Torchwood - Small Worlds
Episode 105 first broadcast on BBC November 12th 2006.
written by P J Hammond

 
Jack: Sometimes I think they're part Mara.

While Jack and Gwen investigate Jack's friend Estelle's fairy photographs, a paedophile is cruising a local school looking to pick up a young girl. He grabs her but is suddenly thrown against his car by an unseen force and she skips happily away.

The guy is later chased by the 'fairies' who are demons from the dawn of time. They can flit in and out of time finding chosen ones wherever they go. The chosen ones are children that will become like them.

The guy turns himself into the police but is suffocated with rose petals by one of the fairies.

Estelle is visited by the fairies who drown her. Jack is extremely distraught he and Estelle had  been lovers in the 40s.

Gwen's room is ransacked and an image of the old forest is made out of bits of her lounge room.

The Torchwood team track the chosen one known as Jasmine to the primary school just as her stepfather and mother put on a celebratory party. The children have already left but not before Jasmine was helped in creating a small storm.

She returns home to the party and fights with her stepfather who disciplines her. It is enough to earn the fairies wrath and they appear to the party guests, then promptly kill the stepfather.

Then the Torchwood team turn up.

The story is a simple one. Child protected by demon fairies creates havoc. But the ending is not your usual ending. I won't spoil it but, where Doctor Who gives hope, Torchwood takes it away.

As this story had children in it I didn't believe it would be any good. (See various Doctor Who stories with children in them, School Reunion not included) But I was actually very impressed with this one, all the actors performed very well and everyone took everything seriously. Lara Phillipart (Jasmine) was excellent and very convincing in her role as the Chosen One. Kudos to the directors too for getting the best out of her.

(Side note, if you're a young girl in a Doctor Who story and you're skipping by yourself you must be possessed by evil. See Remembrance of the Daleks!)

8 out of 10

BBC Blurb
Torchwood Ep 5/13
Sunday 12 November
10.00-10.50pm BBC THREE 

Supernatural forces stalk the suburbs of Cardiff, as the sci-fi thriller created by award-winning writer Russell T Davies continues, but are they friendly or malevolent? And what do they want with the seemingly normal Pierce family? As nightmares of his past haunt Jack, he hopes his old friend, Estelle Cole, will help him prevent the tragedy brewing in a suburban household.

Jack is played by John Barrowman and Estelle Cole by Eve Pearce.

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