Children of Earth: The Summary Post
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This post is up late, because I had to come back and edit the draft severely.
Final Episode
The fifth episode is when everything changes. I went into this spoiler free until last night, and I rather wish I'd spoiled myself rotten, so that I would not only be prepared, but would probably have sat it out. And the thing is, up until tonight - yes, even after episode 4 - I was riveted. Up through 3/4 of episode 4 I was even squeeful.
Now I'm sick with nausea. There's an old fandom term, "ose." As in "ose, ose, and more-ose." This was ose turned up to 11.
I may not like children, but I didn't sign up to watch an 8-year-old tortured to death. THAT IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT. The Doctor *will* turn away in shame. Are we supposed to pretend that this won't have happened if Jack shows up at the regeneration?
"I kept thinking of Blake's 7." M told me. "Destroy everything at the end." She's not wrong.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, I think it was an amazingly complex bit of plotting, particularly by Torchwood's usually lax, cheesy standard. Pacing, tone, characterization, tension... all at peak levels. Seeming throwaway bits came back later to be part of the plot. The plotlines at no point involved a main character being dumb as dirt. (I appreciate a story that doesn't require someone to act like they've already donated their brain to science.) Watching Frobisher be broken on the emotional rack was some creepy, compelling TV. The whole thing ended up gutting, appalling, grim... but I can't say it wasn't effective.
This isn't to say that I don't have major qualms about said story. About how Jack became someone who could so easily sacrifice his own grandson. About Ianto's death, and not just in the "damnit, he's my favorite character" sense. No, because the whole shock value of suddenly killing a main character was used twice at the end of last season, and now a mere 4 episodes later, ta da! Here comes the same rabbit out of the same hat. And then, because we can't up the ante with regular characters, we'll kill a kid - *onscreen!* I had to turn away more than once.
Wow, do I wish that it hadn't been labeled Torchwood.
And rumor has it that RTD really wanted to write a completely different show, a new one, and this story would have worked excellently with only minor changes. (Make Not!Jack older, make the 1965 trade his first assignment, put the bomb in his briefcase instead of his stomach, pull him out of the rubble alive, and have only one intact oxygen mask in the escape/backup kit they brought to speak to the 456.) So I feel that if RTD wanted to write a miniseries for Sanctuary something else, he should have up and written a miniseries for Sanctuary something else. I wouldn't have watched it -- but that's one of the reasons why I wish he had. I'm so... shattered... at what Jack has become that I'm finding I can't read the Torchwood book I saved for "afters." Heck, Empty Child/The Doctor Dances are my all-time favorite Who story, and it's going to be a bit, if ever, before I can watch them and see vaguely honorable Jack and not think about how his creator will turn him into someone who will rip his own grandson from his screaming daughter's arms and kill him.
No clue how it could ever be possible to have a 4th season from where it stands. Not only because I would be more likely to reach for a barf bag than watch more of what I got tonight, but because whatever happens next with the remaining characters is going to be derivative. Why derivative? One word:
Jack
Jack is a man who has extensive knowledge of time and space (and the mechanics for traveling them) and cannot die, which means that he will outlive all his friends, many of whom will die during their attempts to save the Earth from alien menace. He has even sacrificed his own planet family in order to end a terrible threat. This makes him very, very emo. Oh, and he works with UNIT when he has to.
Does this sound just a tad familiar?
The strength of both spinoffs is also their biggest weakness. RTD didn't just recreate the Doctor for a new millenia, he Xeroxed the character. Sarah Jane = Three, and at these levels of emo, Jack is rapidly approaching Ten. (Or 10.2 or 10.3, or however he would fit in with the altverse clone.) If RTD wants to move beyond the ties to Who, he shouldn't have stripped the show of everything that made it unique - the Rift, the Hub, Cardiff, Myfanwy, the team the humor, the hope, the camaraderie. If all we've got left is Doctor Lite and his plucky cute woman assistant (and, grudgingly, her boyfriend/hubby), might as well just call them Doctor, Rose, and Mickey and be done with it.
