Torchwood Season 2 2/3 of the way in
Apr. 26th, 2008 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenOkay, some random ramblings about what I've seen so far of Torchwood season 2. Here be spoilers.
Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang
It wasn't until he said "Thirsty now" that I recognised James Marsters, what with the American accent and all. The first time I saw it I was going "James Marsters, oh my, James Marsters" from then on, and wasn't paying much attention to the plot. Second time around (yesterday) I was "gee I hate this character"...
I reckon his whole "I found Grey" thing was just winding Jack up.
Sleeper
The moment they told Beth what she was, I knew Beth was gonna kill herself (or die heroically) by the end.
These have got to be the most meticulously planning aliens ever.
Since the dying one said "they're already here", I wonder if these aliens are going to be the Big Bad they have to fight in the finale? That that cell wasn't the only one.
To The Last Man
And here was another one where the cannon fodder was obvious... as soon as he said to Tosh "I would do anything for you" I knew "hey, you're dead meat, son..."
I was hoping that history would change and he wouldn't be shot for cowardice, but I guess not. So sad.
Meat
I said when we saw the episode title "This is going to be gross and icky and probably involve cannibalism". Well, at least it didn't involve cannibalism.
They did a fantastic job with giving the alien a soulful eye.
And I love how Gwen stormed back and said she wasn't going to retcon Rhys. Yay! And Rhys was good too. Yay Gwen and Rhys!
Adam
Gee that Adam-creature was a psycho. (shivver)
I was expecting Rhys to save the day because he was the only one Adam hadn't affected, but after he and Gwen sorted themselves out, he was just kind of forgotten for the rest of the episode. But I did love how we got loving!faithful!Rhys here.
I found the whole "sacrament of amnesia pills" irritating. Enough with the messianic imagery already!
So, we get to see some of Jack's childhood on the Boshane Peninsula. The unstoppable aliens that "howled", that wiped them out... will we see them again? Are they the same as the Sleeper aliens?
Reset
Martha, yay! All professional, and also so glad to see Jack, and them all pumping her for information... "You could say we were under the same Doctor" (gleeful smile, me).
"Someone put in a good word for me."
That was fine, but I was again irritated by the messianic imagery given by Jack pointing to the sky.
No, the Doctor is NOT Jesus. Well, actually, he is Jesus-like, but the ways that he is Jesus-like are when he is not being all-powerful, actually; when he isn't throwing his weight around.
The Doctor is like Jesus when:
- he rescues
- he treats kings and slaves equally
- he is completely trustworthy even though you don't know what his plan is
- he sacrifices himself to save others
- he hates injustice
NOT when he's flying in the arms of robot-angels or coming on like a giant Tinkerbell.
(sorry, I just had to rant)
Again we have the theme of aliens being kept in captivity and being exploited and being given mercy-killings.
I don't buy the "Martha's white cells mutated because she travelled in time" thing. I think it more likely that the Doctor did something to her (like he did to Ace in the NAs); something to help her to be resistant to alien diseases. He couldn't prevent a lot of the dangers, but that was one danger he could prevent.
Dead Man Walking
Creepy. And Owen actually being heroic. Golly.
This one and the next one were also very good in pointing out the drawbacks of being a self-aware zombie.
A Day In The Death
That was soooo good!
- character-centric
- the non-linear storytelling worked in keeping one interested and intrigued
- the twist of it actually not being a totally crappy day in the end, and yet Owen is such a not-nice person you couldn't tell.
- the resonating "but look, you're alone now, you're in the dark now, stuck in your sickbed, is it really worth clinging on like this?"
A sort of balance between "no, don't throw away life" and "everything has its time, everything dies"
Something Borrowed
That was just cracky!insane in a so Torchwood way. And I loved how Gwen and Rhys kept on affirming their love for each other.
Though how the clean-up team is going to fix things so that people aren't wondering why they don't remember the wedding... oh well.
From Out of the Rain
I could tell this was written by Peter J. Hammond even before the opening credits confirmed it. Very much that style of atmospheric-creepy without making much sense. He also did the "fairies" one last season, and both of them failed to work in the same way: he was cramming a Sapphire & Steel plot into the Torchwood universe, and it just doesn't work. What's more, he was rehashing the plot of "The Photographs" a bit in this one too.
It's a pity, because there were a lot of bits of it that were very good, and it isn't as if a creepy-ghost-atmospheric story wouldn't work on Torchwood or Doctor Who; there have been plenty that have, "Blink" being one of the best examples. But I think one of the essential things to actually make such things work in Torchwood or Doctor Who is to have a pseudo-scientific explanation, and a pseudo-scientific solution to go with it. I mean, they managed it with "Adam", which was actually a rather similar creature in some ways, and there was hardly any explanation of him, just that he came from the Rift (and that the box probably had something to do with it too).
