February 3: "Out of Time" (TW)

Wow, another decent episode!  That's a Torchwood record!  Maybe they should be getting more women writing for the show -- they seem to be the ones writing the better installments.

Emma, Diane, and John find themselves in the 21st century. ("Out
of Time") ©BBC

The premise for "Out of Time" is very simple: what would happen if three people were suddenly transported fifty years forward in time?  It's not a new concept by any means (Captain America is only one of the more famous examples), but author Catherine Tregenna makes the most of it, by thoughtfully examining some of the effects this sudden wrench would have on those affected.  As such, this is more of a character study than an action tale, and it's all the better for it.

We're given three different people -- a headstrong, independent woman pilot, a successful businessman, and a young woman off to visit relatives -- and we're shown how they attempt to adjust to this new life.  John quickly makes friends with Captain Jack -- another man out of his own time, who also gets a chance to shine and become a more nuanced and interesting character in John's company -- but seems ultimately unable to cope; less with the changing times and more with the fact that everyone he knew and loved is gone -- except for his son, who has Alzheimer's and thus doesn't recognize his father or almost anything else around him.  He seemed like the most likely to survive, but he ends up being the one who commits suicide, as he has nothing to live for in the 21st century.  Emma, the young woman, seems to cope best -- she's surprisingly comfortable hanging out and fitting in with two modern young black women, and while she's a bit naïve, on account of being used to the 1950s, she adapts very well.  Meanwhile, Diane is less distressed by finding herself in a new time and more feeling a wanderlust, unwilling to be tied down to one place and time.

It's actually Diane who is in some ways the most interesting character here.  She's shown as incredibly independent, and her frustrations in being unable to fly without a current licence are palpable.  (Although, given that Torchwood faked up three passports for them, why couldn't they forge a flying licence for Diane?)  But the change she brings in Owen is the most surprising.  She somehow transforms Owen -- that's Owen, the womanizing bastard who's never less than an asshole in just about every scene he's in -- into a more complex and nuanced character.  It gets to the point where you genuinely feel for him at the end, and he ends up defined by his relationship with Diane, much how Diane isn't defined by her relationship with Owen.  It's really well done.

In all honesty, the only duff note in the whole piece is Rhys getting mad at Gwen for lying to him; this feels more like setting up events in the next couple episodes than a natural extension of what we see here.  It's not a flashy or thrilling episode, but "Out of Time" provides us three interesting contemplations on the question of what would happen to time-displaced people.