The Middle Men would seem to be an apt name for this episode, which falls in the middle of the run so far; however it could also be used to describe what can only be termed a middling episode, too - if we've seen episodes that seem to tread water, this one comes across as simply giving up and putting its feet on the shallow bottom for a rest.

After last week's ending and subsequent "Next Time", I was expecting rather more; however, we ended up with 50 minutes (this is the shortest one shown on BBC1 so far) wherein, erm, Gwen spends practically all her time in one place, Esther and Rex spend practically all of their time in one place, Jack (the alleged star of the show) spends practically none of his time on-screen at all, and Oswald obviously realised what was coming and so had a snooze off-screen completely!

Okay so what did happen? We had Maloney trying to cover up the effective murder of Vera and then torturing Rex. I assume we're watching someone who is rapidly losing the plot (in which case I totally sympathise!). We had Gwen shouting her mouth off at a doctor in such a way that I fully expected her to get arrested rather than allowed to roam the camp as she pleases, even though last week she'd pretty much blown her cover. Jack had about the only bit of plot movement in his meeting with Owens - yay for Ernie Hudson - but only insomuch as it shows episode four was a wasted runaround. (Actually I got distracted more by remembering that this was filmed when John Barrowman had his birthday!). Speaking of Owens, the whole 45 Club thing just seemed to be a set-up for a pre-titles "joke" - sheesh!

This took 50 minutes.

It's not that Torchwood is bad, it's just that it is soooo slow, and this verges on boring, and that is a killer for me. My fiancee regularly despairs at some of the shows I stick with on television when she gave up on them ages before, and we both agree that we're only watching it for the "Torchwood" name, not through the story itself. We keep on thinking next week's will be better, but we're running out of those! (read her review of The Middle Men here)

Indeed, the "Next Time" is often the best part, as it does make me feel like it will be better and I should watch (which is a trailer's function, of course). But it's like watching Doctor Who DVDs where you know the story that is "Coming Soon" is shite but you still go "oooh" when you see it!

Damn it, Children of Earth really set the bench too high; Miracle Day does hold together better than Series One and does have consistent characters - though I'm starting to wonder about Gwen's integrity ...