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Torchwood (1.03)
First the review from The Sunday Times (because it made me very happy):
The first thing to say about Torchwood (Sunday, BBC3) is that the Daleks must be furious. They have plodded away as a support act to Doctor Who for years, building up a following, but without even a whiff of their own series. Then along comes Captain Jack Harkness, with his twinkly eye and winning smile, and, after just one appearance, he gets his own show. Honestly, love, it makes you want to chuck it all in and advertise Smash.
A lot of people in television say that comedy is the most difficult thing to get right, but I’d say it was science fiction. And the most difficult thing in science fiction is to stop it becoming comedy. In Torchwood, we viewers must believe that a cloud of alien gas might one evening roll up to a Cardiff nightclub and take over the body of a young woman in an attempt to harness the energy of the human orgasm. And we must do that without laughing. Well, only at the right moments. To the great credit of Russell T Davies, we somehow manage it.
Captain Harkness and his Torchwood team — two other men and two women — are Cardiff’s answer to Mulder and Scully of The X Files, except that Harkness appears to be immortal. Whenever aliens arrive in Cardiff, which appears to be some sort of intergalactic check-in desk, bold Captain Harkness is on hand with a series of entertaining gadgets to get rid of them. It not only has a touch of The X Files, but was inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The team even get to their underground headquarters through the back of the shop: just like they did in The Man from Uncle.
You can certainly see the American influence at work. Torchwood has that glossy feeling about it that we don’t normally associate with British television, which associates “glossy” with “shallow”. Pretty much everywhere it visits is shiny and modern and easy on the eye. In between scenes, it cuts to aerial shots of Cardiff. With the sun glinting off the water of Cardiff bay, you’d almost think you’d switched over to Miami Vice by mistake.
Liked this one better than the other two. Partly because it wasn't 'First episode - we're setting everything up' or 'First day for the newbie', which cannot help being clichéd. Also the plot was far more involving - I actually cared about what was happening and was wondering what Owen might do and how it'd all turn out. And the vibe is getting distinctly AtS like - the plot could have been an Angel episode, easily (except of course that they'd have been using magic). The scene with Jack teaching Gwen to shoot was rather gratuitous (Darcy was very vocally criticising he whole thing, and since he was in the kadet corps at school I guess he knows what he's talking about. Also the standing-very-close-together etc he dismissed with these words: "That's not sexy - it's harassment!"). But objectively I liked it - the music was very good and the flow of the thing worked very well. As long as they don't go the Jack/Gwen route... please?
That's it (since I have to run). Nice episode, involving plot, and now I'm actually interested in Owen, which is quite something.
Also, a very nice and thoughtful little ficlet here: Hands.
ETA:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vampirefever wrote Spike/Capt. Jack crossover fic! :D
The first thing to say about Torchwood (Sunday, BBC3) is that the Daleks must be furious. They have plodded away as a support act to Doctor Who for years, building up a following, but without even a whiff of their own series. Then along comes Captain Jack Harkness, with his twinkly eye and winning smile, and, after just one appearance, he gets his own show. Honestly, love, it makes you want to chuck it all in and advertise Smash.
A lot of people in television say that comedy is the most difficult thing to get right, but I’d say it was science fiction. And the most difficult thing in science fiction is to stop it becoming comedy. In Torchwood, we viewers must believe that a cloud of alien gas might one evening roll up to a Cardiff nightclub and take over the body of a young woman in an attempt to harness the energy of the human orgasm. And we must do that without laughing. Well, only at the right moments. To the great credit of Russell T Davies, we somehow manage it.
Captain Harkness and his Torchwood team — two other men and two women — are Cardiff’s answer to Mulder and Scully of The X Files, except that Harkness appears to be immortal. Whenever aliens arrive in Cardiff, which appears to be some sort of intergalactic check-in desk, bold Captain Harkness is on hand with a series of entertaining gadgets to get rid of them. It not only has a touch of The X Files, but was inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The team even get to their underground headquarters through the back of the shop: just like they did in The Man from Uncle.
You can certainly see the American influence at work. Torchwood has that glossy feeling about it that we don’t normally associate with British television, which associates “glossy” with “shallow”. Pretty much everywhere it visits is shiny and modern and easy on the eye. In between scenes, it cuts to aerial shots of Cardiff. With the sun glinting off the water of Cardiff bay, you’d almost think you’d switched over to Miami Vice by mistake.
Liked this one better than the other two. Partly because it wasn't 'First episode - we're setting everything up' or 'First day for the newbie', which cannot help being clichéd. Also the plot was far more involving - I actually cared about what was happening and was wondering what Owen might do and how it'd all turn out. And the vibe is getting distinctly AtS like - the plot could have been an Angel episode, easily (except of course that they'd have been using magic). The scene with Jack teaching Gwen to shoot was rather gratuitous (Darcy was very vocally criticising he whole thing, and since he was in the kadet corps at school I guess he knows what he's talking about. Also the standing-very-close-together etc he dismissed with these words: "That's not sexy - it's harassment!"). But objectively I liked it - the music was very good and the flow of the thing worked very well. As long as they don't go the Jack/Gwen route... please?
That's it (since I have to run). Nice episode, involving plot, and now I'm actually interested in Owen, which is quite something.
Also, a very nice and thoughtful little ficlet here: Hands.
ETA:
vampirefever wrote Spike/Capt. Jack crossover fic! :D
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I'm good!
*polishes nails on lapel*
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And if anyone had told me that my AtS replacement would be Welsh... I'd have laughed them out of the room! *g*
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I agree with Darcy. I suspect they're going to flirt with the idea of Jack/Gwen but not much more or at least I hope not because it feels sleazy in a way the Doctor/Rose never has. Hm...
I'm actually interested in Owen, which is quite something.
The guy that's playing him was Mr Guppy in Bleak House and I thought he was good then.
I'm enjoying it so far but J is very undecided about it.
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Well she's no little girl - curves in all the right places. What I mwan is that she's a grown-up - and Jack is far more... um.. adventurous than the Doctor. And of course she has a really, really nice boyfriend.
I thought he was good then.
I didn't watch Bleak House, but I recognised the face. He was just a bit on a non-entity before, and he was really fleshed out a bit here. Good job.
I'm enjoying it so far but J is very undecided about it.
J and Darcy obviously share a brain!
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Well she's no little girl - curves in all the right places. What I mwan is that she's a grown-up - and Jack is far more... um.. adventurous than the Doctor. And of course she has a really, really nice boyfriend.
If i have a problem with it, it's that Rose and the Doctor were essentially nothing more than travelling companions. Jack is Gwen's boss. And really not a very good manager, if you look at his performance so far: sexually harrassing his staff, letting his second-in-command get away with murder (literally), making rules about using alien gadgets that none of his team actually bother to follow... I'm just not sure yet if this is intentional (and laying the groundwork for later plot developments) or if we're supposed to accept it as just his lovable personality...
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I don't find Jack's personality loveable. It was amoral on Dr Who and his immortality has added a darkness that wasn't there before.
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For me, that's what makes it interesting. He's not the heroic type a la The Doctor and it's not easy to predict what he'll do. Also why is he there in the first place? Does he feel he has a mission? Or is he hoping for a spaceship to give him a lift? That's wat makes viewing fun! :)
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*loves*
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I think I'm just going to have to give up watching telly. I feel like I just spoil the squee for everyone else.
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I may be joining you. I haven't found anything to squee about in Torchwood yet.
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