3. Rex And Esther
With a new series, came new characters to replace the dead ones (though thankfully theres no Ianto substitute for fans to get needlessly worked up about and literally build a public shrine to). The Torchwood Institutes latest recruits are CIA agent Rex Matheson and junior CIA analyst Esther Drummond Broadly, theyre exact copies of former characters Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato, both of whom were killed off in the finale of Series Two. Esther is a shy genius without much aptitude for fieldwork but has incredible computer and data analysis skills. Sound familiar? The original casting call even gave her name as Esther Katsui, implying that the character would be of Oriental extraction, and stated that actors of all ethnicities bar Caucasians would be considered. So other than her race eventually being changed, shes more or less exactly the same as Tosh. As well as our Tosh substitute, weve got Rex. Hes undead with a fatal wound in his chest. Just like Owen (Eventually). Hes sarcastic, reckless, and insults his colleagues. Just like Owen. And he has an awkward romance with a member of the team (as much as Vera Juarez can count as one) which is cut short by her being murdered. Just . Like. Owen. The only difference between the two of them is that, sadly, Rex never died permanently and now probably never will. The big problem with Rex, other than him being a copy of Owen, is that hes a bit of a knob to be honest. Hes a hypocrite, angrily ranting at Esther for visiting her sister while theyre on the run because it would enable people to trace them, and then later visiting his father. This would be a good instance for someone to call him out on it and take him down a peg or two except that the other characters never find out. Hes supposed to be a hero but his hypocrisy is never discovered by anyone and never has any repercussions. But the main problem with him is that hes a complete moron. In the first episode, after he checks himself out of hospital mere hours after an injury that would have been fatal were it not for the Miracle (a moronic idea in itself) he grabs a bottle of pills off a nurse's tray and, without even looking at the label, he necks the entire bottle. Then in episode six, when a clearly unstable Overflow Camp administrator has him tied up, Rex tries to convince him to reveal how badly the Camp is being run to the authorities and tells him that he has incriminating video footage of the Camps mismanagement. So while tied up by someone whos clearly mentally unstable and has already killed someone, Rex tries to convince to him to tell his bosses how badly he screwed up, and reveals that he has video footage of the murder. No CIA agent should be this stupid. Overall, hes just dislikeable, lacking any of the charm that the other characters in Torchwood had. And as for Esther, she just never really contributes. Shes there to do the techie stuff and to die in the last episode. Other than her fight scene at the end of the sixth episode, she doesnt get many real moments to shine and, a lot of the time, just feels like a spare part. Still, at least its better than Rexs particular brand of contributing to the team.