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allanaSo, Torchwood is over. What did we all think?
I give the series 5/10 overall. There were flashes of sheer brilliance but unfortunately they were swamped by mediocre writing. The series lacked character development, continuity, and was woefully in need of an actual story arc. It felt very piecemeal and while "monster of the week" worked for Smallville in the beginning, it really doesn't work for Torchwood.
I know many people are complaining about RTD's gay agenda. It's hardly surprising, though. He made a huge name for himself out of QAF, is gay himself, and is obviously going to write homosexual/bisexual (and in Captain Jack's case, omnisexual) characters. I don't mind it too much. I can postulate that Jack hired Torchwood staff with floating sexualities so that he was surrounded by open-minded people, or perhaps working at Torchwood drives people to seek new thrills and excitement as the humdrum life isn't for them anymore?
What does bother me is that the writers have used romance and sex as poor attempts to further character development. Very poor attempts. I'm sure we could have learned more about Tosh in some way other than a post-coital conversation with a lesbian alien. Did Gwen really need to kiss Carys to have empathy for her? Owen's use of the alien perfume/spray was no better than date-rape, in my opinion. How on earth are we supposed to think that he's in any way competent when he commits such a gross invasion on not one but two people? I can only assume that we're supposed to be titillated as Owen's clearly off for a threesome... with another bloke, too! Oooooh! It's just lazy writing in my opinion. The Weevils almost have more legitimate character development than the stars of the show!
Ironically, for someone who's supposed to be an intergalactic man-slut, Captain Jack has had remarkably little action in the series. And when he does... it's with the man whose name he has stolen. Come on, who really thought that was his real name? That would be way too obvious. And it was blindingly obvious that our-Jack and real-Jack would get it on as soon as real-Jack introduced himself. (Dave can verify that I predicted it as soon as they were face to face in the Ritz.) I didn't, however, expect our-Jack to fall in love and be all broody about it.
The derivative stuff bothers me too. I know almost all creative endeavours these days are doomed to be derivative, after all, there are only supposed to be 10 plots in the world, however... there's derivative and then there's derivative. "Combat" was Fight Club with alien monsters and a love-sick idiot. What's new/edgy/adult about that? "Countrycide" was essentially a Welsh Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The one good thing that I can say about "Countrycide" was that it was a proper "adult" episode--no reliance on sex, and it did delve into dark and disturbing human things.
What did I like? Frankly, there were three good eps. "They Keep Killing Suzie", "Captain Jack Harkness" and "End Of Days." All three were still flawed, but that does seem to be the theme of Torchwood. For example--the rift manipulator machine has never been mentioned before and since when is Owen 2IC?
However, the best thing so far has been Bilis Manger. What a deliciously evil villain! Just the right amount of creepy with horrible piggy eyes. My first thought was The Master, and this was reinforced after seeing his shop.... The Master has previously disguised his TARDIS as a grandfather clock and I could have sworn that I saw the clock from "The Girl in the Fireplace" in the background. However, after Bilis's plot was revealed and he referred to Abbadon as his god/lord, he's definitely not The Master. The Master would happily set an ancient god loose on the world--see The Daemons--but for his own nefarious means. He would seek absolute control so that he could mould the outcome perfectly. Still, Bilis is an good villain and I'd be really happy if he was the recurring villain in the series. I'm sure RTD could set up a good story arc there if he tried.
I do like the little references to Doctor Who themes that pop up here and there. For example, "Bad Wolf" was graffited on The Ritz in the last two episodes, Bilis said: "I'm sorry, so sorry" which is what The Doctor always says, Mr Saxon pops up--referenced in "The Runaway Bride" and apparently "Love and Monsters" too--and course, The Doctor's hand.
And now of course, Jack has been whisked away in the TARDIS, or so we are meant to assume. I've seen a few posts on LJ postulating that perhaps it was another TARDIS--Romana, The Master, maybe even Susan--but given that The Doctor's hand was twitching and the jar bubbling away, I think it's a reasonable assumption. Plus, we know that Jack is appearing in series 3 of Who :P It'll be interesting to see what Jack makes of Ten, how he reacts to Roses's disappearance, and how Ten reacts to (a) seeing that Jack is alive and (b) him being immortal. (Presuming that Jack didn't lose his immortality since there was energy transfer between him and Abbadon.)
Finally... after seeing the Doctor Who Christmas Special--absolutely crap in comparison to last year's--I must observe that the centre of the Earth seems awfully crowded. You know, what with Abbadon lurking in there and a nest of alien spidery things, too. And while I'm thinking about it, I'm still offended by the shoddy science of dumping the contents of the River Thames into the Earth's core. There should at least have been steam!!
PS It does bug me that you almost need to visit the various fake Torchwood sites to get further information and fill in the holes left by some episodes. Still, I was very amused to see that they'd gone to the lengths of making a fake ice-cream shop's website for full immersion value.
PPS Would someone please tell me what Gwen's role is supposed to be? All she seems to do is tell people that their son/daughter is dead or wander around with a torch in hand.
I give the series 5/10 overall. There were flashes of sheer brilliance but unfortunately they were swamped by mediocre writing. The series lacked character development, continuity, and was woefully in need of an actual story arc. It felt very piecemeal and while "monster of the week" worked for Smallville in the beginning, it really doesn't work for Torchwood.
I know many people are complaining about RTD's gay agenda. It's hardly surprising, though. He made a huge name for himself out of QAF, is gay himself, and is obviously going to write homosexual/bisexual (and in Captain Jack's case, omnisexual) characters. I don't mind it too much. I can postulate that Jack hired Torchwood staff with floating sexualities so that he was surrounded by open-minded people, or perhaps working at Torchwood drives people to seek new thrills and excitement as the humdrum life isn't for them anymore?