While I'm speaking about the characters:
Gwen
My opinion of her has run hot and cold up until now. I don't think she's a threat to my ship (because let's face it, Jack's OTP is Jack/anything consenting with a hole, preferably in large groups. Jack/Gwen vs Jack/Ianto? Please. He'd be suggesting a foursome with Rhys.) I wanted to like her - but then she'd babble, or screw around on Rhys, or confess to Rhys but retcon him so she didn't have to take responsibility, or put the whole world in danger because she decided she couldn't lose Rhys even though she wasn't treating him very well. So while I didn't actively dislike her, I didn't care about her either. In this miniseries she's been competent, compassionate - but most of all, she's finally a believable ex-cop, something we only truly saw in one previous episode in all of Torchwood. (When she was finding all the people who came back through the rift. EXCELLENT police work on her side, and my heart really broke for her being essentially punished for doing what was right.) This Gwen, still giddy over aliens but comfortable in the group, compassionate but instantly cold when necessary, smart and investigative, determined, strong - this is the Gwen we should have seen all along. The Gwen her fans saw but casual viewers didn't.
Ianto
At first I didn't feel much of anything at all. I was so convinced he *wasn't* going to die, a belief that just got more dogged with most everyone else's often-stated convictions on any and all evidence that he *was* - so when he *did,* my main reaction was "Woah. They were right."
But that doesn't nullify the objections against it. That the character was extremely popular with the general public as well as fandom, and the Jack/Ianto ship got them lots of good publicity in the alternative press.
There was more to this part of the post, about how Torchwood was down past sustainable levels and how it would have been more shocking to kill the pregnant married woman, and how I was sorry to see Ianto go but I wasn't gutted, especially knowing how many ways characters can come back in the Whoniverse. It had the phrase "Schrodinger's Tea Boy."
But it was all drafted before ep 5. Y'know what I think now? I'm GLAD he got out before it got *that* twisted. At least his character isn't warped for me.
tl;dr: Unexpectedly good storytelling overall, but I've gone from squee to sick about anything Torchwood.
This post is up late, because I had to come back and edit the draft severely.
Final Episode
The fifth episode is when everything changes. I went into this spoiler free until last night, and I rather wish I'd spoiled myself rotten, so that I would not only be prepared, but would probably have sat it out. And the thing is, up until tonight - yes, even after episode 4 - I was riveted. Up through 3/4 of episode 4 I was even squeeful.
Now I'm sick with nausea. There's an old fandom term, "ose." As in "ose, ose, and more-ose." This was ose turned up to 11.
I may not like children, but I didn't sign up to watch an 8-year-old tortured to death. THAT IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT. The Doctor *will* turn away in shame. Are we supposed to pretend that this won't have happened if Jack shows up at the regeneration?
"I kept thinking of Blake's 7." M told me. "Destroy everything at the end." She's not wrong.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, I think it was an amazingly complex bit of plotting, particularly by Torchwood's usually lax, cheesy standard. Pacing, tone, characterization, tension... all at peak levels. Seeming throwaway bits came back later to be part of the plot. The plotlines at no point involved a main character being dumb as dirt. (I appreciate a story that doesn't require someone to act like they've already donated their brain to science.) Watching Frobisher be broken on the emotional rack was some creepy, compelling TV. The whole thing ended up gutting, appalling, grim... but I can't say it wasn't effective.
This isn't to say that I don't have major qualms about said story. About how Jack became someone who could so easily sacrifice his own grandson. About Ianto's death, and not just in the "damnit, he's my favorite character" sense. No, because the whole shock value of suddenly killing a main character was used twice at the end of last season, and now a mere 4 episodes later, ta da! Here comes the same rabbit out of the same hat. And then, because we can't up the ante with regular characters, we'll kill a kid - *onscreen!* I had to turn away more than once.
Wow, do I wish that it hadn't been labeled Torchwood.
