‘A DAY IN THE DEATH’ (TW)

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This Is Owen’s Life From Now On

Tim Bradley’s DVD box set of ‘Torchwood’: Series 2 signed by Eve Myles and Kai Owen

Tim Bradley with Eve Myles at the ‘Cardiff Film & Comic Con’, Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, March 2014

‘A Day In The Death’ is the third episode of what is possibly now known as the ‘Owen’s Death’ trilogy. It is by Joseph Lidster, who has contributed quite a number of ‘Doctor Who’ audio stories to Big Finish.

This episode deals with Owen coming to terms with being dead, which is eerie and unsettling. Owen can’t eat, drink and sleep. He gets relived of his Torchwood duties by Jack, which must be a great blow.

Owen needs to find a purpose in life as he’s pretty fragile. Owen mostly narrates this episode when he’s speaking to Christine Bottomley as Maggie, who is about to commit suicide from a Cardiff rooftop.

There’s a highlighted scene from the episode where Owen runs out and attempts to drown himself in Cardiff Bay. Watching Owen run on a familiar location to jump into the Bay was pretty exciting for me.

This episode features special guest star Richard Briers as millionaire Henry Parker. I’ve seen Richard Briers in many TV shows including ‘The Good Life’, ‘Ever Decreasing Circles’ and ‘Monarch of the Glen’.

He was also in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Paradise Towers’. Here Richard plays a man on the verge of death in his bed. I really liked the scene between him and Owen and it’s a very exciting scene to watch.

This episode ends with Martha saying goodbye to Jack and the Torchwood team. I felt sad about Martha leaving. I enjoyed seeing her in the three ‘Torchwood’ episodes she was in, as she was brilliant.

Though I have a niggle. It felt it such a shame that her appearances in ‘Torchwood’ were overshadowed by the overall ‘Owen’s Death’ story arc. I feel there should’ve been more of Martha in these episodes.

The DVD special features on this episode in ‘The Complete Series 2’ of ‘Torchwood’ are as follows. On Disc 5, there’s the ‘Torchwood Declassified’ episode ‘Dead Eyes Open’.

‘A Day In The Death’ (TW) rating – 8/10