30 Days of Torchwood Done At Once

[selenak]

Day 01: Favourite Torchwood Member

Gwen Cooper, as of middle of season 2 onwards. Before that time, I didn't have a favourite in the sense of loving someone best because it took me a while with the affection for the TW team; however, I thought Owen was the most interesting (also played by the best actor in the cast), so in that sense, Owen.

Day 02: Least Favourite Torchwood Member

Ianto Jones. I found him just plain dull in s1. In s2, when the show fleshed him out a bit more, I felt mild stirrings of affection and interest, but nowhere in the degree I started to like and be interested in all the other characters. The radio plays helped that fondness along, but it took Children of Earth for me to feel that I really, genuinenly, liked Ianto. Go figure.

Day 03: Favourite Series

S3, aka Children of Earth. Hands down one of the best things I saw on tv in the last decade, and as Paul Cornell put it, who'd have expected it of dear old Torchwood? If the choice is between s1 and s2 because CoE meant a radical switch of format, then s2, which is one of the most interesting un-jumping of the shark I've seen. I had liked some s1 episodes, but if the show hadn't been a DW spin-off, I probably would not have continued watching after End of Days. Whereas after s2 I definitely wanted more and counted myself as a fan.

Day 04: Favourite Episode

One for each season, can't narrow it down more.

S1 - Out of Time. (Captain Jack Harkness might be the better episode but affection does not always go this way.) Very memorable guest stars, each gets a poignant relationship with a regular that feels real (hooray for great ensemble use!), and the script brings on the funny and the pathos of out-of-timeness in perfect balance. What is a liberation for Emma is a trap for Diane and a horrible loss for John. The scenes where John meets his dementia-addled old son whom he remembers as a boy, and then of the suicide in the car with Jack, who can't die, sitting next to him in silence are infinitely more gut wrenching than the melodrama of the s1 finale. (Also imo if you haven't seen the Jack-in-the-car scene the Doctor's "do you want to die?" question from the DW episode Utopia sounds very different, because DW only watchers would never believe Jack would want to.) On the fun side, Emma and Gwen having The Talk after the sight of Naked Rhys in the morning is hysterical yet also gently tweaking fannish expectations and clichés. (Emma wants Gwen to say that sex with your true love is the only kind that feels good, and Gwen, imo not just because at that point of the show she's having an illicit affair, doesn't think so.)

S2 - Really hard to choose. To The Last Man is arguably the best Tosh episode and does that gut wrenching out of time thing again, not to mention the poignant WWI thing, Reset not only brings Martha Jones to the show but also is great with the ensemble use, giving everyone great character scenes with and without Martha, Something Borrowed is when I realized I loved Gwen and arguably the best "comedy" episode TW did. But despite loving all of them dearly, my choice, since I have to, is A Day in the Death, not only because it's the culmination of Owen's mini arc but also because Joseph Lidster, who wites for the DW Big Finish audios and for SJA as well and has something of a preoccupation with death, as well as framing narrations and unreliable narrators, finds a great way to balance darkness with a spark of hope and come up with a reply to "why continue living?" that feels true to the people involved.

S3 - Even harder to choose because they're five parts of a whole. Picking one almost feels arbitrary. I'll go with Day One because it accomplishes the following considerable feats: 1) Set up both the MacGuffin (the threat of the 451) and the actual menace (human reaction under pressure, especially but not limited to institutions), 2) re-introduce the TW team in a way that doesn't feel boring to old watchers yet tells new watchers exactly who these people are, 3) introduce a whole new cast of characters as well, and make the audience care about them as much as for the regulars without having anything like the same amount of time - no time for misfired episodes and try-outs here, 4) Feeling like an hour of great drama instead of exposition after exposition. And you know what? Day One accomplished all of that. Next time you call RTD a hack, try pulling this off yourselves.


Day 05: Least Favourite Episode:

Errr. Oh, the choices. In another way. Despite stern competition, it's Cyberwoman in s1, which I loathe from the first gratitious sight of Lisa in her sexualized Cyber costume onwards. Also while JB in s1 has the dubious honor of being both the lead and the weakest actor (or rather, let me qualify this: give him the right material, as the earlier mentioned car scene, and he can do serious as well as his pre-TW charming rogue persona, but s1 more often brings out his inner ham), Gareth D-L isn't good enough to rise above the Cyberwoman script, either. This was the first episode in which Ianto had more to do than mutter the occasional "glad to serve, sir", and let's just say I saw these scenes exactly once without the desire to ever see them again. Lastly, while all TW members screw up on a regular basis, Ianto risking Cyber-fication of the world sets some sort of record. (Well, until Owen opens the riff in the s1 finale, that is.)

