No sonic screwdrivers

The recent episodes of Torchwood took what could be a fairly standard sci-fi plot - giving children to aliens - and turned it into something dark, personal, and strangely real. It treated the idea realistically, showing the government deciding which children to give up (they eventually decided on the stupid ones) and taking it down to an individual level, to the people who had their children taken away. Like I said, it's dark, creating serious consequences, not a fluffy plot with plastic aliens. It felt miles away from it's parent show Doctor Who; almost as if these problems were too serious, too grown-up, for the Doctor to fix with his sonic screwdriver.

Torchwood has been pretty erratic in quality before this, wandering between dull and brilliant. It's first few episodes were embarrassing ('Quick! Somebody swear in the first five minutes to prove that it's not for kids.'). In the past week it's been better than Doctor Who, and that's not easy.