That was okay. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. It gave Burn Gorman something to do for the first time since his death and it brings back someone cool at the cliffhanger, but on the other hand Barrowman's at his worst. Doesn't really have a plot, but it's not aiming for one.

In case it hasn't all flooded back from seeing that thrilling and evocative title, this is the one that's basically a bunch of flashbacks to show how everyone joined Torchwood Cardiff. Well, almost everyone. There's no Gwen flashback. Things are looking up already! Although having said that, a Gwen flashback would theoretically be just a bunch of clips from season one, but maybe you could do something interesting with the idea by telling the story from another point of view... hmmm, no. If you went down that route, you'd probably want to make it the sole focus of an entire episode. In other words, it's an anthology. It's a collection of ten-minute pieces within a framing story, which is a very different kind of storytelling from a full 45-minute piece. You don't have to worry about structure, set-up or anything like that. This frees you up. They're vignettes. It's also nice to have these nuggets of backstory, which I think give us a better perspective on the characters and I think might help us appreciate them differently should we ever find ourselves rewatching old episodes.

1. JACK. This is the one with the fewest surprises, but it's not bad and it's got gun-toting Edwardian Torchwood lesbians in it. It's also making Torchwood look as evil as it ever has, including in its Doctor Who stories, which gets taken far enough that there's an edge to seeing Captain Jack going along with them.

2. TOSHIKO. This was okay too. We had a line of Japanese dialogue, which made me happy. Hadn't a clue who the bad guys were meant to be, but UNIT were badass and it's actually building up Toshiko to seem more important to the show. I don't remember an episode ever impressing me with her technical skills before, even though that's obviously her function. However I do have one dialogue quibble. This isn't an important criticism in any way, but I didn't see how "make an example of you" equals "denying all your legal rights and keeping you imprisoned in a place where no one in the outside world will ever know about you again". That's a bit like broadcasting your adverts only at 5am on Channel 94 in Bulgaria.

3. IANTO. I hadn't expected Ianto's segment to take this tack, which is good. They've decided not even to hint at Ianto's Frankenstein agenda of building a Cyberwoman, but if you've remembered that for yourself then it's possible to read it into the way he's going after Jack. The comparisons of Cardiff and London would also feed into this. Most importantly though, it's quite fun. I loved seeing its monster and I laughed at "chocolate, preferably dark".

4. OWEN. I didn't actually like this segment very much. It's a terrible thing to have happened to the poor guy and it's certainly a step away from the usual Torchwood nonsense, but I just didn't find it particularly good. However I'm always happy to watch Burn Gorman at work and this is the segment that most changes our view of its chosen character, for instance throwing a new light on things like his relationship with Diane in Out of Time and his alien sex spray in Everything Changes. There's also a scary bit in the framing story with the slipping window glass.

I said that Barrowman's at his worst, but on reflection I should have said "one of his worsts". It's more about bad line delivery than about failing to sell entire scenes (c.f. Exit Wounds). "What? Why?" "I don't have time for this." "No, it can't be." However it's a little painful to see, with a kind of amateurishness that to be fair to him is unusual even for Barrowman. However on the other hand you've also got Gorman's delivery of "yeah" in response to "don't come into work", so it's not all bad news.

There's no Susie Costello, unfortunately, although she's mentioned. However we have plenty of other continuity nods instead, such as another blowfish alien from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the Tarot reading girl from Dead Man Walking and Toshiko's mother from End of Days. The forward continuity is less clear, though. What's with the suicidal guy who sees the future and kills everyone? I watched this back-to-back with Exit Wounds and I still don't see what it's meant to be referring to. Maybe it's talking about The Stolen Earth and Journey's End? I don't think we even get an explanation of the bombs, come to think of it, but it doesn't seem incompatible with the motivations of the people involved.

Overall, it's okay. It's doing its job and not doing anything wrong. It's quite an important episode of Torchwood, if that's not a contradiction in terms, although only in terms of significant character backstories rather than any contribution to the ongoing plot. The bad guy's stated motivation at the end seemed so ludicrous that I laughed out loud at the screen, but that gets developed in Exit Wounds. It's not great television or anything, but you wouldn't be embarrassed if caught watching it by normal people.