Torchwood

[laconicchick]

Hopefully there are enough people watching this (the newish Doctor Who spinoff) that it will be worth having a thread for it. It's sexy Captain Jack! How could you NOT watch?

The board policy is that we don't have to spoiler-tag TV shows, so if you haven't seen the episodes, which haven't yet aired in North America... Beware of things that might spoil you.

[huntergrayson]

But since they haven't aired in North America...and *you're* watching them. Hey! You're doing something naughty!

Fine, I'll admit it, I TiVoed whichever episode had Captain Jack removing his clothes, watched that part and then turned it off.

I watched a couple Who eps and, well, it's really kinda...silly, to me. But given the love of it here, I'll have to reconsider.

When *will* they air on North America? I assume Sci-Fi got the rights? Will it be uncensored?

Okay, try not to spoil me too much.

Torchwood so sounds like a metrosexual/gay dance club that Captain Jack visits.

[laconicchick]

But since they haven't aired in North America...and *you're* watching them. Hey! You're doing something naughty!

I figure if there's no other way I could see them... it's not THAT naughty. I mean, uh, I don't know what you're talking about.

Doctor Who is a bit silly, but so is a lot of sci-fi, I think, and it's also a "family" show. Torchwood is much more adult (though arguably still silly). Its quality has been very inconsistent so far, and it has a lot of continuity problems, and their refusal to give any background on Jack so far is extremely frustrating, but it's so fun to watch, for me, anyway. I like the characters (except Toshiko, who is rather boring), and it's entertaining (and there's sex! Did you hear there's sex? And sex! And also man-on-man and woman-on-woman action. And sex! Also swearing and violence and gore). I'm pretty easy to please, as I said in the Doctor Who thread. I can be easily swayed by hotness.

Sadly, I have no idea when they will air in North America. I think the DVDs are coming out before too long in the UK, though.

[Deleted]

I'm guessing that, since CBC was involved at some level in Torchwood's production, we'll be seeing it up here in the True North Strong and Free in the near future. There's always BBC America, too.

I, too, find it frustratingly inconsistent. I used to think Russell T Davies was almost infallible but, based on this series (and rumours surrounding his megalomaniacal treatment of his writing staff, including making all scripts more Davies-y at the expense of the original story) I'm wavering. It tries to be more adult but, ultimately, it winds up being unnervingly vulgar, as if it's created by a teenaged boy given freedom to use swears and adult situations.

I'm still watching, but have a few episodes with which to catch up. Maybe, after setting the series in motion, Davies went back to Doctor Who and left this ship a bit rudderless.

[Malle Babbe]

You aren't the only one bstewart. Torchwood is the first SF show I've come across where the fanfic seems better thought out than the actual show. Just the other day, I read a vignette that does a reasonable job of explaining why Ianto was still a member of the team after the whole catastrophe of Cyberwoman. And given the amount of loss and trauma these folks have seen (Susie? Ianto? Tosh? Those freaky ass cannibals who almost ate Ianto?) shouldn't these folks be kind of shell-shocked? If BSG can create charters dealing with loss and danger, surely Russ can put something together...

When this was still a part of the Doctor Who thread, I mentioned how frustrating it was to see really good ideas and moments pop up on the show, and don't get followed through. The idea of Torchwood - Cardiff branch being an elite group doesn't match what I've seen. However, if RTD instead made it so the Cardiff office was where the Torchwood head office sent all of its screw-ups and washouts with a thawed out Capt. Jack to babysit, only to have the folks at Cardiff end up in the front lines with the fall of Torchwood One, it would be a really interesting series. Almost like The Dirty Dozen, in a way.

[laconicchick]

thawed out Capt. Jack

Ooh, ooh! That reminds me! So I take it you've read the journal entry on the Hub? I wish they would put that stuff in the show so we didn't have to go searching it out.

For those who want to know and who haven't read it, there's a journal entry from 1958 (I think), written by a Torchwood staff member who talks about the yearly thawing (I think) of a man in his early 30s with blue eyes (?) and a broad grin. He'd been there for 50 years or so at that point, and woke up once a year. Presumably it's Jack.

So did he really spend over 50 years frozen? What year did he arrive in after leaving the Gamestation? Why did he decide to be frozen? When did he become unfrozen -- after Canary Wharf, or before? ARG I want to know! Most importantly, does this mean that frozen Jack could meet up with pre-Doctor/Rose Jack on March 18 (if I'm remembering the annual thawing date correctly), 1941 and have sex WITH HIMSELF before meeting the Doctor and Rose?

