Memories are made of this ... or are they?

Look I've tried it with an alien lesbian, I've tried it with a Northerner, now I'm trying it out with a ginga! One needs to keep one's options open, yes?

Oh my giddy aunt! (As the second incarnation of the Doctor used to say). I've actually written about "Torchwood" almost straight after broadcast!

Last night's instalment, "Adam" saw Toshiko getting it on with a ginger minger. Oh dear I’m being very anti-redhead aren’t I? I got told off recently for my comments about overweight people so I’m now trying to curb such unkind tendencies. Now the gingers are coming in for flak instead. I’ll soon have people of auburn persuasions up in arms, writing to me... But the guy playing Adam was still rather odd weird-looking and certainly not what I’d call hot. And he had a weird mouth. He really must have brainwashed Tosh something chronic to get her to fancy him. Still Ms Sato hasn’t exactly been having a bad time of it this season, first of all getting it together with young northern soldier Tommy and now this fella. Shame they all b*gger off and leave her…

"Adam" was all about an alien being called, strangely enough, Adam who had managed to infiltrate the hub by taking on human form and implanting false memories in the minds of all the team, so leading them to believe that he was a bona fide member of the Torchwood posse. Nasty!

Another Catherine Tregenna-penned script, this was mildly better than last week's. I say mildly as it still wasn’t a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. The concept was interesting but resolution all too convenient (let's swallow lots of amnesia pills!) plus it wasn’t really explained was how Adam had arrived in the hub to begin with, nor where he’d originated from (it transpired later that he’d only been there 48 hours but such were his powers of suggestion, the team thought that they’d known him for years).

I didn’t find the character of Adam all that convincing, despite the actor’s attempts to do “evil looks” which were more amusing than frightening (akin to the “Neighbours” school of drama…) There was one quite good scene where Adam tortured Ianto, making him believe that he’d killed three women, which was fairly nasty. However I thought that Adam gave up far too easily and didn’t even put up a decent fight when Jack imprisoned him in the hub dungeons. Also, wasn’t he a bit silly carrying out all of his evil deeds in front of the Torchwood CCTV? He was bound to get sprung eventually…

Adam’s memory implants had caused some major changes as well as disruption amongst the team and the results were quite entertaining. Toshiko was now more confident and outgoing as well as in love with Adam. Owen had gone the other way and turned into a repressed, shy geek with glasses and a side parting. He also held a candle for Tosh and announced his love for her in a touching speech - sadly his feelings weren’t reciprocated. It was actually rather nice to see him as a modest, mild type for a change though and he came across as quite endearing. A pity he didn’t stay that way…And poor old Jack suffered the most torture of all. Under Adam’s influence he’s taken back to the place of his childhood and made to remember the death of his father, and separation from his brother, Gray…Aha! So that’s who “Gray” is! Remember Captain John’s remark at the end of the first episode, that he’d “seen Gray?” It’s all slowly falling into place…And the mysterious puzzle box at the end that Jack unlocks might have something to do with it…

Oh and Ms Gaptooth Cooper seemed to be suffering from temporary amnesia as she forgot who fiancé Rhys was and wondered what the hell he was doing in her home and they had to “start over” as it were.

Resolution came in the form of amnesia tablets, handed out by Jack to all of the team, which – oh happy day! – were able to erase everyone’s memories over the past 48 hours. Mmmm how very fortunate. Not to mention the fact that Adam had only been in the hub for 48 hours. Any longer and things might have been tricky. I’m getting a bit tired of the amnesia pill plot device though – far too lazy and convenient, not to mention the fact that it’s now been used several times. Can’t the writers come up with a better solution than this?

But hey! Guess which medical student-cum TARDIS traveller is due to arrive at the hub next week for a three episode stint? Yep, it’s Ms Martha Jones. And now apparently she’s working for UNIT. The girl has gone up in the world. Now as I said many a time in my reviews of Dr Who Season Three, I was quite fond of Martha even though I felt that Freema Agyeman wasn’t the most gifted of actresses. The character was also saddled with the “I love the Dr” schtich which became increasingly annoying. So it will be interesting (God I use that word an awful lot don’t I?) to see how she shapes up in "T-Wood". Away from the Doc and all that, she could turn out to be quite different. And interesting. Yes.

However one does kind of hope that Ms Jones doesn’t get pulled into the soap opera theatrics that have bedevilled “Torchwood” and end up sh&gging one, or more of the characters in the hub. Otherwise she might have to change her name to Martha Bones. Whoops, sorry. Or perhaps she’ll manage to rise above it all and preserve her decency for the duration of her three episode contract. One would hope so, but in Cardiff it seems that anyone is easy game...

(Screencap courtesy of time-and-space.co.uk)