Torchwood 1.01 and 1.02

[selenak]

The Ruhr area of Germany: home of black coal but alas not of many hotels sporting online access. At least not those I end up in. So it’s back to writing entries, burning same, and looking up the local internet café.

Anyway, before I started this week’s work, I got the Torchwood debut. All in all? Start of a promising show, and not just because of all the great Welsh accents.



Someone on lj made the comparison to Angel, and the second episode, Day One, had some parallels to the second AtS episode Lonely Hearts (which actually work out to Torchwood’s favour, all in all, but I’m getting there). Which makes me suddenly afraid that Gwen will be a great character for about two seasons and then will have a phase of Sainthood and Championness during which she’ll have an unbelievable not quite love affair with Jack and be utterly obsessed with him to the detriment of all her other relationships, followed by a retcon that reveals she was possessed by an alien determined to give birth to itself, which will actually make more sense than the Sainthood phase.

*end of Cordelia-related snark*

Okay, seriously now. Gwen is our point of view character so far, and I think, given that the show presumably wants to attract non-Who-viewers as well as Whovians, it was a wise decision not to start with Jack instead but letting him be something of a man of mystery. The comparison to Rose in Rose and the way RTD reintroduced the Doctor is obvious, though I find one difference in the set up fascinating. Faced with her death at the end of Everything Changes, Gwen is frightened, scared and not able to save herself or defy the villain of the hour. In other words, she behaves like Mickey in Rose, not like Rose. Mickey’s initial fear, much like Wesley’s initial fear on BTVS, hung over many viewer’s perception for a while. To me, it made their later people-and-world-saving activities more poignant and courageous, but you have to consider one thing: they’re both male characters. For a female character to show fear when faced with certain death means the danger of her being dismissed, unfair as it is, as “the girl” instead of The Plucky Heroine, and it’s a risky decision. So far, I think it pays off: Gwen’s decision to join Torchwood and her later way to solve the situation in Day One gain depth because we know she can be scared out of her wits.

The rest of the team is still a bit sketchy, but I expect we’ll get more on them in future episodes. The continuity nods to Who - save for the existence of Jack – are just the right dosis – they assure you you’re in the same universe when you’ve been watching, and if you’re a new viewer, you shouldn’t be more puzzled than Gwen is. Regarding Jack, John Barrowman is charming as ever – and on one occasion slapworthy, with the narrative saying he is, as he puts the amnesia on Gwen, which is realistic, because no conman is successful without being able to be a bastard – and of course you have two elements showing Gwen, and the viewers, there is something darker and more desperate going on beneath the suave survace: the revelation that he can’t die anymore – and though I was unspoiled, I guessed something of the sort in the teaser of Everything Changes because of the way he posed his “what did you see when you died?” question, which was neat – and the way he reacts when Carys/the Alien picks up that severed hand to blackmail him with. BTW, this is the one situation where Who viewers really have the advantage. Fits that Torchwood would keep the Doctor’s hand from The Christmas Invasion, but why does it mean so much to Jack? Because it’s a symbol of his lost past, because he means to use it to track down the Doctor or because he means to use it in another way? Hmmm. Anyway, showing him actually letting the Alien go in order to keep it instead of doing the hero thing and saying “no way” was an unexpected and gratifying twist.

As mentioned before, the concept of the Alien (well, demon in the other case) killing via sex is used in Lonely Hearts as well, but here the emphasis is on Carys and her plight as the unwilling host, and Gwen’s determination to save her. The Torchwood team’s approach – they’re interested in stopping the Alien – is juxtaposed to this, and though I’m a bit wary of the idea of a female character bringing in the compassion and plight of the individual, the fact the Torchwoodians already had female team members – with one of the original ones being revealed as the villain of the first ep – prevents this from looking a bit gender-clichéd.

Irreverent side note: will we get same-sex snoggings every episode? This isn’t a complaint, mind. In Everything Changes, Owen’s way of getting out of the angry boyfriend situation by making the angry boyfriend go for him as well was a neat twist, and in Day One, the Gwen/Carys make-out contributed to the storyline. (Oh, and dealt with what was a complaint in an Enterprise episode I recall: to wit, if Orion slave girls have pheremones inducing instead sexual attraction, how come all the female crew members are immune? Clearly, RTD does not believe in default straightness.)

