Children of Earth Day Five

[meddow]

Wow.

That was...bleak. Bleak, but brilliant. Brilliant, but the most depressing thing I've ever seen on television. But depressing in a good BSG way, not a Journey's End bitter, ragey way, as in it's a proper, brilliantly written tragedy rather than cheap emotional manipulation.

I don't think I ever want to see the character of Jack Harkness again. I understand what he did, I sympathize with him, but I don't want to see him again. If there is a fourth season, there should only be Gwen brought back.

Congratulations RTD, you've shown you're still the writer who wrote The Second Coming.

I'm going to go curl up into a ball now.

Comments

[fragglebo.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with all of the above.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

It was brilliant writing wise, but the choices made by the writer/s were kind of boggling. I'm assuming that this is the end of Torchwood because I don't really know how it can come back from the epic depression that was part 5?

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I thought the choices made were brave rather than boggling. I'm glad they shunned the normal way of resolving those sorts of stories (re-set buttons, redemptions and noble self-sacrifices) in favour of what they did, which felt thematically more satisfying.

Gwen got a sort of happy ending, so also long as they focus on her, I think they can move past episode five. If they bring Jack back, they might have problems.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

The odd thing is that there is a lot of Gwen Cooper hate in the TW fandom (and I don't know why, personally - I like her, but I feel like I'm in a minority), and so how would Torchwood continue with her as the only remaining character? It is like the BBC are purposely trying to either:
a) finish the show on their note
b) make it as difficult for themselves as possible.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I think they've set up Lois and Agent Johnson as potential new recruits. But with only a renewal of five episodes for this season, maybe the writers did believe this would be the final of the series.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Yes, the five episodes thing still really hasn't been explained to me, so I can understand how that notion may have come about. But if the threat of cancellation was over them, they did a great job in writing GOOD material?

[faustian.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I can watch Torchwood anymore. It was a good series... but this was way too much. They took a character that I had loved from The Doctor Dances and warped him in such a way that I just couldn't handle.

And now there's no Ianto and Jack... so what now? Gwenn is not much of a show. :(

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Poor Jack has been tortured a lot, and what he did was incredibly hard to take. I think that in itself is brilliant. I've never felt that degree of revulsion towards a character before, even though I understand he did it for the best. It's going to be interesting for me watching any old Jack episodes of Doctor Who (or Fires of Pompeii for that matter).

There's Lois and Agent Johnson. Those two would make additions to Torchwood.

[faustian.livejournal.com]

But... Jack was like the reason why I watched that show. He was a very strong character with interesting flaws/backstory.

Wait. Why can't you watch Fires of Pompeii now? Do I need to watch it again?

And you wanna know a good tag I just read that made me feel better? The Seventh Circle of Hell by Wendymr. Its exactly what I was thinking after the episode.

http://wendymr.livejournal.com/153021.html?#cutid1