March 6: "Reset" (TW)

The successes keep on coming for Torchwood, as "Reset" provides another strong episode for series 2.  It's got a strong plot and strong characterizations, which make for a great combination.

Martha is readied to become the next subject in the Mayfly
clinical trial. ("Reset") ©BBC

One of the key components this time around is the introduction of Martha Jones.  It's a pleasure to see her back, even if it's without the Doctor.  This is clearly a Martha that has moved on since "Last of the Time Lords" -- she's now working for UNIT and is called in to assist Torchwood with some unusual deaths.  It's also great to see her and Jack interacting -- they're two people with a shared experience that the others can't even imagine, and the bond that therefore exists is easy to see.  This also means that she fits in with the group rather effortlessly, and we don't have to worry about a lot of tedious "but can she be trusted?" nonsense.  And Freema Agyeman continues to be great, which means any scene she's in is that much better -- particularly when she is sent undercover to infiltrate the Pharm.  (The fact that her cover name is Samantha Jones -- the same name as the eighth Doctor's first companion in the BBC books -- is probably a coincidence rather than some sort of deliberate in-joke.)

But as I said, it helps that they've provided her with a strong plot to work with.  I really like how the plot develops, from a deadly conspiracy to a pharmaceutical company that's using alien things to try and cure diseases, only the alien stuff is going wrong.  So not only does their conspiracy plotline logically expand out to cover alien issues, but it also provides a convenient way to get Martha in on the main action, as well as flirting with the issue of medical ethics.  If you could cure any disease and "reset" someone back to their "factory settings", so to speak, but you ended up killing patients because your "cure" is actually an alien parasite that will kill its host, would it be worth continuing the trials in the hope of isolating the "reset" part?  The people at the Pharm think so -- in fact, they have a number of aliens chained up and isolated so that useful chemicals can be extracted, regardless of how the aliens feel about it.  It's nice to see Jack on the side of the aliens ("Combating hostile aliens is one thing," Jack tells Dr Copley, "but this is slavery, exploitation, a war crime") -- series 2 seems to be making an effort to pull Torchwood back from the rabid xenophobic position it held in series 1 -- and it makes it a lot easier to root for them when they shut the Pharm down and essentially euthanize all the aliens inside.

This is a smart, fast-paced, strong episode -- Martha fits in well from the very start, and the assassination of clinical trial subjects leading Torchwood to enslaved aliens is very well handled.  And then, just when you think it's all done, Copley shoots Owen dead.  Not just wounded, or on the verge of dying, but actually dead.  That's a hell of a lead-in to the next episode (and the trailer is all about his autopsy and things like that, so it doesn't seem like there's any sort of fast one being pulled here).  The quality of series 2 just keeps going up.