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Torchwood: Children of Earth DAY FIVE FINALE grading thread

Day Five: Nut Brown Ale or Squid Vomit?


  • Total voters
    107
and in other news, TW has been renewed.

Do you have a link? I want to spread that happy news. :)

http://www.comicmix.com/news/2009/07/25/exclusive-torchwood-picked-up-for-another-season-by-bbc/

That's all I can find, but not an official source. Apparently it's been confirmed by BBC America, which is a strange place to hear it from.

As an aside, check out the whiny bastards in that comments section:

Don't care. No desire to watch the Jack and Gwen show.
Don't care. Without Ianto not Torchwood for me.
As much as I love Torchwood, without Jack and Ianto, there really is not a Torchwood worth watching.
I don't care. With the current state of things I can't see how I'll ever be able to enjoy the show again, so I won't be watching.
After all the damage that RTD did to the series, I refuse to let myself care anymore
:wtf:

I'm flabbergasted. Truly flabbergasted.

RTD & co take a pretty ridiculous, laughable and mostly awful show (sorry but it was, season 2 notwithstanding) and turn it into the best 5 hours of television I've seen in over a decade, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that. You'd think the fans would be overjoyed - instead, a startling number of them are bitching about losing Ianto and calling it "ruined".

Ruined. You can't RUIN a pile of rubble. You CAN turn it into a gleaming piece of architecture. You can build it into something great, something more than the sum of its (troubled) parts. You can torture metaphors in its honour.

I seriously do not understand people hating on this, or RTD. I can understand being turned off from a 4th series if the reason is specifically "I don't think they'll ever top CoE", but even then it's a bit retarded to write it off before it's even so much as confirmed.
 
RTD & co take a pretty ridiculous, laughable and mostly awful show (sorry but it was, season 2 notwithstanding) and turn it into the best 5 hours of television I've seen in over a decade, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that.
One of the reviews of Children of Earth at Behind the Sofa said that Torchwood had, with this series, "unjumped the shark."
 
and in other news, TW has been renewed.

Do you have a link? I want to spread that happy news. :)

http://www.comicmix.com/news/2009/07/25/exclusive-torchwood-picked-up-for-another-season-by-bbc/

That's all I can find, but not an official source. Apparently it's been confirmed by BBC America, which is a strange place to hear it from.

As an aside, check out the whiny bastards in that comments section:

I don't care. With the current state of things I can't see how I'll ever be able to enjoy the show again, so I won't be watching.
After all the damage that RTD did to the series, I refuse to let myself care anymore
:wtf:

I'm flabbergasted. Truly flabbergasted.

RTD & co take a pretty ridiculous, laughable and mostly awful show (sorry but it was, season 2 notwithstanding) and turn it into the best 5 hours of television I've seen in over a decade, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that. You'd think the fans would be overjoyed - instead, a startling number of them are bitching about losing Ianto and calling it "ruined".

Ruined. You can't RUIN a pile of rubble. You CAN turn it into a gleaming piece of architecture. You can build it into something great, something more than the sum of its (troubled) parts. You can torture metaphors in its honour.

I seriously do not understand people hating on this, or RTD. I can understand being turned off from a 4th series if the reason is specifically "I don't think they'll ever top CoE", but even then it's a bit retarded to write it off before it's even so much as confirmed.

It's actually very simple:

Fandom can never, ever be pleased.

Ever.

Seriously. Individual fans can be pleased, certainly. Critics can be pleased. Audiences can be pleased. But fandom, as a unit?

Let me put it this way: Jesus Christ himself could walk on water, and if he had a fandom, they would look at him and say, "Couldn't swim, eh?"

Fandom will never, ever be happy, because fandom does not want what it's getting and never will. Fandom wants something that's new and original and exactly like what they remember.
 
RTD & co take a pretty ridiculous, laughable and mostly awful show (sorry but it was, season 2 notwithstanding) and turn it into the best 5 hours of television I've seen in over a decade, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that.
One of the reviews of Children of Earth at Behind the Sofa said that Torchwood had, with this series, "unjumped the shark."

Yes, I think that's exactly what it did. I was on the fence about the show, but it definitely picked up at the end of season 2. And then CoE. WOW. That was the best Torchwood has ever done--it was truly top-notch, though-provoking, riveting drama. It's definitely one of the most interesting things I've seen, scifi or not, in quite a while.
 
Sci said:
Let me put it this way: Jesus Christ himself could walk on water, and if he had a fandom, they would look at him and say, "Couldn't swim, eh?"

Man, please let me sig this, because it's possibly the most brilliant thing I've ever read on TBBS.
 
I don't think that Children of Earth was portraying all of humanity as monsters. In fact, Children of Earth presented a lot of genuinely good, heroic people -- particularly Ianto's sister and brother-in-law, Rhys, Lois, and PC Andy.

