Review Torchwood S2 10 From Out of the Rain
This week we've got another Classic Plot, albeit one that's not often seen, Monsters Emerging From the Cinema Film.
It has appeared more often in comic books than in filmed media, probably because of budget considerations. The last time I saw it was Leave it to Chance, but Marvel and DC have turned in their versions in the past. My husband and I thought this story felt like an episode of Friday the 13th: the Series without the blood, which frankly F13TS overused.
We start off with Ianto dragging Gwen and Owen to the Grand Re-opening of a vintage theatre. He's got a huge grin on his face. So do I, for a similar reason. There was a vintage theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, when I was a child where they took the school children on field trips and showed them old musicals. It was gorgeous! It had wood paneling, polished brass fittings, huge velvet-covered seats, and a balcony. I loved going there. It was a completely different experience from going to one of those cramped bare-bones theatres so common today. They're so tiny and minimalistic it's like, "Why bother? Might as well wait for the DVD." But this place was a palace of comfort and repose. If I'd been in Ianto's shoes I would have been wearing the same expression.
For some reason, the new owners decide to skip the customary classic cartoon to lull the audience into a mellow mood and jump straight into old footage of Cardiff. Bad business decision folks, and that's even before the footage turns out to be contaminated with haunted carnival footage of undead carnies trying to escape. Two of them manage to bust out, unnoticed by anyone except for Ianto, who insists against the protests of Gwen and Owen that Torchwood investigate. Jack, who's been getting his own carnie vibe, sides with Ianto.
The escapees turn out to be the Ringmaster and his Beautiful Girl Assistant/Mermaid, off to steal the breath of passersby and store it in a silver flask for their own purpose. While the Ringmaster does the dirty work, it's soon apparent the actual magic comes from the Mermaid. Her seashell motif adorns the flask, she summons the spirit of the ocean to sustain her, and I'd bet she's the reason this haunted carnival only appeared "from out of the rain."
Ianto has spotted Jack among the carnies still left on the film. Jack blows off his presence there in front of the Team, but later when they are alone he tells Ianto he was investigating the Night Travellers, the undead carnies who were responsible for a string of deaths and disappearances back in the 1920s. That string starts back up that very night, and Torchwood has to stop the deaths, restore the wounded, and prevent the carnies from bringing over their friends. How all this is accomplished is not a high point for plotting.
Once again this episode suffers from what is becoming a real problem in Series 2, a lack of emotional connection for the audience. This lack is bizarre, considering that Julie Gardener wants poignancy to be the main characteristic of Doctor Who. Isn't Torchwood allowed to be poignant as well? Ianto was my emotional connection to this story, and while Gareth did a wonderful job he simply didn't have enough of the focus to carry the story by himself. As in Hammond's Series 1 story Small Worlds it felt like I was supposed to make some sort of emotional connection with the bad guys, but the story gave them no sympathetic qualities to draw me in.
But on to the positives. Visually, the story was absolutely beautiful. The Director of Photography deserves a commendation for his/her work. Gareth David-Lloyd was given his biggest chunk of the story so far this series, and carried it easily. Gareth is a superb actor, especially considering his youth. He reminds me of a young Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn was never pretty, her looks could best be described as "pleasant". Yet she projected so much intelligence, charm, presence, charisma, and strength that when she was on the stage you couldn't look anywhere else, and that made her beautiful. Gareth brings much the same quality to his work.
For Jack/Ianto shippers, this episode was a real treat. Now that Ianto is officially "out of the closet", Gwen feels able to mildly tease Jack and Ianto about their relationship, which beats it being The Thing We're Not Supposed to Talk About. This is probably a relief to Tosh, Owen, and Gwen. Even better, this episode showed that Jack and Ianto have a close personal relationship, both when working and when sharing private thoughts and memories they don't reveal to the others. Jack is very free with sharing his body, but he's completely out of practice with sharing his closest thoughts and feelings. It's wonderful to see him feeling comfortable enough with Ianto that he can start to share those as well, although it will probably still take some time before he gets around to sharing anything as personal as his days with the Doctor. He's still a deeply private individual who isn't used to sharing, but Ianto is doing an excellent job of letting Jack talk when he can and just listening. That's a rare skill.
I hope the people who've been complaining that "Jack and Ianto have no more than sex going on between them" are satisfied. Then again, that may be a forlorn hope.
Apparently, while all the other Torchwood writers were given descriptions of what the producers wanted them to write, Jammond was given a blank sheet of paper. We should be grateful he decided to use that blank paper to write a Ianto-centric episode, otherwise we would not have had one this series. That would have been a crime. Thank you, Mr. Hammond.
On a related note, I got in two of the Torchwood audiobooks from Canada, Hidden and Everyone Says Hello. I'm trying to wait until after Torchwood goes off the air before listening to them. Preferably I'll wait until after DW S4 goes off the air and we're in the summer drought before SJA starts back up, but I don't know if I can hold off that long.