S2: From out of the Rain was dull, Fragments had one good flashback segment (the Jack scenes), one infuriating one (the Tosh scenes, because of the Evil UNIT portrayal) and one which was just over the top melodrama (the Owen one - though I did like him decking Jack when he sees him again in the cemetary), but I think my choice is Exit Wounds. Which in its favour has the very affecting dying scenes of Tosh and Owen, plus Rhys and Andy fanboying Gwen... and against it pretty much everything else. The entire Gray storyline throughout the season felt like a very inferior remake of the Connor storyline on Angel, without a talented Vincent Kartheiser in sight, and managed to miss a crucial point of the Connor and Holtz tale at that - Holtz actually has a good reason to hate Angel, and Angel knows it. Jack not holding on to his brother's hand really doesn't work that way. And let's not even get into how surviving two millennia underground bouncing right back snaps any suspension of disbelief. I suppose the most which can be said about the Gray plot is that it demonstrated to everyone involved how NOT to do family members of the regulars, especially of Jack's, and thus they knew what to avoid and came up with the splendid Alice and Rhiannon (and Johnny, and Steven) on Children of Earth.


Day 06: Something You Liked That Most People Didn't

For the most part I stay way from TW fandom except for a few individuals because when I periodically don't, I'm always reminded why staying away is the saner option. So I have no idea whether "most people" didn't like this, but: Ghost Machine in early s1 was the episode that got me interested in Owen, and Gareth Thomas, aka Blake from Blake's 7, gives an excellent guest performance there.


Day 07: Favourite Alien/Villain:

The poor martyred space whale in Meat for "alien"; the 451 were great for what they were intended to be (see above for mcguffin and true threat); but for " favourite villain", I just have to nominate the very human Denise Riley in Children of Earth. She's the one who in arguably the most chilling scene of CoE comes up with the selection criteria. She's also the only person who doesn't use the euphemism "units" afterwards but continues to say "children", and political survivor enough to immediately hone on Bridget's gambit to bring down the PM when it's all over. That's what I call a three dimensional villain. Denise Riley isn't likeable, she's not a larger than life over the top fun villain or "cool"; she's definitely not the worst person in that cabinet. (PM Green, raise your hand.) But she is the ruthless voice that speaks the unspeakable, and you know she's in every goverment of the planet.



Day 08: Favourite Minor Character: Does Alice Carter count or is she too important to be minor? If the later, then my choice is Kathy Swanson. Her scenes on the phone with Jack in "They Keep Killing Suzy" in s1 (you know, when she's enjoying every moment of the TW team having locked themselves in their own base) have forever endeared her to me.

Day 09: A Scene That Made You Cry: the last Tosh and Owen conversations from Exit Wounds. They'd never have made it as a couple - Owen was too messed up, and Tosh too forgiving - and the scenes play it just right, no last minute "I love you" from Owen but instead that stopping to rage when she asks him to, and their talk about that day she covered for him in London (best retcon of double casting ever) is infinitely more poignant.

Day 10: A Scene That Made You Smile: "Bloody Torchwood" from the little old lady in the s2 opener will never get old.

Day 11: A Scene That Made You Angry: Ianto goofing around in the torture interrogation chair in Sleeper would do the trick.

Day 12: Favourite Quote: I did mention "Bloody Torchwood", didn't I?

Day 13: Favourite Promo Picture: Don't have one.

Day 14: Favourite Couple: Gwen and Rhys. One of the best ongoing m/f relationships. They're not perfect. (No, people, Rhys isn't, either; watch Adrift.) They have their ups and downs. Their arguments are as blistering as the affection between them is tender. But you know, they're a couple who actually learn from their mistakes. I can't tell you how often I've come across declarations that hating Gwen wasn't because of Jack/Ianto but "because of the way she treats Rhys". By which the people in question usually mean Combat in season 1 (specifically Gwen using retcon on Rhys while confessing her affair), which is quoted as the unforgivable Gwen deed and treated as the defining moment as if nothing before or after ever happened. Not only does this ignore both the narrative and Gwen herself are very clear on this being the wrong thing to do (Gwen isn't "rewarded" for her misdeed, she doesn't get the forgiveness she asked for, and she's very aware that she just hit moral rock bottom, as can be seen by her solo scene afterwards), but it completely ignores she draws consequences from this. In s2 when Jack orders her to retcon Rhys, she refuses and puts her own memories on the line for Rhys. The s1 affair was partly caused by the double life Gwen led, and the secrets; in s2 after Rhys finds out for good (and does not get retconned, see above) about Torchwood she shares what troubles her with him. As a result, their relationship becomes stronger and by the time they go on the run together in s3, they have each other's back completely. In the short cameo Gwen has in the DW s4 finale The Stolen Earth/ Journey's End, her first reaction is to make sure Rhys is alive and (relatively) safe via phone, something RTD didn't have to include (God knows that DW two parter has a HUUUUUUUGE ensemble) if the Gwen/Rhys relationship weren't that important in their story. Throughout all three seasons, from the s1 pilot onwards, we see Gwen and Rhys laugh and tease each other on a regular basis. When Gwen has lost her memory of Rhys in "Adam", that shared ability to joke is the first thing that comes back. For his part, Rhys finds Gwen infuriating on occasion (he doesn't see her as some ideal without flaws) but also throughout the show is devoted to her and plainly loves it when she takes charge. Nobody expected him to make it out of the first season alive (pilot boyfriends of female leads usually have a death warrant on them), or if he did, people expected him to be discarded a l a Mickey. Neither happened. I don't go from approving to actively shipping very often, but I did with Gwen and Rhys. Go Team Wales!


