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The Best Episodes of Torchwood

Every episode of Torchwood ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Torchwood!

Binge this in 1d 11h•Peaking at 9.2/10

The exploits of a team of people whose job is to investigate the unusual, the strange and the extraterrestrial.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Torchwood Season 3 Episode 4 - Day Four
    9.2/10(1725 votes)

    #1 - Day Four

    S3:E4

    Torchwood finally learns the truth about the events of 1965. But Britain is in danger of becoming a rogue state, and everything now pivots around John Frobisher, as the Ambassador of the 456 destroys its old allegiances and reveals its true intent.

    Director:Euros Lyn
    Writer:John Fay

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  2. Torchwood Season 3 Episode 5 - Day Five
    9.1/10(1827 votes)

    #2 - Day Five

    S3:E5

    Torchwood is defenceless, and Gwen Cooper stands alone, as the final sanction begins. As violence erupts and the world descends into anarchy, an ordinary council estate becomes a battleground where the future of the human race will be decided.

    Director:Euros Lyn
    Writer:Russell T Davies

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  3. Torchwood Season 3 Episode 1 - Day One
    8.9/10(1956 votes)

    #3 - Day One

    S3:E1

    At 8.45am, every child in the world suddenly stops, chanting the words "we are coming" again and again. Whilst investigating, the remaining Torchwood team face greater personal and professional challenges than ever before, having to work with their numbers depleted.

    Director:Euros Lyn
    Writer:Russell T Davies

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  4. Torchwood Season 3 Episode 3 - Day Three
    8.8/10(1588 votes)

    #4 - Day Three

    S3:E3

    The eyes of the world turn to Britain, as the 456 announce, 'We are here'. As a pillar of fire descends upon London, the members of Torchwood must battle to protect their own families, as the fight gets personal. But will Clem's memories destroy everything?

    Director:Euros Lyn
    Writers:Russell T Davies, James Moran

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  5. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 13 - Exit Wounds
    8.7/10(1362 votes)

    #5 - Exit Wounds

    S2:E13

    Captain John Hart returns to wreak havoc upon Jack's world, who ends up getting captured. It is up to the Torchwood team to rescue him and save the city.

    Director:Ashley Way
    Writer:Chris Chibnall

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  6. Torchwood Season 3 Episode 2 - Day Two
    8.7/10(1620 votes)

    #6 - Day Two

    S3:E2

    Torchwood are forced underground, as the government takes swift and brutal action. With members of the team being hunted down, only Lois holds the key to Torchwood's salvation - but she is helpless as her superiors make plans for the mysterious Floor 13.

    Director:Euros Lyn
    Writer:John Fay

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Torchwood

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  7. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 12 - Fragments
    8.4/10(1237 votes)

    #7 - Fragments

    S2:E12

    As the team are knocked unconscious we find out how Jack, Toshiko, Ianto and Owen were initiated into Torchwood.

    Director:Jonathan Fox Bassett
    Writer:Chris Chibnall

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  8. Torchwood Season 1 Episode 12 - Captain Jack Harkness
    8.3/10(1681 votes)

    #8 - Captain Jack Harkness

    S1:E12

    A Jack themed episode Whilst investigating an old, derelict dance hall, Jack and Tosh are transported back to the 1940s, during the Blitz. Owen, Ianto, and Gwen realise, in modern day, that this has happened, and go in search of clues Tosh may have left. Meanwhile, back in the forties, Jack meets a very interesting man. One with the name Captain Jack Harkness...

    Director:Ashley Way
    Writer:Catherine Tregenna

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  9. Torchwood Season 1 Episode 10 - Out of Time
    8.2/10(1609 votes)

    #9 - Out of Time

    S1:E10

    Three passengers from 1953 arrive in modern day Cardiff, when their plane flies through the Rift. With no means of travelling back, each person must adapt to their new life, starting personal relationships with the separate members of Torchwood.

    Director:Alice Troughton
    Writer:Catherine Tregenna

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  10. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 11 - Adrift
    8.1/10(1230 votes)

    #10 - Adrift

    S2:E11

    Gwen finds the darker side of Torchwood when a teenager disappears, investigating why hundreds of people have vanished without a trace. Jack is obstructing attempts to find them, and the answer appears to lie in the Rift.

    Director:Mark Everest
    Writer:Chris Chibnall

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  11. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 1 - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
    7.9/10(1516 votes)

    #11 - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

    S2:E1

    Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on?

    Director:Ashley Way
    Writer:Chris Chibnall

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  12. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 5 - Adam
    7.9/10(1288 votes)

    #12 - Adam

    S2:E5

    A memory thief gets in to the minds of the Torchwood team, and uncovers long forgotten secrets.

    Director:Andy Goddard
    Writer:Catherine Tregenna

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  13. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 6 - Reset
    7.9/10(1227 votes)

    #13 - Reset

    S2:E6

    Jack calls in an old friend for a favour, none other than Martha Jones, as they attempt to stop a pharmaceutical facility that uses aliens in the hope of discovering a cure for all diseases.

    Director:Ashley Way
    Writer:J. C. Wilsher

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  14. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 8 - A Day in the Death
    7.9/10(1222 votes)

    #14 - A Day in the Death

    S2:E8

    A victim of his newfound circumstances, Owen Harper believes he needs absolution. Will the lonely girl on the rooftop help him, or will it be a mission to the retrieve an alien device that is proving more lethal by the second? And how far will Toshiko go to help him?