This fell short of working. Just not good enough.
Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang
It wasn't until he said "Thirsty now" that I recognised James Marsters, what with the American accent and all. The first time I saw it I was going "James Marsters, oh my, James Marsters" from then on, and wasn't paying much attention to the plot. Second time around (yesterday) I was "gee I hate this character"...
I reckon his whole "I found Grey" thing was just winding Jack up.
Sleeper
The moment they told Beth what she was, I knew Beth was gonna kill herself (or die heroically) by the end.
These have got to be the most meticulously planning aliens ever.
Since the dying one said "they're already here", I wonder if these aliens are going to be the Big Bad they have to fight in the finale? That that cell wasn't the only one.
To The Last Man
And here was another one where the cannon fodder was obvious... as soon as he said to Tosh "I would do anything for you" I knew "hey, you're dead meat, son..."
I was hoping that history would change and he wouldn't be shot for cowardice, but I guess not. So sad.
Meat
I said when we saw the episode title "This is going to be gross and icky and probably involve cannibalism". Well, at least it didn't involve cannibalism.
They did a fantastic job with giving the alien a soulful eye.
And I love how Gwen stormed back and said she wasn't going to retcon Rhys. Yay! And Rhys was good too. Yay Gwen and Rhys!
Adam
Gee that Adam-creature was a psycho. (shivver)
I was expecting Rhys to save the day because he was the only one Adam hadn't affected, but after he and Gwen sorted themselves out, he was just kind of forgotten for the rest of the episode. But I did love how we got loving!faithful!Rhys here.
I found the whole "sacrament of amnesia pills" irritating. Enough with the messianic imagery already!
So, we get to see some of Jack's childhood on the Boshane Peninsula. The unstoppable aliens that "howled", that wiped them out... will we see them again? Are they the same as the Sleeper aliens?
Reset
Martha, yay! All professional, and also so glad to see Jack, and them all pumping her for information... "You could say we were under the same Doctor" (gleeful smile, me).
"Someone put in a good word for me."
That was fine, but I was again irritated by the messianic imagery given by Jack pointing to the sky.
No, the Doctor is NOT Jesus. Well, actually, he is Jesus-like, but the ways that he is Jesus-like are when he is not being all-powerful, actually; when he isn't throwing his weight around.
The Doctor is like Jesus when:
- he rescues
- he treats kings and slaves equally
- he is completely trustworthy even though you don't know what his plan is
- he sacrifices himself to save others
- he hates injustice
NOT when he's flying in the arms of robot-angels or coming on like a giant Tinkerbell.
(sorry, I just had to rant)
Again we have the theme of aliens being kept in captivity and being exploited and being given mercy-killings.
I don't buy the "Martha's white cells mutated because she travelled in time" thing. I think it more likely that the Doctor did something to her (like he did to Ace in the NAs); something to help her to be resistant to alien diseases. He couldn't prevent a lot of the dangers, but that was one danger he could prevent.
Dead Man Walking
Creepy. And Owen actually being heroic. Golly.
This one and the next one were also very good in pointing out the drawbacks of being a self-aware zombie.
A Day In The Death
That was soooo good!
- character-centric
- the non-linear storytelling worked in keeping one interested and intrigued
- the twist of it actually not being a totally crappy day in the end, and yet Owen is such a not-nice person you couldn't tell.
- the resonating "but look, you're alone now, you're in the dark now, stuck in your sickbed, is it really worth clinging on like this?"
A sort of balance between "no, don't throw away life" and "everything has its time, everything dies"
Something Borrowed
That was just cracky!insane in a so Torchwood way. And I loved how Gwen and Rhys kept on affirming their love for each other.
Though how the clean-up team is going to fix things so that people aren't wondering why they don't remember the wedding... oh well.
From Out of the Rain
I could tell this was written by Peter J. Hammond even before the opening credits confirmed it. Very much that style of atmospheric-creepy without making much sense. He also did the "fairies" one last season, and both of them failed to work in the same way: he was cramming a Sapphire & Steel plot into the Torchwood universe, and it just doesn't work. What's more, he was rehashing the plot of "The Photographs" a bit in this one too.
It's a pity, because there were a lot of bits of it that were very good, and it isn't as if a creepy-ghost-atmospheric story wouldn't work on Torchwood or Doctor Who; there have been plenty that have, "Blink" being one of the best examples. But I think one of the essential things to actually make such things work in Torchwood or Doctor Who is to have a pseudo-scientific explanation, and a pseudo-scientific solution to go with it. I mean, they managed it with "Adam", which was actually a rather similar creature in some ways, and there was hardly any explanation of him, just that he came from the Rift (and that the box probably had something to do with it too).
This fell short of working. Just not good enough.
