Torchwood: Random Shoes

You could argue that a show as unrelentingly dark and moody as Torchwood needs "lighter" episodes like Random Shoes to lift the audience every now and again.

Unfortunately, Random Shoes comes from the Love & Monsters school of so-called comedy in that - with its slightly grating voice-over by dead geek Eugene (Paul Chequer) - it's never as amusing as it thinks it is. We get our wit from Ianto's witty one-liners, the upbeat optimism of Random Shoes doesn't wash in the Torchwood universe.

Throw in an unconvincing set-up (young Eugene was supposedly given an "alien eye" by a benevolent teacher after freezing up in an inter-school maths quiz - a scene that the more cynical amonst us might even say borders on 'grooming'), a cliched family dynamic (Eugene's father left home and his mum lies to her children saying he has had to go to work in the States) and a suggested view of the afterlife that just doesn't tally with Torchwood's grim mythology and you just end up with a bit of a mess.

Killed in a hit-and-run, invisible, ghostly Eugene attaches himself to Gwen and subtly guides her through the investigation... which may, or may not, have alien overtones as everyone, but Eugene, believes his "alien eye" is a plastic toy.

All this brings up another question: just how top secret is Torchwood? They drive around in a black SUV with Torchwood engraved on it, yet beat copper Gwen (back in Everything Changes) didn't know who they were; Tosh is horrified when Mary reveals how much she knows about Torchwood in Greeks Bearing Gifts, yet call-center employee Eugene not only seems to know what they do but the names of all the team members...

Random Shoes feels like comic book filler, one of those short four or six-page stories stuck at the end of a comic to pad out the page count. Even the half-hearted attempt at a "twist" pans out to be a weak spin on the twist of Countrycide. There was probably a semi-decent story here once, but the decision to turn into the season's "comedy" episode totally missed the target.