And rumor has it that RTD really wanted to write a completely different show, a new one, and this story would have worked excellently with only minor changes. (Make Not!Jack older, make the 1965 trade his first assignment, put the bomb in his briefcase instead of his stomach, pull him out of the rubble alive, and have only one intact oxygen mask in the escape/backup kit they brought to speak to the 456.) So I feel that if RTD wanted to write a miniseries for Sanctuary something else, he should have up and written a miniseries for Sanctuary something else. I wouldn't have watched it -- but that's one of the reasons why I wish he had. I'm so... shattered... at what Jack has become that I'm finding I can't read the Torchwood book I saved for "afters." Heck, Empty Child/The Doctor Dances are my all-time favorite Who story, and it's going to be a bit, if ever, before I can watch them and see vaguely honorable Jack and not think about how his creator will turn him into someone who will rip his own grandson from his screaming daughter's arms and kill him.
No clue how it could ever be possible to have a 4th season from where it stands. Not only because I would be more likely to reach for a barf bag than watch more of what I got tonight, but because whatever happens next with the remaining characters is going to be derivative. Why derivative? One word:
Jack
Jack is a man who has extensive knowledge of time and space (and the mechanics for traveling them) and cannot die, which means that he will outlive all his friends, many of whom will die during their attempts to save the Earth from alien menace. He has even sacrificed his own planet family in order to end a terrible threat. This makes him very, very emo. Oh, and he works with UNIT when he has to.
Does this sound just a tad familiar?
The strength of both spinoffs is also their biggest weakness. RTD didn't just recreate the Doctor for a new millenia, he Xeroxed the character. Sarah Jane = Three, and at these levels of emo, Jack is rapidly approaching Ten. (Or 10.2 or 10.3, or however he would fit in with the altverse clone.) If RTD wants to move beyond the ties to Who, he shouldn't have stripped the show of everything that made it unique - the Rift, the Hub, Cardiff, Myfanwy, the team the humor, the hope, the camaraderie. If all we've got left is Doctor Lite and his plucky cute woman assistant (and, grudgingly, her boyfriend/hubby), might as well just call them Doctor, Rose, and Mickey and be done with it.
While I'm speaking about the characters:
Gwen
My opinion of her has run hot and cold up until now. I don't think she's a threat to my ship (because let's face it, Jack's OTP is Jack/anything consenting with a hole, preferably in large groups. Jack/Gwen vs Jack/Ianto? Please. He'd be suggesting a foursome with Rhys.) I wanted to like her - but then she'd babble, or screw around on Rhys, or confess to Rhys but retcon him so she didn't have to take responsibility, or put the whole world in danger because she decided she couldn't lose Rhys even though she wasn't treating him very well. So while I didn't actively dislike her, I didn't care about her either. In this miniseries she's been competent, compassionate - but most of all, she's finally a believable ex-cop, something we only truly saw in one previous episode in all of Torchwood. (When she was finding all the people who came back through the rift. EXCELLENT police work on her side, and my heart really broke for her being essentially punished for doing what was right.) This Gwen, still giddy over aliens but comfortable in the group, compassionate but instantly cold when necessary, smart and investigative, determined, strong - this is the Gwen we should have seen all along. The Gwen her fans saw but casual viewers didn't.
Ianto
At first I didn't feel much of anything at all. I was so convinced he *wasn't* going to die, a belief that just got more dogged with most everyone else's often-stated convictions on any and all evidence that he *was* - so when he *did,* my main reaction was "Woah. They were right."
But that doesn't nullify the objections against it. That the character was extremely popular with the general public as well as fandom, and the Jack/Ianto ship got them lots of good publicity in the alternative press.
There was more to this part of the post, about how Torchwood was down past sustainable levels and how it would have been more shocking to kill the pregnant married woman, and how I was sorry to see Ianto go but I wasn't gutted, especially knowing how many ways characters can come back in the Whoniverse. It had the phrase "Schrodinger's Tea Boy."
But it was all drafted before ep 5. Y'know what I think now? I'm GLAD he got out before it got *that* twisted. At least his character isn't warped for me.
tl;dr: Unexpectedly good storytelling overall, but I've gone from squee to sick about anything Torchwood.