What's it called?
"To the Last Man"
Who's it credited to?
Helen Raynor, writer ("Ghost Machine") and Andy Goddard, director ("Countrycide", "Combat")
What do we know?
A WWI soldier, Tommy, has been cryogenically frozen in time - only to be woken up for one day every year. Today is the day of his awakening, and Toshiko Sato better prepare for the date...
Major guest stars?
Anthony Lewis plays "Tommy" and - unless his scenes end up on the cutting room floor again -Kai Owen should be popping up playing his semi-regular role of Rhys Williams.
Reviewing the reviews
Very good! A lot of sources, including the Radio Times, are saying that this is the best episode so far - especially because of its "human" nature. Seems there are an awful lot of softies out there!
When's it on?
Tonight, BBC Two @ 9pm. It's then repeated at 11:00pm over on BBC Three, and again tomorrow (BBC Two) from 7pm.
What about America?
"To the Last Man" airs on BBC America Saturday 9th February, at 9pm. The BBC America schedule can be found here.
You can also catch the episode in High Definition - on HD-Net - February 25th.
Look to the future...
Next week's episode is called "Meat" and features Rhys dicovering the truth about Torchwood... Then - in two weeks time - we meet the latest recruit to Torchwood Three "Adam" - but he's not what he seems. Nothing is as it seems; not anymore...
Excitement level?
*** - Though I liked her 2006 episode "Ghost Machine", Helen Raynor's follow-up Doctor Who script (the dreadful "Daleks in Manhatten" two parter) left a lot to be desired. Hopefully the woman can prove herself with this latest offering?
15 comments:
I blamed Russell T Davies' "shopping list" to Helen Raynor for Daleks in Manhatten. Which I seem to recall included pigmen, human dalek, Manhatten (natch), the depression (but with a 1930s musical feel).
Given that, I don't think she did too badly!
"Daleks in Manhattan" & "Evolution of the Daleks" are my least favorite episodes of Doctor Who. Ever. People say that Season 3 was the best season, but for me it had that 3 weeks of nothing good, which has forever tainted all that was good in Season 3 for me. I've gotten all these people hooked on the show in the last year, and everytime they get to those episodes I have to walk them through it and assure them the show hasn't jumped the shark. I've rewatched them once...and they just don't get any better. Ick.
Still..."Ghost Machine" was ok, and tonight's episode looks good. Plus I have extremely low expectations so maybe this one will be ok.
Helen Raynor is 1-1 in my book. I enjoyed "Ghost Machine" but the "Daleks in Manhattan" 2 parter left me underwhelemed.
I agree with Stephen above about RTD's grocery list to Helen for that episode. When you think of how ludicrous it sounds {insert Bill Lumbergh voice here} "I want an episode to take place in NYC during
the Depression (but don't make it TOO depressing) with Pigmen, Daleks, a human/dalek combo, a laboratory in the Empire State Building and if you could make Martha snivel about how she loves the Doctor but he doesn't reciprocate that'd be great...thanks..." It's a miracle she pulled it off at all.
Do I think Series 3 would have been better off w/o those two episodes?
Sure.
I'm also of the mindset that Bad Who is better than No Who at all and that Bad Who is still better than 95% of US television these days.
Call me desperate.
When I look back at the season overall, I'm a little more gracious and willing to forgive the writers for a couple shoddy S3 episodes.
I feel especially benevolent towards the writers after watching "Blink", "Human Nature/FOB" and "Utopia/SoD/LoTL"
Anyhow, I could wax about S3 for a while but this isn't the forum.
So I'll just wrap it up by saying that I like the path Torchwood S2 is on and will eagerly wait for MM to share "To the Last Man" with us, the BBC-less.
Just watched it and I thought it was a brilliant episode! Very sad and emotional but extremely well acted! Also, who else thinks that Owen's character has changed for the better? He was so adorably sweet in that episode! Plus...go Jack and Ianto! :D
I really liked that episode...it's getting better and better. What's it going to be like in 10 weeks? Mindblowing me thinks!
I though Helen redeemed herself with that episode. It was a fantastically moving storyline and nice to see the focus away from Gwen and Jack for a bit. I liked Tommy too, fantastically well played by Anthony Lewis. Owen and Tosh??? Who knows... but like the anonymous writer above says it's nice to see a different side to Owen.
This week's episode was the best of the three so far. They seemed to have toned down the show quite a bite (which is good and bad). Anyway, I'm ready for a bit more action-oriented stories now.
I thought the episode should have focused on the plot more, but it was a very sweet episode. But I want running about, aliens, guns, aliens, more actiony drama!
But I'm so happy that it wasn't about Gwen, they always are in a way.. Tommy was great!
Grr.
Two episodes in a row now they've nixed poor Rhys. By the time he gets let in on The Secret (TM) next week, no-one will remember who he is. Another shimmering example of NuWho's complete inability to do story arcs - I wouldn't mind, but they do keep insisting on pretending to do it.
I don't think you can blame the shopping list approach - every Who writer gets one, they all probably sound quite ridiculous on paper, and most of the time it works out just fine. DiM/EotD could work - it was just badly-written.
Clearly it was just an off-day for Raynor though; she's back on form with another excellently tight, creey and very human episode of the 'Wood. Yay!
I really enjoyed "To The Last Man"; I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars. It would have rated higher, except for the line which Tommy says he'll always respond to, which of course you know is going to be said again later on. That and the terrible edit on the pier, where Tosh drops her bag twice. Other than that it was perfect, with the hottest kiss (Jack/Ianto) yet featured on the series. ;-0)
awesome episode i loved it. it was very human but in a good way. great episode.
I wouldn't worry about people forgetting Rhys; the episodes just haven't had to do with Gwen being at home; how excatly should he have been included? The episode felt like the time was used up rather well. And Rhys seems to have a huge role in the next episode. ;-0)
About forgiving the wretched "Daleks" 2-parter. I find them unwatchable, so Season 3 is my least favorite season overall, even though it has some of the best episodes, because while there are episodes in every season that I don't love - those 2 are the only ones that I find it hard to rewatch; it just hurts my head too much. And I'm with Ipsissimus Clay. The ingredients for the episode could have produced something better than what was given. Thankfully Helen R. pretty much knocked this last one out of the park, which gives me some hope for the Sontaran 2-parter in Season 4.
The Toshiko/Tommy thing was beautiful. The Jack/Ianto moment was breathtaking. Well done.
I loved the episode but I yelled at the screen when she dropped her bag...was very lazy to leave it in when it was so obvious.
Having missed series 1 of Torchwood, I had no expectations for series 2. However, last night's episode was well written and there wasn't too much focus on the Jack/Gwen axis - nice to see other members of the team getting screen time!
Also, sometimes I prefer it when they don't have too many aliens, because the alien designs are sometimes a bit contrived and samey.
It doesn't have to be about Gwen's homelife for Rhys to appear, though I'd have thought with the big reveal coming up a few short sequences of his curiosity being piqued might have snuck in - or perhaps a completely independent storyline of brief Rhys scenes which would bear fruit in 'Meat'. As it were.
I know he was created for no reason other than to give Gwen a real-world grounding, but given that he's about to become a character in his own right for the first time a few short scenes - even just to emphasise that he is, at this point, a one-note character - would make his increased role more dramatically satisfying, as with Ianto in the first four eps last season.
Which is all a very pretentious way of saying that I kinda dig Rhys. I can't be the only one.... can I?
loved it.
i'm ready for the Torchwood:1918 spinoff now.
Harriet Derbyshire = yum
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