Children of Earth: Why I can't accept certain "creative decisions" (and more)

[lefaym]

This post contains spoilers for both Children of Earth and filming reports for the Doctor Who finale. The Doctor Who stuff isn't until near the end, and I'm including a spoiler space in there, so if you just want to read the CoE stuff, then you can (though you might want to be careful if you look at the comments).

Comments

[fmanalyst]

It occurs to me that if Joss Whedon were in charge that Jack would be the Big Bad of the next Doctor Who season. Actually, that may be coloring my view of COE -- having been a Buffy fan when Angel and then Willow became villains and an Angel fan when Wesley went dark. I'll see if that holds true when I finally get to watch the whole COE.

[lefaym]

Hmm... that would be an interesting place to take Jack, because he certainly does have that darker side. I wonder if it would work for Doctor Who...

ETA: Though come to think of it, I think that would be a bad idea-- because then not only will Ianto have been fridged, Doctor Who Jack will become "teh EVIL GHEY" instead of an awesome omnisexual role model for children.

[fmanalyst]

Which Whedon did do when he turned Willow evil, some to think of it. If the story were to go that direction, it would depend on whether Jack were to receive a redemption arc. Say he becomes the big bad out of despair and so the goal of the arc is to recover his sanity and put him in position to develop the wisdom and peace of the Face of Boe. But it would take a season-long arc to do it right, and Doctor Who has been reluctant to do that recently, beyond dropped in references to Mr. Saxon or Bad Wolf.

[lefaym]

Yeah, that would be quite an intense story.

I kind of hope that we don't see Jack turn into the Face of Boe. I mean I actually don't mind the Jack=Face of Boe at all, but I think it'd be really cool to just keep it open. Also, I really hate the thought of poor Jack, who is so physical, being confined to a glass jar so early on.

[fmanalyst]

Oh, not go ahead and turn him into Boe physically, but rather put him mentally in a place where he could develop that level of peace. Boe always seemed to me to be rather like a bodhisattva, and it would be more interesting to me to see Jack get started on that path. Hmm, it would be interesting to do a Buddhist analysis of Jack, given that he has been taken off the cycle of suffering, death and rebirth.