My Thoughts on Children Of Earth...
Torchwood. Well this is it eh?
I promised myself I wasn't going to rant. Every writer has the right to follow their creative impulses, write what they want and not have to fear that they will be overly judged for it. I know all writer's worry about this kind of stuff, but still its a nice idea. It's fair. And so I am not going to turn this into an assault on a writer's creative decisions. Because if I had worked hard on a script then I wouldn't want someone to tear my work to pieces.
But at the same time, I still have an opinion. And right now I feel really let down. So this will probably turn into that anyway.
I know Torchwood likes its explosive endings. Series one we had Abbadon, and we had Jack leaving with the Doctor which left me wanting so much more. Series two and we had the wrench that was the loss of both Toshiko and Owen, two of my favourite characters (After Ianto). That broke my heart I won't lie, and I cried, which I very rarely do unless something really gets to me. And series three? Well that left me heartbroken too. But for all the wrong reasons.
There will be some people who liked series 3, and that is up to them. But to me...well I feel a bit robbed. I mean that last episode didn't feel like Torchwood to me. In places it felt like it was a political commentrary, the way that it all came down to brute force and the Government being in control. Especially their iniative to "innoculate" the 'bad' schools. I mean that is a valid thing to comment upon, and I know that fiction can approach this kind of thing in a more effective and dramatic way that a factual documentary, but I just feel that Torchwood was not the right medium with which to do that. It was like the show lost all its heart. Even worse, what they did with Jack....that make me feel sick. I have a little brother and I love him more than anything, and watching this entire series seriously un-nerved me. And I know that was the idea, but still, I felt too uncomfortable in that last episode. Watching Jack do that, make that tough decision that I felt was unnecessary as a plot solution was horrible. I felt that for me, the episode became too dark for me. And that is something I don't usually say. But I almost felt like it was being dark and angsty for the sake of it, just to look explosive. Which I am sure is not what was intended. I know good drama is supposed to push boundaries and characters, but for me I feel it was pushed too far this time. And the fact that I feel like the heroic Jack that I have been writing had just reverted back to what he was before the Doctor...well that hurt quite a bit. On a personal level too.
And I know that it is just a show, but if a show I love is going to end, I would at least like to see it end properly as the show I loved it for. Which I think is the main reason why I feel a bit robbed, because I just felt a bit let down by that ending. And as a Janto fangirl, I felt let down by how that was handled too. It broke my heart when Jack didn't at least say "I love you" back, but then I felt like Ianto was almost forgotten. I mean yes, there were other things going on but still. Maybe that's just my love of the character going a little to far. I can see why Ianto wouldn't have fitted into that final episode, but that doesn't mean that I am any more fond of him being killed off.
But still...the beauty of fanfiction is that we have two series to exploit in terms of our writing. We're not limited at least, just a little let down. I'm sure that the writers and Russell T Davies never meant to do that to his loyal fans, as I would like to believe myself that this was a gamble that went wrong. I just hope that Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and John Barrowman continue to do well from this. They are all amazing actors, and no matter what the script they delivered it brilliantly. Besides, those first three episodes of series 3 were the Torchwood we all knew and loved. It was just a shame that the ending didn't work out like we had hoped.
Love
Siany
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