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Torchwood Greeks Bearing Gifts |
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| Story No. | 7 | 
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| Production Code | Series One Episode Seven | |
| Dates | November 26 2006 |
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With John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth
David-Lloyd.
Written by Toby Whithouse Directed by Colin Teague Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner. |
| Synopsis: Toshiko is given a pendant allowing her to read other people's thoughts. |
Menage a Troy by John Nor 23/1/07
This week Toshiko meets someone who gives her a gift: a pendant that allows her to read people's thoughts.
The general tone of the episode, which features a Cardiff of gritty urban streets and style-bars, with "alien tech" to the fore, is a return to the tone of the first three episodes. (In between we have had three episodes where the tone veered all over the place, with a hub-focused cyber-melodrama, fairies in suburbia, and country village horror. I am all for variety, but this episode helps to reinforce the "normal" tone of the show, helping the series to be a cohesive whole.)
Although Torchwood is an ensemble show, each episode has tended to allow one or two characters centre-stage. With this episode it is the turn of Toshiko. Where this episode differs is the almost relentless focus on one character, as Toshiko is present in virtually every scene (after the pre-credits teaser). This allows the viewer an intense identification with Tosh, as she becomes more and more paranoid, and we experience the other characters in the Torchwood team through her eyes.
Although Naoko Mori is very good at portraying the disintegration of Tosh, the star turn of the show is Daniela Denby-Ashe as Mary. She is very much cast against type as a brassy Bad Girl, but very much succeeds. If Torchwood were ever to require a returning foe, along the lines of the Master or Rani, she could fill that role admirably.
Plaudits also must go the the Costume Department for her hair and clothes. She looks great sporting the "Louise Brooks bob" hairstyle, (made famous by that actress in films like the 1920s Pandora's Box, Pandora being appropriate with all the references to Greek Myth in this episode. Louise Brooks was the original cinema Bad Girl.)
In the 1980s film Something Wild, Melanie Griffiths's character has intentionally the same name (Lulu) and hairstyle as Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box. She blazes into Jeff Daniels's life, a sexual firecracker, and stirs things up in much the same way that Mary does for Tosh in this episode.
Mary's blonde version of this bob, while (intentionally or not) recalling this film history had other curious echoes. At the week of transmission of Greeks Bearing Gifts, there were two news stories which had strong links to this episode. Firstly, the "rebirth" of Britney Spears, post-break-up with K-Fed. Pictured in the tabloids with a Louise Brooks blonde bob and prominent deep cleavage, the look was almost exactly the one favoured by Mary to storm the Torchwood Hub.
The other news story of note was the reporting of new theories about the Antikythera Mechanism. Parts of this were first found in 1902, but recent research on the cogs and gears of this two thousand year old Greek machine suggests it was an analogue computer used for astronomy calculations, and perhaps sailing ship navigation. (The complexity of the technology is not known to be matched anywhere until around 1500 years later.) The resonances with Mary's machine and her tales of the Greek sailor Philoctetes are intriguing.
And where was the research carried out? Cardiff University!
The title of the episode refers to another Greek myth, the gift of the wooden horse to allow the Greeks to storm the city of Troy. The gift of the pendant eventually allows Mary to enter the Torchwood Hub.
Okay, after that diversion: back to the episode.
It shares certain similarities with the New Series Doctor Who episode Boom Town, and not just the Cardiff setting. Dates with aliens out on the town, exiles from their home planet, the emphasis on character rather than plot. However, if we compare the endings of each, Jack is shown to be a little less merciful than the Doctor.
The enjoyable characterisation of Jack here recalled the Jack that journeyed with the Doctor: flamboyant and wisecracking, while combining this with the chilling ruthlessness we have seen so far in Torchwood.
At the start of each episode now, before the story starts, Jack, (in a regular short introduction for the casual viewer) proclaims in voiceover they are outside the government, beyond the police. ("Beyond the United Nations"; U.N.I.T. was mentioned in earlier episodes too.) Although previous episodes have shown Torchwood working with the police, this episode shows them interacting with all three: government, police, and U.N.I.T.! (Jack asks Tosh to prepare some information for U.N.I.T. and later discusses Torchwood on the phone with the Prime Minister.) In my review of the opening episode Everything Changes, I noted that it was not clear how independent Torchwood was. It is still fairly unclear!
One aspect of the episode that I did not like was the stylistic flourishes of the editing and camerawork. Juddering jump-cuts and white-outs were used first to signify the use of the pendant, then later at seemingly random moments in the story. However, this was a small annoyance in an otherwise highly entertaining episode.
This was one of the best episodes so far.
