Mr Frobisher

[Andrew Curnow]

We're all agreed I'm sure that one of the most gripping performances in this week's Torchwood, and in fact in any TV show in a good long while if you ask me, has been Peter Capaldi's stunning portrayal of 'middle-man' Mr Frobisher.

But, perhaps we could examine the character, as I ask - in the final analysis, was he a good man or not? Does he ultimately deserve our sympathy, or in fact is it no more than his just desserts? Was he a helpless victim, or a villain?

[Si Hunt]

He was clearly intended to be portrayed as a good man, and indeed there was a scene mid-way through Episode 5 where another character continually repeated "He Is A Good Man!" at us for five minutes to make sure we got the message. You just don't get subtlety like that in other shows!

However, for me he goes under the category of "weak so sort of bad". Shooting his wife and two daughters before checking that the alien menace couldn't be contained was a bit premature, and sure enough it WAS contained a short while later, so they died for nothing. Weak and foolish, rather than evil, then.

Si.

[Simon R]

He was obviously, without a shadow of a doubt supposed to be Frobisher from the comics. What another cunning stunt in-joke.

[Captain Tancredi]

I've said elsewhere that he came across as the kind of character Malcolm Hulke did very well and often- a creature of the system who never really questions what he's doing because the system looks after him, a bit like Captain Dent or numerous other Pertwee-era officials. To begin with he's portrayed as a morally bankrupt man who can condemn people to death without a second thought to protect the cover-up, and it's only when he finds out what it's like to be on the receiving end of the system that we see the human being inside.

There's a point in his last conversation with the PM where he threatens to blow the cover-up rather than give up his daughters- taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean that the Government would have no chance of reaching its 10% quota, so would he be prepared to condemn the human race to death rather than give up his family? It's perhaps another way of looking at the way he kills his family and himself- he can't see that giving up his daughters would save the lives of others, and I think that contrasts with Jack doing more or less the opposite to save the children and the rest of humanity.

[FlyingBeastie]

i agree, this actor who played frobyshire was indeed amazing and at first i thought he was a total $%^%$ but as the series went on i felt more and more sorry for him and how he kept getting pushed and ultimately he's a victim in my opinion. there was nothing he could do- cos' the whole entire time everything he did was to protect his family and in the end when he saw he couldn't he wasn't going to let their fates fall out of his hand and in the end took it upon himself to kill them.

in the end you could say he undertook the ultimate punishment to himself for failing his family.

and i just have to say that i had my jaw not just to the floor but through the floorbaords to the basement with that scene- i had no idea Torchwood was going to go there- i was hoping he was just going to kill himself but once i saw him enter that room i was just- like i said, totally floored.

amazing series, what Torchwood was always meant to be says I.

[Pip Madeley]

I agree, the series really found its feet with this series.

[Martin Curnow]

Resurrecting an old thread but caught episode 5 on Sky over the weekend. Peter Capaldi gives a great performance.

Didn't RTD say in a DWM Production Notes that he had a link in the back of his mind between Caecillius from Fires of Pompeii and Frobisher? Does he tell all in the revisited Writer's Tale?