Meta: Children of Earth Rewatch (1/2)
My promised post about Torchwood series three, Children of Earth! There is a lot of stuff that I wanted to talk about here, so I decided to break it down a bit so that it's more manageable. First, I'm going to talk about it as a whole, and then I'm going to focus on each episode a little bit. Then, a few criticisms of the series. And since I wrote a lot of papers in college, I'll probably have a conclusion of some sort at the end. I don't know how to end something this long without one, lol.
I was planning on adding a section to this about RTD and his, frankly, inexcusable behavior and treatment of fans post Children of Earth, but this is already so long, so I think I'll save that for later. A few weeks ago, I bought a copy of his book, "The Writer's Tale" (I just want to know everything about Doctor Who, okay?! I can't help it! Besides, I had a 50% off coupon for Borders that made it super cheap, so I don't feel as bad giving him money as I normally would), which is basically a ridiculously long series of emails he exchanged with Ben Cook, a journalist who has (among other things) written for Doctor Who magazine. It started out intending to be an article for said magazine about series four of Doctor Who, but since Russell writes emails that are even longer than mine, it ended up being a ridiculous doorstop of a book. I was shocked at how long it is when I got it. And the print is teeny tiny. So far, it is pretty amazing. I find Russell much more palatable here, maybe because he's just corresponding with a friend, I don't know. But it's really good so far (I had to pace myself so I didn't read it all as soon as I got it, to give you an idea), and I will probably post about it once I've finished. I've heard he talks extensively in later chapters about CoE, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say in light of the interviews he gave after it came out.
So anyway, on to the CoE talk! And of course this ended up being so long that I had to split it into two parts, oh god. So, this post is the whole series and Days 1-3. Part Two (linked at the bottom) is Days 4-5 and my criticisms. And I've read this over in bits about five thousand times, but if there are any ridiculous factual errors or things that don't make sense, let me know!
The Series As A Whole
I was going to start out talking about the overall plot, but as I was writing this, I realized that anything I wanted to say about the overall plot was either related to specific moments in the various episodes, or a criticism of a major plot point, so this section ended up being about the role of CoE within Torchwood S1-3, and my overall feelings about it, both as itself and as a series of Torchwood.
Like I said, I haven't finished "The Writer's Tale" yet, but I've heard that there are a lot of details about CoE in there, including, among other things, how the plot came about. Which is to say it wasn't originally conceived as a Torchwood story. Completely unsurprisingly. When you look at the overall story, it kind of feels like a really interesting political intrigue piece with aliens, with the Torchwood characters shoehorned in. There is a lot of discussion about the plot of CoE being extremely similar to the plot of The Quatermass Conclusion, a serial produced for British TV in the 1970s. Now, I haven't seen this, so I can't say for sure how similar it is or isn't, but from some of the comments I've read, and from reading the wikipedia article, the similarities are definitely there. For all I know, RTD used this idea as the basis for CoE (maybe I'll find out in the book). Whatever the case, this would go a long way to explaining why the Torchwood elements of the plot seem a bit shoehorned in. It's almost as though RTD wrote a Quatermass AU with his own characters.
Not to say that the plot feels ripped off, or that they did a terrible job of integrating the Torchwood elements, but it could have been handled much better, and it doesn't have the same (or even a similar) feel as the previous two seasons, which I know was one of the criticisms a lot of fans had about it at the time. And one I can definitely agree with. I don't find the tone or the scope of CoE to be a problem, but I do think it would have been a lot more palatable for a lot more people if there had been another series three, one than transitioned between what was going on post "Exit Wounds" and allowed the team to rebuild a bit, mourn Tosh and Owen, allow for things to go wider in scope, whether we're talking more global, or just focusing a bit on new side characters (in the way Ianto and Jack's families were introduced here). This would make CoE series four.
Yeah, I know there were a bunch of tie in novels and four radio plays set between series two and CoE (and as of next week, three more radio plays!), but those are ancillary materials that weren't referenced on the show, and tend to be debated over with regards to their canonicity.
I mostly would have wanted another series because I enjoyed the format of the first two series, even if the execution wasn't always great (lol, that's putting it mildly). But clearly Russell had this big plan of getting the show on BBC1 now now now, and the only way they could do that was to do a five episode series. Why he couldn't have just been happy with BBC2 for another year, IDK, but what's done is done, right? Although, there is so much time to explore between series two and CoE, and it makes me sad that I will probably never get to see all (or even most) of it.
All that being said, I really like Children of Earth. It's great writing, solid acting, well done special effects, nice creature designs (Millennium Effects, FTW!), and a pretty good story. There are some plot holes, sure, but when aren't there? Most of my criticism of the series revolves around places where I found the writing to be shoddy, which caused the characters to come off as kind of moronic. I will deal with all of those later.
CoE is not a series I will ever watch a lot, simply because it's a major time (and emotional) commitment to do so. With S1-2, you can easily watch one episode here and there (witness my too many watchings of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"), but if I were to watch one episode of CoE, it would just make me want to watch the next one, and the next, etc. I could watch select scenes, sure, but that wouldn't allow me to be lazy and lay on my couch. I'd have to actually watch it on the computer, and skip around, and that's more effort than I want to make most times. Also, it's kind of painful to watch.
First time I watched it, I did the whole thing as a marathon. Never again. I had been spoiled for some facets of the story (either accidentally, through fic I read during the month when I was telling myself I wasn't going to watch CoE [I took a break from Torchwood due to "Exit Wounds"-related sadness], or via the whole internet freaking out about Day Four/those interviews Russell gave that made me, as a non fan, want to punch him in the face). But I didn't know everything, and a combination of not getting a break to decompress between episodes, and the tough subject matter, pretty much ended up with me in a ball on the couch sobbing through almost all of Day Four, and part of Day Five. Don't make the same mistake as I did! That much crying all at once is not healthy for you.
This time, with a day (or half a day, as was the case with two of the episodes, since I wanted to get it all done yesterday to give me a day to polish this monster) in between, and the knowledge of what was going to happen, it was a lot easier to handle. In fact, the only crying I did was some at the end of Day Four, and a bit during Day Five, and I'm positive that was because I had time to rest in between.
That being said, it's an incredible piece of storytelling, and absolutely worth watching. Not without its faults, but they're greatly outweighed by its strengths. I think it's one of those things that you can easily come up with problems with the execution of the story, etc. when you think about it, but while you're watching it, you're just drawn right in and too caught up in it to notice its faults.
***
And now we go day by day! This skips over a lot of stuff, since most of it was written almost immediately after I finished each episode, and there were just things that didn't jump out at me as needing to be talked about right then. Needless to say, most of this is not in the order it aired in the episode, just in the order I thought of it/the order it made most sense.
Day One
Okay, seriously, Euros Lyn should direct every episode of Torchwood ever. He has this knack of taking locations and sets we have a lot of familiarity with, and finding a way to make them fresh. Great lighting and interesting new angles make this feel like an entirely new show. The Hub has never looked more gorgeous than it did in this episode. And Cardiff! Rawr. The show felt so much more cinematic, too. It's been shot and broadcast in HD all the time, but I feel like they're using the format to greater effect here. Maybe it's just that I didn't see the 720p versions of S1-2, but I think the visual quality has jumped way up.