Lesbian extraterrestrials? by Joe Ford 10/3/07
An episode centering on Toshiko, easily the least interesting member of Torchwood to this point, despite an appealing performance from Naoki Mori. Sounds awful doesn't it? It's proof that this series is growing in strength that this is actually one of the stronger episodes so far, not to the standard of the best of the season (Ghost Machine) but proving it is growing in maturity and confidence. Had it been in series two or (if it makes it that far) three, it would be much tighter and it is not a BIG episode like next week's They Keep Killing Suzie is supposed to be but if this is the standard of the "okay" episodes we can expect we are in fine shape (as opposed to shite like Day One and Cyberwoman).
What's interesting is that this is supposed to be an episode that lets us get closer to Toshiko but as a result of her exploration we get to learn a fair amount about all of the regulars. What I really like about Tosh (who could be described as a bit bland all told) is that she is a bit pathetic. How can you not feel sorry for a geeky gal who hasn't had a kiss in nearly a year, who gets homicidally upset if her work is interrupted, who keeps her birthday cards up because it reminds her that she has friends and who puts on an alien device and discovers the people who are supposed to like her, pity her and find her desperately dull? Poor cow. It's nice that the episode doesn't shirk around the fact that people can be horrible to those that they like and that just because you go through a tense situation with somebody (like when Tosh's life is threatened) it doesn't automatically make you a nice person. The way Owen treats Tosh after he knows she has discovered her secret is nasty, even though five minutes earlier he feared for her life. What has happened to Tosh here is the potential to tell stories through her, she has always been on the periphery but Greeks Bearing Gifts proves she has the stamina to hold up an episode on her own.
I could split the episodes we have had into two categories. Alien artefact or alien creature. Well one was cannibals stalking the Welsh Hills but who was expecting that? This episode features both and has a fair stab at making it work. The device in question is a communications device, which allows Toshiko the ability to listen to people's thoughts. An idea that has been done before but frankly is fun enough to repeat as many times as you can and it would be quite nice if one of our main characters had the ability full time because it is excellent at revealing depth to the characters without them having to say ridiculous dialogue.
Listening to her friends' thoughts is extremely rewarding for the viewer. Some are hilarious (Owen on Tosh: "Wonder what she's like in bed. Catholic, but grateful"), some are revealing (Gwen on her relationship with Owen: "That's twice now, is that an arrangement?" and "Why the hell isn't he looking at me?") and some reveal a hidden depth layered into the performances (Ianto's heartbreaking: "There isn't an inch of me that isn't hurting" whilst he is smiling and later when Tosh's life is in danger: "Not again. Please not again."). I could just listen to the thoughts for an entire episode, it can be really funny, frightening, arousing... It's directed with disorienting effect, especially when Tosh heads out to the streets and is attacked by neuroses and paranoia. The Gwen and Owen relationship continues to be the most interesting thing about the show; their chemistry bubbles on screen with two charismatic performances from Gorman and Myles. Gwen's admission: "This should be my wake up call, I should stop but I won't" is astonishing, not in itself but in the show's willingness to allows its characters to be honest and realistic even if it makes them unlikable. Most shows sugarcoat their "bad" characters (Sawyer in Lost for example) but Torchwood is willing to "dirt coat" their nice characters. I like that.
The plot itself isn't that great and when the episode tries to pull away from the regulars and suggest a larger world (and universe) it loses concentration. The teaser is intriguing ("Do whores have prayers?") and when the episode returns to the same scene later in the episode it is excellent and gory, but it isn't quite as atmospheric as it should be. The guy attempting to kill his family is handled with in such a blase fashion, as well as being a direct steal from a Buffy episode (which oddly enough dealt with this particular concept with far more skill and honesty... and yet this episode deals with the "reading peoples thoughts" with much more interest). I think it is the performances, especially of the psychotic father who seems to think killing his entire family is rather run of the mill stuff.
Daniella Denby-Ashe gives an attention grabbing performance as the visiting alien. She's kind of smug but oozing sexuality... it's intriguing because taken as a whole it is quite restrained and yet still feels OTT, slightly theatrical and confident without ever having to raise her voice. The scenes with her playing house with Tosh are a little odd and their relationship is not entirely believable but there was something quite warm about the two of them being together, especially when Tosh has nobody else offering her any attention. Backing up Denby-Ashe's performance is a beautiful CGI creature courtesy of the Mill, who are growing in confidence and imagination.
I really liked the scene between Jack and Tosh and level of mistrust that is implied behind their smiles. When Jack grins I shudder, his character is now a world apart from the sex-mad good boy from Doctor Who; he has really changed, to a point now where he will boast about ruthlessly killing somebody. I hope there will be some retribution later in the season.
Other thoughts: