Day Five
Oh man, here is the end. General thoughts and my take on the series under the cut.
Okay, so I liked Gwen's little 'where's the Doctor' monologue, up until it became one of those 'why does God let disasters happen' things. Because he hates us is not actually a very good answer, Gwen. (See also: Pat Robertson.)
American military takeover! Not a reference to world events at all, yuss yuss.
MR DECKER IS ALIIIIIVE. Here's my favorites list (advance notice of who'll be killed, probably): Decker, Frobisher, Spears (senior secretary lady). Um. The mid-level bad guys are my favorites, apparently? I guess we knew that already.
AAH the children are CRACK. YES. RTD, why are you so brilliant and then lose yourself in your terrible specials? (Yeah, sure you write them that way on purpose. They still make no sense.) Are you some sort of mad, erratic genius? (YES)
Jack, you ass, stop ignoring Lois! I don't like her much, but when one of your operatives in jail asks you for reassurance, you give it to her! I realize you are broken up over your no-really-he's-not-my-boyfriend, but COME ON.
Oh man, PM and Frobisher confrontation. On the one hand, the PM's having a good try at fixing the problems with believability I singled out in the last episode. On the other, Frobisher's probably not high up enough to do that much mitigation. It should really be a Minister. On the foot, Frobisher FTFW. Looks like the PM's plan is going to develop some kinks.
Really touching Spears/Frobisher moment there with the mysterious Requisition 31. It is now canon in my head that they had a brief, embarrassing affair which ended as soon as Frobisher made up with his wife. But they still hang out off duty sometimes when everything's being difficult. Seriously, it's all in the looks they give each other and the bitter way Spears said 'you're not the first' to Lois.
Okay, I had paused the video to write the above, and when I restarted it Frobisher leaned in and KISSED SPEARS (on the cheek, but hey). Expect to see Spears/Frobisher on here VERY VERY SOON.
Okay, I realize there was a pause in there, but Andy says 'who's the father?' about Gwen's pregnancy, and the very next thing Gwen says is 'it's Torchwood.'
Oh, snap, she was serious. Bitter much?
OH MY GOD. Spears giving Frobisher's early eulogy to Lois is beautiful, and also all my inane fanon ramblings above given more concrete foundations.
Aaaand then murder-suicide. Not down with that. I'd've rather seen him run for it and use the gun on the military, only to be gunned down himself, if I had to lose him. But I won't say this isn't in-character. Just- huh. It would've been so easy for me to see him going for an outside enemy with that gun. I wonder why the writers made that decision.
Ooh, haha, I can see why all the Ianto fans didn't like this serial. Not only did it kill off their character, but it revealed that he was pretty much lying about his past all the time. Predictably, this endears him to me. Only now he's dead! Bah.
Despite the PM's attempt to make the 'inoculations' look good, the way they're going about children-collection is going to be pretty terrible. Not only pulling children kicking and screaming out of school, but heading into the estates to find them in their homes? Yeah, no one's going to buy the 'poor victims' spiel.
Oh hey, RIOT. Good.
And Andy gets in there, which, I mean, good for him, but he takes off his protective gear first. I can see ditching the yellow police thing, but I don't think proclaiming your independence should be rated higher than being protected against a kick in the gut.
Oh, and then he gets punched in the gut and goes down. Aaaandy...
Yes, shooting the guy who KNOWS everything will get rid of pesky dissenting views. Poor Mr. Decker. At least it's not fatal.
Spears is going to bite the PM's fucking HEAD off. Yesssss. I mean that literally. I am 100% in favor of this development.
Eeee, DECKER. I'm capslocking a lot in this post, and I'm sorry, but Decker knows what's what, and he knows he's going to get Jack's grandson fried, and he has the biggest smirk on his face. Chills, man.
Yay, 456 blow up and everything, but why do the soldiers just stop? They've got their orders, notwithstanding some screaming children. How do they know it's over?
Yay, Spears! But now the classist lady thinks she'll be taking over. I disapprove, but it's realistic.
And it's over. Spears and Decker are still alive!
So, here's what I thought about the series as a whole- brilliant. Just about what I would've written, given a basic sci-fi-action plot, and, while I'm not saying I'm a great writer, it's weird having things like this catered to me. I see why fans hated it, and I loved it for those reasons, mostly. And so, I think, did a lot of the critics who liked it.
It lost me a little at the end, mostly because the solution was ill-defined. Why does this frequency do anything? Why does it have to be a kid? Clem wasn't a kid, anymore. Why does Jack's grandson ACTUALLY die? Feedback? What? Five seconds of technobabble and I would've been sold.
But I was with it all the rest of the time, and how the hell did RTD pull that off? A lot of times I like some of his set up, and then I hate the rest, but this was just really good.
And hey, at fiveish hours, it maps pretty close to a longish old Who serial, like War Games. I'd've been interested to see Davies do something in this style for Who proper, though I'm sure it'd never fly.
Re: future Torchwood, I know who I'd like to see. Gwen as leader, Mickey and Martha come in, Lois, obviously, and Captain John, who stopped in one day looking for Jack and forgot to leave. Jack only comes back for brief appearances, too busy with his tourism thing. I know it's not going to happen, since Barrowman doesn't sound like he's got anything better to do, but I think Jack's character is a little played out. I'd like to see Gwen have more of a chance to shine, and I see that cast of characters as really compelling. Andy could be there too! I love Andy. But he's more of an excited add-on than a well-reasoned choice. Actually, since Noel Clarke and Freema Agyeman are always busy, I could see Andy and some random doctor as their back-ups. Come on, RTD. You know it'd be awesome.
Tl;dr: Spears/Frobisher forthcoming. I like CoE. A lot. How'd that happen?
Okay, so I liked Gwen's little 'where's the Doctor' monologue, up until it became one of those 'why does God let disasters happen' things. Because he hates us is not actually a very good answer, Gwen. (See also: Pat Robertson.)
American military takeover! Not a reference to world events at all, yuss yuss.
MR DECKER IS ALIIIIIVE. Here's my favorites list (advance notice of who'll be killed, probably): Decker, Frobisher, Spears (senior secretary lady). Um. The mid-level bad guys are my favorites, apparently? I guess we knew that already.
AAH the children are CRACK. YES. RTD, why are you so brilliant and then lose yourself in your terrible specials? (Yeah, sure you write them that way on purpose. They still make no sense.) Are you some sort of mad, erratic genius? (YES)
Jack, you ass, stop ignoring Lois! I don't like her much, but when one of your operatives in jail asks you for reassurance, you give it to her! I realize you are broken up over your no-really-he's-not-my-boyfriend, but COME ON.
Oh man, PM and Frobisher confrontation. On the one hand, the PM's having a good try at fixing the problems with believability I singled out in the last episode. On the other, Frobisher's probably not high up enough to do that much mitigation. It should really be a Minister. On the foot, Frobisher FTFW. Looks like the PM's plan is going to develop some kinks.
Really touching Spears/Frobisher moment there with the mysterious Requisition 31. It is now canon in my head that they had a brief, embarrassing affair which ended as soon as Frobisher made up with his wife. But they still hang out off duty sometimes when everything's being difficult. Seriously, it's all in the looks they give each other and the bitter way Spears said 'you're not the first' to Lois.
Okay, I had paused the video to write the above, and when I restarted it Frobisher leaned in and KISSED SPEARS (on the cheek, but hey). Expect to see Spears/Frobisher on here VERY VERY SOON.
Okay, I realize there was a pause in there, but Andy says 'who's the father?' about Gwen's pregnancy, and the very next thing Gwen says is 'it's Torchwood.'
Oh, snap, she was serious. Bitter much?
OH MY GOD. Spears giving Frobisher's early eulogy to Lois is beautiful, and also all my inane fanon ramblings above given more concrete foundations.
Aaaand then murder-suicide. Not down with that. I'd've rather seen him run for it and use the gun on the military, only to be gunned down himself, if I had to lose him. But I won't say this isn't in-character. Just- huh. It would've been so easy for me to see him going for an outside enemy with that gun. I wonder why the writers made that decision.
Ooh, haha, I can see why all the Ianto fans didn't like this serial. Not only did it kill off their character, but it revealed that he was pretty much lying about his past all the time. Predictably, this endears him to me. Only now he's dead! Bah.
Despite the PM's attempt to make the 'inoculations' look good, the way they're going about children-collection is going to be pretty terrible. Not only pulling children kicking and screaming out of school, but heading into the estates to find them in their homes? Yeah, no one's going to buy the 'poor victims' spiel.
Oh hey, RIOT. Good.
And Andy gets in there, which, I mean, good for him, but he takes off his protective gear first. I can see ditching the yellow police thing, but I don't think proclaiming your independence should be rated higher than being protected against a kick in the gut.
Oh, and then he gets punched in the gut and goes down. Aaaandy...
Yes, shooting the guy who KNOWS everything will get rid of pesky dissenting views. Poor Mr. Decker. At least it's not fatal.
Spears is going to bite the PM's fucking HEAD off. Yesssss. I mean that literally. I am 100% in favor of this development.
Eeee, DECKER. I'm capslocking a lot in this post, and I'm sorry, but Decker knows what's what, and he knows he's going to get Jack's grandson fried, and he has the biggest smirk on his face. Chills, man.
Yay, 456 blow up and everything, but why do the soldiers just stop? They've got their orders, notwithstanding some screaming children. How do they know it's over?
Yay, Spears! But now the classist lady thinks she'll be taking over. I disapprove, but it's realistic.
And it's over. Spears and Decker are still alive!
So, here's what I thought about the series as a whole- brilliant. Just about what I would've written, given a basic sci-fi-action plot, and, while I'm not saying I'm a great writer, it's weird having things like this catered to me. I see why fans hated it, and I loved it for those reasons, mostly. And so, I think, did a lot of the critics who liked it.
It lost me a little at the end, mostly because the solution was ill-defined. Why does this frequency do anything? Why does it have to be a kid? Clem wasn't a kid, anymore. Why does Jack's grandson ACTUALLY die? Feedback? What? Five seconds of technobabble and I would've been sold.
But I was with it all the rest of the time, and how the hell did RTD pull that off? A lot of times I like some of his set up, and then I hate the rest, but this was just really good.
And hey, at fiveish hours, it maps pretty close to a longish old Who serial, like War Games. I'd've been interested to see Davies do something in this style for Who proper, though I'm sure it'd never fly.
Re: future Torchwood, I know who I'd like to see. Gwen as leader, Mickey and Martha come in, Lois, obviously, and Captain John, who stopped in one day looking for Jack and forgot to leave. Jack only comes back for brief appearances, too busy with his tourism thing. I know it's not going to happen, since Barrowman doesn't sound like he's got anything better to do, but I think Jack's character is a little played out. I'd like to see Gwen have more of a chance to shine, and I see that cast of characters as really compelling. Andy could be there too! I love Andy. But he's more of an excited add-on than a well-reasoned choice. Actually, since Noel Clarke and Freema Agyeman are always busy, I could see Andy and some random doctor as their back-ups. Come on, RTD. You know it'd be awesome.
Tl;dr: Spears/Frobisher forthcoming. I like CoE. A lot. How'd that happen?