Torchwood: Children of the Earth
Okay, I can't claw my eyes out to stop myself from having seen the last 30% of Torchwood: Children of the Earth, but I might consider it if it would work. Maybe if I open the Rift...?
We just finished watching the "Day Five," the last episode of this summer's Torchwood mini-series, Children of the Earth. My husband is saying that he is now upset at having watched any Torchwood at all. I thought the first series was uneven at best and needed work, but the second series was pretty good, especially after Owen was dead. He showed such character growth after that point. In any case, this new five-part mini-series starts out darkly promising. Jack was a bad boy forty-four years ago, but he's much better now. Or is he? Does tearing up at sacrificing children instead of scowling make it all better?
I seriously thought while the credits rolled that after this storyline they wouldn't dare continue Torchwood for a fourth series. Apparently I am not cynical enough, because the BBC confirmed that there will be a fourth series. And, oh, BTW, Ianto's dead now so that his otherwise pointless death can spur Jack on to better things. Oh, wait, he was already dead when Jack decided to sacrifice his own grandson because he was handy. If Russell T. Davies thinks that being a more 'adult' series than Doctor Who means that Torchwood, or at least Captain Jack Harkness, must display previously unheard of heights of moral relativism, well, he's done it. But I for one am now completely disgusted by his having written this series, and want to scream "good riddance" that he is off of Doctor Who. Three-fifths of the original Torchwood team we got to know and mostly like are now deceased. Or two-thirds if you count Suzie. At the point of 80% through one story, in fact only four viewing hours, since Tosh and Owen were obliterated (I was going to say died, but Owen was already dead at that point), for crissakes, and you kill off Ianto and then proceed to turn Jack into an alien-whipped asshole?!? I like Gwen and Jack, but how much main character death am I supposed to take? And, actually, you can probably tell that I like Jack a whole lot less right now. Oh, but he cries through the whole thing, so Jack's still Jack, he's just not the Doctor, who would have made everything pretty much okay by the end. F**K YOU RTD.
I recognize that all it was about exploring boundaries and sacrifice (are children "yours"? in what sense is losing a child like losing a body part? what would you give up to save the whole world? is cutting off your finger acceptable? An arm? Killing a partner? A child? A grandchild? Where are your limits, if any?), but in crossing all those boundaries, RTD may have crossed the line where I no longer want to watch Torchwood, and possibly not even Doctor Who, anymore.
We just finished watching the "Day Five," the last episode of this summer's Torchwood mini-series, Children of the Earth. My husband is saying that he is now upset at having watched any Torchwood at all. I thought the first series was uneven at best and needed work, but the second series was pretty good, especially after Owen was dead. He showed such character growth after that point. In any case, this new five-part mini-series starts out darkly promising. Jack was a bad boy forty-four years ago, but he's much better now. Or is he? Does tearing up at sacrificing children instead of scowling make it all better?
I seriously thought while the credits rolled that after this storyline they wouldn't dare continue Torchwood for a fourth series. Apparently I am not cynical enough, because the BBC confirmed that there will be a fourth series. And, oh, BTW, Ianto's dead now so that his otherwise pointless death can spur Jack on to better things. Oh, wait, he was already dead when Jack decided to sacrifice his own grandson because he was handy. If Russell T. Davies thinks that being a more 'adult' series than Doctor Who means that Torchwood, or at least Captain Jack Harkness, must display previously unheard of heights of moral relativism, well, he's done it. But I for one am now completely disgusted by his having written this series, and want to scream "good riddance" that he is off of Doctor Who. Three-fifths of the original Torchwood team we got to know and mostly like are now deceased. Or two-thirds if you count Suzie. At the point of 80% through one story, in fact only four viewing hours, since Tosh and Owen were obliterated (I was going to say died, but Owen was already dead at that point), for crissakes, and you kill off Ianto and then proceed to turn Jack into an alien-whipped asshole?!? I like Gwen and Jack, but how much main character death am I supposed to take? And, actually, you can probably tell that I like Jack a whole lot less right now. Oh, but he cries through the whole thing, so Jack's still Jack, he's just not the Doctor, who would have made everything pretty much okay by the end. F**K YOU RTD.
I recognize that all it was about exploring boundaries and sacrifice (are children "yours"? in what sense is losing a child like losing a body part? what would you give up to save the whole world? is cutting off your finger acceptable? An arm? Killing a partner? A child? A grandchild? Where are your limits, if any?), but in crossing all those boundaries, RTD may have crossed the line where I no longer want to watch Torchwood, and possibly not even Doctor Who, anymore.