Great use of color with the groups of children on the playgrounds; in the reds and blues of their uniforms, they really stood out from the greens and browns of the backgrounds. The dynamic camera work, combined with the utter stillness of the children made these fairly idyllic locations feel super eerie. I will just be over here admiring all of the technical aspects of this series as a film student. Careful, or I might bust out with a discussion about the mise en scene. Okay, no I won't, but I feel like I could with this series. And I'm loving every minute of it.
I like the way the children plot is introduced, too, with the flashback to 1965, and the children in the streets and in people's homes acting strangely (which allows an introduction of our main characters, both new and old, at the same time). Whatever criticisms you have of this series, the stuff with the kids is really effective. And just the right amount of creepiness, not at all overdone or cheesy, but frankly pretty damn terrifying.
Specifically, Day One is all about taking the things that make Torchwood Torchwood, and keep Torchwood safe (the Hub, the SUV, even Jack to some extent), and ripping them away from the team, destroying those things, and forcing the team to have to go on the run. The story overall is very different than those told in the first two series: much more epic in scope, and other non-Torchwood characters have massive blocks of time devoted to their stories. I do like this change, overall, but I miss the team! I was glad to get to see a lot of them in this episode, though, before everything goes to hell. And that little nod to Tosh and Owen totally made my heart sing!
John Barrowman is still hammy as ever at times, but he has some great moments of real subtlety. In that ridic scene in the hospital at the beginning, he really goes for the whole pretending-to-be-a-neighbor-of-the-victim thing, with some excellent faking (on the edge of tears, even!). They've gotten much better at this since that time they pretended Martha was their elderly neighbor in "Reset". Or, at least Jack has, because Ianto is still kind of terrible at it (loling forever at "brave old heart"!). And then that turn on a dime to serious business Torchwood! They've got Tupperware! ♥
I was particularly impressed with the scene between Jack and Alice; there was so much unsaid between them, and a real sense of history and everything Jack regrets about his relationship with her was written all over his face. Some lovely foreshadowing in that conversation as well, including the first mention in the series of the fact that Jack is going to live forever, while everyone he loves will die. Angst about how Alice looks older than he does now, how he'll be standing at her funeral looking the same as he did when he was standing at her mother's. This will become important when I talk about one of my big criticisms of this season. It's a really beautiful scene, though. Lucy Cohu as Alice is some really excellent casting.
Also, hi surprise child! Okay, it's not really a surprise that Jack has a (or possibly more than one, for all we know) child, but what it does is really remind you how much we don't know about Jack. His pre-Doctor past aside, he was on Earth for over a century before we see him again, and we only know the barest minimum about him. I am greedy and want to know it all. Gimme that info, future seasons of the show!
This episode is just chock full of new familial information for all of the characters. Some of my favorite things in this episode are the scenes where we meet Ianto's family. I adore Rhiannon, and despite my initial dislike of Johnny, I grew to love him kind of a lot over the course of the week.
I love pretty much everything about these scenes, not gonna lie. Ianto is all super-awkward in Rhiannon's house, and clearly has no idea how to deal with these children, other than by paying them off (LOLOL forever!), and is terrible at trying to casually get his sister to loan him a kid to experiment on (Jack wasn't great at it either, but at least he acted naturally). I find it so interesting that this is obviously really similar to the environment in which he grew up, but he looks so awkward and out of place. Maybe a little bit of that's Torchwood, though. It fucks you up so much that you don't know how to go back to the way things were before.
I love Rhiannon's attitude here (during their conversation about him and Jack, which I will talk about in a second), when she's trying to find out about Ianto. It doesn't matter to her if he's gay or not, she just wants him to talk to her. Really nice and refreshing.
The development of the Jack/Ianto relationship is really interesting to see here. Clearly, things have progressed since series two, but Ianto is not at a point where he's really comfortable with being viewed as part of a gay couple. At the hospital, he makes it into a joke, and is quick to brush off Jack's query as to whether or not it matters that some stranger thinks they're together. He says it's "all a bit new" to him, although they've clearly been together for more than a year, and whatever they have is obviously something significant. My theory about this is pretty straightforward. I don't think that there's been a lot of opportunity for Ianto to have to deal with his relationship with Jack outside of the world of Torchwood. They spend the majority of their time together, or with Gwen, probably a lot of it in the Hub, or at the very least, investigating one thing or another. Neither of them exactly has time for a social life outside of Torchwood, and so going places as a couple (other than the occasional dinner date) isn't something that they do. This is something private between the two of them, and since they don't have that social interaction, the idea of defining what he has with Jack in terms that make sense to the rest of the world is not something that Ianto has had to consider too hard.
It's also quite possible that part of Ianto is still afraid that Jack's going to leave him one day (whether it's because he gets bored of him, or goes off with the Doctor again), and so doesn't want to put too much pressure on defining their relationship, for fear that he might do something to drive Jack away. Better to keep and be happy with what they have, than to push for too much more and lose it all. Or, maybe it's more like Ianto doesn't want things to be too defined because that makes it more real, and will make it hurt more when it's over. For more on this, I'd recommend listening to this really excellent monologue from 'The Dead Line", the fourth of the radio plays that aired in 2009.
Regardless of what the reason behind it is, Ianto's internal conflict is played really nicely by Gareth David-Lloyd. In the scene in the Hub when Jack is all "I hate the word couple", Ianto does that thing where it's clear he wants so much for Jack to acknowledge that they're a couple, but he doesn't want to want Jack to acknowledge it, because that means he's in it too deep, and is going to get hurt.
Especially in the scenes with Rhiannon. His first reaction is denial, all "lots of people have dinner with members of the same sex" and "he's my boss". Then, once she's gotten him to admit he was on a date, you see it slip, and he confesses that it's "only [Jack]". He tries to brush it off, all "I don't even know what it is", but it's there in his eyes. He's very serious about Jack, and I think he's finally starting to admit that to himself.
But Jack is clearly right there with him. You see it more later in the week, but there's a hint of it at the end of the episode, when the bomb's about to detonate. That's not just fear for an employee, or for a friend. And if he just wanted to get Ianto out of there, he wouldn't have wasted precious seconds on that kiss, what could've been their last. (And poor Ianto, every time he's on that invisible lift, something terrible is happening to someone he loves down below. Cyberman vs. Pterodactyl fights, imminent deaths by explosion. If I were him, I'd be glad I never had to ride that thing again. It's clearly cursed.)
So, basically, I just took entirely too many words to say I like the development of their relationship in series three. I was pretty satisfied with the way it was handled (especially during the relative normalcy of Day One), especially since the show has never even dealt with it as a B-plot before. As much as I would (in general) like an entire episode devoted to it, that is just unrealistic. I'm happy we got anything at all.
Moving on! I guess I should talk some about the minor characters, huh? On the political side, Frobisher is a very interesting character, and Peter Capaldi gives a fantastic performance throughout the entire series. I rarely agreed with any of his choices on Day One (maybe not even throughout most of the series), but he's in such a tough situation, that he's bound to make mistakes. He tries so hard, and obviously cares deeply for his family, and I think his story is probably the most tragic out of all of those in CoE.
I do, however, hate the Prime Minister. Such a slimeball. He does not fill me with any type of confidence with regards to his capability to lead the country in a time of crisis. Pretty much all he seems to be good at is making the wrong decisions and covering his ass. Why isn't he Harriet Jones, dammit?! I'm still mad at Ten for that. And it would have been really interesting to see how she handled this situation. Or any other Whoniverse PM, for that matter. I wonder how the 456 would have found dealings with Harold Saxon?
