Review: Torchwood: Everything Changes

Series Two of Doctor Who was, in essence, a series-long viral marketing campaign for this spin-off. Torchwood follows the tale of a branch of the eponymous group, specifically the branch that clears Cardiff of the aliens scum that come through an inter-space-dimensional tear known as The Rift.
     Here, we have to set up the new series. Captain Jack, a minor companion in Series One of Doctor Who, is our only connection here, and so it's up to Eve Myles (who previously played her ancestor in Series One) to give us Gwen Cooper, policewoman.
      So, how does it do? Well, it throws us in at the deep end, woth Gwen discovering Torchwood using a "ressurection gauntlet" to discover information from a corpse. Torchwood is believed simply to be "special ops," but Gwen is suspicious. She is introduced by Jack into the world of Torchwood, with doctor Owen, techy Toshiko, handyman Ianto and weapons expert Suzie. After retconning her (erasing her memory), she ends up being confronted by Suzie, who has been killing people to test the gauntlet. She ends up shooting Jack, who turns out immortal and shoots her back.
     It's a little forced, to tell the truth. We're introduced to the concepts smoothly, but the storyline behind that isn't very gripping. It helped on the night to have the second episode played just after the first, but here I'm treating it as a standalone, and thus it has very little weight of its own. Regardless, it's a quite important episode, as we get thrown all of the basic background info.

Thanks.