What does bother me is that the writers have used romance and sex as poor attempts to further character development. Very poor attempts. I'm sure we could have learned more about Tosh in some way other than a post-coital conversation with a lesbian alien. Did Gwen really need to kiss Carys to have empathy for her? Owen's use of the alien perfume/spray was no better than date-rape, in my opinion. How on earth are we supposed to think that he's in any way competent when he commits such a gross invasion on not one but two people? I can only assume that we're supposed to be titillated as Owen's clearly off for a threesome... with another bloke, too! Oooooh! It's just lazy writing in my opinion. The Weevils almost have more legitimate character development than the stars of the show!
Ironically, for someone who's supposed to be an intergalactic man-slut, Captain Jack has had remarkably little action in the series. And when he does... it's with the man whose name he has stolen. Come on, who really thought that was his real name? That would be way too obvious. And it was blindingly obvious that our-Jack and real-Jack would get it on as soon as real-Jack introduced himself. (Dave can verify that I predicted it as soon as they were face to face in the Ritz.) I didn't, however, expect our-Jack to fall in love and be all broody about it.
The derivative stuff bothers me too. I know almost all creative endeavours these days are doomed to be derivative, after all, there are only supposed to be 10 plots in the world, however... there's derivative and then there's derivative. "Combat" was Fight Club with alien monsters and a love-sick idiot. What's new/edgy/adult about that? "Countrycide" was essentially a Welsh Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The one good thing that I can say about "Countrycide" was that it was a proper "adult" episode--no reliance on sex, and it did delve into dark and disturbing human things.
What did I like? Frankly, there were three good eps. "They Keep Killing Suzie", "Captain Jack Harkness" and "End Of Days." All three were still flawed, but that does seem to be the theme of Torchwood. For example--the rift manipulator machine has never been mentioned before and since when is Owen 2IC?
However, the best thing so far has been Bilis Manger. What a deliciously evil villain! Just the right amount of creepy with horrible piggy eyes. My first thought was The Master, and this was reinforced after seeing his shop.... The Master has previously disguised his TARDIS as a grandfather clock and I could have sworn that I saw the clock from "The Girl in the Fireplace" in the background. However, after Bilis's plot was revealed and he referred to Abbadon as his god/lord, he's definitely not The Master. The Master would happily set an ancient god loose on the world--see The Daemons--but for his own nefarious means. He would seek absolute control so that he could mould the outcome perfectly. Still, Bilis is an good villain and I'd be really happy if he was the recurring villain in the series. I'm sure RTD could set up a good story arc there if he tried.
I do like the little references to Doctor Who themes that pop up here and there. For example, "Bad Wolf" was graffited on The Ritz in the last two episodes, Bilis said: "I'm sorry, so sorry" which is what The Doctor always says, Mr Saxon pops up--referenced in "The Runaway Bride" and apparently "Love and Monsters" too--and course, The Doctor's hand.
And now of course, Jack has been whisked away in the TARDIS, or so we are meant to assume. I've seen a few posts on LJ postulating that perhaps it was another TARDIS--Romana, The Master, maybe even Susan--but given that The Doctor's hand was twitching and the jar bubbling away, I think it's a reasonable assumption. Plus, we know that Jack is appearing in series 3 of Who :P It'll be interesting to see what Jack makes of Ten, how he reacts to Roses's disappearance, and how Ten reacts to (a) seeing that Jack is alive and (b) him being immortal. (Presuming that Jack didn't lose his immortality since there was energy transfer between him and Abbadon.)
Finally... after seeing the Doctor Who Christmas Special--absolutely crap in comparison to last year's--I must observe that the centre of the Earth seems awfully crowded. You know, what with Abbadon lurking in there and a nest of alien spidery things, too. And while I'm thinking about it, I'm still offended by the shoddy science of dumping the contents of the River Thames into the Earth's core. There should at least have been steam!!
PS It does bug me that you almost need to visit the various fake Torchwood sites to get further information and fill in the holes left by some episodes. Still, I was very amused to see that they'd gone to the lengths of making a fake ice-cream shop's website for full immersion value.
PPS Would someone please tell me what Gwen's role is supposed to be? All she seems to do is tell people that their son/daughter is dead or wander around with a torch in hand.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 04:42 pm (UTC)Instead, I shall sit here and squee quietly about the Jack/Ianto kiss in 1x13, which the lovely <lj user="rivier" was kind enough to screen cap. Hehe. Got any links for the fake Torchwood sites? I'm a bit lost in general, really!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 06:01 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_tie-in_websites
(I saw the Jack/Ianto kiss a few weeks ago when a production still was leaked. I'm intriegued as to how many people at Torchwood knew about their relationship...)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 08:07 pm (UTC)Oooh, how nifty of Wikipedia! Cheers for the link :)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 05:31 pm (UTC)[headscratch]
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 06:07 pm (UTC)Essentially the words "bad wolf" are a trail of cookie crumbs to remind Rose that she and the Doctor are still connected when the events in the distant future unfold.
You've gotta love paradoxes!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 09:07 pm (UTC)Yes, I have watched Dr Who religiously since it started showing here in the states but Sci-Fi cuts a bunch of stuff out of it to make the show fit into their time frame and I always got the feeling I was missing something.
Whew. I don't feel utterly stupid now!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 06:09 pm (UTC)It isn't terrible but on the other hand, it isn't stellar either. A lot of the scripts have a fanfic feel to them, tbh.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 07:36 pm (UTC)