Review: Torchwood 1.9: Random Shoes

The Dogon Sixth Eye

The second series of Doctor Who saw the advent of a type of episode called Doctor-lite (or Companion-Lite, if needs be}. A means of making production easier, Lite episodes featured very little screentime from the main cast while more emphasis was put on those left behind (be that The Doctor, his companion or a guest star}. The first one, Love and Monsters, didn't get off to a great start, but all of the Lite episodes after that are some of NuWho's classics. Random Shoes feels like an attempt at a Torchwood version of a Lite episode, and this produces some interesting results.
        The episode follows the ghost of a suspiciously not-Welsh man called Eugene Jones as he follows his idols, Torchwood, in their investigation into his own death. He starts with a flashback to a school maths competition, where he not only lost the respect of his classmates but also of his father (a bit of a cock then, really.}After this his science teacher showed him an alien eye that had fallen from the sky one day, andever since Eugene had been obsessed with aliens.That night his dad left. Again. A bit of a cock.
       As an adult he kept following Torchwood, but the only person who showed him any interest was Gwen. They kept ignoring him - until he died, that is. After they empty Eugene's house of alien artefacts, it becomes clear that Gwen is the only one that gives a damn about the case. She goes off on her own, visiting the cafe where Eugene frequented and returning his DVDs back to the shop. As Eugene follows Gwen, he appears to have some form of suggestion over her - telling her to "ring Gary" and such. She visits his place of work, a call centre. They meet Gary, who's shifty. She arranges a chat with one of his colleagues, Linda, who describes how Eugene claimed that he would raise enough money to send her to Australia by selling his alien eye. In the end the bidding came to £15005.05.

Gwen and Eugene on a journey.

       Eugene's Mum shows Gwen the video of the maths quiz with his Dad's commentary, explaining the eye. They find that Eugene wanted to go because he found his Dad was, instead of working in America, a cashier at a garage down the road. Gwen can now hear Eugene clearly. Back at the Hub, and Jack explains to Gwen that the eye is probably a Dogon Sixth Eye - a spare that allowed the five-eyed Dogons to look into their past. He gives her the weekend to get the eye, and so she goes with Eugene to a science fair that they were planning to visit. Gary, it turns out, inflated the price of the bids to help Eugene's confidence, but stopped when Eugene started to think it was the alien. Eventually, on the day he died, Eugene went to meet with the alien after getting an e-mail.
     Gwen can now feel Eugene to the touch, but can't see him. They trace his last destination to a Happy Cook (a parody of Little Chef, I imagine} on the A4. Eugene remembers that he met his mates in the café, who told him about their deception. They planned to take it off Eugene for 30 quid and then exploit the online interest for it. In the end, to save it, Eugene swallowed the eye. Escaping, he ran out into the road - leading to his death. Gwen rings Eugene's dad and the episode segues into his funeral. He realises his mistakes - and forgives his father. She retrieves the eye from the coroner, and outside his old house she bades him farewell. With everyone gathered together, they watch as a now physical Eugene saves Gwen from being killed. He appears and says godbye to everyone, before rising into the sky in a haze of white light.

Hi.

     While Marc Warren's narration in Doctor Who's Love And Monsters felt like an example of how not to make a Lite episode, the similar approach here actually worked because instead of being a silly, "let's chase an alien" plot, it worked as a real human drama about deception and its consequences. Paul Chequer's Eugene is as real and as quirky as the script demands and at the end he has a lot of chemistry with Gwen - a decent acheivement for someone he's only had 40 minutes of screentime with.
    It doesn't gel with the series' mentality at all, but this is still an outstanding piece of television in the regard that it manages to take a brand new character and make the audience emotionally connect with him. I even forgave his father - and a script that can make me forgive someone who left home because his son failed a maths test is a good one at any rate. I've been comparing it to Love and Monsters, and maybe I really shouldn't because the only person really missing for the majority of it is Jack, but if Torchwood was aiming for a more mature take on the Doctor Who universe, then this is the perfect example of when that premise is working perfectly.

Thanks.