Torchwood 2.03 To the Last Man

[selenak]

Helen Gaynor seems to be the one scriptwriter who does better on Torchwood than she does on Doctor Who. Last season's The Ghost Machine impressed me, while on the other hand her Dalek episodes were the nadir of an otherwise very good season 3/29 of DW. To the Last Man is excellent.



Given all the debates about how differently Americans and British viewers watch the show from last week, I couldn't help but think that WWI as an emotional touchstone is something very European, too; as far as I can tell, it simply doesn't have the same kind of presence in consciousness on the other side of the Atlantic. While Paul Cornell's Human Nature/Family of Blood two-parter remains untouched, I thought To the Last Man used it really well. The McGuffin of a WWI soldier frozen in cyrogenic sleep and woken up one day a year could have been a simple repeat of last year's Out of Time guest stars, but they used the fact Tommy did have those days in between his past and the present for a very pointed and poignant comment - the sequence where he watches the news on the tv in the pub, the Iraq War news clip, and comments that they told the soldiers in WWI this was "the war to end all wars"... and thirty days, for him, there was a new World War, and so on, and so forth. Are we as a species worth saving, he asks Tosh, and Tosh says yes. At the end of the episode she still says yes, though more bitterly; battle-hardened. I appreciated that they used the shell-shock for something other than explaining Tommy's presence in the hospital - bringing in the fate of those soldiers shot for "cowardice" was gutwrenching, and yet another counterpoint to yet another ep from last season, Captain Jack Harkness. Real Jack dies, like Tommy does, a few days after the farewell, but his airplane is shot down by the enemies he's fighting. Tommy is killed by his own people. And the obvious parallel: Torchwood 2008, too, sends him to his death deliberately, including Tosh, because they have no choice.

I've seen complaints that Owen's sympathy for Tosh comes out of nowhere, but given that he had a very similar experience with Diane the aviator last season, I found it plausible he would empathize with Tosh. The Diane encounter, the suicidal stint in Combat and being nearly responsible for yet another apocalypse by opening the rift are enough life-changing experiences to turn another page, and while he's still capable of being a git (see landing Gwen with the night watch in the hospital last episode), Owen hasn't behaved viciously to someone this season so far, and the occasional moment of empathy (there was one in the season opener, too, when he asked Jack after Jack said "I found my doctor" "And did he fix you?") with his co-workers appear to be another part of this turning-a-new-page.

Speaking of relationships, the conversation between Jack and Ianto was the first time I felt a genuine emotional connection between them. My problem with the Jack/Ianto 'ship has always been that it went with nearly no transition from "OMG MY GIRLFRIEND IS DEAD AND YOU KILLED HER" to "Coffee, tea, or me, sir?", but this season they take the trouble to actually show us moments of Jack and Ianto connecting beyond innuendo and kissing. Ianto's awareness that Jack, too, is out of his time and the question he asks Jack impressed me far more about the reality of them dating than the ensuing kiss.

Lastly: Old School Torchwood was love. And of course the name "Harriet" made me think of - no, not of Harriet Jones, oddly enough, but of Lord Peter Wimsey's significant other. WWI and 20s fanfic would be fun. Since it's been announced we'll get an Agatha Christie episode in s4 of DW, and since Sarah Jane and the kids encountered an old lady who with her husband went through adventures involving aliens and mysteries in the 20s, too, I wonder whether there'll be an overall connection...

Comments

[mymatedave.livejournal.com]

one of my favourite things about your LJ, apart from the great fic, are your episode reviews. They're always so insightful and much more than "OMG!!! I loves this ep!!!"

Keep up the good work.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and I'll try my best...

[kathyh]

Excellent review as ever and I boringly agree with you on everything.

WWI and 20s fanfic would be fun.

It really would. Interestingly enough Lord Peter Wimsey was a shell-shocked WWI soldier so the crossover potential is rather fascinating.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Did he ever visit Cardiff in the novels?

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I don't think we ever saw him in Wales. Scotland, yes.

[kathyh]

Scotland, the Fens, Devon (I think) and Oxford, but not Cardiff unfortunately.

[elisi]

Wonderful thoughts, echoing a lot of what I've been thinking, but not got round to writing down. Thank you. :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[thesecondevil]

WWI stories always seem to have a stronger emotional impact than ones about WWII I'm not entirely sure why. Something to think on I guess.

Jack/Ianto came right out of the blue last year but I tend to explain that away with them purely indulging in a sexual relationship whereas as you say 'To The Last Man' actually begins to convince me that they have a personal connection.

I was hoping we'd see more of Old School Torchwood and I was also sort of expecting Jack to appear in the past but I can't remember when he actually joined Torchwood and I guess his presence in the past would have complicated the plot unnecessarily.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I can't remember when he actually joined Torchwood and I guess his presence in the past would have complicated the plot unnecessarily.

