Torchwood: Children of Earth
I realise I haven't posted in a million years, but I had to pop back briefly because Torchwood was just too phenomenal to not comment on.
It was one of the most meticulously plotted, intelligent, horrifying, tragic, stunning pieces of television i've ever seen. And i've seen a lot. The focus on characterisation astounded me. Every single person in the giant supporting cast was not only completely fleshed out and three-dimensional, but also interesting, engaging and hugely endearing. I fell in love with ALL OF THEM.
Frobisher stole the entire series for me, with Peter Capaldi giving one of the best performances across the whole of Whoverse. So much of the suspense of ep 3 relied on his ability to act convincingly to a glass wall, and my god did he deliver. He made a lengthy sequence spent talking to a giant alien feel nothing like science fiction - just the reality of a petrified man coming face to face with a scenario usually reserved for nightmares.
His death ranks among the best i've ever seen from RTD. Russell has this way of creating the most human moments by inserting longwinded speeches on ordinary, everyday topics, over the top of truly heartbreaking scenes; and it just serves to heighten the tragedy of what's happening by making it so much more human. I love it. It's my favourite thing about him. He did exactly the same thing with Martha's "i've had this friend Vicky" speech which was set against the moment the Doctor realised he had lost her. Here, Susan Brown delivered Bridget Spears' monologue flawlessly and I cried like an absolute baby.
Regarding the main cast, I have never seen John Barrowman just... deliver quite like that before. He was astonishing. It was so heartbreaking to watch him move through the last episode so wordlessly and defeatedly, considering how full of life he usually is. Gwen will always be ridiculously awesome and I feel I don't even need to comment on Eve/Gwen because her utter brilliance is so damn obvious to anyone with eyes (IMO) :)
So much has been said about Ianto that I don't think I could possibly add anything new or useful to the mix, so i'm just going to leave that to the people who have been far more eloquent than I possibly could. (Those who have been viciously attacking the writers re. Ianto through Twitter and James Moran’s blog however, make me ashamed to be part of fandom. But that’s another issue entirely).
And Rhys. What can I say about Rhys? He honestly continues to be possibly my favourite thing about Torchwood :P Kai Owen is just flawless. He delivers the comedy like nobody else, is RTD's quintessential everyman, and yet there are these flashes where you can see the wisdom of someone else entirely in his eyes. He is such a human human and I just kept getting the sense that when the Doctor fights tooth and nail to save the earth all the damn time it’s so that the universe can continue to have people like Rhys in it. And my god is he going to be the world's best and most adorable father ♥
The only thing that bugged me in the entire series was the fact that we were supposed to believe that over the course of the whole debacle, nobody at any point said, "Hey, here's an idea, lets pick up a phone and CALL THE DOCTOR!" Technically, at this point, Jack, Martha, Sarah Jane + Mr Smith, and UNIT should ALL have the Doctor's phone number saved on their phones. And if anyone tries to convince me that at the very LEAST Sarah Jane wouldn't have gotten Mr Smith to at least try and make that call the second the children of Bannerman Road started chanting, my head will explode. With that said though, they made up for it and then some with Gwen's speech to camera about the Doctor "turning away in shame". Another of my favourite ever RTD moments.
Its funny, most of my issues with RTD have always stemmed from the fact that he insists on keeping a lot of Doctor Who incredibly simplistic, rarely moving beyond thematic stereotype even when he so obviously has the chance to. I didn't love Turn Left for that reason. There have been SO many times in DW where i've whined about his reluctance to go further, go darker, more real, push past simple stereotypes and bring the stories somewhere no one expects them to go. To write complex, challenging moral observations instead of basic, familiar fables. But I read a quote of his the other day where he said - and i'm paraphrasing - that Doctor Who was a show written in broad strokes with thick felt pens. And with that in mind, my issues have never (or at least rarely) been with Russell as a writer, but frustration at his and the BBC's choice to be so conscious of keeping DW a children's show. What saddened me most about Children of Earth is that it’s the kind of story I desperately want to see in Doctor Who, even though I know it will never be. The Doctor is one of the greatest characters ever created, and oh to see him in Jack's position, to see him in that story, in that world. THAT'S how you should use the Doctor. At least every once in a while. Even though I ADORE the heart, the fun and the sentimentality of RTD's Doctor, and trust me I do... he also has the potential to be the most phenomenal, most fascinating, darkest and most explosive character in the world; but he will never quite get to be because of the constraints of the format. It’s all there, lurking just under the surface ready to absolutely erupt and reign down long-repressed grief and fury on the entire universe, and it honestly breaks my heart that we'll never get to see that. (Not sure what that says about me exactly...) ;)
But that's not Russell's fault. As much as I often felt it was in the past. And if anything, Children of Earth showed just how amazing he can be. We forget sometimes, bogged down in Daleks and Slitheen, just how great he truly is. Casanova was awesome. The Second Coming was phenomenal. And I mean my god, the reason why the 456 needed the children? That was original, inventive, intelligent and shocking enough to have been ripped from the very best of Original Star Trek.