Rupesh would have been an awesome addition to the team. Too bad he was playing them. I was really hoping that when he asked Jack if they were Torchwood, and Jack said he'd never heard on them, Rupesh would come back with "but it says Torchwood on the side of your car". Worst "secret" organization ever. ♥ Anyway, I love all of the scenes he's in, especially the conversation on the Plass with Gwen. Gwen is the greatest Torchwood recruitment office ever! Profound conversations about how Torchwood makes her feel like her life is bigger and has more meaning, beat history lessons and "the 21st Century is where everything changes" every time. All joking aside, that conversation is a really excellent piece of writing. When RTD is on, he's on.
Overall, this is a solid opener. Nice pacing throughout: introducing the new characters, introducing the threat, giving us info a bit at a time. Loved the intercutting between the bomb in the Hub and the children saying "we are coming back". Super eerie.
I think, though, that my favorite thing about this episode is all of the scenes with the team together. Being competent and awesome at their jobs (with an assist from Rhys!). When they're spying on Rupesh on the Plass and Gwen realizes that this is exactly what they did to her before they hired her. Everything about "we're having a baby". How close they obviously are. I just love this team so damn much, and it breaks my heart that they can't be together forever.
***
Day Two
The pacing in this part is outrageous. This part feels so much shorter than Day One, because so much is happening, and at such a quick clip that you don't have time to pause for breath. That will change tomorrow, thankfully, because I think four more days of this pace might actually kill me.
Day Two is, among other things, all about how amazing Gwen Cooper is! I love the scene where she and Rhys have abandoned their car, and Rhys offers to carry the bag. She gets a bit offended, and of course Rhys is all "you'll want your trigger finger free!". Ugh, I love them so much, you guys! Every single thing about their conversation in the potato lorry is perfect.
I want to say that this is the Gwen we should have had for all three seasons of the show. Well, she is a bit badass to have been this way right off, but once she got used to being Torchwood (stopped saying "can you do that" and started saying "can we do that", for one), I would have loved to see this woman every single week. She's so strong and capable, but not too perfect. You can really see why she's a member of this team. Also, that scene where she shoots out all four tires on Agent Johnson's car? ♥___♥
And let's talk about Ianto again for a minute. First of all, how amazing is his family, seriously? I was not at all keen on Johnny in part one, but I kind of fell in love with him a bit over the rest of the story. His semi-homophobic comment on Day One is pretty much mitigated by the scene where the soldiers come to their house to search for Ianto, and he's all "you're not going to find him in my bed; I'm a married man." Not, you know, "not gay" or anything. Just that he wouldn't cheat on his wife. ♥
And all of the boys on the Cromwell Estate going to harass those people watching the house so that Rhiannon can sneak out! I really love the sense of community you get from these scenes, and how much more that comes in in later episodes. I wish we'd gotten to see these guys more, because I would have loved to see Ianto (and Gwen, and Jack!) interact with them in less fraught times.
But Ianto. I continue to love that boy unreasonably. Despite the fact that he's determined to be an idiot and put himself in danger, by going back to the Plass to observe the goings on (and observe one of the most horrifying things in this whole series: the partially filled body bag. sd;lkja;slkfjasf DO NOT WANT), and possibly get himself caught. And then he finds Jack, all on his own (with an assist from his sister)! Loved the phone conversation with Gwen at the beginning of the episode, for some reason. It's a great hint at their friendship (love them so much), and seemed to me to indicate that Ianto didn't want to put Gwen and Rhys in danger, and knew they could find each other later. Anyway, getting to Rhi with the card was a much better plan, and much less trace-able.
That conversation between the two of them in the park is really interesting. I wonder what really went on when Ianto and Rhi were kids. It's clearly a grey area ("He pushed me too hard; he always did" vs. "You should have held on tighter") and I don't really buy that he was physically abused, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was emotional abuse. His father pushed him too hard, which is probably what caused the shoplifting as a kid (a way to rebel), but not hard enough to make him want to leave home. I mean, the previous day, when Rhi complains about never talking to him, she indicates that it was their father's death ("as soon as Dad died, that was it, you were gone") that served as the catalyst for him to leave, rather than him having left before then. But even though he stuck around until their father died, he didn't go back. He's clearly uncomfortable around the kids, which indicates he doesn't spend much time with them, plus we never had any clue that they existed, so it's fair to say that there's something about his past that he wants to avoid. And not (just?) to keep them safe, because he's quick enough to go to his sister on Day One when he needs something that she can help him with. He just clearly doesn't want to be there.
Is it a class issue, I wonder? I mean, he has clearly been playing a role for the last few years, with the sharp suits, and the lying about his father's job, and I've heard talk that the accent is probably affected (IDK anything about Welsh regional accents, but his is apparently much posher than one from the area he grew up in would be). Unfortunately, this is just not something I know enough about to really make a distinction about one way or another. I feel like that is a whole 'nother meta post.
But boy am I glad that they ended up having one last conversation on Day Four. How horrible would it have been for their last interaction being that super awkward conversation and Ianto racing off with barely a thank you. When I watched this the first time, the end of this scene made me cry, because I was so scared that that was going to be it, and she'd have to live with that as the last time she talked to her brother before he died. :(((( Anyway, back to this episode.
Even though they're all separated for pretty much this entire part, the strong relationship between all of the team is really evident here. The first thing they're concerned with is finding each other again. Yeah, Gwen goes to London ostensibly to talk to Frobisher, but it's all in the service of figuring out WTF is going on so she can get Jack and Ianto back.
And speaking of which... these are pretty much the greatest simultaneous yet unrelated plans of all time right here. That moment where the cement cell is ripped out of the wall of the building is so freaking amazing, I can't even. I love that Gwen and Ianto both have a plan and both of them execute them well. And look totally badass while doing so. Well, aside from Ianto's fetching hard hat/vest combo (he's concerned about safety, you guys!).
All of the scenes surrounding Jack's death and resurrection are horrifying, to put it frankly. From the shots of the body reforming inside the body bag, to the absolutely disgusting corpse, to the point when Jack is aware again, and all he can do is scream in pain. So difficult to watch.
And when Agent Johnson shows up to taunt him and fill his cell full of concrete, you see real terror on his face. This is probably the worst way for him to die after having spent almost two thousand years being buried alive. Cutting to Ianto over on the hill, being forced to listen to Jack scream, is pretty much torture for me. Although, on this rewatch, I noticed something on Day One that helped me out a tiny bit.
When Jack talks about dying at the hospital, he doesn't mention the fact that he was killed twice, despite the fact that this probably would have clued them in to the fact that something fishy was going on. He also doesn't seem to recognize Johnson, even though he would have clearly seen her face before she shot him. So, it looks like if you kill Jack again as soon as he revives, he's not aware of what goes on for those few seconds that he's alive. So, depending on the length of time he was alive between each death (probably more for suffocation than being shot, there's actually a good chance he doesn't remember a lot about having been buried alive. Doesn't mean this whole thing wouldn't majorly reawaken the case of PTSD he must have had to deal with post "Exit Wounds". :(
Storyline wise, this episode is where the plot thickens, if you will. Lois gets more to do (LOVE HER), and we get little hints of what's going on re: the 456 and them having been here before. The utterly still children are still creepy as hell, but Frobisher's daughters win forever for "we want a pony". At least it shows that however horrible this thing is, that the children won't be scarred for life or anything.
