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Torchwood
– Children of Earth starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen,
Gareth David-Lloyd
as Ianto, and Kai Owen as Rhys.
Torchwood is the spinoff series of the new series of Doctor Who starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness in charge of the
Cardiff branch of Torchwood, the secret British government agency
tasked with collecting and controlling alien activity.
The third season was a five-part miniseries that ran on BBC1 in the
Imagination Station in
**Note that this is an adult series, with most episodes rated TV-MA,
for sexual and violent content and swearing.
This is a 2-disc set. It
contains:
On both discs, 16:9 aspect ratio, DTS HD 5.1 sound, graphical menus,
episode and scene selection features, and optional subtitles
for the hearing impaired. Both
discs start with an advertisement for another BBC set, but this is skippable with your remote.
Each episode is approximately 60 minutes in duration.
On Disc 1:
-
Episode 1: Day One
-
Episode 2: Day Two
- Episode 3: Day Three
On Disc 2:
- Episode 4: Day Four
- Episode 5: Day Five
- Torchwood
Declassified 31-minute
behind-the-scenes documentary. (This is in standard-definition only on both
editions.)
The surviving members of Torchwood
begin to investigate a new global unknown threat, where all the children
in the world suddenly stop and recite the phrase “We are
coming.” Before they can act, however,
a conspiracy
from within the British government itself places them all under repeated
deadly threat.
There are no commentaries on any of the episodes.
This series is shot in high-definition (1080i). It is available either on Blu-Ray
discs in 1080i, or at standard-definition 480i on DVDs.
The edition available exclusively at Best Buy stores comes with a bonus
CD on which is the 44-minute
Torchwood radio episode
called “Lost Souls” that broadcast on the BBC in 2008 to coincide
with the
switch-on of the CERN cyclotron in
regulars that survived season two, and guest stars Freema
Agyeman as Dr. Martha Jones.
The back of the cover notes that “music in episode 5 differs from
broadcast version.” Based on
reports
I have read and my own
comparison of the broadcast and on-disc versions, it seems that a complete
score
for this episode was finished and supplied to the disc manufacturers at a time
just barely sufficient
to
meet their deadline. Sometime after
that, the producers or director decided they wanted a few changes
in
four particular sequences, and these were made to the version as-broadcast, but
it was too late to change
the
discs as well. In the first two
instances, music was simply removed so that the scenes on the broadcast
version
played out without any music at all. The
first bit was a 30-second section that starts at about the
mark,
but the second is a longer section where music was removed on transmission from
the second half of
the
scene where Frobisher has his final meeting with the
Prime Minister. The other two sequences
are
outright
changes in the score during the climactic, dramatic scenes that start at about
the 44:15 mark.
The transmission
version changes to a haunting female voice on the soundtrack, while the on-disc
music stays
more
in the intense, rhythmic style of the rest of the episode. I also think I spotted a change in a sound
effect,
which I’m going to hide in invisible text as it’s a very big
spoiler. Highlight the blank area next
to see
what
is is: in the scene
where we hear the four gunshots of Frobisher killing
his own family and then himself,
the timing of the fourth gunshot has been moved to a
fraction of a second later on the broadcast version versus
the on-disc version.