Which is why the level of hatred directed towards the writers over the past couple of days has honestly sickened me. Particularly James Moran who's only crimes were being the only CoE writer to have an online blog and being a nice enough guy to try and communicate personally with fandom. He's been slaughtered, personally abused and vilified by insane fangirls blaming him for everything wrong with their lives. Attacking the story is one thing. Accusing the writers of homophobia and malicious intent towards specific parts of fandom is another thing entirely. And excuse me, but, Russell T Davies = homophobic? RUSSELL T DAVIES? I mean, for f*** sake. The Romeo and Juliet of the story were undeniably Jack and Ianto! So to honestly suggest that mentions of Ianto's sexuality arose from RTD's repressed homophobia... I just can not express how angry that made me. What has the man ever done but try and combat those prejudices with every word out of his mouth and/or on the page? Characters threw homophobic remarks at Ianto and seemed overly interested in his sexuality because THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS IN LIFE. It wasn't 'the writers diminishing his death'. It was them being as painfully real as possible. Which is, you know, THEIR JOB.
It was harsh. It was cruel. And It was absolutely real. So much about every episode totally horrified me and shook me to the core. In the real world, death doesn’t skip past the nice guys just cause we like them. And I still cant quite believe that Torchwood had the courage to do what it did, go the places it went, as well as actually pull it all off FLAWLESSLY.
So kudos to RTD and everyone else involved. Torchwood: Children of Earth, somehow, was one of the finest pieces of science fiction TV I’ve ever seen :D
~
And big *waves* and *hugs* to my flist! ♥ ♥ ♥
It was one of the most meticulously plotted, intelligent, horrifying, tragic, stunning pieces of television i've ever seen. And i've seen a lot. The focus on characterisation astounded me. Every single person in the giant supporting cast was not only completely fleshed out and three-dimensional, but also interesting, engaging and hugely endearing. I fell in love with ALL OF THEM.
Frobisher stole the entire series for me, with Peter Capaldi giving one of the best performances across the whole of Whoverse. So much of the suspense of ep 3 relied on his ability to act convincingly to a glass wall, and my god did he deliver. He made a lengthy sequence spent talking to a giant alien feel nothing like science fiction - just the reality of a petrified man coming face to face with a scenario usually reserved for nightmares.
His death ranks among the best i've ever seen from RTD. Russell has this way of creating the most human moments by inserting longwinded speeches on ordinary, everyday topics, over the top of truly heartbreaking scenes; and it just serves to heighten the tragedy of what's happening by making it so much more human. I love it. It's my favourite thing about him. He did exactly the same thing with Martha's "i've had this friend Vicky" speech which was set against the moment the Doctor realised he had lost her. Here, Susan Brown delivered Bridget Spears' monologue flawlessly and I cried like an absolute baby.
Regarding the main cast, I have never seen John Barrowman just... deliver quite like that before. He was astonishing. It was so heartbreaking to watch him move through the last episode so wordlessly and defeatedly, considering how full of life he usually is. Gwen will always be ridiculously awesome and I feel I don't even need to comment on Eve/Gwen because her utter brilliance is so damn obvious to anyone with eyes (IMO) :)
So much has been said about Ianto that I don't think I could possibly add anything new or useful to the mix, so i'm just going to leave that to the people who have been far more eloquent than I possibly could. (Those who have been viciously attacking the writers re. Ianto through Twitter and James Moran’s blog however, make me ashamed to be part of fandom. But that’s another issue entirely).
