Torchwood: Out of Time (S1,E10)

"There's no puzzle to solve, no enemy to fight, just three lost people who have somehow become our responsibility."

Out of Time (Season 1, Episode 10)

("When a plane from 1953 makes an unexpected landing in present-day Cardiff, there are painful consequences for all concerned.")

What I Liked

* How prepared the team is to prove to the newcomers that it's far from 1953; you get the sense that Torchwood has handled the problem of people coming through the Rift many times before.

* The little details that really would seem quite odd to people from the 1950s: automatically opening doors, cigarette packages plastered with "Smoking Kills", the crazy abundance of things in supermarkets compared to post-war England.

* A very original story; as the quote at the top indicates, this really is all about the characters--but even though there's no traditional action scenes, it's a very exciting episode.

* Owen's awesome apartment overlooking Cardiff Bay.

* The suicide scene. Heartbreaking.

What I'm Not Sure About

* All Diane wants to do is fly; given everything else that Torchwood is able to fake, couldn't they fabricate a pilot's license for her?

* The scene where Rhys walks around naked, not realizing that Gwen has brought one of the newcomers home to sleep on the couch, is quite funny. But you'd think Gwen would have come up with a lie ahead of time and warned Rhys--how bad at this job is she?

Commentary

By: Eve Myles ("Gwen"), Ben Foster (composer), and Alice Troughton (director)

Tone: Narration of What's On Screen

Mildly Interesting Tid-Bits (Not a lot this go-round)

* Ben Foster composed distinct themes for each of the three newcomers.

* The young girl and her two new flat-mates became real-life friends and went out drinking during the shoot.

* The actor portraying the Alzheimer's patient based his performance on his own mother.

Torchwood Declassified: Time Flies

I haven't yet figured out the point of Torchwood Declassified. In earlier episodes, it functioned as a light "making of" sort of feature, showing how particular stunts, special effects, sets, monsters, etc. were created. For the past few episodes, it's been a lot of brief snippets of talking heads opining on things that happened in the episode, but only in the broadest brushstrokes. They're too spoilery to act as a preview for the actual episode, but they're too vague and general to have any purpose after the episode has aired.

Deleted Scenes

There are a lot for this episode.

* Tosh explaining to the other Torchwood team members about how a plane that went missing in 1953 has now come through the Rift.

* Owen giving Diana a physical and flirting with her.

* Jack saying he can't risk sending anyone back through the Rift.

* The newcomers unpacking.

* Diana in the bathroom, smoking. She can't find the chain to flush the toilet.

* The newcomers shown to the Torchwood boardroom, where Owen instructs them on the use of cell phones--a very cute scene.

* Jack in a darkroom developing photos of the newcomers.

* Gwen and the young newcomer talking about darning socks and composting.

* Jack explaining that there's no cure for Alzheimer's.

* Jack and the middle-aged newcomer trying to take the bus. The newcomer gets frustrated when he can't figure out how the money works.

* Owen and Diane having sex in a car.

* Gwen and the young newcomer exchanging Christmas gifts; hence, Gwen's jaunty new beret in the last scene.