Day 15: Favourite Couple Scene: "Well, you need your trigger finger free!" competes but loses to the potato truck en route to London, Gwen signalling she's pregnant and Rhys teasing her with first names.

Day 16: Favourite Piece of Music: Owen has a gorgeous theme of his own in the Dead Man Walking mini arc.

Day 17: Something You’d Like To Re-write: Despite fierce competition, Exit Wounds and the entire Gray arc wins.

Day 18: Character You Relate To The Most: Alice, for a variety of personal reasons.

Day 19: Favourite Outfit: Gwen's leather jacket and jeans combo is one of the more sensible yet stylish combos of tv heroines I've seen.

Day 20: Favourite Gwen Moment: can't make up my mind between two: in terms of physical action, the escape sequence at the start of Day Two, where Gwen despite being in shock figures out she's not dealing with a normal ambulance, frees herself, gets Rhys (complete with yelling about the keys), and rounds of her escape by doing what I always wonder why not more action heroes do it - shooting the wheels of the car pursuing her. (Johnson's, as it happens.) I love it not only because it showcases Gwen's Torchwood-grown agent skills but because it's full of personal moments - the fact she doesn't kill the people trying to kill her BUT finds ways of incapacitating them, that she gets Rhys, that he thinks of carrying the back... But that's one entire sequence. Single scene wise, perhaps Gwen persuading Lois to wear the Torchwood contact lenses and spy for them in Day Three. Lois in some ways is who Gwen used to be (and yet also different), and Gwen knows that, she has compassion for Lois but she also has steel because she needs Lois to help her, and she's not going to let her walk away without those lenses. It's a very Mature Gwen moment, that scene.

Day 21: Favourite Ianto Moment: coming out to Rhiannon in Day One. If the teaser to Something Borrowed was my "omg I love Gwen when did this happen?" moment, the coming out in the kitchen scene with Ianto and Rhiannon was my "aw, siblings, that's so real, aw, Ianto - hold on - did I just think "aw" and "Ianto"? ZOMG I like him, at last!" moment. He's such a mixture between awkward and fond in that scene.

Day 22: Favourite Jack Moment:: near the end of Day Two: Jack Harkness, newly liberated from a block of concrete, facing his team in the nude, gets a coat from Rhys and promptly puts said coat across his shoulders instead of getting into it, walking away still naked. It's just so Jack. (In terms of heartbreak, of course, there is that last silent look between him and Alice in Day Five, but that's not a "favourite" moment in the sense that you can watch it very often.) "Did you miss me?" from the s2 opener is a close contender, too, because it's Jack both avoiding the annoyance of explaining himself and putting on the charm instead, AND Jack being sincere - after all, he figured out during The Year That Wasn't that he actually did like these people enough to be rather with them than on the TARDIS.

Day 23: Favourite Owen Moment: the conversation with Maggie in Day in the Death which frames the flashbacks, capturing both the cutting sarcasm and the genuine desire stop this woman from dying that are bookends of Owen's character.

Day 24: Favourite Toshiko Moment: her pre-recorded farewell message to the team from Exit Wounds. That smile. Oh, Tosh.

Day 25: Shag/Cliff/Marry? Men: Cliff Jack (he'll survive it, after all), shag Owen, marry Rhys. (Especially since he comes as a package with Gwen.)

Day 26: A Torchwood Geek Moment You’ve Had: What's Gwen doing in Camelot? (When seeing the Merlin pilot.)

Day 27: Favourite Location Or Set: I grew comfortable with the Hub, not not in the way I loved other show's locations like Moya, the Enterprise or the TARDIS. Torchwood made Cardiff look gorgeous, but I had no problem with the London transition in Children of Earth. So - can't say I have one? Or Roald Dahl Plaza, because putting the Hub there was a wonderfully cracky idea?

Day 28: Where You Think The Series Should Continue To: I'd have been fine with CoE as the ending because it's so good, but a year of thinking about it and hearing interesting tidbits have made me anticipate the next chapter as well. My dream season 4 TW would have been a Gwen-led team including Lois, Agent Johnson and Bridget, with Alice through some plot device occasionally drawn in, but I didn't seriously expect that to happen. So: I hope for interesting new characters, Gwen and Rhys continuing to be strong, and a Jack who tries his best not to repeat the past, and somehow to deal with it. Also for some insanity, for that is TW as well.

Day 29: Best Torchwood on Doctor Who Moment: Harriet Jones tells Jack to get it together. He knows who she is.

Day 30: Why You Love Torchwood: At its best, it can be moving, funny, one moment crazy and the next incredibly relevant and sometimes both.