I feel like the Clem part of this episode was a bit shoehorned in, though. It basically just serves as a reminder that he's still around, and that he's still being affected by the whole thing. Almost pointless, otherwise, really.
And that Dekker guy continues to be SUPER CREEPY. I was thinking, as he was left alone in the room with that tank at the end, that he's clearly devoted pretty much all of his professional life (forty years, he says on Day Five) to studying the 456. And what must his feelings about them coming back be? He seems weirdly excited, considering what we're dealing with. Kind of gleeful about the whole tank filled with poison gas thing. I am trying to concentrate on him more on this watch, because it really seems as though they dropped the ball with his storyline at the end. I will have to wait and see.
The only other thing I have to say about this episode is that I loved that despite the frostiness of their relationship, as soon as Alice hears about the explosion on the Plass, her first instinct is to call Jack's mobile and check on him. She's worried about her dad, bless. And either she has great instincts, or has been trained well by someone, because when she gets his voicemail, she doesn't leave any identifying information (just "it's me"), and doesn't sound worried. Her body language tells another story, but if someone overhears this call, or somehow accesses the message, it's completely unsuspicious.
***
Day Three
Wow. So, the 456 are actually kind of terrifying. That room with that foggy glass tank is so effective in creating this mood of anxiousness, even when there's nothing in it. But when the alien finally shows itself, it's so much worse. I love that we never get a good look at the thing, because showing it full on would just make it hokey. Shrouded in mist (as it were), it's creepy, mysterious. And that voice. So pleasant, but it says such horrifying things. A great juxtaposition with the behavior of the creature, which is gross (ugh that slimy bile-like stuff it excretes. yuuuck!), and erratic, with such a potential for violence. Well done Neil Gorton et al.
Team-wise, this episode is about Torchwood rising from the ashes to be BAMFs once more. Loved all of the scenes of them stealing stuff (Ianto and Rhys fighting! ♥), and stealing electricity to get HUB2 (oh, Rhys ♥) up and running. They're very efficient as a team, even when they've pretty much lost all of their resources, and Frobisher and the Home Office are fools to do what they did. Not to say that Torchwood could have prevented what happens, but I think there is much more of a chance that they'd have gotten out of things without too many horrible losses, if they'd been able to liaise. That kind of makes things worse.
Nice integration of the Clem story in this episode. Great how everything on his and Jack's ends came to a head in the final moment.
I continue to love the Davieses. Johnny running a daycare for ten quid a kid! Ugh, why aren't they in every episode?!
I didn't consciously notice this until I saw it mentioned in a post or comments somewhere, but the costuming in this episode is really interesting. Our heroes, once they've gotten new clothing, are all in blue, even Lois, who comes through yet again to be great. A side note, Ianto really does know everything. I am not at all surprised that he knows shorthand, since in "Sleeper" there was that bit where he was super irritated that the sleeper agents knew more than he did, because "no one knows more than I do". If it's something useful, he probably knows it, or knows where to find information on it. ♥
It's a shame that they didn't have the same contact lenses from "'Reset", though, because those had that totally ridiculous and impossible feature of actually being able to pick up audio. But we did see Martha take them out of her eyes and toss them away when they malfunctioned, so I assume they never got those back, and Tosh developed these from notes taken about the tech. Or something. Also, LOLOLOL at everyone having used the contact lenses for a bit of 'fun'. Where is that fic, fandom? Seriously.
The Prime Minister continues to be the biggest creeper to ever creep. Using Frobisher to get out of whatever repercussions there might be over what happens in that room with the 456. Although, his playing the UNIT Colonel and US liaison by suggesting Frobisher be their spokesperson, as if that wasn't clearly the intention all along, was pretty masterful.
Speaking of Frobisher, I was really impressed with him all throughout these "negotiations". He's clearly about five seconds away from pissing himself in fear at all times, but handles himself surprisingly well, considering. You can tell he doesn't want to ask the question about "why Britain", because he's afraid the 456 will break their word and tell all about 1965. I figured that would happen, too, but their answer, "you are middlemen" is kind of brilliant. Really chilling stuff.
But I have to say that all of that legalese was just ridiculous. Not from a story perspective, just in general. I firmly believe that bureaucrats handle most things this way, it's just kind of silly to see it when one of the parties doing the negotiations is a slimy three-headed alien in a glass tank.
Also, this time, when the 456 tell Frobisher that they want a gift, I immediately flashed on that scene at the end of this episode, where Jack tells Gwen that they (he) gave the children to the 456 in 1965 "as a gift", and was totally horrified. Such a lovely, subtle performance in that scene, too. It's as if for a moment, Jack's just switched off his emotions completely, and is right back there in 1965, giving the official justification for their actions.
More than once in this episode, John Barrowman shows us that he has other settings aside from maximum cheese. His performance over this series has some really subtle and nice moments, and his conversation with Frobisher is one of them. When he hears that Alice and Steven have been taken, and when he threatens to take Frobisher's wife, especially. When Frobisher says that Jack won't do that because he's the better man, you can just see on Jack's face that he knows it's true, and kind of hates that for a moment. So much love.
I really liked Alice in this episode. Love that, despite the tenseness of their relationship, she's worried about her Dad. Although, how dumb was it of her to merely go outside to use someone else's phone? Great idea, poor execution. Even down a few streets would have been better! Ideally, she should have driven somewhere to make that call, and then taken a strange route back, to attempt to avoid detection. You can't tell me she doesn't know there's a CCTV camera right outside her house. When I lived in London, I'd always notice the one on the street my friend lived on, and I'd assume that living in Britain, you'd be more aware of them, especially one by your own house. But whatever.
She was super fierce and capable in trying to get Steven out of the house and to safety as well, but alas, Agent Johnson had to show up and ruin everything. That section made me want to know everything about Lucia, and about Alice's childhood, so it makes me super sad that we never will get all of that stuff on screen. Or in a tie in novel or whatever. :(
The other thing about this episode I wanted to talk about is that conversation that Jack and Ianto have about Jack's immortality. On one level, it's a pretty nice piece of exposition for new viewers (Jack can never die, etc.). But man, it made me sad. The terrible realization that he felt himself being blown up aside, it's obvious from Ianto's reaction that Jack has never told them what he learned from the Doctor in "Utopia" (other than the "what's to fix" conversation in KKBB). Sad that he couldn't bring himself to tell Ianto until then, like he didn't want to really admit it to himself. Considering that he's mentioned before that sometimes he hopes that he won't wake up from a death, it's not a huge surprise that he wouldn't want to admit that that possibility is now gone.
I love "the world's always ending". That right there sums up Torchwood for me. There's always something terrible happening, but you should seize the moment while you can.
Also, Ianto makes the second comment of the series about how Jack will keep living while someone he cares about dies (see Alice on Day One). Ugh, Ianto, shut up! Do you not realize that you have just ensured that you're going to die soon?! Whenever a character says something like "when I die of old age" or "they keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will" or "I'm gonna travel with [the Doctor] forever", they are pretty much inviting the universe to fuck with them. Quit doing this, characters! You might as well just say "as long as nothing bad happens" or "I'll be right back" (because you won't be back).