Sidenote two: I do hope Gwen’s boyfriend isn’t either a redshirt or suffering the fate of Mickey in the sense that he’ll be dumped for the exciting life of adventure and/or used as a safety cushion from same.

So, a good start, and I’m looking forward to more!

Comments

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Owen’s way of getting out of the angry boyfriend situation by making the angry boyfriend go for him as well was a neat twist,

It was, except for the whole bit about it being rape on two counts.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Seconded. I want to see Owen jam.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

See reply to ide_cyan for the matter.

Re: jam: don't think you'll get your wish any time soon, though it might be at the end of the season or the next. He strikes me as related to the character in Cracker who was around for two solid seasons as a jerk before raping Penhalligon and committing suicide.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It would have been rape if Owen hadn't taken a taxi. Mind you, that doesn't mean what Owen intended to do to the girl wasn't (though he's probably kidding himself about that one): what I meant with "neat twist" wasn't "go, Owen" but "go, script for not doing the obvious and copying BTVS by making love-crazed women pursuing Owen, with him thereby learning his lesson".

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

You thought he was taking the taxi alone?!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. As he gave every intention of looking for a quick getaway.

Incidentally, current Owen speculation: given this, and his behaviour in the next ep, I'm wondering whether he'll end up like the character on Cracker whose name I forgot who was a regular as well and ultimately did make the step from being a verbal jerk to being an active rapist and finally committed suicide...

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. As he gave every intention of looking for a quick getaway.

Hmm, I don't think that's an interpretation I've seen. That's interesting, I'll think about it. I'm not sure I agree it's what was intended, though.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

That's interesting, because it was the only interpretation that occurred to me. Possibly my thoughts were conditioned by the knowledge that this was the BBC doing genre, and the accompanying expectation that if a character tried to do something that bad, he would either fail to carry it out or be punished, or both; since he wasn't punished, I assumed he failed to carry it out.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I think the interpretation others are seeing is that, since he appears to have carried it out (he does look still into it in the final shots of the scene, rather than put off his game) and wasn't punished, the show is trying to tell us that using date rape drugs isn't really doing something bad. (Which, given the recent fuss in the UK over that case where the judge ruled that chemically-impaired consent was full consent and the polls showing large percentages of the population agreed that non-violent rape wasn't rape, is very topical; I can see where that interpretation comes from.)

Me, I don't necessarily have the expectation that doing bad things will be punished, at least not right away. It might come into play down the line, as he's clearly heading for some sort of reckoning. So I don't mind, except to the extent that Owen and Suzie were treated very differently for committing crimes against the person, particularly when Owen's offense was set up as a joke about bisexual snogging, and Suzie's had the dramatic potential to bring out the contradictions within Torchwood over the long run - whether they're helping the way they think or are the criminals themselves is a much bigger issue, and much more part of the show's theme, than whether or not they're bisexual.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Yeah - there seem to be two opposite interpretations of this scene floating around:

(a) Owen sprays the guy because he's bisexual and wouldn't mind shagging both of the couple, yells for a cab, and goes home with the couple so he can shag both of them despite the fact that he's drugged them into acquiescence. (Owen is a bisexual drug-rapist.)

(b) Owen sprays himself in desperation so he doesn't get beaten up, is horrified to be kissed by the man, grabs a cab and flees alone. (Owen is a heterosexual would-be drug-rapist who got a mild comeuppance.)

A lot of people seem to be hoping that (b) was intended to be implied by the writing, but I think that the acting and direction slearly implies (a). To me, Owen's expression when the guy kissed him was "Yay, I am an Unstoppable Sex Machine!".

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I really must rewatch that scene, because a) never occured to me - I thought he looked panicked. Again, must rewatch now to check.