    Director:Andy Goddard
    Writer:Joseph Lidster

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  15. Torchwood Season 1 Episode 8 - They Keep Killing Suzie
    7.7/10(1495 votes)

    #15 - They Keep Killing Suzie

    S1:E8

    A Suzie themed episode Using the Resurrection Gauntlet that former Torchwood member Suzie Costello originally had, the team are able to bring a number of murder victims back to life. However, these all have a link with the now-deceased Suzie, and the group have no choice but to bring her back. After the process goes wrong, and permanently keeps her alive, Suzie manipulates the naïve Gwen into taking her to see her father.

    Director:James Strong
    Writers:Dan McCulloch, Paul Tomalin

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  16. Torchwood Season 1 Episode 9 - Random Shoes
    7.7/10(1623 votes)

    #16 - Random Shoes

    S1:E9

    Eugene Jones wakes up, finding himself lying on the middle of a road. He then discovers that he has been the victim of a hit-and-run incident, and is, now, not only dead, but invisible. Eugene recalls events leading up to his death, involving a mysterious alien eye. Simultaneously, Gwen investigates the suspicious circumstances around his fatality.

    Director:James Erskine
    Writer:Jacquetta May

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  17. Torchwood Season 1 Episode 13 - End of Days
    7.7/10(1405 votes)

    #17 - End of Days

    S1:E13

    With the Rift having been opened, people and objects throughout time are falling through it, and being spread across the world. "The thing in the darkness" has finally come, and Jack realises that he is the only one who can save planet Earth from the destruction that "the son of the Beast" will cause.

    Director:Ashley Way
    Writer:Chris Chibnall

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  18. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 3 - To the Last Man
    7.7/10(1266 votes)

    #18 - To the Last Man

    S2:E3

    Toshiko falls for a handsome soldier, trapped out of his time, who unwittingly holds the key to saving the world. With an old hospital haunted by ghosts from 1918, a crisis foreseen by Torchwood 90 years ago is about to reach its climax. Time zones are colliding and with life and death decisions to be made, will Torchwood be able to stop an explosive end for Cardiff?

    Director:Andy Goddard
    Writer:Helen Raynor

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  19. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 7 - Dead Man Walking
    7.7/10(1216 votes)

    #19 - Dead Man Walking

    S2:E7

    Captain Jack resurrects Owen with a resurrection glove, only to find out that the new glove isn't quite what they'd bargained for. Owen, in an undead state, helps the team figure out why he's still around.

    Director:Andy Goddard
    Writer:Matt Jones

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  20. Torchwood Season 4 Episode 1 - The New World
    7.7/10(2843 votes)

    #20 - The New World

    S4:E1

    Convicted child killer Oswald Danes is executed for his crimes and when he miraculously survives his fate a series of events is set in place that forces CIA Agent Rex Matheson to investigate a global event. His investigation leads him from America to Wales and an old defunct British Institute - Torchwood.

    Director:Bharat Nalluri
    Writer:Russell T Davies

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  21. Torchwood Season 1 Episode 6 - Countrycide
    7.6/10(1731 votes)

    #21 - Countrycide

    S1:E6

    Whilst investigating a group of unexplainable deaths in a village, the Torchwood team are separated. Discovering further, Jack, Gwen and Owen find a scared man, hiding from the thing responsible for the murders. But Tosh and Ianto go that one step extra, and locate the killer, who wants them as their next victims.

    Director:Andy Goddard
    Writer:Chris Chibnall

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  22. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 9 - Something Borrowed
    7.6/10(1179 votes)

    #22 - Something Borrowed

    S2:E9

    Gwen awakes on her wedding day to find she has been impregnated by a shape-shifting alien male. With it's life-partner eager to retrieve it's mate at the cost of Gwen's life, the team race to intercept her as Gwen decides to go through with her marriage at a secluded location with all of her family present

    Director:Ashley Way
    Writer:Phil Ford

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  23. Torchwood Season 4 Episode 10 - The Blood Line
    7.6/10(877 votes)

    #23 - The Blood Line

    S4:E10

    As the Torchwood team launch a final, desperate mission against the seemingly undefeatable Three Families, they realize it may come down to the ultimate sacrifice.

    Director:Billy Gierhart
    Writers:Russell T Davies, Jane Espenson

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  24. Torchwood Season 1 Episode 1 - Everything Changes
    7.5/10(2009 votes)

    #24 - Everything Changes

    S1:E1

    WPC Gwen Cooper is at the scene of a brutal murder, when the "special ops," known only as Torchwood, arrive. After witnessing the group bring the dead man back to life, Gwen goes in pursuit of this mysterious organisation, only to see weirder things than she could ever imagine existed. Soon after, she begins to regret giving in to her curiosity, when she meets Captain Jack Harkness.

    Director:Brian Kelly
    Writer:Russell T Davies

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  25. Torchwood Season 2 Episode 4 - Meat
    7.5/10(1227 votes)

    #25 - Meat

    S2:E4

    When Rhys discovers the truth about Torchwood, he helps the gang to find the source of an unusual alien meat supply.

    Director:Colin Teague
    Writer:Catherine Tregenna

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Best Episodes Summary

"Day Four" is the best rated episode of "Torchwood". It scored 9.2/10 based on 1725 votes. Directed by Euros Lyn and written by John Fay, it aired on 7/9/2009. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "Day Five".