(Running a week behind, though not slipped as far as Robin Hood the Emo Years Watch) The trailer to this episode promised if not to fill in the seemingly important mysteries about what Captain Jack has been up to and fill-out some of his past exploits. It did almost the opposite, throwing in another time-zone he had been knocking about in (1911 India) and not really explaining anything about his relationship with the old lady except for being a bit of a cad. It did nicely play with the idea, mooted in the Sarah-Jane episode of Dr Who, of the disjunction between time travellers and the people in the time-streams they interact with: and then does nothing with it by pointlessly killing the character off.
As predicted the Ianto story was brushed under the carpet and Tosh and Wiseboy get a quip and no character each. Since Jack know has lost nearly everything that made him appealing in Who, the weight of the programme falls on to PC Fringeface who luckily has ample shoulders to carry it at the moment (obligatory boyfriend scene notwithstanding). So to the plot then. And this is where I disagree with fans of the particular writer who appears to have been peddling this kind of plot from Sapphire And Steel days. Evil fairies, fine. Older than the dawn of time: hmm, this starts getting a bit like the rubbish Devil in the Impossible Planet. What is wrong with having the ENTIRITY OF TIME AND SPACE to get your villains from? You need them to come from the collective unconscious. Or as the script had it, in a moment that Doctor Who fandom wet themselves and the rest of the world yawn: something like the MARA. On the whole the plot was a bit arbitrary, what do they want the Chosen Ones for (and who gets to do the choosing)? Fine that Paedo Dave got killed at the end, but surely the fairies themselves are just interdimensional peadophiles themselves. And frankly equating paedophilia with fairies seems to go somewhat against the oft-mooted RTD Ghey Agenda.
Unfortunately there were no k-rub (k-rubber) snakes rocking up, and the obligatory death toll had to be waged. But then that is par fo the course for a plug-in episode, had little meaning beyond its own forty minutes of entertainment and furthered the owngoing issues not one inch. Still at least the series is still pushing its anti-Robin Hood, andti-Batman mythology of Doctor Who, in as much people still keep on dying, and the “good guys” are still pretty much responsible for the deaths.