And Rhys. What can I say about Rhys? He honestly continues to be possibly my favourite thing about Torchwood :P Kai Owen is just flawless. He delivers the comedy like nobody else, is RTD's quintessential everyman, and yet there are these flashes where you can see the wisdom of someone else entirely in his eyes. He is such a human human and I just kept getting the sense that when the Doctor fights tooth and nail to save the earth all the damn time it’s so that the universe can continue to have people like Rhys in it. And my god is he going to be the world's best and most adorable father ♥
The only thing that bugged me in the entire series was the fact that we were supposed to believe that over the course of the whole debacle, nobody at any point said, "Hey, here's an idea, lets pick up a phone and CALL THE DOCTOR!" Technically, at this point, Jack, Martha, Sarah Jane + Mr Smith, and UNIT should ALL have the Doctor's phone number saved on their phones. And if anyone tries to convince me that at the very LEAST Sarah Jane wouldn't have gotten Mr Smith to at least try and make that call the second the children of Bannerman Road started chanting, my head will explode. With that said though, they made up for it and then some with Gwen's speech to camera about the Doctor "turning away in shame". Another of my favourite ever RTD moments.
Its funny, most of my issues with RTD have always stemmed from the fact that he insists on keeping a lot of Doctor Who incredibly simplistic, rarely moving beyond thematic stereotype even when he so obviously has the chance to. I didn't love Turn Left for that reason. There have been SO many times in DW where i've whined about his reluctance to go further, go darker, more real, push past simple stereotypes and bring the stories somewhere no one expects them to go. To write complex, challenging moral observations instead of basic, familiar fables. But I read a quote of his the other day where he said - and i'm paraphrasing - that Doctor Who was a show written in broad strokes with thick felt pens. And with that in mind, my issues have never (or at least rarely) been with Russell as a writer, but frustration at his and the BBC's choice to be so conscious of keeping DW a children's show. What saddened me most about Children of Earth is that it’s the kind of story I desperately want to see in Doctor Who, even though I know it will never be. The Doctor is one of the greatest characters ever created, and oh to see him in Jack's position, to see him in that story, in that world. THAT'S how you should use the Doctor. At least every once in a while. Even though I ADORE the heart, the fun and the sentimentality of RTD's Doctor, and trust me I do... he also has the potential to be the most phenomenal, most fascinating, darkest and most explosive character in the world; but he will never quite get to be because of the constraints of the format. It’s all there, lurking just under the surface ready to absolutely erupt and reign down long-repressed grief and fury on the entire universe, and it honestly breaks my heart that we'll never get to see that. (Not sure what that says about me exactly...) ;)
But that's not Russell's fault. As much as I often felt it was in the past. And if anything, Children of Earth showed just how amazing he can be. We forget sometimes, bogged down in Daleks and Slitheen, just how great he truly is. Casanova was awesome. The Second Coming was phenomenal. And I mean my god, the reason why the 456 needed the children? That was original, inventive, intelligent and shocking enough to have been ripped from the very best of Original Star Trek.
Which is why the level of hatred directed towards the writers over the past couple of days has honestly sickened me. Particularly James Moran who's only crimes were being the only CoE writer to have an online blog and being a nice enough guy to try and communicate personally with fandom. He's been slaughtered, personally abused and vilified by insane fangirls blaming him for everything wrong with their lives. Attacking the story is one thing. Accusing the writers of homophobia and malicious intent towards specific parts of fandom is another thing entirely. And excuse me, but, Russell T Davies = homophobic? RUSSELL T DAVIES? I mean, for f*** sake. The Romeo and Juliet of the story were undeniably Jack and Ianto! So to honestly suggest that mentions of Ianto's sexuality arose from RTD's repressed homophobia... I just can not express how angry that made me. What has the man ever done but try and combat those prejudices with every word out of his mouth and/or on the page? Characters threw homophobic remarks at Ianto and seemed overly interested in his sexuality because THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS IN LIFE. It wasn't 'the writers diminishing his death'. It was them being as painfully real as possible. Which is, you know, THEIR JOB.
It was harsh. It was cruel. And It was absolutely real. So much about every episode totally horrified me and shook me to the core. In the real world, death doesn’t skip past the nice guys just cause we like them. And I still cant quite believe that Torchwood had the courage to do what it did, go the places it went, as well as actually pull it all off FLAWLESSLY.
So kudos to RTD and everyone else involved. Torchwood: Children of Earth, somehow, was one of the finest pieces of science fiction TV I’ve ever seen :D
~
And big *waves* and *hugs* to my flist! ♥ ♥ ♥