Doctor Who Is Back While Torchwood Nears End

Doctor Who is finally back from its brief summer hiatus and its first episode back, the cheekily-titled "Let's Kill Hitler," is getting some mixed reaction from fans. On the one hand, there are those cries of sexism and of the episode's careless use of Hitler while on another, there are those loving the continuing timey wimey saga that is River Song and her relationship with the Doctor and her parents. I lean towards more in the latter camp even though I know better to dismiss the totally valid viewpoints of the former. Most of why I gave the episode a pass is I am just so intrigued by River's nonsensical and loopy history to the point that I'm willing to sweep all of the confusion and inconsistencies under the rug. That and Rory was kind of amazing in this episode and since he's my favorite character in the show right now, that's enough for me. He was mistaken to be gay by his one true love, got to punch Hitler, rode a motorcycle, and basically just got to kick ass while remaining his true loyal, adorkable self. The episode was quite heavy on the River back story and at parts felt a bit fill-in-the-blank. We get to see Melody turn to River, grow up with her parents, kill the Doctor, learn how to operate the Tardis, save the Doctor's life, begin her quest to be an archaeologist, etc. Your feelings for this episode will probably be heavily dependent on your feelings for River and she's quite polarizing as I'm finding out. My one real beef with the episode is I'm not sure they really dealt with Amy and Rory's feeling about their missing baby. Yes, it's been a couple months since the events of Demon's Run and yes, they got to spend time with their "friend" Mels for years, but I'd think they'd be a bit more raw with the whole thing. I'm hoping for more development on this.


This week's Torchwood wasn't as tightly written as last week's episode, but I still think they're heading into the right direction in order for the season to end on a bit of a high note and I think it's mostly because some of the pieces are coming together bit by bit. And yet with only two episodes to go, I'm left to figure out how the hell they're going to wrap this all up. We do learn that the three guys from last week who "bought" Jack are part of "The Family" which is presumably the group responsible for the Miracle. The whys and the hows aren't really revealed of course, but we do know they are on top of their game. By episode's end they recruit Jilly and we find out that they have a mole at the CIA. Speaking of, the CIA raided the Colasanto residence where Torchwood was brought so that Jack can reunite with Angelo. Apparently all these years Angelo has been keeping track of Jack and trying to learn why he's immortal. I found this a bit laughable since I can't see how this guy was able to track and allude Torchwood ALL OF THESE YEARS. Come on now. I'm also surprised Jack didn't keep tabs on him in all of his years with Torchwood. It wouldn't taken absolutely no effort especially with their technology. Anyways, Angelo dies and they all learn that it's because of a null field that's possibly extraterrestrial in origins in Angelo's possession. Gwen is deported, Jack is shot, Esther is crying again, and that's how we end the episode! So... lots of questions still. Why and how is The Family doing this? How are aliens involved? How many frequent flier miles has Gwen been racking up? Can we just get a random cameo of ghost!Ianto? That'd frankly redeem the season for me completely.

That's all for now! Tomorrow, I'll have my thoughts on Breaking Bad, Weeds, and True Blood.