A very unusual hen night is just the start of Gwen and Mr Colchester’s worries…

The second ever episode of Torchwood saw a sex-mad alien shagging its way around the nightclubs of Cardiff, with (in)appropriate visuals and sound effects. This second episode of the rebooted Torchwood is as “domestic” in its own way as its predecessor – this isn’t the Torchwood of series 3 or 4, with world-threatening conspiracies that stretch across the years. It’s some female aliens. In a bar. With a male (human) stripper.

Whom they proceed to devastate, it has to be said, in ways that you only get to envisage after the event after you get told about a certain anatomical proclivity…

It’s a low-key story in certain respects, and by the end you realise that James Goss has been quite cunning in his writing. Like Gwen and Mr Colchester, you’ve actually learned rather a lot about what’s going on in Cardiff, and something about who the Aliens Among Us really are. As is often the case with Goss’ scripts, emotional beats underpin the frivolity, and for every moment of weird alien obsessions and activity (what they get addicted to is suitably mundane), there’s a discussion about parental expectations and the right to self-determination.

Sophie Colquhoun and Rhian Marston-Jones are strong guest stars, with Paul Clayton adding nuance to Mr Colchester constantly – as well as providing some of the best acerbic laughs of the piece – and Eve Myles really sounding as if she’s enjoying playing Gwen once more.

Verdict: By turns stomach-churning, laugh inducing and thought provoking, this feels more like Torchwood of old. 8/10

Paul Simpson