Torchwood: Sargasso

The last of the ‘Torchwood versus monsters' quartet sees Rhys under threat from autons on a container ship in the mid-Atlantic. This makes it a base-under-siege story more in the style of Doctor Who than Torchwood, although Rhys is very far from being the Doctor, which gives it a distinctly different feel. That's supported by some bad language and a few mild sexual references, although there's nothing particularly extreme beyond regular horror elements. The adult nature of the story and the nature of the lead characters arguably also makes it more effective than Praxeus, which otherwise had some similar themes.

There's a good sense of tension as Rhys and another passenger are trapped on the ship with no obvious means of fighting back. There's also a good use of the autons - never actually named in the story, although it's obvious what they are - building on modern themes of plastic pollution that echo the Doctor's description of them in Rose. It's the sort of mix of science fiction and present-day concerns that Torchwood often did at its best, dressed up as a short horror story with a new twist on these particular ‘monsters'.