OK, things just got really interesting.

On Sunday we had the first two episodes of Torchwood shown on BBC3 in the UK.

How to describe this show? Cross between Men in Black and the X-files? It leans towards the former (as the team are on the inside), though the atmosphere and feel are more like the latter.

While this is certainly a Doctor Who spinoff (spotted the anagram yet?), and there are numerous cross-references, no way is this a children's show. The first episode included such adult elements as bi-sexual kissing and date-rape (with a major character using an alien aphrodisiac), blood-spurting gratuitous violence, and some very dubious morality. The second one included some pretty explicit sex and voyeurism scenes, though no actual nudity, plus the "rat jam" scene (watch the episode). The writers were clearly making full use of their post-watershed* transmission time to push the boundaries of TV sci-fi.

From a story point of view, the first episode set the scene and used only a small amount of sci-fi elements (the Weevil and a few alien toys), and had a certain internal logic to it.

The second episode was clearly written to bring in more raw sex, and was pretty ridiculous as a plot line. I've always had troubles with alien possession as a concept, and this one took it to silly levels. As a plot it was very close to a well known SF movie. The daft concepts included an alien that could synthesise human pheremones sufficiently for aggressive seduction, and required human sexual activity as a trigger to feeding (apparently by absorbing a lot of matter from the victim, reducing them to a pile of dust). An alien? What do they eat at home? Even stranger was why the ghostly vaporous alien itself turned into a pile of dust when killed. Oh well, this is science fantasy like its parent. I can find my hard-sf fix elsewhere.

The characters still have to fill out. Gwen and Jack are central and therefore the most interesting, though Jack doesn't quite work as a mystery man if you saw his Doctor Who debut episodes. Still, we'll see what else we can learn. Gwen is the only team member to have a "life" and I hope the writers can manage to avoid the obvious plotline of "Gwen's nice boyfriend gets involved in a Torchwood incident and gets killed, leaving Gwen feeling (even more) guilty and alone with hilarious results". It's been done too many times guys. If he keeps on being so wholesome and supportive and generally nice, you can safely bet a dollar that they will slice him in a nasty way to give you a shock. What a surprise NOT!

All in all, this series has terrific potential, great casting (the girls will be instant geek-pinups across the planet I'm sure, and the ladies out there are already swooning over Captain Jack), and they have a huge problem-space into which plots can be inserted. I was hooked even before the first episode, but I'll bet that BBC Wales have another global hit on their hands. Lets hope they continue to get the resources it deserves; I would hate to see BBC internal politics get in the way. As for export to other markets, its pretty strong stuff so far and a lot of countries will push back on public broadcast I'm sure. Still, viewers have enough choice these days with satellite, cable and IPTV, so hopefully it will get the audience it deserves.

And I'm sure Cardiff will get a LOT more tourists as a result.

*Watershed. In the UK (which is a single timezone), broadcasters are allowed to transmit adult content after 9pm, when it is assumed that most children will be in bed and all parents know the situation. There are still rules, but they are a lot more relaxed. Some shows starting before 9pm would conciously introduce adult material after 9pm within the same show.