Rather, Children of Earth was portraying the rich and the powerful, the elites, as being monsters. They were, after all, not only willing to murder in the name of political expediency, but willing to betray the British people -- and to turn the 456s into a weapon against the poor, a means of waging class warfare. But plenty of people tried to fight them, too.

Sweeping statement much? It portrayed some of the elites as monsters.

There was not a single powerful person in CoE who did not abuse his or her authority in some way.

It's also a blithe statement to suggest all those failing schools were where the poorest strata of society were. How incredibly patronising!
No, because 1. saying that a school is "failing" doesn't mean that its students are unintelligent or lazy or otherwise lesser members of society, and 2. it's a basic fact of sociology that the schools whose students perform worse academically are disproportionately the schools servicing the working class and the poor.

And no, that's not being patronizing, because I for one reject the premise that achievement in schools constitutes a reliable metric for intelligence or ability to accomplish. Read a little bit about the ways in which schools discriminate against the poor and you'll see why I say that.

There are plenty of schools servicing the poorests strata of society that are perceived as good schools, I wouldn't argue that most of the schools picked out in TW would have been from the poorer areas, but I still feel it is a sweeping statement to suggest they all were.

And I realise the poor are discriminated against in school, although it's not always the school doing it on purpose. Children whose parents can afford to get them into better performing schools is a problem (but not the school's) but a lot of it is down to parents preparing their children for school, ie the ones who encourage reading, don't just feed their kids faces full of junk food etc. Is that the school's fault? Then the school is faced with a choice, focus on the kids who are bright, or drag everyone down to the level of the lowest common denominator? That's pretty much the definition of the comprehensive system in the UK, they don't call em bog standard for nothing! Curiously social mobility has lessoned since grammar schools were got rid of, elitist though they were they did at least offer bright working class kids a chance, sadly they don't often get a chance these days.

(note, above said as a child of working class and poor parents who went to a bog standard comprehensive and still made it to university, but then I had parents who gave a shit)
 
and in other news, TW has been renewed.

Do you have a link? I want to spread that happy news. :)

http://www.comicmix.com/news/2009/07/25/exclusive-torchwood-picked-up-for-another-season-by-bbc/

That's all I can find, but not an official source. Apparently it's been confirmed by BBC America, which is a strange place to hear it from.

As an aside, check out the whiny bastards in that comments section:

I don't care. With the current state of things I can't see how I'll ever be able to enjoy the show again, so I won't be watching.
After all the damage that RTD did to the series, I refuse to let myself care anymore
:wtf:

I'm flabbergasted. Truly flabbergasted.

RTD & co take a pretty ridiculous, laughable and mostly awful show (sorry but it was, season 2 notwithstanding) and turn it into the best 5 hours of television I've seen in over a decade, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that. You'd think the fans would be overjoyed - instead, a startling number of them are bitching about losing Ianto and calling it "ruined".

Ruined. You can't RUIN a pile of rubble. You CAN turn it into a gleaming piece of architecture. You can build it into something great, something more than the sum of its (troubled) parts. You can torture metaphors in its honour.

I seriously do not understand people hating on this, or RTD. I can understand being turned off from a 4th series if the reason is specifically "I don't think they'll ever top CoE", but even then it's a bit retarded to write it off before it's even so much as confirmed.

Come on now, the overall fan opinion seems to be extremely positive, going on this board alone the vast majority enjoyed it. I'd conccur that it was, quite possibly, the best 5 hours of TV since...well since I don't actually know when.

But people do have a right not to have enjoyed it, I may not understand that cos I thought it was brilliant, but they do have a right not to like it, same way I have the right not to like T4, or think BSG was overated (further "views" available on request ;)).

Some people will always find something to complain about anything, but on the whole I think fandom liked Coe, it was brilliant, people loved it and it was good enough to secure a 4th season...who cares what a few nuts think?
 
Come on now, the overall fan opinion seems to be extremely positive, going on this board alone the vast majority enjoyed it. I'd conccur that it was, quite possibly, the best 5 hours of TV since...well since I don't actually know when.

But people do have a right not to have enjoyed it, I may not understand that cos I thought it was brilliant, but they do have a right not to like it, same way I have the right not to like T4, or think BSG was overated (further "views" available on request ;)).

Some people will always find something to complain about anything, but on the whole I think fandom liked Coe, it was brilliant, people loved it and it was good enough to secure a 4th season...who cares what a few nuts think?

What? :wtf:

I'm not suggesting for a moment that they're not entitled to their opinions. I was just surprised at such a large concentration of people who were not only scornful toward this series, but unwilling to tune in for the next one.

I suspect they're in a minority, but still. I've seen some similar comments on *this* board, not to mention Gallifrey Base, so it's hardly "a few nuts".

Ultimately I don't *care* what they think, but I do find it worthy of comment.
 
