Torchwood

[major_clanger]

If nothing else, The Children of Earth seems to be polarising fan opinion, and I can see why. On the one hand, it delivered some incredibly powerful television; on the other, it was an impressive veneer over a plot with some painfully stereotyped elements and a resolution right out of the 'reverse the polarity of the neutron flow' stable, albeit with rather nastier collateral damage than normal.

The 456's motivation was an interesting concept - were we meant to infer that the creature's outbursts were in effect withdrawal symptoms, and that the 1965 children were somehow running out? (And why the need to go from a dozen to tens of millions?) A nice touch too that we never got a particularly good look at the creature, although whether this was to keep a sense of mystery or just down to limitations of FX remains to be seen.

TCoE also did a good job of laying out Captain Jack's situation: he is denied even the option of the way out that Frobisher took. Jack is doomed to spend eternity living with the knowledge that he has been responsible to a greater or lesser degree for the death of almost everyone he has cared about, and increasingly is turning to the Doctor as a role model - the eternal wanderer.

There are conflicting rumours on whether there will be more Torchwood. On the face of it it seems that Torchwood as an organisation is gone. But I doubt it will be that simple; we have seen that UNIT, Torchwood and MI5 have all been spying on one another, and there are too many layers of conspiracy to definitely say that we have seen the end of any one of them. (It was almost an incidental detail that most of MI5 got wiped out in this story.)

One criticism I have is that it just feels very hard to see TCoE as being in the same dramatic universe as New Who, and in particular the near-slapstick of The Aliens of London or the over-the-top excess of The Sound of Drums. (As another aside, the Who/Torchwood UK of the 2005-2010 is running through an awful lot of Prime Ministers.) And the events of The Stolen Earth / Journey's End all seem to have been forgotten, including - if I recall correctly - that Gwen met the Doctor, if only by video link. In fact, this might almost have been better as a stand-alone drama along the lines of (the in some ways very similar) Invasion: Earth.

A Hugo contender for next year, though? I think it likely (and would I ever have imagined I'd have said that about Torchwood?), certainly more so than Doctor Who unless one of the remaining specials really works out.

Comments

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Torchwood CArdiff only one outpost? i noticed near start of ep 1 I think a quick flash of how there was Torchwwod Glasgow!! But truely I don't think there can be TW without Jack.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I recalled that, too, till my friend Ray mentioned there was an early reference in the show to the Scots branch having been shut down years back.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

The radio series created (and destroyed) Torchwood: India. on the basis of a pan-Empire organisation I suspect that we can assume a Torchwood: Africa, (and possibly a separate TW: Egypt) TW: New Guinea/Malaya/Singapore, TW: Australia...

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Having been there, I feel bloody sorry for TW: Falkland Islands.

[lebeautemps.livejournal.com]

lol

[paratti.livejournal.com]

No. It was Torchwood Scotland being one strange man.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

[lebeautemps.livejournal.com]

Aside from the themes and tensions, which were interesting, was it just me or did the writing just flounder yesterday?

In particular, the writing for Frobisher was sloppy, with some kind of terrible fixit via aging secretary and Lois cell conversation. For a "good man" who worked so hard, his way out was weak, albeit well presented.

And who are we kidding? If stats are to be believed, adults and many kids in deprived areas carry weapons so would have had more than a bit of batton-related kerfuffle with squaddies.

I think we need to push them for an alternative ending. I mean, you can't have Gwen powerfully emoting to camera about the end of the world, followed by minimal resistance. And would he really add to the trauma by deserting Gwen? What a betrayal - I don't really consider you to be family, so bye... Torchwood has created another Who-related character orphan. Maybe she becomes the new Sarah-Jane character, quietly biding time into middle age in suburbia with son...

It's got a bit like Spooks - we can't promise you money or kudos, but most of you will die unpleasantly....".

[non-trivial.livejournal.com]

Not just you; I thought the whole rounding up kids thing was done far too neatly. What, no desperate parents running cars into the coaches, or some panicked squaddie shooting someone? Nobody really got hurt, apart from Frobisher's family and Jack, and that felt far too pat.

I wanted to know what happened in the time before the 'six months later' - I mean, some kind of martial law had been declared without the consent of parliament, by a government that is willing to kill hundreds of thousands of kids, and there's no long-term damage to the social fabric that is worthy of explication? Feh.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

I was interested in that too. We don't know what happened really. My own feeling was that if we were upst about MP expenses what on EARTH would happen after that???

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Assuming, of course, the truth ever came out...

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

Oh yes - I really, really wanted to know what happened when the people found out what had almost been done iby their government.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

That video sequence with Gwen struck me as a deliberate attempt to echo Rose's opening monologue in "Doomsday", which ends with a reference to "the day I died".

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I think you're underselling Rhys there; he's adorable and he's a hero and he's the father of her child - plus he's been through it all with her, so she's not isolated by Secrets She Can Never Reveal like Sarah Jane. He's also the reason why Gwen's request that Jack should stay for her is never remotely plausible.
I was annoyed by Rose moping around after the Doctor when she'd gained everything else she could ever want, but I'd be even more annoyed if Gwen, who's an actual adult, did the same - however devastated she was at the leaving.

I thought Frobisher remained strong throughout actually, but the PM's decision to push him into it was deeply unconvincing:
a) how can he have thought that Frobisher would possibly go through with it
b) he didn't really make a convincing attempt to sell it to him (perhaps as a sacrifice for the greater good).
c) some anonymous civil servant (because who the hell's ever heard of Frobisher? (except for the shapechanging penguin - we were waiting for the big reveal at the end and were sadly disappointed)) handing his kids over would never be a strong enough sell anyway - to make it work it would have to be a Cabinet Minister, otherwise it's pointless.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

As Swisstone said elsewhere, my real problem is that UNIT found this difficult to deal with. I found myself muttering that Lethbridge Stewart would be livid if he ever heard about it. After all the aliens that have passed their way since the 1970s you'd think these would be considered pretty namby pamby.