REVIEW: Torchwood: The Lost Files 3 - The House Of The Dead

CAST:

Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
Mrs Wintergreen - Rosalind Ayres
Barry - Bradley Freegard
Mr Jones/Tony - John Francis Harries
Helen - Lucy Davis
Ness - Moira Quirk
Late Arrival - Shelley Rees

SYNPOSIS:

The brewery have called 'time' and it's the last night at The House of the Dead - the most haunted pub in Wales. Barry the barman has invited renowned psychic, Mrs Wintergreen, to hold a special seance to mark the occasion, and there's a big crowd hoping for the chance of seeing their deceased loved ones for one last time. But when Jack arrives on the scene, he's determined to stop them. Ianto is puzzled by Jack's behaviour, and Gwen is suspicious. Why is Jack acting so strangely? Then the ghosts start arriving - and all hell breaks loose.

WARNING: Review contains spoilers.


Despite my berration© of the previous two episodes, I did like them - despite my problems with the acting. The stories were good and entertained me. I just knocked off a few marks for the annoyances which still left it with a positive score. Anyway, onto this episode.

Well, it starts in a pub, so that's good. Apparently ghosts are real, not so good. Actually, the story starts out with plenty of promise with an interesting concept that could go some interesting places. It turns out it didn't happen that way and it appeared that they almost contradicted the set-up with the direcction it took. The story quickly started to drag but as it turns out, was a necessary evil to set up the finale which was almost very clever... but still very good.

Some of the scripting didn't seem up to the standard of the previous two and I can't help but feel that in the hands of someone else, this might have been a superb episode. Still, this is a must listen for Torchwood fans and thankfully we got a better performance from John Barrowman this time.


1st Quarter Score: 4/7
2nd Quarter Score: 3.5/7
3rd Quarter Score: 3/7
4st Quarter Score: 5/7
Overall Score 4/7

Writer: James Goss
Director: Kate McAll
Publisher: BBC
Released: 13th July 2011