when Jack is threatened because we know he can't die.

I just find it frustrating that RTD made such a thing about death being important, then undid it five minutes into the next episode. If you kill a character for the reasons he stated, leave them dead and let the viewers come to terms with the loss alongside the characters. Resurrecting them undermines it all.

I guess I wouldn't be complaining if I hadn't seen the Declassified bit and heard RTD say all this. The episodes alone were rather good and it makes an interesting plot development.

[Perry Vale]

Could've been great this one, but the plot was once again very confused, as others have mentioned. The best of the series so far, for me, as it was mostly played straight, with no cheesey hollywood lines.

And can someone explain just why the glove aged Martha, what was that all about? Did they just have some prosthetic budget to use up?

[Dirk Gently]

Well the first glove took away Gwen's energy but this one took away Martha's life. It took away the years she should of lived before death took her naturally. We all have our own fixed life span to which our organs & bones will continue to work before they fail.
We then change this span by life style, environment & activities. I suppose Martha would have aged to about 80 from the point the glove made contact with out outside influences. This is not to say that Martha can't die next week from an overdose of Number 13 bus.
I suppose this could have been because Martha has travelled in time or because this glove is different, we just don't know.
It was probably just the writers excuse to get them all to the Hospital for dramatic purposes.

[Perry Vale]

It was probably just the writers excuse to get them all to the Hospital for dramatic purposes.

Well yes, I realised that was why, I just wondered if there was any coherent plot reason for it. Or for it to happen to Martha (as she wasn't wearing the glove)? Obviously not.

[Michael Mills]

I must say, I enjoyed this episode immensely - not least because during the final fight between Owen and Death I was sat there going, "I had a lecture there today!" I love living in Cardiff!

[Jon Masters]

Hmmm - not so impressed; the plot was all over the place, the 'life energy' smacked of Babylon 5 series 4, the black eyes and billowing demonic smoke were nicked wholesale from Supernatural, Martha did naff all, Tosh is getting boringly repetitive and Gwen did her ' aren't normal human beings wonderful' RTD routine.

Add the irritating 'actor stands on wobbly camera' sequence and it was very much style over substance.

[Captain Tancredi]

Well, that's me off Guinness for a while...

[chalkie]

i can see it now, " owen harper- homicide...i find it saves time to explain my condition immediately" all they need is a werewolf, a golem, & a troll and viola! cardiff = ankh morpork

[enzo1701]

Hmm... you may have a point as the River Taff is as bad......

[Si Hunt]

It was a mixture of the good and the bad for me.

'Evil Owen' was nicely sinister (and no matter how many times they do 'black non-reflective eyes' = evil it's still haunting) and the scenes of him struggling in the darkness while voices whisper all around him were deeply unnerving. And I liked all the historical stuff about when Death came through the little girl. Also Owen literally fighting with Death was a nice iconic image.

Alas, the skeleton was over-egging it, and smacked of moronic symbolism. Plus Death's impact was reduced when it was walking sensibly down the stairs. The evacuation of the hospital was a bit silly - how are people supposed to evacuate a hospital if hooked up to life support machines and so-on? - and 'old Martha' didn't serve any plot purpose. It was just an excuse to do that 'ageing up' make-up they love so much.

Above all, Owen being 'dead' didn't make a whole lot of sense. His blood wasn't running and his digestive system was inert, so...er... how was his brain functioning? How could he blink? And even if being brought back from the dead hadn't been done before, it's still very dodgy to 'undo' last weeks drama by cheating the viewer and simply having him come back. And why exactly was he 'king of the Weevils'? It's a bit tenuous.

So loved all the stuff about Death coming through, and there were some nice set peices and lines about how Owen felt about dying, but a lot of didn't make sense and it sailed very close to silliness with the walking skeleton. The twitching glove was quite scary though.

Si.

[Captain Tancredi]

I suspect that the "rules" about what Owen can and can't do are very much based on what the vampires in Buffy and Angel could do, and even they didn't get it right as Angel and Spike didn't let the absence of blood flow get in the way of active love lives.

[chalkie]

Hmm... you may have a point as the River Taff is as bad......

as in even atheists can walk accross it?

[Larry]

another excelent story teries 2 seems to be getting better each week.

[Andrew Curnow]

How did Jack know about the other glove?

Apart from that, all I have to say is that when Owen sat up on the table in the mortuary it reminded me of Paul McGann's TVM debut. I half expected him to snog Martha and say "I - am - the - doctor!"