Torchwood Magazine # 17

* It starts with a really interesting interview with show creator Russell T. Davies about the pessimistic nature of humanity that Torchwood seems to embody, the differences between Torchwood and Doctor Who based on the time period in which they air, and more.

* A standard making-of feature on the 456 from Children of Earth.

* A prelude short story to the new novel Risk Assessment titled "The Last Voyage of the Osiris" in which Jack finds himself slipping through a time anomaly while in Cardiff Bay, where he meets an Egyptologist named Margaret--who apparently knows who Gwen is. Along the way there's giant cybernetic squids and floating coffins. It's all very enigmatic but intriguing.

* Part 3 of the 5-part comic strip Broken. I think I must've missed Part 2. Jack, Ianto, and Gwen are trapped in some sort of nightmarish hotel along with several innocent bystanders and they know that Bilis Manger is involved. Everyone starts having disturbing hallucinations and then a cliffhanger ending. Not great, but not terrible. The bad artwork for Torchwood comic strips continues.

* Closing Time Part 2, a short story written by Andy Lane. I'll review it even though I missed part 1. Gwen, Ianto, and Jack find a decaying corpse in Gwen's apartment; they manage to track the corpse and a trail of decay back to a certain Professor Passmore at a mysterious research institute. It turns out, as these things do, that the Professor has found a piece of alien tech that washed up through the Rift (really, isn't Rift debris the basis of every Torchwood story ever written?) which allows him to stay alive after death. The story has a couple of interesting ideas, but nothing revolutionary.

* The Beyond the Hub feature on possible real-time paranormal phenomena tackles time-slips, such as the Bermuda Triangle. I find these features surprisingly interesting to read.