Um' sorry Charlie but the Doctor didn't open the rift in "The unquiet dead." It was already there when he and Rose arrived. [en.wikipedia.org]
Maybe a better title would be "It's all rose's fault" since Jack has been a lot less fun ever since he became immortal. Your review has really make me look forward to this episode. hopefully the up tick in quality will continue until the end of the season.

Gonna watch it tonight.

Two more episodes left, this season.

@JSharkey: Yeah the rift was already there, but the Doctor decided to crank it way open to let the Gelth through. And that was really the beginning of the problems. Before that, all you had was the occasional ghost.

This season, Torchwood has gone from being children's TV with sex and swearing to one of the best high concept sci fi/fantasy series going. Only Lost and BSG beat it in entertainment value - and for completely different reasons. Put it up against Supernatural or Reaper - even mid-period Angel - it just keeps beating them over and over.

@Smithereens:
I wouldn't go that far. I think it would be more fair to say that the writers are starting to figure out who the characters are and what the rules of the game are. So, the highs are getting higher and the lows are getting fewer and farther between. And usually call back to pet ideas that have never quite worked but haven't been entirely dropped yet.

I'd actually liken it more to the first few seasons of Next Generation Star Trek. The first two were mostly iffy and occasionally awful, but with sparks of the better stuff. By season 3 it was mostly good and things had shaken out but every once in a while an idea from the fist season would sneak back in and sour things. Thank god this isn't a Fox production or they would have never had time to iron things out.

And good news. Same writer wrote this episode and the two coming up, so hopefully we can look forward to a really good end of season to set the tone for series 3.

Overall I liked it. The end really pissed me off though. Jonah was taken to an exploding star, and lived for awhile there, and came back scared and driven mad.

There's 50 other people there. Did they all go to the same place? Did any of them come back before they vanished? Are they all insane?

Yes, time travel fucks with people. But lots of other people cope with it. Why do the writers just assume that one specific case is enough to cover the whole colony? Or are we just to assume that Gwen is dumb? Cause I'm already there.

I do like the idea that there is no answer, but then they went and gave us an answer: Jack is right, stop doubting him you stupid puny humans.

Chibnall wrote this and the next two. He got the job as showrunner for Law & Order: London. I have no idea how that show will operate or when the writing season will be, but if it's like a US show, he probably won't have time for Who and Torchwood. Also, keep in mind, Chibnall wrote Cyberwoman.

Regarding Cyberwoman. The more I think about it, the more I'm tempted to blame the director. Looking at the other stuff that Chibnall has written, the more I doubt that the cyberwoman costume and the rest of the camp was part of the script. The basis of the episode wasn't bad. It was the execution that defined awful television. I strongly suspect that the same script shot in a darker, more Frankenstein style where the presentation took itself as seriously as the cast did could have been really good.

Or I could be delusional.

@Ryan H: gpwm (on the delusional bit).

You actually may have a point there. Looking at the other eps he wrote, countrycide, day one, kiss kiss bang bang, and Doctor Who's '42' he's not a bad writer overall. And a lot of those flaws could be found in the execution. It's not like they have unlimited budget on these shows, and the way they shoot in the UK, I doubt the writer has too much control over the execution.

watched it time shifted yesterday evening. So much better than the "Rain" episode. kid out of time, fraid mother...heartstrings pulled oh so tightly...I couldn't help 'well up' a bit in the sappy parts.
When are they going to unfreeze the a 2nd jack in the stuck in this time line and have a little jack on jack 'don't look back' action. yowwsh.

As a fan of man on man action, what exactly were Ianto and Jack supposed to be doing there? Necking shirtless?

Come on, we all want to see Ianto the power-bottom!

Eeek, I'm so surprised that everyone seemed to like that one. How can Capt Jack possibly justify that sort of treatment of people who been in such an obviously traumatic accident?

Quite why is Torchwood so unwilling to spend some of their big piles of money in order to provide a comforting environment to house these people to live out their remainder? These people are in no way different than from any other handicapped people (other than making a loud noise which surely Torchwood can come up with some kind of anti sound baffles to cope with), yet there are locked away in a basement on an island like some kind of shameful secret. Give those walls a lick of paint at least.

Why weren't Gwen and the mother warned about the noise so that they would be prepared, and not be scared out of thier wits? Was this possibly intentional by Jack in order to cause exactly the sort of reaction it got, to justify his behaviour? (It would make the story a little more understandable if Jack had some sort of beef with the handicapped I suppose, but its not part of the story line as is)

And lastly, my, god what a terribly unlikely reaction from the mother, in the end, and what does that say about her as a mother. She goes on about how much she loves her son, and then when she finally gets him back, finding him disfigured and handicapped, promptly walks away from him leaving him in a hell hole.

(scuse the long post, but this ep bugged the heck out of me)

Hmm. That's a really interesting thought about Cyberwoman. Maybe it really is possible that 95% of that episode's problems go away with a costume change for Lisa. Chibnall's other eps do seem pretty solid (though I'm actually a tad iffy on 42).

But this was definitely a relief after last week. P.J. Hammond's on my hate list now.

I love Torchwood... but the next season (series) of Doctor Who starts in 2 weeks. So that weekend is looking Frakkin FANTASTIC.... BSG and DW all in the same weekend!
What a good time to be a Geek.

It doesn't matter how long you spend in the outer darkness where the faceless stars dance; apparently you can never shake a Welsh accent.

(It's also a shame that the episode ran out of budget before they could come up with a more impressive affliction for poor old Jonah. I was hoping for tentacles.)

Is the next episode really on tonight? That's what the voiceover lady told me at the end of the episode. But I don't live in the UK so I'm not sure.

@Shinju: Yeah, that's another huge problem with it. I think the writer wrote himself into a no win situation corner. And when in fact there were a few options for people to win, he forced the no win and dind't make it believable. Or maybe there were scenes on the cutting room floor.

@Daniel Rutter: Or a snap-top head.

@bluewyvern: I'm a fan of 42, not because it's an exceptionally good episode, but because of a couple scenes. The scene where Martha needs help, and he simply can't. And then later when the Doctor needs help and she's the only one who can. Sure, he had to add the 'holy shit i'm so helpless and floating into a sun in the year 30000 with some stranger and i'm oh so alone!' for no good reason. She had too many of those in the 3rd season. But other than that scene, and other than the main plot being somewhat overdone, it was a good episode. Also liked the reference to tHGttG.

TBF, there's only four or five who episodes which i'm 100% a fan of. They have flaws, but overall the great scenes are enough for me to buy into it and enjoy.

If Torchwood can't get any better in Season 3, it's time to cancel it and move on. Granted, this season has been more consistently not sucky, and there have been at least two to three really good episodes, but it still has no idea what it wants to be. Episode 9, for example: I'm sorry, but could we come up with at least a 20% better scifi-ish explanation for why these spooks existed and could come into the real world? That story was on par with the Cyberwoman story bar the fact that it had excellent production values. Good production values DON'T replace quality stories.

A science fiction episode where all they actually do is talk about science fiction that happened somewhere else?

And could any human see anything so horrible that they could scream loud enough to hurt eardrums for 20 hours straight a day? Is that like the mom lifting the car off her trapped daughter (for 20 hours straight a day)?

This could just as easily have been an episode of Eastenders, just change 40 years of staring into a black sun to 40 years chained in a basement.

We already have too many shows where people stand around talking about love and feelings, bring on some aliens!