Episode 11: Combat

[Jim]

I caught last nights but Im struggling to engage with the whole thing generally. I found the reliance on magic alien objects to tell a story a bit feeble early on, then it picked up a bit - liked last few episodes (denby ashe and missing plane one) then it gets a bit nasty and grim like last night. Im struggling with the leads too apart from Gwen - they seem a bit faceless. Even Captain Jack is not as fun. You can't compare it to Who - it hasn't got the same scope or wonder - but even at this late stage in the season -I still don't feel its established what it wants to be.

[Paul Clement]

it hasn't got the same scope or wonder - but even at this late stage in the season -I still don't feel its established what it wants to be.

I'm generally enjoying the show, but completely agree with this. I don't think the producers/writers have decided what they exactly want Torchwood to be. It's a character drama pretty much throughout, but beyond that it has perhaps too much of a wide scope and doesn't end up filling any particular niche effectively.

[Martin Penny]

I quite enjoyed it, though twas by no means one of the better episodes. The Bloke who was running the fight club thingy reminded me of 'DAN!' from that episode of Alan Partridge.

[Andrew Curnow]

Oddly enough, I think that it has sort of established an identity over the last few episodes, although I'll admit I can't quite put my finger on what it is. And also I've noticed that I'm now looking forward to watching it each week rather than doing so out of habit.

If it's true that Jack's back in Who sometime during season 3, though, I'm not convinced that it's a good idea. The character in Torchwood is a bit different to how he was in Who, partly because he's taking the lead role, and I can't really see how they can get him back in Who without watering down either the character of Jack or the Doctor.

But, we will see...

[Paul Monk]

I liked this episode even if it was a complete lift of Fight Club and a Season 1 Angel Episode. Owen is becoming even more of an unlikeable slimy git and Gwen has completely lost my sympathy.

[Dave Lewis]

I've just watched Combat back to back (to back?) with Captain Jack Harkness and End Of Days, so inevitably it's going to pale by comparison. But even so, this was one of the weakest episodes since, ooh, I dunno, Small Worlds? The intrigue of the first half was quite interesting, even if some of the dialogue, particularly from Owen, whose lovelorn behaviour did indeed make him seem like a "w*nker".

But half way through, when it suddenly became Fight Club with weevils, it plummeted from adequate to awful in a matter of seconds. Owen's comment about Cap'n Jack "blundering in" to save him removed any vestiges of compassion and liking I had for the character. I'd already pretty much lost all my sympathy for Gwen when she drugged poor old Rhys. Or maybe it was when she said, "Don't ever talk to me like that" when he said a naughty word at the restaurant. All the stuff with Gwen's relationship with Rhys has been pretty much a boring sideline since the beginning, and just when I thought it was going to all blow up and finally get it out of the way... it doesn't! Instead, Gwen just shows herself to be a selfish bitch, not the caring compassionate soul we thought she was. Or maybe it's okay to save the world at the expense of getting some cheap absolution from your boyfriend, even when he isn't going to remember it in the morning. Perhaps it's just crap writing from Noel Clarke, but this really isn't the Gwen we've seen before or after. It certainly sits badly with her behaviour previously, and later scenes in End Of Days where she's weeping over Rhys' body and going on about how much she loves him... or maybe this episode was the moment she realised her true feelings, I don't know.

Also, it contained a lot of the peripheral crap that made the first episode so poor... the weevils (why couldn't they have been introduced in this episode? This is their crowning glory, their moment in the sun, so why couldn't we have had a different alien beastie for Gwen to see in Everything Changes? Herein, their murderous rage and violence is fine... in every other weevil appearance, they're a bit of a cosmic joke) and the ret-conning amnesia pill (why couldn't they have been honest and called it the deus ex machina? It would have been a better gag at any rate).

The estate agent bad guy was good, even if his demise was pretty rubbish - I certainly agreed with him about how crap the jellied eels cover story was! However, like Martin he was a bit too "Dan! Dan! Dan!" for me. I can't remember anything else about Combat that I liked, to be honest. Jack was alright, I suppose. But overall, this episode was a weedy, and extremely bloody, disappointment.

If I was marking this, I'd give it a good kicking like Owen did to the bloke in the bar.

Thumbs down!

[SiHart]

I've suddenly realised that I still haven't actually watched this episode. Oh my!

Si xx