Daibhid's Journal

Flashback to the Roaring Twenties, as Jack is, once again, haunted by the ghosts of his past.

(They should have got Stuart Owens to deal with it. He ain't afraid of no ghosts.)
( spoilers )

You know those General Election campiagns that start the year before the election, and seem to go on forever? There's none of that in the Whoniverse, because there's never an organised General Election. Prime Ministers never serve a full term, they just lose the job (and possibly their lives) in alien invasions.

2006 Unnamed PM, probably Tony Blair, killed by the Slitheen along with the whole cabinet. Succeeded by Harriet Jones, apparently just because she took charge of things.
2007 Harriet Jones loses her position because she looks tired. Succeeded by unknown.
2008 Unknown PM succeeded by Harold Saxon in undisclosed circumstances, despite him not being a member of any political party. (This does appear to be a General Election, but is clearly a very unusual one.)
2008 Harold Saxon killed by Lucy Saxon during the Toclafane invasion. Succeeded by Brian Green.
2009 Brian Green implicated in 456 event. Presumably succeeded by whoever's PM in Miracle Day, and how long are they going to last now?

(In case anyone's been wondering, I know there are episode titles, but they don't appear on screen or get mentioned in any UK publicity, so I'm ignoring them rather than look them up every time.)
( spoilers )

I'm no doctor, but I strongly suspect that was preposterous.
( spoilers )

Still haven't seen Miracle Day; thought I should write these up first, without being influenced by it. For those who haven't heard of these, they're three radio dramas that were broadcast on Radio 4 last week in the Afternoon Play slot. Two of them are still available on Listen Again if you hurry.
( Spoilers. Including one huge one for 'The House of the Dead'. )

That was the most gut-wrenching hour of television I've seen in, well, possibly ever. (Disclaimer: I don't often watch programmes that could be remotely described as "gut-wrenching", so it's not that much of a challenge).
( spoilers )

Pretty good. I'm probably going to do a proper thing once it's all over, but here's my thoughts so far.

( Here be spoilers. )

Excellent. Interesting to learn a bit more about Torchwood's history, and the subtle reference to Doctor Who was fun (Yeti spheres).

I know "the pictures are better on radio", but I really would like to have seen Torchwood India.

Edit: And, it's just occured to me, if Torchwood had bases in the protectorates and dominions, was there a Torchwood Canada or a Torchwood Australia? Torchwood Africa? Torchwood Jamacia? They raise all sorts of possibilities. (Maybe Commonwealth countries that still have the British Monarch as Head of State didn't have their Torchwoods closed down like India did.)

Reading shriker_tam's comments on Torchwood, I was reminded of a thought I had during the second series.

As people who watched it may remember, the Torchwood Institute logo is a T made out of hexagons, which looks like it's at an angle to the viewer. In the WWI ep, and the 1900s scenes in the last two episodes, they decided that was a bit too modern-looking, and the "old" Torchwood logo was a serif T in a regular hexagon.

It is my theory that the current logo was the brainchild of Yvonne Hartman, who strikes me as exactly the sort of person who'd decide a secret organisation needs a rebranding excercise.