Well, I wasn't hyped up on this series (Season 3) as it appears many have been, but if Torchwood does comes back, I'll stick with it. It was a very good 5 days, if not enjoyable.
 
Sci said:
Let me put it this way: Jesus Christ himself could walk on water, and if he had a fandom, they would look at him and say, "Couldn't swim, eh?"

Man, please let me sig this, because it's possibly the most brilliant thing I've ever read on TBBS.

Sure, and thanks. Though I would point out that the "Jesus walks on water; guys snarks, 'Couldn't swim, eh?'" was blatantly stolen from a common joke that I've heard in various locations for years.
 
I loved it.

If they bring the show back, they had better to be able to keep the quality going. Otherwise, don't bother.
 
There's nothing onscreen to suggest that the first PM was Tony Blair nor that there were caretakers or PMs inbetween the ones we've seen onscreen.


Well, maybe not directly, but think back to Rise of the Cybermen. The Doctor is explaining to Rose and Mickey they are in an alternate reality, and notes things that could be different. Mickey adds that Tony Blair probably might not have become Prime Minister there, implying that at some point in the Doctor Who timeline, Tony Blair was PM. And give he was current PM in real life at the time of Aliens of London, it is possible the intent was that he was the nameless PM in that episode.

As for PMs between the named ones, we know there had to be one between Harriet Jones and Mr Saxon. In an episode in S1 of Torchwood, Jack is having a phone conversation with a male Prime Minister (he refers to the guy as "Mr Prime Minister"). This could not have been Saxon given an episode that aired towards the end of the season had "Vote Saxon" signs visible.
 
Sci said:
Let me put it this way: Jesus Christ himself could walk on water, and if he had a fandom, they would look at him and say, "Couldn't swim, eh?"

Man, please let me sig this, because it's possibly the most brilliant thing I've ever read on TBBS.

Sure, and thanks. Though I would point out that the "Jesus walks on water; guys snarks, 'Couldn't swim, eh?'" was blatantly stolen from a common joke that I've heard in various locations for years.

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: PRESIDENT CAN'T SWIM.

This was from Lyndon B. Johnson talking about media bias...

And that's your useless fact of the day! :)
 
Come on now, the overall fan opinion seems to be extremely positive, going on this board alone the vast majority enjoyed it. I'd conccur that it was, quite possibly, the best 5 hours of TV since...well since I don't actually know when.

But people do have a right not to have enjoyed it, I may not understand that cos I thought it was brilliant, but they do have a right not to like it, same way I have the right not to like T4, or think BSG was overated (further "views" available on request ;)).

Some people will always find something to complain about anything, but on the whole I think fandom liked Coe, it was brilliant, people loved it and it was good enough to secure a 4th season...who cares what a few nuts think?

What? :wtf:

I'm not suggesting for a moment that they're not entitled to their opinions. I was just surprised at such a large concentration of people who were not only scornful toward this series, but unwilling to tune in for the next one.

I suspect they're in a minority, but still. I've seen some similar comments on *this* board, not to mention Gallifrey Base, so it's hardly "a few nuts".

Ultimately I don't *care* what they think, but I do find it worthy of comment.

Maybe I need to get out more to more boards :) People on this one seemed mostly positive, heck ^60% voted brilliant, with only 9% saying it outright sucked (the fools!)

As with everything the BBC won't base their decision on a few fans on the internet...and it seems they haven't, roll on s4!
 
Sci said:
Let me put it this way: Jesus Christ himself could walk on water, and if he had a fandom, they would look at him and say, "Couldn't swim, eh?"

Man, please let me sig this, because it's possibly the most brilliant thing I've ever read on TBBS.

Sure, and thanks. Though I would point out that the "Jesus walks on water; guys snarks, 'Couldn't swim, eh?'" was blatantly stolen from a common joke that I've heard in various locations for years.

:guffaw::guffaw::guffaw:


Absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to share it around the next minister's council meeting. And the fact that it's adapted from LBJ is just the icing on the cake!
 
Wow, did RTD just have a cathartic vent or what? All those years of Who to create something this dark and pessimistic.

While it does beg the question of why Torchwood doesn't expand beyond a small motley gang of goofs running around Cardiff that was a really tense miniseries. The last two episodes were really nailbiting and I couldn't figure out how they were going to get out and in the end I guess they didn't really despite ridding the outside menace.

I'm impressed that state-sponsored television can produce such cynical fare as this. Actually the whole nuWhoverse presents a rather negative view of government and authority.

Has any program burned through its principal cast like this one? I'm not quite sure what they'll do should it return. Also, the Captain Jack character has gone through a remarkable transformation from the amiable rogue he started as.
 
Maybe Captain Jack left Torchwood so that he could become a semi-regular in Steven Moffat's Doctor Who, and he'll go back to being the lovable rogue that Steven originally wrote the character as.
 
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