I can't help thinking that Torchwood is the series that Russell T. Davies really wanted to write; whereas his Doctor Who saw him updating a classic format by rooting it in present day England, with stories primarily set on Earth, with mixed results, Torchwood, which is set in Cardiff, easily lends itself to the format of a science fiction set in the present day, with a regular cast of characters who have friends, relatives, and lives outside of work, resulting in a set-up that feels markedly less forced than the Doctor's frequent returns to the Powell estate so that Rose can visit Mickey and her Mum.

And it works. Torchwood wears its influences on its sleeve; the structure of the opening episode reflects that of 'Rose', with an ordinary working girl (in this case policewoman Gwen) is gradually drawn into an extraordinary world of aliens and alien technology when she meets a mysterious and charismatic man about whom there are records dating from Earth's past. Buffy, of which Davies has always openly admitted to being a fan, also plays a role, with the rift (first seen in 'The Unquiet Dead' and again in 'Boom Town') essentially fulfilling the same role as the hell mouth in that series, acting as a plot device or explaining the high occurrence of aliens and sundry other paranormal events in Cardiff. But whilst 'Rose' was cluttered and too-fast moving, reintroducing the Doctor Who format by dragging it kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century, 'Everything Changes' is a better paced, smoother affair. Ironically, given the adult target audience and the late timeslot, on the evidence of this first episode, Torchwood, whilst bloodier and sexier than Davies' Doctor Who, is more mature in the ways I least expected; there are "adult" jokes, sex and innuendo, but the toilet humour and frequent lack of subtlety in that series is far more restrained here.

This is most obvious and least expected in the characterization of Captain Jack. Whereas in 'Boom Town' Captain Jack, in Davies' hands, became "Captain of the innuendo squad", here he's a more brooding presence. He still flirts with his colleagues, both male and female, but he's obviously haunted by his inability to die following his resurrection by Rose at the end of 'Bad Wolf'/'The Parting of the Ways'. This is gradually becomes clear from the first scene with the resurrection glove, as he intensely asks the unfortunate John Tucker what dying is like, and his comments about finding "the right sort of Doctor" to explain what has happened to him is blatantly going to be a recurring character trait. Indeed, his glib comment that the perception filter was caused by a "dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit" suggests that his only reason for joining Torchwood, and basing himself in Cardiff, is because he knows from personal experience that both the Doctor and the TARDIS have been there. Interestingly, he is presented as a man of mystery but although as yet only Davies knows his origins, Doctor Who fans in the audience fans know more about him that; this becomes even clearer in 'Day One', when it turns out that the rest of Torchwood aren't even sure about his sexuality, and is rather unusual.

John Barrowman is at his best as Captain Jack here, recalling in particular the role he gave in 'The Empty Child'/'The Doctor Dances', proving by turns heroic, dashing and charming, but with a slightly untrustworthy edge (witness the ease with which he attempts to wipe Gwen's memories); in short, without having to play second fiddle to the Doctor, he makes a perfect leading man. Indeed, Jack is something of a ruthless pragmatist here, instructing his staff to move and alter corpses to cover to avoid discovery of their work.

Eve Myles, who previously appeared as Gwyneth in 'The Unquiet Dead', is also well cast as Gwen, a thoroughly likeable and sympathetic character whose sense of morality prompts her to angrily condemn Jack for failing to use the technology at his disposal to help the victims of crime rather than merely exploiting them; it is this, coupled with Suzie's betrayal, that prompts Jack to decide, "Perhaps we could help more", presumably setting the tone for rest of the series. Russell introduces the audience to Torchwood through Gwen's eyes, which works far better than his introduction to the Doctor through Rose's eyes did, especially in the memorably creepy (and quite bloody) scene in which she first encounters the Weevil. Notably, she bursts into tears and shakes with terror when Suzie is about to shoot her, a very natural and human response, but one that is rarely seen in Doctor Who, which serves as a reminder that Torchwood is intended to have a far more realistic feel than its parent series.