But ahahahahaha Jack's terrible attempt to get Rhys out of the room! Whatevs, whatevs, we don't see them for every single second until the end of Day Four. They totally get a chance to "make the most of it" before the end. Just saying.
***
Part Two
I was planning on adding a section to this about RTD and his, frankly, inexcusable behavior and treatment of fans post Children of Earth, but this is already so long, so I think I'll save that for later. A few weeks ago, I bought a copy of his book, "The Writer's Tale" (I just want to know everything about Doctor Who, okay?! I can't help it! Besides, I had a 50% off coupon for Borders that made it super cheap, so I don't feel as bad giving him money as I normally would), which is basically a ridiculously long series of emails he exchanged with Ben Cook, a journalist who has (among other things) written for Doctor Who magazine. It started out intending to be an article for said magazine about series four of Doctor Who, but since Russell writes emails that are even longer than mine, it ended up being a ridiculous doorstop of a book. I was shocked at how long it is when I got it. And the print is teeny tiny. So far, it is pretty amazing. I find Russell much more palatable here, maybe because he's just corresponding with a friend, I don't know. But it's really good so far (I had to pace myself so I didn't read it all as soon as I got it, to give you an idea), and I will probably post about it once I've finished. I've heard he talks extensively in later chapters about CoE, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say in light of the interviews he gave after it came out.
So anyway, on to the CoE talk! And of course this ended up being so long that I had to split it into two parts, oh god. So, this post is the whole series and Days 1-3. Part Two (linked at the bottom) is Days 4-5 and my criticisms. And I've read this over in bits about five thousand times, but if there are any ridiculous factual errors or things that don't make sense, let me know!
The Series As A Whole
I was going to start out talking about the overall plot, but as I was writing this, I realized that anything I wanted to say about the overall plot was either related to specific moments in the various episodes, or a criticism of a major plot point, so this section ended up being about the role of CoE within Torchwood S1-3, and my overall feelings about it, both as itself and as a series of Torchwood.
Like I said, I haven't finished "The Writer's Tale" yet, but I've heard that there are a lot of details about CoE in there, including, among other things, how the plot came about. Which is to say it wasn't originally conceived as a Torchwood story. Completely unsurprisingly. When you look at the overall story, it kind of feels like a really interesting political intrigue piece with aliens, with the Torchwood characters shoehorned in. There is a lot of discussion about the plot of CoE being extremely similar to the plot of The Quatermass Conclusion, a serial produced for British TV in the 1970s. Now, I haven't seen this, so I can't say for sure how similar it is or isn't, but from some of the comments I've read, and from reading the wikipedia article, the similarities are definitely there. For all I know, RTD used this idea as the basis for CoE (maybe I'll find out in the book). Whatever the case, this would go a long way to explaining why the Torchwood elements of the plot seem a bit shoehorned in. It's almost as though RTD wrote a Quatermass AU with his own characters.
Not to say that the plot feels ripped off, or that they did a terrible job of integrating the Torchwood elements, but it could have been handled much better, and it doesn't have the same (or even a similar) feel as the previous two seasons, which I know was one of the criticisms a lot of fans had about it at the time. And one I can definitely agree with. I don't find the tone or the scope of CoE to be a problem, but I do think it would have been a lot more palatable for a lot more people if there had been another series three, one than transitioned between what was going on post "Exit Wounds" and allowed the team to rebuild a bit, mourn Tosh and Owen, allow for things to go wider in scope, whether we're talking more global, or just focusing a bit on new side characters (in the way Ianto and Jack's families were introduced here). This would make CoE series four.
Yeah, I know there were a bunch of tie in novels and four radio plays set between series two and CoE (and as of next week, three more radio plays!), but those are ancillary materials that weren't referenced on the show, and tend to be debated over with regards to their canonicity.
I mostly would have wanted another series because I enjoyed the format of the first two series, even if the execution wasn't always great (lol, that's putting it mildly). But clearly Russell had this big plan of getting the show on BBC1 now now now, and the only way they could do that was to do a five episode series. Why he couldn't have just been happy with BBC2 for another year, IDK, but what's done is done, right? Although, there is so much time to explore between series two and CoE, and it makes me sad that I will probably never get to see all (or even most) of it.
All that being said, I really like Children of Earth. It's great writing, solid acting, well done special effects, nice creature designs (Millennium Effects, FTW!), and a pretty good story. There are some plot holes, sure, but when aren't there? Most of my criticism of the series revolves around places where I found the writing to be shoddy, which caused the characters to come off as kind of moronic. I will deal with all of those later.
CoE is not a series I will ever watch a lot, simply because it's a major time (and emotional) commitment to do so. With S1-2, you can easily watch one episode here and there (witness my too many watchings of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"), but if I were to watch one episode of CoE, it would just make me want to watch the next one, and the next, etc. I could watch select scenes, sure, but that wouldn't allow me to be lazy and lay on my couch. I'd have to actually watch it on the computer, and skip around, and that's more effort than I want to make most times. Also, it's kind of painful to watch.
First time I watched it, I did the whole thing as a marathon. Never again. I had been spoiled for some facets of the story (either accidentally, through fic I read during the month when I was telling myself I wasn't going to watch CoE [I took a break from Torchwood due to "Exit Wounds"-related sadness], or via the whole internet freaking out about Day Four/those interviews Russell gave that made me, as a non fan, want to punch him in the face). But I didn't know everything, and a combination of not getting a break to decompress between episodes, and the tough subject matter, pretty much ended up with me in a ball on the couch sobbing through almost all of Day Four, and part of Day Five. Don't make the same mistake as I did! That much crying all at once is not healthy for you.
This time, with a day (or half a day, as was the case with two of the episodes, since I wanted to get it all done yesterday to give me a day to polish this monster) in between, and the knowledge of what was going to happen, it was a lot easier to handle. In fact, the only crying I did was some at the end of Day Four, and a bit during Day Five, and I'm positive that was because I had time to rest in between.
That being said, it's an incredible piece of storytelling, and absolutely worth watching. Not without its faults, but they're greatly outweighed by its strengths. I think it's one of those things that you can easily come up with problems with the execution of the story, etc. when you think about it, but while you're watching it, you're just drawn right in and too caught up in it to notice its faults.
***
And now we go day by day! This skips over a lot of stuff, since most of it was written almost immediately after I finished each episode, and there were just things that didn't jump out at me as needing to be talked about right then. Needless to say, most of this is not in the order it aired in the episode, just in the order I thought of it/the order it made most sense.
Day One
Okay, seriously, Euros Lyn should direct every episode of Torchwood ever. He has this knack of taking locations and sets we have a lot of familiarity with, and finding a way to make them fresh. Great lighting and interesting new angles make this feel like an entirely new show. The Hub has never looked more gorgeous than it did in this episode. And Cardiff! Rawr. The show felt so much more cinematic, too. It's been shot and broadcast in HD all the time, but I feel like they're using the format to greater effect here. Maybe it's just that I didn't see the 720p versions of S1-2, but I think the visual quality has jumped way up.
Great use of color with the groups of children on the playgrounds; in the reds and blues of their uniforms, they really stood out from the greens and browns of the backgrounds. The dynamic camera work, combined with the utter stillness of the children made these fairly idyllic locations feel super eerie. I will just be over here admiring all of the technical aspects of this series as a film student. Careful, or I might bust out with a discussion about the mise en scene. Okay, no I won't, but I feel like I could with this series. And I'm loving every minute of it.
