Sci-Fi Storm

The second season of Torchwood comes out on DVD on September 16th, and here is a review of what you can expect in it. I’ve also given Torchwood its own section in the Sci-Fi TV Store.

This September, BBC Video unleashes to DVD the newest installment of the highest rated show ever on BBC AMERICA with the release of Torchwood: The Complete Second Season. Riding the wave of a growing, rabid fan base generated by BBC?s largest and highly touted presence at Comic-Con to date, Torchwood is one of the hottest science fiction series on television. In this fresh, action-packed season, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and his alien fighting team ? Gwen (Eve Myles) Owen (Burn Gorman), Tosh (Naoko Mori) and Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) ? are brought face-to-face with fearsome new aliens while facing temptation and enduring heartache. In addition, viewers are treated to a line-up of amazing guest stars including James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville), Alan Dale (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull, Ugly Betty) and Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who). Featuring all 13-action-packed episodes, this fully-loaded 5-disc set also contains over three hours of bonus features ranging from deleted scenes and outtakes to Torchwood Declassified featurettes and more.

The DVD set comes in a cardboard slipcase with a cast photo on the front, in which is a cardboard folder containing five clear plastic DVD holders in a book-style binding and another cast picture on the front and stylized scene images on the back. Each of the five discs features a screen print featuring one of the five main characters.

The first three discs open with advertisements (Doctor Who – The Complete Fourth Series and BBC America on Disc 1, Primeval – The Complete Series 1 and 2 on Disc 2 and Robin Hood – Series 2 on Disc 3. Then it presents a “computer console” style menu which is fairly static, but with scene clips in the center.

Special features are restricted to Discs 4 and 5 – notably absent are any audio commentaries, which in the Season 1 set were included for every episode.

But much like its predecessor Doctor Who and first season DVD sets, you are guaranteed to get all the episodes of the season plus the making-of shorts (“Torchwood Declassified”). In addition, there are also outtakes and deleted scenes, including a much longer scene discussing death between Owen and Henry Parker, the old man in “A Day in the Death”. I think it would be better if the Declassified episodes were included on the same discs as the episodes they are related to, but they are all collected on Disc 5.

Also included is a featurette called “The Life and Deaths of Captain Jack”, which gives a recap of the timeline of the immortal ex-Time Agent.

The series add some very interesting twists through the season. Introduced is Jack’s Time Agency ex-partner (and more) Captain John Hurt, played by James Marsters (Angel‘s Spike), who makes several appearances in the season (Episodes “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”,

“Fragments”, and “Exit Wounds”), always keeping you guessing if you can trust him about anything. Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) shows up for a while, Owen has a life-altering experience – literally, and by the end we lose two characters.

Although this 5 disc set seems light on special features compared to previous releases, the episodes of this season make this an improvement over the first season and definitely worth rewatching.