In either case? Owen exhibited every intention of date rape, and was not stopped by the realization of what he was doing but (if he was) by outward circumstances.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I had completely the opposite reaction - I immediately assumed (a) and was really surprised when I saw people on the internet who interpreted it the other way. Although I suspect that this was because of RTD's public comments in the media along the lines of "Watch Torchwood! Everyone's going to be of ambiguous sexual orientation and shagging like bunnies!"

If we accept that Owen is a bisexual rapist, it's actually mildly progressive if the series doesn't endorse these actions, in that we have a series where there are enough non-straight people that one of them being a scumbag doesn't reflect on the bisexual or gay in general.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's any panic. There's bravado, until he decides to use the spray, at which point he looks rather smug (he even smiles at the boyfriend as a bit of a come-on). I think he didn't intend to have to deal with the boyfriend or threats of violence, and he seems to think it's a concession to the circumstances to pick up men - it's clearly not quite his thing. But he doesn't seem to be doing it with distaste or resignation or any sort of desire to get away; once he makes the decision to do it, he seems enthusiastic about it. He's enjoying the attention, and smiling as the girl says she'll have him first.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

To me, Owen's expression when the guy kissed him was "Yay, I am an Unstoppable Sex Machine!".

That's definitely how I saw it. I thought Owen's expression was very "Oh, the hotness of me!" I don't think he seemed upset by the kiss at all.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Which makes me suddenly afraid that Gwen will be a great character for about two seasons and then will have a phase of Sainthood and Championness during which she’ll have an unbelievable not quite love affair with Jack and be utterly obsessed with him to the detriment of all her other relationships

Just a tad like Rose, then? :)

though I’m a bit wary of the idea of a female character bringing in the compassion and plight of the individual, the fact the Torchwoodians already had female team members – with one of the original ones being revealed as the villain of the first ep – prevents this from looking a bit gender-clichéd

I'm not sure I go with the fact that they had female team members preventing it from being a gender cliche, perhaps largely because of Suzie. The one female team-member we see developed is also on a mission of compassion and the plight of the individual, and, when she realizes she's gone off the rails, she kills herself, which is a big gender-based difference, when compared to the treatment of the other Torchwood team-member who uses alien technology to commit major crimes-against-the-person among the general population, and simply gets off looking a bit roguish. So not only is compassion the role for women, but they are instantly destroyed if they fail in it (echoes of Harriet Jones), while men get more of a redemption arc or sanction. I'm a little uncomfortable with the strongly proscribed gender roles for women and the heavy penalties for straying from them.

I think that if Torchwood had truly been going for gritty post-watershed TV, they'd have said, "Yeah, we have a murderer and a rapist on the team, and, you know what, they're staying on the team, while we deal with both the consequences of their actions, on them individually and on the group, and the fact that they're doing irreplaceable work for the greater good."

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I think that if Torchwood had truly been going for gritty post-watershed TV, they'd have said, "Yeah, we have a murderer and a rapist on the team, and, you know what, they're staying on the team, while we deal with both the consequences of their actions, on them individually and on the group, and the fact that they're doing irreplaceable work for the greater good."

I'd have loved that. And it'd have meant we'd had three regular female characters, instead of two.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

It'd have been pretty cool, I think. You can show violence and sex, but that's not half so subversive as having to live with it, having to accept it not as something "other" but as part of you, having to let your principles corrupt in order to keep following them.

If they'd kept Suzie, watching the ways it hardened her, weakened her, the fault lines down which she'd crack, it'd have been fascinating. How do you keep getting along with your colleagues once you've killed? What does a guy like Owen do when he has that over her? How on earth does Jack keep discipline? When is Suzie driven by guilt, and when is she driven by the knowledge that she can get away with anything? If she's that infatuated with the glove, what will she do to get her hands on it after it's locked up? When do the other rmembers of Torchwood have to face the question of whether they are working for the good of the Earth or whether they're the criminals? Because that's a huge wakeup call about whether the means justify the ends, about whether you can give up your own humanity to save it in others. And, well, welcome to the theme of Torchwood, you know?

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Oooo, am I glad I downloaded this. Gotta watch it.