Okay, so while we wait for last night’s overnight Tv ratings to see whether BBC Three’s big-money gambit with Torchwood paid off, let’s see what the public thought. Oh, wait, the figures are just in (via Broadcast (subscribers only)): the first episode got 2.4 million viewers, with a 12.5% share - as suspected, a record for BBC3. [Warning: may contain spoilers. If you want to save yourself for Wednesday’s BBC2 repeat, look away now.]

Tom’s View of the World: I kinda liked it, but I think it’s gonna take a few episodes to “get going”. However the production is very slick and very “American” looking. As for the set design, keeping the Millennium Plaza fountain under which the hub is located running on downwards through the Torchwood complex was a stroke of genius, and locks the location of the Torchwood Hub very precisely.

Dave Cross: The word that mostly springs to mind is “derivative”. The whole idea of group of strange people investigating even stranger goings on looks a lot like Angel, the secret hideaway secreted behind a normal-looking building was all very Man From UNCLE. The Torchwood HQ looks a bit like an untidier version of the Batcave (with a holding cell that was taken directly from Silence of the Lambs). The lift that takes you up to the Millennium Centre is like something out of Thunderbirds. Oh, and since Captain Jack was brought back to life by Rose Tyler in Doctor Who last year he seems to have mutated into Captain Scarlet (he’s IN! DE! STRUCT! IBLE!)

We Are As Gods: It is refreshing to see a science fiction programme that is adult in terms of sex, violence and language, not to mention a lot of the sexual overtones were not just heterosexual in nature; which is bound to turn some heads, but once again; it is refreshing.

Iain J Coleman: What really makes it adult is the mature emotional reality that the show portrays. The scene where Gwen is facing down the Torchwood employee who is pointing a gun at her is a great example. The helpless despair and desperate disappointment in her face and her body language when she realises she’s about to die are just not the sort of thing you see in heroic family drama.

Not Now, Paleface, posting on Barbelith: By and large, it’s managed to pull off the “adult” part of its remit relatively well. I was always concerned that “Who for grown-ups” would be little more than Who with some gore and some swearing. In one sense, they’ve definitely gone down that line, but there’s a degree of subtlety at times. At others, though, it feels quite heavy-handed... One query - what is it about John Barrowman? For me, half the time he’s great, and half the time he’s Reading The Script Intercapped So You Know What’s Important. Which irks the living shit out of me. Not that he cares, mind. He’s too busy standing on top of a building.

John C Kirk: There are a few open-ended mysteries at the moment, but one major concern I have is that they may just be making this up as they go along, rather than gradually revealing information that they’ve already planned out. More specifically, I’m not sure whether they’ve really thought about their basic premise. (I had a similar problem with the series Dead Like Me...) For instance, is this still the same organisation that Queen Victoria founded, or are they a splinter group? If there are only five of them, and they claim to be a global power that outranks the UN, i.e. they have no particular allegiance to Britain, why do the Army and the Police just step aside to let them through? I think you can do some interesting stories with that premise (Warren Ellis did something similar with Stormwatch and The Authority), but I don’t think that Torchwood is going down that path.

Film Rotation: A solid start to this 13-part series was what everyone wanted, and of course, there could be much to learn from Captain Jack Harkness and his adventures - How did he get back from the 51st century? Is he bisexual? Is Doctor Who his absentee father? Will the pterodactyl get a spin-off show? Will Joss Whedon sue? Will Russell T. Davies stop pushing a metrosexual agenda? Admittedly, these are important questions, but whichever this show offers answers for it has proved to be, and it does have the potential to remain, an entertaining, emotional, and witty fifty minutes of television.