TW 202: Sleeper

There's an obvious joke I can make here, with an episode named that, but in this case I think it was the writer who was asleep, not the audience.


This is definitely not an original story. Once I realised which bits of last weeks "Coming Up" promos were for this episode, most of the story was mapped out. Alien sleeper agent gets discovered by Torchwood, and they stop her... with a wee bit of necessary action in the middle as more agents are activated.

(Supposedly all agents were activated. Given how quickly these agents went to work, surely the rest of the world should be under the alien's control by now?)

The main focus of the episode is on the original sleeper agent, though, and how the human cover doesn't know she's an agent, and what she does when she finds out. It really becomes predictable, even the ending, and the truth of the episode only comes out when the audience can link to and care about the main protagonist.

Which, not surprisingly, I didn't. If they had done something truly original in this episode, it might have scored some points, but this was a direct retelling of obviousness.

Character-wise, the team are largely superficially treated, as the focus is on Beth (nearly didn't remember her name, and I only finished watching about twenty minutes ago!). The only problem is, as I keep saying, she travels a well-worn path, so I'm guessing this story meant a whole lot more to James Moran than the rest of us.

A filler episode that can easily be ignored on every level.


Next week: Back to a world war... can't say I'm enthused.

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