I like the way the children plot is introduced, too, with the flashback to 1965, and the children in the streets and in people's homes acting strangely (which allows an introduction of our main characters, both new and old, at the same time). Whatever criticisms you have of this series, the stuff with the kids is really effective. And just the right amount of creepiness, not at all overdone or cheesy, but frankly pretty damn terrifying.
Specifically, Day One is all about taking the things that make Torchwood Torchwood, and keep Torchwood safe (the Hub, the SUV, even Jack to some extent), and ripping them away from the team, destroying those things, and forcing the team to have to go on the run. The story overall is very different than those told in the first two series: much more epic in scope, and other non-Torchwood characters have massive blocks of time devoted to their stories. I do like this change, overall, but I miss the team! I was glad to get to see a lot of them in this episode, though, before everything goes to hell. And that little nod to Tosh and Owen totally made my heart sing!
John Barrowman is still hammy as ever at times, but he has some great moments of real subtlety. In that ridic scene in the hospital at the beginning, he really goes for the whole pretending-to-be-a-neighbor-of-the-victim thing, with some excellent faking (on the edge of tears, even!). They've gotten much better at this since that time they pretended Martha was their elderly neighbor in "Reset". Or, at least Jack has, because Ianto is still kind of terrible at it (loling forever at "brave old heart"!). And then that turn on a dime to serious business Torchwood! They've got Tupperware! ♥
I was particularly impressed with the scene between Jack and Alice; there was so much unsaid between them, and a real sense of history and everything Jack regrets about his relationship with her was written all over his face. Some lovely foreshadowing in that conversation as well, including the first mention in the series of the fact that Jack is going to live forever, while everyone he loves will die. Angst about how Alice looks older than he does now, how he'll be standing at her funeral looking the same as he did when he was standing at her mother's. This will become important when I talk about one of my big criticisms of this season. It's a really beautiful scene, though. Lucy Cohu as Alice is some really excellent casting.
Also, hi surprise child! Okay, it's not really a surprise that Jack has a (or possibly more than one, for all we know) child, but what it does is really remind you how much we don't know about Jack. His pre-Doctor past aside, he was on Earth for over a century before we see him again, and we only know the barest minimum about him. I am greedy and want to know it all. Gimme that info, future seasons of the show!
This episode is just chock full of new familial information for all of the characters. Some of my favorite things in this episode are the scenes where we meet Ianto's family. I adore Rhiannon, and despite my initial dislike of Johnny, I grew to love him kind of a lot over the course of the week.
I love pretty much everything about these scenes, not gonna lie. Ianto is all super-awkward in Rhiannon's house, and clearly has no idea how to deal with these children, other than by paying them off (LOLOL forever!), and is terrible at trying to casually get his sister to loan him a kid to experiment on (Jack wasn't great at it either, but at least he acted naturally). I find it so interesting that this is obviously really similar to the environment in which he grew up, but he looks so awkward and out of place. Maybe a little bit of that's Torchwood, though. It fucks you up so much that you don't know how to go back to the way things were before.
I love Rhiannon's attitude here (during their conversation about him and Jack, which I will talk about in a second), when she's trying to find out about Ianto. It doesn't matter to her if he's gay or not, she just wants him to talk to her. Really nice and refreshing.
The development of the Jack/Ianto relationship is really interesting to see here. Clearly, things have progressed since series two, but Ianto is not at a point where he's really comfortable with being viewed as part of a gay couple. At the hospital, he makes it into a joke, and is quick to brush off Jack's query as to whether or not it matters that some stranger thinks they're together. He says it's "all a bit new" to him, although they've clearly been together for more than a year, and whatever they have is obviously something significant. My theory about this is pretty straightforward. I don't think that there's been a lot of opportunity for Ianto to have to deal with his relationship with Jack outside of the world of Torchwood. They spend the majority of their time together, or with Gwen, probably a lot of it in the Hub, or at the very least, investigating one thing or another. Neither of them exactly has time for a social life outside of Torchwood, and so going places as a couple (other than the occasional dinner date) isn't something that they do. This is something private between the two of them, and since they don't have that social interaction, the idea of defining what he has with Jack in terms that make sense to the rest of the world is not something that Ianto has had to consider too hard.
It's also quite possible that part of Ianto is still afraid that Jack's going to leave him one day (whether it's because he gets bored of him, or goes off with the Doctor again), and so doesn't want to put too much pressure on defining their relationship, for fear that he might do something to drive Jack away. Better to keep and be happy with what they have, than to push for too much more and lose it all. Or, maybe it's more like Ianto doesn't want things to be too defined because that makes it more real, and will make it hurt more when it's over. For more on this, I'd recommend listening to this really excellent monologue from 'The Dead Line", the fourth of the radio plays that aired in 2009.
Regardless of what the reason behind it is, Ianto's internal conflict is played really nicely by Gareth David-Lloyd. In the scene in the Hub when Jack is all "I hate the word couple", Ianto does that thing where it's clear he wants so much for Jack to acknowledge that they're a couple, but he doesn't want to want Jack to acknowledge it, because that means he's in it too deep, and is going to get hurt.
Especially in the scenes with Rhiannon. His first reaction is denial, all "lots of people have dinner with members of the same sex" and "he's my boss". Then, once she's gotten him to admit he was on a date, you see it slip, and he confesses that it's "only [Jack]". He tries to brush it off, all "I don't even know what it is", but it's there in his eyes. He's very serious about Jack, and I think he's finally starting to admit that to himself.
But Jack is clearly right there with him. You see it more later in the week, but there's a hint of it at the end of the episode, when the bomb's about to detonate. That's not just fear for an employee, or for a friend. And if he just wanted to get Ianto out of there, he wouldn't have wasted precious seconds on that kiss, what could've been their last. (And poor Ianto, every time he's on that invisible lift, something terrible is happening to someone he loves down below. Cyberman vs. Pterodactyl fights, imminent deaths by explosion. If I were him, I'd be glad I never had to ride that thing again. It's clearly cursed.)
So, basically, I just took entirely too many words to say I like the development of their relationship in series three. I was pretty satisfied with the way it was handled (especially during the relative normalcy of Day One), especially since the show has never even dealt with it as a B-plot before. As much as I would (in general) like an entire episode devoted to it, that is just unrealistic. I'm happy we got anything at all.
Moving on! I guess I should talk some about the minor characters, huh? On the political side, Frobisher is a very interesting character, and Peter Capaldi gives a fantastic performance throughout the entire series. I rarely agreed with any of his choices on Day One (maybe not even throughout most of the series), but he's in such a tough situation, that he's bound to make mistakes. He tries so hard, and obviously cares deeply for his family, and I think his story is probably the most tragic out of all of those in CoE.
I do, however, hate the Prime Minister. Such a slimeball. He does not fill me with any type of confidence with regards to his capability to lead the country in a time of crisis. Pretty much all he seems to be good at is making the wrong decisions and covering his ass. Why isn't he Harriet Jones, dammit?! I'm still mad at Ten for that. And it would have been really interesting to see how she handled this situation. Or any other Whoniverse PM, for that matter. I wonder how the 456 would have found dealings with Harold Saxon?