I don't think they told us just when he joined yet; in the timeline he gave the Doctor in Utopia, he only mentions when he realized he was immortal and a few of the places he was, but doesn't say anything about Torchwood specifically until he gets the message and then it's "it's different now, I remade it, in your honour", not when he joined the 1.1 version.

WWI versus WWII stories - of course it always depends on the stories, but generally I think it might be because the WWII ones can't always resist the opportunity to do a bit of backpatting (see the "one damp little island" speech in The Doctor Dances), which is why my favourite DW story in a WWII setting is the extraordinary Curse of Fenric (Seventh Doctor era) which avoids all those clichés. But generally, yes, WWI ones.

[thesecondevil]

I don't think they told us just when he joined yet

I was reasonably sure they hadn't but I didn't know whether it had been mentioned on the Torchwood website or not and so I didn't want to make a definitive statement one way or the other.

I think it might be because the WWII ones can't always resist the opportunity to do a bit of backpatting

True enough. There's also a tendency to oversimplify things with WWII stories which is one of the reasons I like Curse of Fenric because the references to Dresden and Millington's plan to deal with the Russians present a far more shady side to British foreign policy than is typically presented.

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, that icon looks familiar *g*.

I agree, Owen's sympathy did not seem to come from nowhere. He was definitely drawing on his experience with Diane, which definitely changed him last season.

I liked the kiss better than the conversation, actually, although I thought it was a fitting cap to it. They both put so much into it, Jack overcoming his reluctance to love anyone when he'll outlive them all, and Ianto just throwing himself into it head first, damn the torpedos. I think he'll get his heartbroken, but he's not holding anything back.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering whether or not to get a TW icon for eons, but when I saw the ones you put up, I finally couldn't resist anymore!

Jack overcoming his reluctance to love anyone when he'll outlive them all

This is where it's interesting how one sees Jack differently when having watched DW entirely. Because well, Jack does love the Doctor (and Rose while she's still around) and is pretty open about it. Admittedly the Doctor is a slightly different case because he's a) extremely long lived, though not immortal and b) a time traveller. (Rose was not, but Jack loved her before becoming immortal.) But still, having seen Jack's behaviour there it never occured to me he has a problem committing emotionally beyond casual sex, not when he does so in a case where there are an incredible lot of issues. Even using TW canon only, it's pretty clear his relationship with Estelle was a romantic as well as a sexual one, and Estelle certainly qualifies as normal, aging and human just as Ianto. However, where I agree with you is that he might have been reluctant to love one of his team/Ianto specifically, going beyond sone fondness and casual office sex with him, and is willing to do so now.

Ianto just throwing himself into it head first, damn the torpedos. I think he'll get his heartbroken, but he's not holding anything back.

That's true. And I'd say it depends on what he expects. There is no way Jack will ever live monogamously, both for Doylist and Watsonian reasons. (One of the defining characteristics is his omnisexuality, after all.) Or even make Ianto the only person he loves in the emotional sense while also having sex with others. Or prioritize Ianto above anyone else he loves. And Ianto comes from a different culture than our 51st century man, he is socially conditioned to want an exclusive relationship.

On the other hand, it doesn't have to end in a big dramatic breakup eventually, and I don't think it will be necessarily Jack who ends the "dating" part of their relationship. I could actually see them drift apart amiably, especially if Ianto finds someone else.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

The WWI stories do seem to have different impacts - the Australian experience is very similar to the British, I think, though as a much younger country. I saw a number of Americans say that the war memorial scene at the end of "Family of Blood" was glorifying war, which I couldn't see in the slightest.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Me neither. There is a difference between remembering the dead and glorifying war, and WWI ceremonies to me always carry a sense of sadness and loss with them that precludes the later. Of course there was a note of hope in this particular scene, too, but that came because we saw that Latimer had lived into a very old age against the odds, had had a life and a family, and he got to see the Doctor and Martha again for a moment.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I confess I was uneasy with the Remembrance Day scene, even though I always attend Remembrance Day myself. Maybe because it was all red poppies and no white ones, though I know the white aren't common. (Now, the memorial service in Battlefield was interesting!)

And I thought Eccleston's speech about Britain in the Second World War was the one false note in that story.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

What do you think about Miles's and Wood's contention in one of the "About Time" volumes that the speech was aimed at getting the wartime atmosphere across to modern US/UK yoof who think that WWII was a foregone conclusion and Hitler was a pathetic loony?

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. Though didn't Rose tip off Nancy that it was OK, they were going to win, which would have the same effect of signalling that it was in doubt? I'm not sure, I haven't seen it recently.

The line I do love is "Don't forget the welfare state!" That's my Doctor.