Okay, maybe not MOST importantly.

[Malle Babbe]

Dude. If Rose running into her pop in "Father's Day" put a wrench in the space-time continuum, who knows what Jack knockin' boots with himself would do!

ETA: That doesn't mean it would be hot, though.

Still, Deep Freeze Jack would be a great detail to put into the show. Unless RTD wants to tread into Lynn Johnston territory, he should have put it into the damn script, if only to explain why Jack isn't the Cheerful Sex Rascal we first saw in The Empty Child.

Maybe the BBC could make Torchwood it's first open-source TV show. Give the fans the premise and let them run with it, and stick RTD in a footlocker.

Another ETA: Just how awesome was Ianto's headbutt in Countrycide? My first thought was "Cannibal: Apply Directly to the Forehead"

That, or he saw the Zidane Maneuver during the World Cup. Things seem so lax at the Hub, I could kinda see him and Owen sneaking off to watch matches during work.

[Deleted]

It really does drive me nuts, because the world this show is set in is so rich, and we're getting... 50s people getting stuck in the 21st century. And dead nerds. And cannibals and fairies, which I liked, but weren't bloody rift-related. Where are the aliens, goddamnit? Jack says at the beginning of every episode that this is when it all changes. Has anything changed? No.

Where is this Icy Jack stuff? Because that is a fascinating notion, but we need to see it in the show. Grr.

Maybe the BBC could make Torchwood it's first open-source TV show. Give the fans the premise and let them run with it, and stick RTD in a footlocker.

Hah, awesome. I'm in.

I think RTD has generally done a fabulous job with Doctor Who, but either he did fuck of back to DW after Torchwood got started, leaving them all leaderless, or he's not been giving it his full attention. Or even half of his attention. Because Torchwood is very clearly a show without a guiding force, and it could be so much better if it had one. All the little details that make shows work in the long term are lacking at the moment, but it really could be a great show if it would use them.

And they need to develop some of the characters better. Gwen and Owen are doing pretty well, but Jack's become a bit of a cipher who needs more screen time and the opportunity to voice some of what's going on in his head, and Ianto and Tosh are pretty much set dressing apart from their particular episodes. But really, it should be a proper ensemble show, and all the characters should be better developed.

Gah, this is driving me crazy.

[laconicchick]

Because Torchwood is very clearly a show without a guiding force, and it could be so much better if it had one. All the little details that make shows work in the long term are lacking at the moment, but it really could be a great show if it would use them.

I forget where I read this (one of the LiveJournal communities), but someone said that in the commentary for "The Girl in the Fireplace," the writer said that if he had read the script for "School Reunion," he would have known that Rose didn't want Mickey to go with them and would have written something in about that. But as it is, that thread gets dropped. I think the same thing is happening here -- there doesn't seem to be any communication between writers. And that is just lazy and stupid.

Where is this Icy Jack stuff?

It's the journal entry here, but that particular link wasn't working a few days ago, so you may need to go through the high-tech version of the Hub, which is a pain in the ass to navigate. (There's a link at the bottom of the page).

[Deleted]

Thanks, LaconicChick. Veddy interesting. But at the same time, they need to include this interesting stuff on the show.

I think the same thing is happening here -- there doesn't seem to be any communication between writers. And that is just lazy and stupid.

I agree, and it is lazy and stupid, and it's going to put them all out of a job if they don't cut it out soon. Hell, if they all hate each other, they don't even have to read each other's scripts, they just need someone to read all of them and send them notes saying, "okay, you have to make reference on pages three, eighteen and thirty to the fact that Gwen and Owen have been shagging, because having Owen say 'I don't have a girlfriend' without even a funny look crossing his face makes us look like idiots. Thank you."

I kind of wonder if all the episodes were filmed out of order or something, because, seriously, "Out of Time" felt like it could've taken place way back before Gwen and Owen hooked up. On the other hand, even if they did that, shouldn't they have at least had an overall outline for the season? God, even when Buffy was deteriorating, at least there was obviously some degree of coordination.

What makes it particularly idiotic is that it's not like RTD is unaware of what fandom is like. The television viewing audience is not entirely composed of idiots, and a lot of people are watching very closely.