Over the past few months—between Gally in February and CONsole Room at the end of May—I’ve been re-watching Torchwood (TW). It had been a while, and I honestly can’t remember whether I’d even watched any of them more than once before this. But the plethora of TW guests at Gally inspired me to re-familiarize myself with the show; as an added bonus, I got to meet an additional cast member at CONsole Room.

Knowing something of what I was getting into going in, I found the first series more enjoyable than I had remembered. My particular preferences hadn’t really changed—there are still one or two specific episodes I think are stinkers, including one that everyone else seems to love—but it was fun getting to know the team again, watching how their relationships grew and evolved.

Clearly, there are plenty of examples in Series One of the writers trying a little too hard to separate TW from Doctor Who (DW), and demonstrate how “adult” it was compared to its parent show. There are distinct growing pains, as everyone struggled to find their footing and determine just what this show should (or could) be.

It finally dawned on me, as I watched Episode 6 ("Middle Men" – which, by the way, had (in my opinion) the best cliffhanger of the series to date, even if it wasn't all that suspenseful), that one of the things that's throwing me off about Torchwood: Miracle Day is the fact that it's been produced in the US. It's not the actual presentation of the material, or different "production values" or anything like that, though. It's the actors.

One things that has always made it easy for me to immerse myself in Who is the fact that I am being introduced to characters with faces I've never seen before. I only know these actors in their Who personas (with the exception of a cameo in City of Death by John Cleese and, actually, Five – who I couldn't help thinking of as "Tristan" for the first two stories I watched). That was true with the first three (BBC-produced) series of Torchwood, too. Now in Miracle Day, I'm seeing faces all over the place that I know elsewhere.

I hadn't realized how much of a difference that would make to me. It's jarring, though. It takes me out of the moment, and I start pulling back and thinking in terms of a production instead of getting pulled into the story. "Where have I seen this actor before?" I ask myself. "Oh yeah – it was [as a regular in a sitcom / in that soap opera I used to watch / in one of my favorite films from the '90s / whatever it may be]." Some of the magic seeps out in those moments, especially if I can't figure it out at first – that drives me to distraction.

I have to wonder – is this part of Who for Brits? Is that one reason I'm usually so "easy" when it comes to my enjoyment of post-Hiatus Who compared to those who constantly recognize guest artists in Torchwood's parent show? I'm really curious now, but I don't have any good way to research the question (or even an idea of how to do so without bias), other than the utterly subjective one of asking any of you out there who have an opinion to weigh in. So let's hear your thoughts.

The recent relaunch of Doctor Who spinoff cum anagram Torchwood – this time in its American incarnation – has gotten me thinking again about the series as a whole. The fact that the 30 Day Doctor Who Challenge has a “favorite spinoff” entry coming up has exacerbated the situation, as Torchwood is one of the obvious possibilities. I hear a lot of bad-mouthing of Captain Jack’s little gang and their adventures (even do a little myself, on occasion), but how bad is it, really?

I will admit that I watched the first two series mostly for the completeness of it – there was Who crossover, and I wanted the whole story. There were an awful lot of those stories that I’d rather not see again. I count Cyberwoman, Countrycide (worst. episode. ever.), and From Out of the Rain among those.

On the other hand, there were a few that I found quite engaging:  series opener Everything Changes, They Keep Killing Suzie (loved the premise), Random Shoes (similarly enjoyed this premise), Captain Jack Harkness (it was nice to get a little more background on Our Hero), Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (OK, yeah, I just really like James Marsters), and the rather disturbing Meat (not least because heroine Gwen’s hubby Rhys finally gets let in on the big secret of Torchwood’s existence).

The rest up through the end of 2008 exhibited varying levels of mediocrity, and usually included at least one “yea! we’re post-watershed!” gratuitous sex scene (with about 90% of those being same sex liaisons, or at least that’s how it seemed). Not to say said scenes were absent from any of the aforementioned episodes.