TORCHWOOD 2.3 – "To The Last Man"

Writer: Helen Raynor
Director: Andy Goddard

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Anthony Lewis (Tommy Brockless), Roderic Culver (Gerald), Siobahn Hewlett (Harriet), Lizzie Rogan (Nurse) & Ricky Fearon (Foreman)

The team wake up a soldier who was cryogenically frozen in 1918, having waited 90 years for his help to stop a disaster...

"We wake you up once a year and stick needles in you. It's not fair."

-- Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori)

Helen Raynor, after her ambitious-but-disappointing Dalek two-parter in Doctor Who, returns to Torchwood with a tragic romance for Toshiko (Naoko Mori) – in a story that has Raynor dealing with "ghosts" for the second time after Ghost Machine.

To The Last Man begins on an intriguing note, as we find ourselves inside St Teilo's Military Hospital, circa 1918. Harriet (Siobahn Hewlett) and Gerald (Roderic Culver), two smartly-dressed visitors, discover a portal in time -- through which they see Toshiko persuade a man to have them prevent a disaster by smuggling his past-self out of the hospital. Indeed, Harriet and Gerald find the boy's double is a hospital patient, and ask him to accompany them – revealing they work for Torchwood.

In modern day Torchwood, we catch up with the patient – Tommy Brockless (Anthony Lewis) – who was cryogenically frozen in 1918 and is revived every decade for one day, until a box ("temporally-locked" by Gerald and Harriet) is triggered to open... and reveal how Tommy will be instrumental in preventing a disaster.

So far, so good. I like the idea of Torchwood having its own secrets and decades-spanning missions to complete. It makes a refreshing change from the intrusive nature of aliens and the supernatural arriving in Cardiff, and the benevolent nature of Tommy himself is a relief.

For a big chunk of the episode, To The Last Man is primarily a romance story for Tosh (her second after Greeks Bearing Gifts, and destined to be just as tragic...) Tommy and Tosh have developed a friendship that now borders on a relationship -- despite the fact they've only spent a total of 4 days together, and they only seem consecutive to Tommy!

Anthony Lewis (formerly of soap Emmerdale) employs his usual mix of nice-guy gormlessness, making Tommy the kind of uncomplicated and sensitive "war hero" you expect Tosh would fall for. It's a bit of s stretch to believe they're the perfect couple, though -- because Tommy is a bit of a drip and, as excellent as Naoko Mori is, the actors don't have any sexual chemistry together. Brother/sister: yes. Boyfriend/girlfriend: not really.

Their day of fun (playing pool, ruminating on the futility of war during a news report on Iraq, and larking about on a pier) is interspersed with Torchwood's investigation of the now-abandoned St Teilo's Military Hospital...

Gwen (Eve Myles) and Jack (John Barrowman) take the lead, with Gwen encountering a genuinely spooky one-legged ghost in an empty ward and Jack unfazed by a wheelchair spirit in a corridor – even when a 1918-era Nurse somehow manages to see him, too!

It appears the 1918 and 2008 "time-zones" are beginning to merge somehow, just as the temporally-locked box opens for Jack in his office. Inside, letters reveal the extent of Tommy's importance. It seems that a dangerous "time-shift" is due to take place, with 1918 colliding with 2008, and the global repercussions can only be stopped by sending Tommy back through time, armed with a "Rift Manipulator" to stitch time back together.

Unfortunately, now full apprised of the situation, Tosh learns that Tommy will be shot by firing squad for "cowardice" 3 weeks after he returns to 1918. She promises not to tell him, and they spend the night together back at Tosh's apartment. In the morning, Tommy happens to inquire about his future, and Tosh can't lie to him about his tragic end...

The team return to St Telio's, awaiting the world-threatening crunch as two separate times merge together. Tommy becomes fearful for his life, comparing Torchwood to the generals who casually send good men to their death in battles, and Tosh is left alone with Tommy to boost his morale...

The time-shift occurs – meaning a reprise of the opening scene – with Tommy ensuring that 1918's Torchwood take his old-self out of harm's way (to be frozen), as he replaces himself in his hospital bed. His actions having now "stitched time" back together, he bizarrely begins to lose impetus behind his actions, as his memory clouds. Back at Torchwood, the effects of the time-shift are spreading across Cardiff, with the team realizing shell-shocked Tommy hasn't used the Rift Manipulator...

Tosh volunteers to psychically project herself into Tommy's mind, using technology they just happen to have (lucky, huh?), and appears to Tommy on the edge of his bed. She manages to convince him to use the manipulator/key and the time-shift is stopped, with both time-zones separated and Tommy's loop in time maintained.

I have mixed feelings about To The Last Man. The basic idea is a great fit for Torchwood (as the show always seem more competent when dealing with ghosts and time-travel than aliens/monsters), but it crumbles if you look at it closely...

How are 1918 Torchwood able to temporally-lock boxes? Even accepting they could do this, how do they know their vision of Tommy and Tosh came from 2008? The reason behind the time-shift is also badly explained, as it just seems to happen for no discernible reason -- unless I missed something? And the sudden appearance of a device that enables you to "psychically project" yourself into peoples' minds is the dictionary definition of "plot-device". It's also another example of Torchwood's tendency to introduce story-rescuing pieces of information in the last 5-10 minutes of episodes.

Of course, you can just about forgive slip-ups and contrivances, provided the story is enjoyable and emotionally works. For the most part, Helen Raynor's script was effective and enjoyably spooky at times, but I didn't connect with the Toshiko/Tommy romance.

Naoko Mori proves she's one of the best actors on the show – if in desperate need of stories that give her decent material to work with. She can be more than just the resident "computer expert", and it's about time more writers developed her personality.

Guest star Anthony Lewis was agreeable as out-of-time Tommy, but I had a tough time believing 4 days would be enough for him to fall head-over-heels for Tosh. The pair just didn't have a necessary spark together, particularly when comparing Tommy to Tosh's last conquest – scintillating femme fatale Daniella Denby-Ashe.

Overall, To The Last Man held my interest, but I didn't become invested with Tommy/Tosh as a couple, which ruined the emotional aspect of the episode for me. It also didn't help that the eventual outcome was obvious after 15 minutes, with the story trundling to a conclusion we'd already witnessed in the first scene!

Given that the majority of Torchwood's audience are likely to be savvy with time-travel as a theme, it was unfortunate the story didn't have anything up its sleeve to surprise us. It all just panned out as you expected it to, really.

In a more general sense, it's really great to see the team working together cohesively in season 2. John Barrowman looks particularly relieved to be playing Captain Jack in a temperament closer to his Doctor Who appearances, while Owen (Burn Gorman) has scenes with Eve and Gwen that don't rely on the boyish crudeness that ruined his character in season 1.

This wasn't a terrible episode, but it failed to become the solid installment it could have been, because of a lack of chemistry between Mori and Lewis, a predictable storyline most will deduce early, dozens of logical nitpicks, a few plot-devices, and some ill-explained moments.


30 January 2008
BBC2, 9.00 pm