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Small Worlds is the Torchwood episode written by PJ Hammond, the creator of Sapphire & Steel, regular writer for Midsomer Murders and much admired by Russell T. Davies
A young girl -- perhaps seven or eight years old -- walks home from school. Something is watching her. A man stops and offers her a lift, but she declines, he tries to force her and he seems to be gripped by unseen hands and slammed against the car. Panicking, he drives to the police station and offers himself up, all but admitting that he is a paedophile. But just as he relaxes in the cell, he hears the whispering begin. When the police find him, he is dead in the cell with his mouth stuffed full of flowers. Seemingly supernatural forces are stalking the quiet suburbs of Cardiff, but what do they want with the Pierce family? Jasmine’s mother and father know that she has invisible friends, but so do all children – don’t they? Eve accompanies Jack on a visit to someone he introduces as and old friend. It takes her a little while to realize that Estelle Cole is more than a friend, she was a lover in another life. When he hears the news of the dead man, Jack realizes that he is seeing the same effect that killed a company of his men in India in 1909, and spared him – or perhaps those unseen forces realized that he could not die. But they are more than happy to kill those he loves, if they cannot have the one they want – the chosen one. One the children at her school start to torment Jasmine, the elementals turn on them, just as they do on Jasmine’s father when he tries to block access to the wood where she goes to play with her invisible friends… Jack and the Torchwood team must decide whether the needs of the many can warrant the sacrifice of an innocent. Peter J. Hammond was the creator of the time-travelling SF series Sapphire and Steel in the 1970s, and has since written extensively for series like Midsomer Murders, and an episode from him is a major coup for any series, as Russell T. Davies delightedly admitted. However, the quasi-supernatural feel to the series, with the unseen powers and their seeming ability to bend time at will does not really sit well with the supposed rationality of the rest of the series, no matter how chilling the storyline, nor how good the acting is. Small Worlds feels very much like an attempt to force a(n admittedly very stylish) round peg into a small square hole.
The copyright of the article Torchwood Series 1 Episode 5 in Sci-Fi TV Episode Summaries is owned by Colin Harvey. Permission to republish Torchwood Series 1 Episode 5 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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