Torchwood delivers

The final two episodes of Torchwood’s third season did not disappoint. The excellent viewing figures (almost 6 million per night throughout, before counting the time-shifted viewers) suggest that the public liked it too, which is not always the case with such a slow-burning character-driven drama.

And character-driven it was. It’s typical, in science fiction TV, to look for a spectacular technological resolution to the plot, but Torchwood opted to fall back on the tried and tested ‘feed their own signal back to them, but amplified’ solution, a staple of the Star Trek franchise since Next Generation, if not earlier. Some people might have been let down by this, but the mundane nature of the solution (which had been properly set up – no deus ex machina this time) allowed the audience to concentrate on the terrible decision that Jack Harkness was forced to make: sacrificing his own grandson to save millions of children around the world.

Indeed, the theme for Harkness was one of sacrifice throughout. He compromised his integrity in 1965, and now he had to pay – first with the loss of Ianto, then with the loss of his grandson, and finally his rejection by his daughter. Little wonder that with all bar Gwen of the original Torchwood team dead Jack decided to head back out to the stars.

Ianto’s death was carefully underplayed. After the big send-off for Toshiko and Owen in season 2 this was probably wise – and anyway, the show’s not primarily about Ianto. We did, at least, get to see the Jack/Ianto relationship properly explored, without it being submerged in the frenetic pace of some of the older episodes.

Gwen (and Rhys and future baby) live to – well, what? Is the Torchwood Institute finished? We don’t know. But Gwen certainly grew as her role in the organisation developed, and she very effectively led the operation in Jack’s absence.

Everything pales into insignificance beside John Frobisher’s tragedy though. A career civil servant, he kept his head down, did his job, and saw off all the ambitious high-flyers to rise to the top of his profession. He had everything that he could have hoped for: a beautiful family, a nice home, and the prospect of retirement on a healthy pension. But the reward for his loyalty and success was to be cynically abused by the Prime Minister – to have his daughters sacrificed to the alien threat for nothing more than PR. No wonder that he opted to save the girls from the horror that he knew awaited them, shooting his entire family and then himself. And the greatest tragedy? If he had had a little less courage he and his family would have been saved.

Once again, I have to declare my admiration for Peter Capaldi’s performance. A BAFTA should follow, although as science fiction is frequently not taken seriously as drama he may miss out.

So what now for Torchwood? Jack’s gone, the Hub is a pile of rubble, and only Gwen remains – with other priorities. Will the show be reinvented or was that it’s swansong? My guess is that the BBC will look at the ratings and find a way to reboot the show. It certainly deserves it.