1.05: Small Worlds

[Dave]

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A withdrawn but intelligent child has her suppressed anger taken advantage of; Jack must encounter his past to defeat those responsible: fairies at the bottom of her garden.

This episode was the one written by Peter J. Hammond, best known for the creation of 'Sapphire & Steel'. What I didn't know is that he wrote for 'Ace of Wands'. He began working on BBC police dramas such as 'Dixon of Dock Green' and 'Z-Cars', contributed to 'Emmerdale Farm', and wrote episodes of 'The Sweeney'.

There was reasonable story, but it immediately reminded me of the 'Doctor Who' story only last year about the girl who's squiggles came to life, and it was also obviously heavily influenced by the real life story of the photographed Cottingley fairies in 1917, which was loosely made into the Hollywood film 'FairyTale: A True Story' in 1997.

What Hammond didn't do is to utilise the ensemble cast again. Owen, Ianto and Tosiko had nothing to do again except stand around. With Ianto it was as if the events of last week had never happened at all. He concentrated on Jack and Gwen, and that was good because quite a bit about Jack's past was revealed.

Gwen suddenly seemed intelligent again in this episode, and she asked the right questions. But Jack has already shown her that he can't die, then he tells her about his experiences in the British Army in 1909 in Lahore, why didn't she ask him the big question - Exactly how old is he?

Already we are having changed premises: Jack claimed that he didn't sleep in 'Ghost Machine', but here he has a nightmare. They shouldn't be making that kind of continuity error so soon in the series.

 

[Robertbert]

Did he actually say he didn't sleep or did he deflect the question with "We need to be ready"?...I can't quite remember...

Hmmm...So he's done a lot of time jumping himself?...Cool...Looking forward to watching this tonight!!...

 

[Robertbert]

I really enjoyed this one a lot...It was probably my favourite so far...Very heavy though...Which is good really...Shows they can handle dark stuff...

I'm wondering where in the shooting schedule this fell though?...Gwen did seem a little out of charcater compared to how she's been up to now...There was a larger amount of CGI in this one, so they'd have had it in production early I suppose...Aaanyways...

The thing with Ianto was dealt with in the first couple of minutes...Ianto looks shifty and nervous around Jack. Then Jack says "You shouldn't be here" not unfriendly and Ianto replies "Neither should you"...They go over to one of the work stations, Jack puts his hand on Ianto's shoulder and says "What have you got?"...If that's not a nod to the previous week...

I agree the others didn't do much, but that's nothing new with Tosh..She seemed to do about the same as the other weeks, it was Owen that didn't have much to do this week bar be seen really...

I didn't think it was like the D.W. story at all...One was a girl and her drawings and the other was fairies at the bottom of the garden...I didn't see it myself...But I will admit to being a bit dim with stuff like that ...

Oooh Eighth Doctor Paul McGann was in Fairytale wasn't he?...

 

[Lucien21]

I actually thought this was the best episode so far (not that that is hard)

The story and pacing was better than in previous weeks.

The acting was restrained and effective and no need for gratuitious swear words or snogging in this episode. The scenes with Jack and the old lady were decently handled.

Not a perfect episode, but certainly a step in the right direction.

Next week Torchwood meets "Dog Soldiers" by the look of it.

 

[Paradox 99]

Next week Torchwood meets "Dog Soldiers" by the look of it.

And this week's reminded me a bit of Mothman Prophecies.

Actually Small Worlds blew me away. Thought this was the best one by far so far - for me, it's finally living up to the expectations I have of the show.

 

[nixie]

Small Worlds, was my favourite so far.Don't think I'll be able to look at rose petals ever again without shuddering.

 

[Harpo]

I have friends who've seen fairies on a number of occasions, once when I was with them I saw something, but couldn't say for sure what it was.

This episode was very good.

 

[Ian8781]

Finally, some positive comments about Torchwood.

I do agree that it was good not to have any sex/language gimmicks in the episode. On the comments about the similarities between this episode and "Fear Her" in Dr Who, the girl in Dr Who was controlled by an alien being - the girl in "Small Worlds" has been befriended by fairies - who are supposedly from Earth. The only similarity is that there was a very creepy young girl in each episode - otherwise they are completely different.

Finally, a point about the ensemble cast: Last week it was clearly a Ianto episode and the other cast members had much less screen time. This week, it was clearly a Jack episode so why is there an issue about the other characters? This kind of episode structure happens all the time - look at Star Trek, Lost, StarGate etc. BTW Tosh gets her own episode round about episode 10 or 11 in the series. Looking forward to that one.

 

[Dr.Jackson]

Thought this was a good episode, delving a bit more into Jacks' character.
Seems that he's jumped about a bit in time and wasn't always the con-artist.
Message in the episode that sometimes you've got to choose between the lesser of two evils - he either saves the girl or risks the world - was a good insight into the team dynamic in those kind of situations.

Noticed the coral on his desk for the first time. Apparently according to something that I read, he's supposed to be trying to grow a TARDIS.

 

[Lenny]

Better than Cyberwoman, but on re-watch reminded me too much of the dire Doctor Who episode with the girl who drew things... and you know what the one thing that stays with me from that episode is? The living scribble! Hehe!

*SPOLIERS FROM SERIES 1 & 2*

Back to this episode... the consequences of Torchwood's actions come into play again (see what I've said in the 1.03 and 1.04 threads). There's not much I can comment on. regarding Series 2 and late Series 1, although I do wonder how early on RTD and his writing crew wrote up the backstory to the characters - mainly Jack. In 2.12 (Fragments), it is revealed that Jack was roped into working for Torchwood in 1899. In this episode, we see Jack in command of a squad of fifteen men in 1909. Well, the dates are right, but the backstory doesn't quite match up... unless Torchwood sent him to India.

Not an episode I'm particularly fond of, but I thought I'd tally up a nice round five episodes tonight, with the rest of Series 1 to follow tomorrow, and then Series 2 every night up until the finale. Anyway, as much as I loved Countrycide, it's half one, and I don't really feel up to watching it at half one. Maybe noon...

One thing I noticed this episode, in regards to earpieces - Jack still wore his sleek, silver one, whilst the rest of the team wore the big, black bulky ones of the type Jack was wearing in 1.03. A bit of trivia to tell your grandkids, that.