Of the other regulars introduced here, Owen is profoundly obnoxious and thoroughly unlikable, as he is clearly meant to be; a man whose reaction to privileged circumstances is one of selfishness and arrogance rather than responsibility, he clearly sees Torchwood's haul of alien technology as his own private toyshop, most notably during the deeply objectionable scene in which he uses the alien equivalent of Rohypnol to lure a woman into bed. Although the idea of using drugs to force people to fall in love (or lust) as been treated as the stuff of comedy ever since Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream, the moral implications are appalling, since Owen's prey is blatantly not consenting whilst in her right mind. Rather worryingly, Davies scripts the whole scene for laughs, as Owen is forced to use the spray on his victim's boyfriend and is forced to make a rapid getaway to avoid an unwanted menage-a-trois. Burn Gorman is alarmingly convincing in the role.

Indira Varma is equally convincing as unexpected traitor Suzie, whose obsession with the resurrection glove has driven her mad; it isn't clear if this is a result of the glove itself (which is quarantined after she commits suicide) or her own personality, but Varma conveys Suzie's conflicting mix of emotions very well. Suzie's betrayal serves two purposes; one is to provide a vacancy for Gwen to step into, the other is to illustrate that in comparison to, for example, Pertwee era UNIT, Torchwood Cardiff is a dysfunctional group, further demonstrated by the lack of regard that Owen and Toshiko have for Jack's order that none of the alien technology leaves the base. This friction within the group, to which Gwen's moral stance will undoubtedly continue to contribute, is almost certainly going to drive the characterization within the rest of the series. As for the other regulars, Naoko Mori's Toshiko and Gareth David-Lloyd's Ianto get little to do here, although both give decent performances and it would seem likely that they'll each get opportunities to explore their characters more in future episodes.

Other things worthy of note in 'Everything Changes' include some of the dialogue, which veers between the best and worst of Davies' writing. As in Doctor Who, we get unwieldy contrived sermons, including Jack's "Contraceptives in the rain. Love this planet" speech on oestrogen pollution, but there are also flashes of genuinely amusing wit including the line, "That is so Welsh? I show you something fantastic, you find fault." Other gems of characterization and dialogue include the first resurrection glove scene, which is very intense, as John Tucker seems convincingly terrified at what is happening to him, and the scene in which Gwen meets the Weevil, which she assumes is a man in a mask, which is all very post-modern and obvious, but also the most likely explanation and therefore a reasonable assumption to make.

As for the production side, Torchwood benefits from some great (if derivative) set designs (the Hub prison cells are very The Silence of the Lambs) and extensive location filming which benefits the series enormously. Brian Kelly's direction is generally very effective, maintaining a fast pace when necessary, but also allowing the story to unfold without the visual clutter that Keith Boak brought to Davies' debut Doctor Who episode 'Rose'. The only real criticism I have of the direction is in the overuse of aerial shots which give the production a glossy sub-Hollywood blockbuster air but seem designed purely to show off Cardiff and are a bit distracting, especially the astoundingly pointless of Jack posing on top of a building for no reason whatsoever. And Torchwood's vehicle looks crap.

Overall, Torchwood is a pleasant surprise, and 'Everything Changes' makes for an effective opener. Perhaps the biggest surprise is Davies' restraint in a series in which he could feasibly make all the smut and innuendo that blights his Doctor Who episodes far more prominent. Ironically, it is the second episode, by writers Chris Chibnall and Brian Kelly, that sees Torchwood exploring areas that I expected Davies to want to script, as we get the unlikely experience of an alien that shags people to death?

An alien that feeds on the climactic orgasmic energy of men, lesbian snogging, and nudity: welcome to 'Day One', the second episode of Torchwood. The premise of the episode sounds so bad on paper that I was expecting to hate it, but in fact writer Chris Chibnall handles it in entirely unexpected ways.

