N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

‘How heavy is that rain?’ my son commented during Small Worlds.

Very heavy, as it turns out, for Jack’s wartime love drowns in it. I’m not sure how Owen knows this simply from looking at poor Estelle, but we’ll let that pass, for Small Worlds is easily the strongest episode of Torchwood so far.

It’s tempting to say the good stuff is down to Peter J. Hammond, of Sapphire and Steel renown. Like his most famous creation, Small Worlds is something of a slow-burner, with its chills coming from a sense of otherworldliness and, if I may coin a phrase, othertimeliness.

The bits that don’t work so well — the CGI monster fairies — are more Torchwood failings than Sapphire and Steel. And there’s the now-ubiquitous moment of silliness — in this case the showcasing of the heavy branding on the souped-up Torchwood SUV!

But I rather like the slightly understated, less bombastic Jack in this as we (and Gwen) get to learn a little bit more about him. We know he’s been back on Earth since at least 1909 and was in London with Estelle in the early part of World War II. Did he disappear from her life because he knew his earlier Time Agent self was about to turn up and meet the Doctor and Rose?

There’d be a few tweaks needed to tone down some of it down, but more than any other episode so far, Small Worlds could quite easily slot into a series of Doctor Who, with Jack and Gwen definitely taking up the Doctor and companion role here and the rest of the team seeming a little bit superfluous. That said, I do think the Doctor would have found another way to resolve the conflict than simply letting the Cottingley fairies take Jasmine.