Rupesh would have been an awesome addition to the team. Too bad he was playing them. I was really hoping that when he asked Jack if they were Torchwood, and Jack said he'd never heard on them, Rupesh would come back with "but it says Torchwood on the side of your car". Worst "secret" organization ever. ♥ Anyway, I love all of the scenes he's in, especially the conversation on the Plass with Gwen. Gwen is the greatest Torchwood recruitment office ever! Profound conversations about how Torchwood makes her feel like her life is bigger and has more meaning, beat history lessons and "the 21st Century is where everything changes" every time. All joking aside, that conversation is a really excellent piece of writing. When RTD is on, he's on.
Overall, this is a solid opener. Nice pacing throughout: introducing the new characters, introducing the threat, giving us info a bit at a time. Loved the intercutting between the bomb in the Hub and the children saying "we are coming back". Super eerie.
I think, though, that my favorite thing about this episode is all of the scenes with the team together. Being competent and awesome at their jobs (with an assist from Rhys!). When they're spying on Rupesh on the Plass and Gwen realizes that this is exactly what they did to her before they hired her. Everything about "we're having a baby". How close they obviously are. I just love this team so damn much, and it breaks my heart that they can't be together forever.
***
Day Two
The pacing in this part is outrageous. This part feels so much shorter than Day One, because so much is happening, and at such a quick clip that you don't have time to pause for breath. That will change tomorrow, thankfully, because I think four more days of this pace might actually kill me.
Day Two is, among other things, all about how amazing Gwen Cooper is! I love the scene where she and Rhys have abandoned their car, and Rhys offers to carry the bag. She gets a bit offended, and of course Rhys is all "you'll want your trigger finger free!". Ugh, I love them so much, you guys! Every single thing about their conversation in the potato lorry is perfect.
I want to say that this is the Gwen we should have had for all three seasons of the show. Well, she is a bit badass to have been this way right off, but once she got used to being Torchwood (stopped saying "can you do that" and started saying "can we do that", for one), I would have loved to see this woman every single week. She's so strong and capable, but not too perfect. You can really see why she's a member of this team. Also, that scene where she shoots out all four tires on Agent Johnson's car? ♥___♥
And let's talk about Ianto again for a minute. First of all, how amazing is his family, seriously? I was not at all keen on Johnny in part one, but I kind of fell in love with him a bit over the rest of the story. His semi-homophobic comment on Day One is pretty much mitigated by the scene where the soldiers come to their house to search for Ianto, and he's all "you're not going to find him in my bed; I'm a married man." Not, you know, "not gay" or anything. Just that he wouldn't cheat on his wife. ♥
And all of the boys on the Cromwell Estate going to harass those people watching the house so that Rhiannon can sneak out! I really love the sense of community you get from these scenes, and how much more that comes in in later episodes. I wish we'd gotten to see these guys more, because I would have loved to see Ianto (and Gwen, and Jack!) interact with them in less fraught times.
But Ianto. I continue to love that boy unreasonably. Despite the fact that he's determined to be an idiot and put himself in danger, by going back to the Plass to observe the goings on (and observe one of the most horrifying things in this whole series: the partially filled body bag. sd;lkja;slkfjasf DO NOT WANT), and possibly get himself caught. And then he finds Jack, all on his own (with an assist from his sister)! Loved the phone conversation with Gwen at the beginning of the episode, for some reason. It's a great hint at their friendship (love them so much), and seemed to me to indicate that Ianto didn't want to put Gwen and Rhys in danger, and knew they could find each other later. Anyway, getting to Rhi with the card was a much better plan, and much less trace-able.
That conversation between the two of them in the park is really interesting. I wonder what really went on when Ianto and Rhi were kids. It's clearly a grey area ("He pushed me too hard; he always did" vs. "You should have held on tighter") and I don't really buy that he was physically abused, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was emotional abuse. His father pushed him too hard, which is probably what caused the shoplifting as a kid (a way to rebel), but not hard enough to make him want to leave home. I mean, the previous day, when Rhi complains about never talking to him, she indicates that it was their father's death ("as soon as Dad died, that was it, you were gone") that served as the catalyst for him to leave, rather than him having left before then. But even though he stuck around until their father died, he didn't go back. He's clearly uncomfortable around the kids, which indicates he doesn't spend much time with them, plus we never had any clue that they existed, so it's fair to say that there's something about his past that he wants to avoid. And not (just?) to keep them safe, because he's quick enough to go to his sister on Day One when he needs something that she can help him with. He just clearly doesn't want to be there.
Is it a class issue, I wonder? I mean, he has clearly been playing a role for the last few years, with the sharp suits, and the lying about his father's job, and I've heard talk that the accent is probably affected (IDK anything about Welsh regional accents, but his is apparently much posher than one from the area he grew up in would be). Unfortunately, this is just not something I know enough about to really make a distinction about one way or another. I feel like that is a whole 'nother meta post.
But boy am I glad that they ended up having one last conversation on Day Four. How horrible would it have been for their last interaction being that super awkward conversation and Ianto racing off with barely a thank you. When I watched this the first time, the end of this scene made me cry, because I was so scared that that was going to be it, and she'd have to live with that as the last time she talked to her brother before he died. :(((( Anyway, back to this episode.
Even though they're all separated for pretty much this entire part, the strong relationship between all of the team is really evident here. The first thing they're concerned with is finding each other again. Yeah, Gwen goes to London ostensibly to talk to Frobisher, but it's all in the service of figuring out WTF is going on so she can get Jack and Ianto back.
And speaking of which... these are pretty much the greatest simultaneous yet unrelated plans of all time right here. That moment where the cement cell is ripped out of the wall of the building is so freaking amazing, I can't even. I love that Gwen and Ianto both have a plan and both of them execute them well. And look totally badass while doing so. Well, aside from Ianto's fetching hard hat/vest combo (he's concerned about safety, you guys!).
All of the scenes surrounding Jack's death and resurrection are horrifying, to put it frankly. From the shots of the body reforming inside the body bag, to the absolutely disgusting corpse, to the point when Jack is aware again, and all he can do is scream in pain. So difficult to watch.
And when Agent Johnson shows up to taunt him and fill his cell full of concrete, you see real terror on his face. This is probably the worst way for him to die after having spent almost two thousand years being buried alive. Cutting to Ianto over on the hill, being forced to listen to Jack scream, is pretty much torture for me. Although, on this rewatch, I noticed something on Day One that helped me out a tiny bit.
When Jack talks about dying at the hospital, he doesn't mention the fact that he was killed twice, despite the fact that this probably would have clued them in to the fact that something fishy was going on. He also doesn't seem to recognize Johnson, even though he would have clearly seen her face before she shot him. So, it looks like if you kill Jack again as soon as he revives, he's not aware of what goes on for those few seconds that he's alive. So, depending on the length of time he was alive between each death (probably more for suffocation than being shot, there's actually a good chance he doesn't remember a lot about having been buried alive. Doesn't mean this whole thing wouldn't majorly reawaken the case of PTSD he must have had to deal with post "Exit Wounds". :(
Storyline wise, this episode is where the plot thickens, if you will. Lois gets more to do (LOVE HER), and we get little hints of what's going on re: the 456 and them having been here before. The utterly still children are still creepy as hell, but Frobisher's daughters win forever for "we want a pony". At least it shows that however horrible this thing is, that the children won't be scarred for life or anything.
