fajrdrako | Torchwood: favourite episodes... (Reply)

Torchwoodtv posted the results of its poll for favourite episodes of Torchwood, so I think it's time to list the episodes in the order I liked them. I think my list is quite different from other people's list - I'll do 'favourite first', like the poll did, and I'll explain why I made the choices I did.

1. "Captain Jack Harkness" - No surprise. It was everyone's #1 favourite in the poll, too. The perfect episode. A nicely self-contained story with lots of characterization, focus on Captain Jack, background on Captain Jack, and all that nice emotional connection and dancing and kissing and tender sexiness. Or was it sexy tenderness?
2. "Cyberwoman" - I love Jack in this episode: he covers most of the emotions in the book, from bemusement to fear to fury to heroism and self-sacrifice to lust to forgiveness. I love Ianto here too, so loyal to Lisa, so torn and terrified. I like the inclusion of the pterodactyl (bring him back!) and the use of the Hub. I like Jack and Ianto going at each other with guns. And I like Jack's attitude to Cybermen.
3. "Everything Changes" - Because Gwen is so cute in her police uniform. Because I like the whole Gwen-as-cop sequencing. Because Jack mentions the doctor.
4. "Countricide" - Because I like action!Tosh and hero!Ianto. Because I like the suspense. Because I like the cannibals - Evan is maybe my favourite villain in Torchwood, at least on a par with Bilis and the Cyberwoman.
5. "Out of Time" - I like John Ellis, Dianne, and Emma. I like many of the visuals - Dianne dancing with Owen, Jack on the airfield. I like the trip to the supermarket- bananas and scantily-dressed celebrities! I love the plot.
6. "Day One" - Witty dialogue, and it has the scene with the hand. The scene with the hand - ! Oh yes, always a favourite. And it has Gwen snogging the sex alien, also a favourite scene, especially with their voyeuristic CCTV audience.
7. "They Keep Killing Suzie" - This would rate higher, except that I wanted the gorgeous Indira Varma to be a hero, and there she was, after being a multiple murderer, she's a zombie plotter, preying on Gwen. The Torchwood team didn't look good in this one, the way Suzie ran intellectual rings around them all. I really didn't like the plot. But I loved, absolutely loved, Detective Swanson, and the acrobatic twins, and the stopwatch scene.
8. "Combat" - I liked the plot, I liked the use of Weevils, I liked Jack's role, and Tosh's. But I couldn't help feeling it was a digression, a story too much about Owen.
9. "Small Worlds" - I liked Estelle, and all Estelle's scenes. Not so much the rest of it: I particularly didn't like the Torchwood team blaming Jack for the outcome.
10. "Greeks Bearing Gifts" - Aaah, Tosh. I felt for her here: you meet someone who crossed the universe looking for good sex, and you end up living alone. This would rate higher with me if I'd felt I understood what Tosh was feeling - and if she'd seemed more caring towards Mary. I liked the alien and the special effects, I liked all the plot-points centring on Tosh's telepathy, and I liked Jack's rapport with her at the end.
11. "Ghost Machine" - I found this lacklustre on the whole, but loved the gun-room scene.
12. "Random Shoes" - I enjoyed the writing, but it was too removed from the Torchwood team and the Torchwood themes and, especially, from Jack, who was so largely absent.

Okay: there's twelve episodes all neatly ordered by preference. You'll have noticed a big hole: I haven't listed "End of Days". I hesitate to list it as my least favourite, because it has some of my favourite scenes in all of Torchwood. But I still haven't come to terms with it. It's the best of times and the worst of times, it has scenes I can't bear, and scenes I can't believe, and scenes that make me cringe. It's everyone at both their best and their worst, alternately. The story doesn't hang together for me, not even on multiple viewings. It's a hodge-podge.

But I've never seen a story ending that I liked so much.

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Here's the list that torchwoodtv's poll came up with:

1: "Captain Jack Harkness" (9.20)
2: "End of Days" (8.96)
3: "They Keep Killing Suzie" (7.90)
4: "Everything Changes" (7.84)
5: "Out of Time" (7.49)
6: "Countrycide" (7.28)
7: "Small Worlds" (7.27)
8: "Greeks Bearing Gifts" (7.19)
9: "Ghost Machine" (7.14)
10: "Cyberwoman" (7.07)
11: "Combat" (6.84)
12: "Day One" (6.64)
13: "Random Shoes" (5.59)