Torchwood: Children of Earth DAY FIVE FINALE grading thread

[Starkers]

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.

Technically the BBC isn't state sponsered, it's not like Pravda or anything It's publically funded but supposedly impartial. People will claim it has something of a liberal bias and maybe it does, but I think the most telling thing about it is that people from all sides accuse it of taking the other guy's side! Case in point recently the Iranian government specifically accused the BBC os fermenting rebellion!

One thing I don't think anyone has pointed out yet, is the irony of the liberal RTD writing a story that, whist is very anti the state in some respects, also serves to reinforce what could be considered a right of centre agenda...namely that you don't give in to terrorists because it just encourages them

 

[Allyn Gibson]

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.

I would not want a complete reboot of Jack like that.

I can barely entertain the idea that Jack would even be civil to the Doctor when next they meet.

 

[Starkers]

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.

I would not want a complete reboot of Jack like that.

I can barely entertain the idea that Jack would even be civil to the Doctor when next they meet.

Funny cos you could quite easily reverse that and maybe the Doctor won't be civil to Jack?

Could be a hell of a conversation...

Doctor. "You should have found another way."

Jack. "There was no other way, because you weren't there!"

 

[The Comedian]

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

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.

There were people like that, diehard Browncoats, who freaked out over Wash's death.

Most got over it. Give it time.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

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."

I'm one of those people who absolutely despises the term "jump the shark" (especially around these parts), but I have to say that's brilliant.

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.

I would not want a complete reboot of Jack like that.

I can barely entertain the idea that Jack would even be civil to the Doctor when next they meet.

Funny cos you could quite easily reverse that and maybe the Doctor won't be civil to Jack?

Could be a hell of a conversation...

Doctor. "You should have found another way."

Jack. "There was no other way, because you weren't there!"

That's how I imagine it, too. Either way, I do hope we see Jack show up in series 5.

 

[Worf2DS9]

^ I like that too. And I can so hear Tennant and Barrowman uttering those lines. Of course, it won't be Tennant now, but still...