Make no mistake, there is much in 'Day One' that is puerile; the nude Owen scene and the gratuitous lesbian snogging (and the others' lecherous reaction to it) do little to advance the plot and are nowhere near as amusing as Chibnall seems to think and the episode finale in the sperm donor clinic (including yet another obligatory gay reference) boarders on the farcical despite the seriousness of the situation. And yet for all of this there is, as in 'Everything Changes', a remarkable level of restraint; although the episode does feature a sex scene in a toilet, Gwen snaps things into perspective by reminding us that unfortunate victim Matt had parents who have just lost their only child. The security guard's wanking over the CCTV footage of the pair having sex is disgusting (albeit entirely, seedily believeable) and played for laughs, but his near-hysterical reaction to an inexplicable death prevents the intended humour from going too far. Ultimately, 'Day One' focuses not on the sexual appetites of the parasitic alien, but on the human cost of its activities. Carys' sheer guilt and anguish is well-conveyed by actress ???, and the character's desperate decision to try to satisfy the alien by sacrificing a loathsome and emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend seems perfectly natural.

The focus on characterization also benefits the regulars. The episode opens with Gwen going bowling with Rhys, but significantly she can't or won't tell him what her "secondment" really is - he thinks it's just special ops. This incompatibility of her relationship with her new job looks set to be a recurring theme, especially when she discovers, to her surprise, that none of her new colleagues have partners nor much of a life outside of work. Gwen again brings a human dimension to Torchwood, pointedly forcing Jack to acknowledge that the alien's host is in fact a human victim, and she determinedly sets out to create a character profile of Carys to remind them of that fact. She is also prepared to sacrifice herself to save Carys, offering to take the alien into her own body to buy more time. She also continues to show her strong moral streak in other ways, automatically snapping, "This is the police computer system, you shouldn't have this!" to which Jack responds, "You might want to stop saying 'you' and start saying 'we'". She's still adjusting to Torchwood (as indeed is the audience) and unleashes the alien when she tries to join in with Owen and Jack's casual throwing of equipment before later getting an awkward moment when she bumps into her former partner, who resentfully asks, "Boss of me now, are you?" She's also quite horrified that Torchwood has a supply of corpses to cover up mysterious disappearances.

Meanwhile, both the other members of Torchwood and any members of the audience who are new to the character continue to learn more about Captain Jack, and the mystery of the severed hand is probably quite intriguing to anyone who doesn't know of his connection to the Doctor and/or hasn't seen the Tenth Doctor's hand get amputated above London in 'The Christmas Invasion'. The man of mystery angle continues to play out as we also learn that his colleagues know little about him and aren't even sure of his sexuality (Owen notes "Period military is not the dress code of a straight man", Toshiko notes, "He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough"). Barrowman continues to impress, especially when Jack gets very agitated when Carys steals the hand, although the fight scene in which she escapes from him isn't terribly convincing. Notably, he seems increasingly drawn to Gwen, as she becomes emotionally involved with Carys' plight, and is very probably going to end up shagging her at some point, which is a depressingly predictable situation.

As for the others, Ianto and Toshiko again get very little to do here, whilst Owen treats the whole thing as a joke, a very juvenile response that is perfectly in character. This again brings him into contact with Gwen, who furiously asks him, "You think it's a joke! We should be helping her.

"On the production side, Brian Kelly's frequent aerial shots of Cardiff here at least seem to have a point, tracking the path of the ship/meteor over the city, and the special effect of it crashing works quite well. The exploding rat and the alien also look rather good, even if the meteor itself looks suspiciously like a prop made out of polystyrene. I should also note here, as I didn't when I reviewed 'Everything Changes', that despite Murray Gold's involvement the incidental music, whilst somewhat pompous and overblown is massively better that the aural excrement that he smeared across Doctor Who and generally succeeds in underlying the episodes without becoming overly intrusive or nauseating.

Overall, 'Day One' takes a potentially disastrous premise and makes a surprisingly good episode out of it, despite the inevitably juvenile humour and a contrived deus ex machina ending in which the alien handily expires inside a convenient McGuffin as soon as Carys is safe. It's nowhere near as good as 'Everything Changes'; fortunately however, any fears I might have had that it marked a downward trend in the quality of the series were swiftly alleviated by the following episode?