Risen Mitten - Oh, Ianto
Feb. 13th, 2008 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meddowI've gotten through two episodes of my great Torchwood second chance re-watch, and I'm surprised. I actually found the both decent.
Greeks Bearing Gifts
I had three motivations for watching this episode.
1. People told me it was good.
2. It has that actress from North and South in it (and nearly completely unrecognisable, I think it was the blonde bob cut), and, most importantly,
3. An SJA crossover!(of sorts)
Oh, and finally, we get some lesbians in the Whoniverse. It’s about bloody time. I mean, before I heard of this episode I was starting to wonder if despite the gay agenda, women were allowed only to be heterosexual, or worse, in some cases not even allowed to fall in love with men. Instead they’re only allowed to fall in love with one particular alien (Doctorsexual? Ten(nant)sexal? – or maybe it’s just the screwdriver and spaceship).
What I was not expecting was being nearly immediately of the Classic series.
Jack begins with the line: “Just once I’d like to walk into one of these tents and find it’s a party.”
Which I think harps back to the Brigadiers wonderful line in Robot:
“Just once, I would like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.”
There we have it, in two sentences, the difference between Torchwood and UNIT.
Except the Brig is more awesome than Captain Jack. Why? Because alt!universe evil!Brig wears and eye-patch. Andnothing beats the evil Inferno eye-patch.
Tosh is lonely, which is exacerbated by Gwen and Owen shamelessly flirting and Owen being a dick who breaks her computer, and winds up accepting a mysterious gift from a stranger, who turns out to rip people’s hearts out.
Don’t worry Tosh, it happens to the best (well, accept for the rip people’s heart out bit – SJA is after all a kids show, and, you know, Sarah's gift saved the planet. I'm just saying...):
(You know, I’m never going to be able to watch Invasion of the Bane again without my mind going straight into the gutter, as if the kinky nuns in Eye of the Gorgon weren’t enough. Not that this is a bad thing).
The lesson for this episode is that reading thoughts sucks. Well, yes. Actually I think Heroes did the whole downside of mind-reading better with Parkman. Oh, and apparently, as in Heroes, the human race all thinks in complete sentences. What I’m surprised is that according to the writer, we don’t swear in our heads. Considering Torchwoods post-watershed ‘edginess’, I was surprised we didn’t get a string of obscenities. I mean, I don’t swear much in real life, but if you listened to my thoughts you probably would think I did.
Meanwhile, Ianto manages to endear himself by being cute, quiet and Welsh, and Cyberwoman is nearly forgiven.
All in all, I quite enjoyed it and Torchwood is certainly better than I remember.
They Keep Killing Suzie
Oh, Torchwood, why bother with the retcon pills when everyone in Cardiff seem to know about you?
My motivation for watching this one was purely for Indria Varma, who had become one of those Hey! It’s that Chick! for me, since she seems to crop up in everything (well, Rome, The Canterbury Tales and Bride and Prejudice).
Basically, I was rooting for Suzie throughout this episode. Thought the snarky detective was very enjoyable also. She needs to return.
Unfortunately, the writer decides to go with the tell and don’t show when it comes to Gwen and Suzie.
Note to world: having an awesome character say less awesome character is better than them does not make less awesome character better than awesome character. To pull it off, what is needed is some actual evidence that Gwen is in fact more awesome than Suzie, and since Suzie managed to arrange her resurrection from death over three months in advance using psychic keywords and poetry, and in the process managed to embarrass Torchwood, I think Suzie wins.
In fact, why couldn’t Gwen die and Suzie live forever? Really. Suzie and Jack’s one episode of antagonising each other was by far the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen on Torchwood. Having them as arch-nemeses incapable of killing each other, while such a sci-fi cliché, would have been great.
Ianto again endears himself with cute names for alien tech (Risen Mitten! Lol!) and apparently spending all his time thinking of interesting things to do with a stopwatch and Captain Jack. I think Cyberwoman may actually be forgiven (alas, not forgotten).
