Torchwood has gone on quite a journey - if you don't mind me going just a little X Factor on you - since its first, rather rubbish episode on BBC Three. It gained a big following, and some decent writing, and moved to BBC Two and now it's all grown up, with a five parter on BBC One - which is either special or disrespectful, depending on your point of view...

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And in fact, those five episodes got off to a pretty slow start tonight, with only the bare bones of the story set out; we actually learned very little that the observant among us hadn't already gleaned from the trailers. Some alien force is using children to communicate the fact that 'they are coming' and, in terms of the main storyline... that truly is about it.

But that's certainly not to say that I don't want to keep watching. Tonight there were a lot of words - going forward, you get the feeling that there's going to be a hell of a lot of action.

The episode was littered with those touches that we've come to expect from Russell T Davies' writing for Doctor Who - and which you'll either love or hate. The new girl at the civil service, for example, is obviously going to uncover something hugely important, because that's what new girls do in RTD-land.

Plus, no matter what's going on of cosmic importance, Mr Davies can't help bringing things back down to Earth with the human element - Ianto coming out and having his car nicked by mooning hooligans, or Gwen learning she's pregnant. Or Captain Jack going to visit his daughter... I suppose given Jack's character, the discovery of a descendant or two shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

And we are left with plenty of tantalising questions, as you'd imagine at this stage in proceedings. What or who really is the 456? Why are all the children speaking English particularly? What more has Tim AKA Clement yet to tell us? And why do the authorities want Torchwood destroyed... this time?

As always, feel free to comment if you have any ideas...