Episode 9: Random Shoes

[Rob McCow]

Like L&M it was about "yer ordinary bloke" harassing the lead characters (who wern't in it much), having an experience, and concluding that life is great so appreciate the "chips and loft insulation".

That was what made me think that Random Shoes was so desparately crrrap. Love & Monsters has already told us this; I just didn't care about Eugene. He wasn't facing an alien threat, he didn't have any kind of emotional journey, so it failed as a character piece.

It wasn't satisfying as a mystery, because all the clues led to nothing. It really promised (to me) to be an amazing murder mystery, with the stuff about the alien bidder and the Dagon eye really tantalising. The idea that all that was nonsense and you should worry about real life came as a limp slap at the face that just annoyed me. The 'Message' of Love & Monsters could be interpreted in a few ways, here it's force fed that we have to celebrate loft insulation. How random! Sheez.

It was an episode without any sense of threat, there was nothing at stake. Although it had some good moments and ideas, the relentless pounding of trying to be deep and philisophical in the tritest possible way made my stomach churn.

"Oooooo Danny boy!"

[MinaHarker]

An odd little episode, quite nice but not classic by any means.

but I'm having trouble with the central concept now, and it seems some of the writers are too.

Torchwood started off as a secret organisation. In The Christmas Invasion Harriet Jones was not supposed to know about it, and the UNIT major was aghast that she even suggested involving them. In Army Of Ghosts it's implied that no-one outside the organisation knows it exists, Canary Wharf not publicly known as Torchwood headquarters. Now I may be wrong, but I'm sure the first episode of Torchwood has Jack describe it as a 'secret organisation', and they even have a hidden headquarters with a dummy entrance and a weird exit out onto the streets of Cardiff hidden by some kind of perception field. Certainly they give people amnesia pills left, right and centre.

And yet here it seems everyone knows who Torchwood is. They drive around in a car with Torchwood written on the side. The police knew who they were last week, even knowing Jack Harkness by name, yet in the first episode no-one in the police knew who Torchwood was and there was no record of Jack Harkness except as a disappeared RAF officer from 1941. Eugene, some random geek, knows who they all are by name, it seems. And on more than one occasion they seem to be doing stuff more applicable to normal police work. Why on Earth were they investigating a hit and run? They had no reason to suppose Eugene had any connection with aliens, as they had always brushed him off before.

I suspect a lot of things changed after the cybermen attacked Earth. They brushed off the Sycorax as some kind of hoax, but I think the people of Earth, the ordinary guy we don't usually get to see, knows more now. Remember that the freaky alient telepath girl told Tosh that there were a lot of internet geeks talking about Torchwood - I suspect Eugene was one of them.

And we really don't need the opening narration about Torchwood every week.

I agree. It sounds a bit too overdone now.

[MinaHarker]

but then, Eugene didn't sound Welsh to me!

I thought that, but then I realised he sounded just like Lee Evans who is welsh, ergo Eugene sounded Welsh... even though he didn't really.

Does that make sense?!

[Jason Thompson]

I suspect a lot of things changed after the cybermen attacked Earth. They brushed off the Sycorax as some kind of hoax, but I think the people of Earth, the ordinary guy we don't usually get to see, knows more now.

I must admit I hadn't thought about that. So Gwen and her police force colleagues must have just been really thick then. Jack mentioned the Cybermen in the pub with Gwen in the opening episode, and she said Rhys thought it was all some kind of terrorism, with psychotropic drugs or somesuch.

Actualy, I've just thought of something. Why did Jack tell Gwen all about Torchwood before giving her amnesia? Why not just give it to her as soon as she entered the base? Was he doing it deliberately to get her into Torchwood? If not it seems a bit clumsy and daft, especially as they know that sometimes the amnesia can be broken.

Remember that the freaky alient telepath girl told Tosh that there were a lot of internet geeks talking about Torchwood - I suspect Eugene was one of them.

True. very true.

[Si Hunt]

The opening is only about 30 seconds long, and re-stating the series ethos never did "The A-Team", "Incredible Hulk", "Knight Rider" etc. any harm. I quite like it.

Si.

[Jonno]

the "shoes" photos were because in the heat of the struggle over the Eye, he accidentally took a volley of photos capturing his friends shoes. The photos didn't mean anything, hence the episode title - "Random Shoes".

Hmmm, I disagree with your viewpoint there, Si. The way I saw it, Eugene knew he was in big trouble, and deliberately took those photos so that in the event of something bad happening to him, he would leave a clue behind - which Gwen did indeed work out.

As for the episode title - according to the Radio Times for the BBC2 showing (there is no episode title for any of the digital showings) it's Invisible Eugene - which I noticed Wayne using in the Rate Torchwood thread. Though the bbc.co.uk Torchwood website does refer to "Random Shoes". So which is right?!

[Andrew Curnow]

Don't we get an episode title on the BBC Three debut? I'm sure we do!

[Trudi G]

I did shed a little tear at the end. I'm soft like that!

[Milky Tears]

I fell asleep before it started...






and have yet to wake up.

[Andrew Curnow]

Although I really came away from the episode feeling very disappointed, and even surprised, I'm very pleased that so many people liked this one.

[Perry Vale]

Don't we get an episode title on the BBC Three debut? I'm sure we do!

It said "Random Shoes" when I watched it.

[Si Hunt]

I think we should call it either "Edge of the Random Shoes", "Beyond the Invisible Eugene" or "The Mutants".

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

Random Crap.

Ant x

[Paul Monk]

Not watched it all yet but I did fins myself welling up.

And Antony and the Johnsons! Enough said.

[duncan]

I thought it was a very strong and emotional episode. It was very much from the mould of Love and Monsters except this was good and L&M was crap!

[Paul Clement]

I found myself quite enjoying this one after not being especially enamoured of the start.

[Paul Monk]

I thought it was ok. It just didn't really grab me in anyway.

[Dave Lewis]

I appear to be a week behind everybody else with Torchwood... it's all to do with videos and stuff. But I've now finally seen Random Shoes, and once again, it was a slow starting episode. However, after about fifteen minutes, I was starting to consider it a poor man's Love And Monsters that didn't seem to fit into its slot within the series - nothing to indicate Gwen and Owen's relationship whatsoever; but then there's nothing to say that it had to be taking place immediately after They Keep On Killing Susie. But anyway, after about thirty minutes, I realised I was engrossed in what was happening, and to be honest, by the end, I must have had a bit of dust in my eye or something... it had a genuinely moving and uplifting ending, with a positive message about the moments of joy and excitement to find in the ordinariness of everyday life.

There were weak points about Random Shoes I have to admit, and it certainly wasn't the best episode yet... but after such a moving ending (from 'Danny Boy' right through to the very end) I can't find it in my heart to criticise it too much.

[Jon Masters]

Oh dear - after such promise of good things to come with TKKS, its a horrible slip back into mushy melodrama. Why is it that these "narrated" episodes just come across so bleugh. The way these losers seem to have such a gift of poetic elegance with their commentary completely clashes with their actual characters and how they're portrayed. Its almost like someone else is writing their words for them

No more thank you.