Torchwood 1.5: Small Worlds

This episode didn't arouse the same passions as 'Cyberwoman' last week. I thought it was competent and markedly the creation of a writer of an earlier generation than his colleagues. Most of the team had little development and apart from Jack and Gwen were ciphers. The episode was plot-led but explanations were kept to a minimum, as was writer Peter J. Hammond's way in the days of Sapphire and Steel. We are never told, for example, what the 'Lost Lands' are; I assume we are meant to think of Lyonesse or of Ys.

The sacrifice of Jasmine to the time-indifferent faeries was dramatically satisfying and again in the Sapphire and Steel tradition. The reference to the Mara - if it was meant to be a cross-reference to Christopher Bailey's 'Kinda' and 'Snakedance' for Peter Davison's Doctor Who - seemed inappropriate and not in keeping with Bailey's creations.

Next week looks like a change of style again; I still don't feel that I know this programme or what it seeks to be. Radio Times are ignoring it for now, but I hope that this doesn't mean it's been dismissed already as a failed experiment.

Early rising and productivity

Getting up in the morning is something I'm managing at the start of the week, when I have a tutorial to prepare for the Tuesday, but still flagging at in the second half. Self-discipline still required... and not helped by a new entry in my occasional scheme to read the books I didn't read in childhood, The Owl Service by Alan Garner, half of which was devoured at about 3am this morning...