Reaction post to Torchwood: Children of Earth

[snorkackcatcher]

Having just watched COE episodes 2-5 back-to-back ...


Um. OK, RTD, I think I see what you did thar. You wanted to show you could write a Whoniverse adventure with major dramatic tension and character heartbreak and genuinely impossible moral dilemmas, as opposed to a few million CGI Daleks saying "Exterminate!"

Well fuck me, I reckon you succeeded.

Not sure what to say about this, except that having stayed basically spoiler-free I didn't expect any of the major plot developments, and that it was a combination of awesome and a complete parting of the ways as far as the future direction of the show (if it has one) goes. It actually lived up to its billing as a TV Event. There were a lot of really disturbing things going on in the plot ("Contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting", said the warnings. No shit), things that you would expect to have knock-on effects on other parts of the Whoniverse. Torchwood as we knew it is practically dead and buried now.

Yes, I expect that many, or indeed most, fans are going to hate the last two episodes with the firey passion of a thousand burning suns. I can understand that. It went from a show that was delivering major fanservice (naked!Barrowman, lots of Janto) to one that basically tore up the rule book as far as its established rules of procedure and indeed the normal rules of series development went (and Ianto's speech to the comatose Jack in The Dead Line sure looks like Foreshadowing now). But even though it may well have practically killed its fandom overnight (I am totally not looking forward to finishing my TW gift-fic-in-progress), boy was it a standout bit of drama. No, it really was. I was glued to the screen, and the tension was stifling (this is a good thing for a TV drama, btw).

Someone (lizbee, I think) mentioned in an earlier review that they wisely didn't ask Barrowman and David-Lloyd to carry more of the acting load than they could handle, and I think that was right. Eve Myles was terrific throughout, and the regular thesps brought in to play the Government and family parts were outstanding.

Again, as with The Dead Line, we never did find out exactly what the 456 were (I'm sure I wasn't the only person who saw the poison gas tank and the swirly pincer things inside and immediately thought "Russ, are you bringing back the Macra again?"). This was probably a good choice, as was the broken nature of the victory -- it wasn't clear how well the 456 had been driven off or whether they might be back, and although it hurt, in terms of dramatic tension it wouldn't have worked half as well if they hadn't actually killed off Ianto and Jack's kid.

There are some possibilities for adding characters for a new hard-edged version (Lois, and who exactly were the Government hit squad types again?), and there are I suppose chances of some sort of reset via DW (because I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's how the specials are heading). Some dodgy bits, yes (although if anyone tries to tell me that RTD has an anti-gay agenda for killing off Ianto, they will get short shrift). And was it just me who was wondering what Sarah Jane and the gang were supposed to be doing here? I suppose the in-show reason why they didn't call up the Doctor via a superphone was that they didn't have the chance before they went on the run, and Martha was conveniently out of the way. On a lighter note, I was amused to see a character called Rhiannon Davies. I just thought I'd mention that. No, no crossover fics.

So, mixed reactions, a love it or hate it thing. While watching it, and with these initial impressions, I loved it. When the implications sink in, maybe I'll hate it. But since TW was always something I watched for spin-off reasons rather than as a primary fandom, maybe it'll be something between the two.

Comments

[malinbe.livejournal.com]

You watched episodes 2-5 back to back? How was that experience? It sounds like torture to me. I really needed those 24 hours to calm myself down...

If the show goes on, it's pressing a huge reset button, with all new characters (except maybe Gwen?) and a new setting. I liked Lois. Maybe it's a good idea, and I'm sure we will be able o love new characters, but the new Torchwood will always be fighting for the spot of the old Torchwood in the fans' minds, and I'm not sure that's a good idea.

[snorkackcatcher]

It was quite intense, especially as the reason I watched so soon was to make sure I knew the new canon before writing a Jack/Ianto gift-fic. :) Which is likely to show that you can write depressing Janto situations as AU too.

I think a new Torchwood might include Jack, although probably as co-lead with Gwen rather than on his own (as John Barrowman actually isn't that great an actor, really). And they have several spare Whoniverse characters around who might be drafted in to give some sort of continuity. (Mickey, for example, or Lois or even Johnson from this one.) I have a suspicion that Freema going off to ITV threw all their plans out, and perhaps they felt they might as well rethink from scratch.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Finally finished the last episode earlier this afternoon, and I was quite shattered, but I really loved it. Even if RTD has pretty much ruined the chances of a fourth series of Torchwood that in any way resembles the earlier series. Shame about no Martha -- I hadn't heard about Freema transferring to ITV.

All said, it was absolutely harrowing, with a lot of truly frightening observations about politics and human nature. I must admit I did sort of hope that the Doctor would magically appear to fix things, but the ending as it stands made a lot more sense, and worked far better. Especially Jack running away in the final scene.

[snorkackcatcher]

I was kind of hoping the Doctor wouldn't appear -- it would have made sense in the context of the Whoniverse if he had, but it would have been very hard to maintain the drama level in that case.

Apparently both Martha and Mickey were originally planned to be in this, but neither Freema Agyeman nor Noel Clarke were available at the right time. Pity.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Heh, I never said it was a rational hope. ;) More of a 'oh, my God, there is no way this can end well except with the magical blue box' hope. But, as I said, the ending as it stands was much, much better. More real, darker, and better fitting the arc as a whole.

That is a pity about both Martha and Mickey, although I don't really know how they'd have fit in, now that I try to see it in retrospect...

[snorkackcatcher]

I suppose they'd have had to alter the script quite a bit -- presumably they'd have gone with developments that fit the characters they had, so although the main outline would have been the same it would have been different in many of the details. Mickey could have done most of the things that Rhys did, for example. Lois was apparently supposed to be like a naive version of Martha, so presumably Martha would have been the one to broadcast from Level 13 using UNIT/companion-of-the-Doctor-experience credentials to get in or something, but still taking the risk of helping out Torchwood.