I feel like the Clem part of this episode was a bit shoehorned in, though. It basically just serves as a reminder that he's still around, and that he's still being affected by the whole thing. Almost pointless, otherwise, really.
And that Dekker guy continues to be SUPER CREEPY. I was thinking, as he was left alone in the room with that tank at the end, that he's clearly devoted pretty much all of his professional life (forty years, he says on Day Five) to studying the 456. And what must his feelings about them coming back be? He seems weirdly excited, considering what we're dealing with. Kind of gleeful about the whole tank filled with poison gas thing. I am trying to concentrate on him more on this watch, because it really seems as though they dropped the ball with his storyline at the end. I will have to wait and see.
The only other thing I have to say about this episode is that I loved that despite the frostiness of their relationship, as soon as Alice hears about the explosion on the Plass, her first instinct is to call Jack's mobile and check on him. She's worried about her dad, bless. And either she has great instincts, or has been trained well by someone, because when she gets his voicemail, she doesn't leave any identifying information (just "it's me"), and doesn't sound worried. Her body language tells another story, but if someone overhears this call, or somehow accesses the message, it's completely unsuspicious.
***
Day Three
Wow. So, the 456 are actually kind of terrifying. That room with that foggy glass tank is so effective in creating this mood of anxiousness, even when there's nothing in it. But when the alien finally shows itself, it's so much worse. I love that we never get a good look at the thing, because showing it full on would just make it hokey. Shrouded in mist (as it were), it's creepy, mysterious. And that voice. So pleasant, but it says such horrifying things. A great juxtaposition with the behavior of the creature, which is gross (ugh that slimy bile-like stuff it excretes. yuuuck!), and erratic, with such a potential for violence. Well done Neil Gorton et al.
Team-wise, this episode is about Torchwood rising from the ashes to be BAMFs once more. Loved all of the scenes of them stealing stuff (Ianto and Rhys fighting! ♥), and stealing electricity to get HUB2 (oh, Rhys ♥) up and running. They're very efficient as a team, even when they've pretty much lost all of their resources, and Frobisher and the Home Office are fools to do what they did. Not to say that Torchwood could have prevented what happens, but I think there is much more of a chance that they'd have gotten out of things without too many horrible losses, if they'd been able to liaise. That kind of makes things worse.
Nice integration of the Clem story in this episode. Great how everything on his and Jack's ends came to a head in the final moment.
I continue to love the Davieses. Johnny running a daycare for ten quid a kid! Ugh, why aren't they in every episode?!
I didn't consciously notice this until I saw it mentioned in a post or comments somewhere, but the costuming in this episode is really interesting. Our heroes, once they've gotten new clothing, are all in blue, even Lois, who comes through yet again to be great. A side note, Ianto really does know everything. I am not at all surprised that he knows shorthand, since in "Sleeper" there was that bit where he was super irritated that the sleeper agents knew more than he did, because "no one knows more than I do". If it's something useful, he probably knows it, or knows where to find information on it. ♥
It's a shame that they didn't have the same contact lenses from "'Reset", though, because those had that totally ridiculous and impossible feature of actually being able to pick up audio. But we did see Martha take them out of her eyes and toss them away when they malfunctioned, so I assume they never got those back, and Tosh developed these from notes taken about the tech. Or something. Also, LOLOLOL at everyone having used the contact lenses for a bit of 'fun'. Where is that fic, fandom? Seriously.
The Prime Minister continues to be the biggest creeper to ever creep. Using Frobisher to get out of whatever repercussions there might be over what happens in that room with the 456. Although, his playing the UNIT Colonel and US liaison by suggesting Frobisher be their spokesperson, as if that wasn't clearly the intention all along, was pretty masterful.
Speaking of Frobisher, I was really impressed with him all throughout these "negotiations". He's clearly about five seconds away from pissing himself in fear at all times, but handles himself surprisingly well, considering. You can tell he doesn't want to ask the question about "why Britain", because he's afraid the 456 will break their word and tell all about 1965. I figured that would happen, too, but their answer, "you are middlemen" is kind of brilliant. Really chilling stuff.
But I have to say that all of that legalese was just ridiculous. Not from a story perspective, just in general. I firmly believe that bureaucrats handle most things this way, it's just kind of silly to see it when one of the parties doing the negotiations is a slimy three-headed alien in a glass tank.
Also, this time, when the 456 tell Frobisher that they want a gift, I immediately flashed on that scene at the end of this episode, where Jack tells Gwen that they (he) gave the children to the 456 in 1965 "as a gift", and was totally horrified. Such a lovely, subtle performance in that scene, too. It's as if for a moment, Jack's just switched off his emotions completely, and is right back there in 1965, giving the official justification for their actions.
More than once in this episode, John Barrowman shows us that he has other settings aside from maximum cheese. His performance over this series has some really subtle and nice moments, and his conversation with Frobisher is one of them. When he hears that Alice and Steven have been taken, and when he threatens to take Frobisher's wife, especially. When Frobisher says that Jack won't do that because he's the better man, you can just see on Jack's face that he knows it's true, and kind of hates that for a moment. So much love.
I really liked Alice in this episode. Love that, despite the tenseness of their relationship, she's worried about her Dad. Although, how dumb was it of her to merely go outside to use someone else's phone? Great idea, poor execution. Even down a few streets would have been better! Ideally, she should have driven somewhere to make that call, and then taken a strange route back, to attempt to avoid detection. You can't tell me she doesn't know there's a CCTV camera right outside her house. When I lived in London, I'd always notice the one on the street my friend lived on, and I'd assume that living in Britain, you'd be more aware of them, especially one by your own house. But whatever.
She was super fierce and capable in trying to get Steven out of the house and to safety as well, but alas, Agent Johnson had to show up and ruin everything. That section made me want to know everything about Lucia, and about Alice's childhood, so it makes me super sad that we never will get all of that stuff on screen. Or in a tie in novel or whatever. :(
The other thing about this episode I wanted to talk about is that conversation that Jack and Ianto have about Jack's immortality. On one level, it's a pretty nice piece of exposition for new viewers (Jack can never die, etc.). But man, it made me sad. The terrible realization that he felt himself being blown up aside, it's obvious from Ianto's reaction that Jack has never told them what he learned from the Doctor in "Utopia" (other than the "what's to fix" conversation in KKBB). Sad that he couldn't bring himself to tell Ianto until then, like he didn't want to really admit it to himself. Considering that he's mentioned before that sometimes he hopes that he won't wake up from a death, it's not a huge surprise that he wouldn't want to admit that that possibility is now gone.
I love "the world's always ending". That right there sums up Torchwood for me. There's always something terrible happening, but you should seize the moment while you can.
Also, Ianto makes the second comment of the series about how Jack will keep living while someone he cares about dies (see Alice on Day One). Ugh, Ianto, shut up! Do you not realize that you have just ensured that you're going to die soon?! Whenever a character says something like "when I die of old age" or "they keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will" or "I'm gonna travel with [the Doctor] forever", they are pretty much inviting the universe to fuck with them. Quit doing this, characters! You might as well just say "as long as nothing bad happens" or "I'll be right back" (because you won't be back).
But ahahahahaha Jack's terrible attempt to get Rhys out of the room! Whatevs, whatevs, we don't see them for every single second until the end of Day Four. They totally get a chance to "make the most of it" before the end. Just saying.
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Part Two