Just read through this whole thread... a few thoughts.
This was what I expected back when they flagged Torchwood as 'adult drama'. Instead we got Doctor Who with smut, gratuitous sex and rude words. I gave up half way through season one, and this was my first real venture back. This was adult drama - big themes, unanswerable decisions, impossible outcomes. This was Doctor Who does greek tragedy. It was brilliant. And about as cheerful as Oedipus.
Whoever said 'we are the monsters' summed it up beautifully. The 'deus ex machina' was the 456, which presented us with a physical tragedy for our kids, rather than the daily 'death' we condemn them to with crap education, poor prospects, drugs, alcohol and knife culture... I could go on. And that's without mentioning the kids who live with AIDS, genocide, violence...
The impossible decision where there is no 'good' thing left to choose and you're faced with finding the 'less bad' one is faced by ordinary courageous people every day. Like Jack, they do 'the best they can' and live with the consequences. In an odd way, this was incredibly 'optimistic' about human beings.
Where was the Doctor? I think this was RTD showing his true colours. He's a self-proclaimed atheist, which has made some of the 'Jesus-Doctor' stuff seem a little odd. This was starkly humanist: when the chips are truly down, there is no TARDIS landing. Human beings are left to sort it out from themselves, for better or for worse. Prayers, or intergalactic phone calls go unanswered in RTD's theology. Within Who-thology? I'd suggest that the Doctor's tendency to be in the right place has largely been down to the work of the TARDIS herself. For some reason, she chose not to bring him here. Maybe SHE still has isues with Jack, since he was 'created' from her energy.
More Torchwood? If it could be this good, I'd be impressed. But realistically, they have backed themselves into a corner. A 'man who can't die' is all well and good. But a 'man who doesn't age' causes all sorts of problems. TNG had the same problem with Data. Whatever happens to the character, actors age. I was thinking that Barrowman was looking a good bit thicker and less boyish than on his first appearance in the TARDIS. By the time he reappeasr - be it Torchwood, Doctor Who or SJA, they need an explanation for that.
This was what I expected back when they flagged Torchwood as 'adult drama'. Instead we got Doctor Who with smut, gratuitous sex and rude words. I gave up half way through season one, and this was my first real venture back. This was adult drama - big themes, unanswerable decisions, impossible outcomes. This was Doctor Who does greek tragedy. It was brilliant. And about as cheerful as Oedipus.
Whoever said 'we are the monsters' summed it up beautifully. The 'deus ex machina' was the 456, which presented us with a physical tragedy for our kids, rather than the daily 'death' we condemn them to with crap education, poor prospects, drugs, alcohol and knife culture... I could go on. And that's without mentioning the kids who live with AIDS, genocide, violence...
The impossible decision where there is no 'good' thing left to choose and you're faced with finding the 'less bad' one is faced by ordinary courageous people every day. Like Jack, they do 'the best they can' and live with the consequences. In an odd way, this was incredibly 'optimistic' about human beings.
Where was the Doctor? I think this was RTD showing his true colours. He's a self-proclaimed atheist, which has made some of the 'Jesus-Doctor' stuff seem a little odd. This was starkly humanist: when the chips are truly down, there is no TARDIS landing. Human beings are left to sort it out from themselves, for better or for worse. Prayers, or intergalactic phone calls go unanswered in RTD's theology. Within Who-thology? I'd suggest that the Doctor's tendency to be in the right place has largely been down to the work of the TARDIS herself. For some reason, she chose not to bring him here. Maybe SHE still has isues with Jack, since he was 'created' from her energy.
More Torchwood? If it could be this good, I'd be impressed. But realistically, they have backed themselves into a corner. A 'man who can't die' is all well and good. But a 'man who doesn't age' causes all sorts of problems. TNG had the same problem with Data. Whatever happens to the character, actors age. I was thinking that Barrowman was looking a good bit thicker and less boyish than on his first appearance in the TARDIS. By the time he reappeasr - be it Torchwood, Doctor Who or SJA, they need an explanation for that.
