WRITER: Catherine Tregenna DIRECTOR: Alice Troughton
CAST: John Barrowman (Capt Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Naoka Mori (Toshiko Sato), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhyss Williams), Louise Delamere (Diane), Mark Lewis Jones (John Ellis), Olivia Hallinan (Emma), Sam Beezeley (Alan Ellis), Marion Fenner (Nurse), Janine Carrington (Alesha), Rhea Bailey (Jade), Andrew MacBean (Flying Instructor) & Ciaran Dowd (Barman)
Three people from 1953 arrive in contemporary Cardiff after their aeroplane flies through the Rift...Out Of Time is a welcome change of pace from the usual Torchwood episode. No monsters, no alien technology, no real threat. Instead, the episode is entirely devoted to character development, as its three unwitting time-travellers impact the lives of Gwen, Owen and Jack.
Given the episode's simple yet intriguing premise, Out Of Time is disappointing in terms of narrative and science-fiction ideas. Its only trump card is in some entertaining sequences of 50s-meets-00s comedy. In particular, a visit to an everyday supermarket contains plenty of amusement, from disbelief at the quantity of food (particularly bananas), "indecent" magazine front covers, automatic doors, lifelike TV images, luxury masacara, etc.
The initial fish-out-of-water humour is welcome and involving, but once things settle down it becomes clear the episode doesn't have anywhere very interesting to go. The episode is split into three strands, following the ramifications of being thrown into the 21st-Century from each character's point of view...
Diane (Delamere; excellent), a vampish female pilot, falls in love with Owen, providing the story with a number of sexual scenes that don't really work. Again, Torchwood's main problem is that its teenaged content just doesn't combine with sexual scenes. Here, Owen is seen having sex with Diane and engaging in post-coital dirty talk, and instead of forming a believable adult texture to the show, it just looks out of place.
For all its desperate attempts to appear adult, Torchwood just can't get the mix right. If its style was more mature and its stories able to engage adult brains, its sexual overtones would be more cohesive -- but it's not. Torchwood proves that you can't shoehorn sub-Queer As Folk moments into a Doctor Who storyline.
Gwen's plot is the most retarded, with her befriending Emma (Hallinan), a teenaged time-traveller excited about 2006's possibilities, and effectively "mothering" her. Well, in a sisterly way. Sadly it doesn't ever ring true in either case, although atleast Gwen's boyfriend Rhys make an appearance after weeks of absence!
The third plot is the most serious, focusing on John Ellis (Jones; good value), a middle-aged man who takes the ramifications of time-travel more seriously than his bubbly companions. He tracks down his son, who's now a deluded old man in a nursing home, in the sole scene that has something moving to say about the heartache time-travel can bring. His story ultimately leads to a downbeat end that is most memorable for providing us with another example of Jack's controversial choices when faced with live and death!
Overall, I commend Out Of Time's writer Catherine Tregenna for doing something different in the series and the performances are all of a high standard. The character development for Owen is good (ingoring the misplaced dirty talk and a very rushed feeling to his romance), but Gwen motherly plot is forced and contrived. The resolutions to each character's dilemmas are handled well and the episode has a certain charm, but it's also quite plodding.
Beyond some fun culture-clash scenarios, Out Of Time doesn't provide anything to sink your teeth into... and I doubt any of these events will have any lasting effect on the show. A gently amusing filler episode with its heart in the right place, but ultimately quite dry and pointless.
