wow, I only caught the last half of Torchwood, so knowing nothing of the plot leading up, that kinda blew. I'm very interested to know why the film looked so different, and also so bad. It's the same as with many other otherwise decent British shows where the video (I'm guessing) footage reads so poorly. Like I'm seeing a show made from a home video (VHS) camera. It just degrades the quality of the acting and sets and lighting so very very much. Or is it a certain/standard film type that failed to get a certain treatment to "polish" it up?

Anyhow, I wasn't impressed, and I still miss my happy-go-lucky Captain Jack from his DW days. How did DW turn out so good (as a "kids" show) and TW turn out so wrong? I mean, with a fun character like Jack Harkness, how did the more adult aspect of the show totally negate/destroy that? I would've thought it would have allowed the essence of Jack to come out more, but... no.

I don't think that Cyberwoman is one of the better episodes of the series. Have you seen the rest of it yet, Juliebird?

I'm hoping Jack's reuniting with the doctor will clear up some issues, and he will puzzle the torchwoodeers with the change...

Well, when he was on his own or with the Doctor he wasn't really responsible for anyone else, was he?

I'm about 8 eps into Torchwood, and there is an excellent couple of eps in that group. I find the show pretty uneven, but the 8th ep (I think it is) is really really good IMO.

Also, I know we saw Toshioko in the fight at the wharf but did we see Ianto and Lisa?

we did? i don't recall seeing her. Freema was playing a different character and that's when RTD fell in looooooooooove with her, but i don't remember seeing Tosh.

I still miss my happy-go-lucky Captain Jack from his DW days

you are so not alone in this. i'm really hoping that season two of TW will improve now that Jack knows why he's immortal. he was full of angst because he didn't know why he couldn't die and why the Doctor and Rose had left him. now he knows...

Have you seen the rest of it yet, Juliebird?

no, I gave up trying to ahem after not being impressed with the first few eps.

I do hope that Jack's experience back on DW truly does affect season 2 of TW, but there's just so much more wrong with it than just a broody Cpt. Jack Harkness. The entire premise that he can't die, and we learn on DW that he's been waiting for hundreds of years and been killed a dozen times over... that sucks.

So I get why Jack now is the way he is, but I don't get why RTD made him that way, why he deliberately destroyed what we loved about Jack.

I'm not sure I have watched "Cyberwoman" since the first time I saw it ahemed, since it's by far my "Bad Eggs" episode of the series! What I really noticed this time through, on the bigger, nicer screen on the TV is how lousy the video was, looking cheap as though done on my brother's camera. I suppose they were trying to suggest the low-light condition of the shut-down base, but it SO didn't work.

Gwen has such a deer in the headlights look, far too often. But then cyborg Vs pterodactyl fights aren't exactly in the police academy curriculum. "What's all this, then?" just doesn't do it.

we did? i don't recall seeing her. Freema was playing a different character and that's when RTD fell in looooooooooove with her, but i don't remember seeing Tosh.

We didn't. Tosh appears earlier on "Doctor Who," way back in "Aliens of London" with the Ninth Doctor.

cyborg Vs pterodactyl fights.

Which is really the only thing to recommend this episode. Not one of my favorites. Really, the series doesn't start taking off until the next episode or so (I'll admit, other people hate the episode "Countrycide," but ... well ... I beg to disagree.)

So I get why Jack now is the way he is, but I don't get why RTD made him that way, why he deliberately destroyed what we loved about Jack.

RTD didn't destroy anything. Those aspects that you love about Jack are still there, as proven by his appearances in Season Three of Dr. Who. But yeah, he's in a darker place in "Torchwood," and I think John Barrowman hits it out of the park more often than he misses with it showing two sides of the same character.

I do hope for a bit more synthesis next season on "Torchwood," and that seems pretty set up for this by is character arc and casting-spoilery bits.

Yeah, when we meet Cpt Jack, he's a bitter ex-time soldier who lost several years of his life, memory-wise, and is running a scam -- I think he's overjoyed to run into a crew of similar lost souls so we see him for the rest of that series with something to believe in again... which he is then betrayed and abandoned, with as little explanation. But, it seems this time, at least, he still hopes with a bitter edge that he might find them again and get an explanation... and he starts making his own crew of fellow lost souls in the meantime.