Again, Torchwood’s better than I remember.
ETA: Nearly forgot -
Torch – Wood. Geddit?
Greeks Bearing Gifts
I had three motivations for watching this episode.
1. People told me it was good.
2. It has that actress from North and South in it (and nearly completely unrecognisable, I think it was the blonde bob cut), and, most importantly,
3. An SJA crossover!(of sorts)
Oh, and finally, we get some lesbians in the Whoniverse. It’s about bloody time. I mean, before I heard of this episode I was starting to wonder if despite the gay agenda, women were allowed only to be heterosexual, or worse, in some cases not even allowed to fall in love with men. Instead they’re only allowed to fall in love with one particular alien (Doctorsexual? Ten(nant)sexal? – or maybe it’s just the screwdriver and spaceship).
What I was not expecting was being nearly immediately of the Classic series.
Jack begins with the line: “Just once I’d like to walk into one of these tents and find it’s a party.”
Which I think harps back to the Brigadiers wonderful line in Robot:
“Just once, I would like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.”
There we have it, in two sentences, the difference between Torchwood and UNIT.
Except the Brig is more awesome than Captain Jack. Why? Because alt!universe evil!Brig wears and eye-patch. And
Tosh is lonely, which is exacerbated by Gwen and Owen shamelessly flirting and Owen being a dick who breaks her computer, and winds up accepting a mysterious gift from a stranger, who turns out to rip people’s hearts out.
Don’t worry Tosh, it happens to the best (well, accept for the rip people’s heart out bit – SJA is after all a kids show, and, you know, Sarah's gift saved the planet. I'm just saying...):
(You know, I’m never going to be able to watch Invasion of the Bane again without my mind going straight into the gutter, as if the kinky nuns in Eye of the Gorgon weren’t enough. Not that this is a bad thing).
The lesson for this episode is that reading thoughts sucks. Well, yes. Actually I think Heroes did the whole downside of mind-reading better with Parkman. Oh, and apparently, as in Heroes, the human race all thinks in complete sentences. What I’m surprised is that according to the writer, we don’t swear in our heads. Considering Torchwoods post-watershed ‘edginess’, I was surprised we didn’t get a string of obscenities. I mean, I don’t swear much in real life, but if you listened to my thoughts you probably would think I did.
Meanwhile, Ianto manages to endear himself by being cute, quiet and Welsh, and Cyberwoman is nearly forgiven.
All in all, I quite enjoyed it and Torchwood is certainly better than I remember.
They Keep Killing Suzie
Oh, Torchwood, why bother with the retcon pills when everyone in Cardiff seem to know about you?
My motivation for watching this one was purely for Indria Varma, who had become one of those Hey! It’s that Chick! for me, since she seems to crop up in everything (well, Rome, The Canterbury Tales and Bride and Prejudice).
Basically, I was rooting for Suzie throughout this episode. Thought the snarky detective was very enjoyable also. She needs to return.
Unfortunately, the writer decides to go with the tell and don’t show when it comes to Gwen and Suzie.
Note to world: having an awesome character say less awesome character is better than them does not make less awesome character better than awesome character. To pull it off, what is needed is some actual evidence that Gwen is in fact more awesome than Suzie, and since Suzie managed to arrange her resurrection from death over three months in advance using psychic keywords and poetry, and in the process managed to embarrass Torchwood, I think Suzie wins.
In fact, why couldn’t Gwen die and Suzie live forever? Really. Suzie and Jack’s one episode of antagonising each other was by far the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen on Torchwood. Having them as arch-nemeses incapable of killing each other, while such a sci-fi cliché, would have been great.
Ianto again endears himself with cute names for alien tech (Risen Mitten! Lol!) and apparently spending all his time thinking of interesting things to do with a stopwatch and Captain Jack. I think Cyberwoman may actually be forgiven (alas, not forgotten).
Again, Torchwood’s better than I remember.
ETA: Nearly forgot -
Torch – Wood. Geddit?
