Torchwood and Russell T Davies
In-de-structable.. Cap-tain Hark-ness (kettle drum rif)...
Some thoughts on Torchwood and Russell T... (turn away if you're easily offended)
Put John Barrowman in a red uniform, give him a Cary Grant-style accent and it could have been that indestructible and indispensable member of Spectrum. Come to think of it, Spectrum's job was to deal with aliens too.
Yes, I, like
aaron1972 thought of Captain Scarlet when watching Torchwood last night. The revelation of Captain Jack's immortality rather trampled on the shows credibility for me. Sex-crazed aliens did nothing to amend this situation.
I wonder how long it will be before the word 'retrometabolism' will be heard? Even Gerry Anderson realised he'd made a rod for his own back with the devise, which allows for no character jeopardy. It had dubious merit in the 'sixties, and now is up there with 'it was only a dream', and, dare I say it, 'Bobby in the shower' (which of course was a variation on the dream scenario).
Maybe the article written by Russell T Davies in the Saturday Times 'Knowledge' magazine, which I read before the programme, didn't help. His comments range between naive and conceited but also offensive to many people who are likely to be his audience.
Take this for example:
'I have always loved Doctor Who... It's a passion that's never left me. But I understand why there's still a taboo around it. I've never liked fantasy. I get very put off by elves and dwarves and any sort of Middle-earth fantasy land . I can't stand The Lord of the Rings. Science fiction, to me, is quite different. More rational, closer to the real world. My homemade definition of science fiction is that it deals in rational, scientific rules, rather than fantasy's world of magic... If there was a Doctor Who story in which magic occurred, I simply wouldn't allow it...'
A couple of points here already. First, he's just alienated (excuse the unintentional pun) the Tolkien fans, and maybe other fantasy fans too. Second, Lord of the Rings is not a good example of a fantasy full of magic, not the kind he's talking about, anyway. Chants of Abracadabra, wingardium leviosa or izzy-wizzy-lets-get-busy tend to be thin on the ground: he would have been more correct to cite Harry Potter or Earthsea.
Secondly, he prefers 'rational, scientific rules'? I've already mentioned retrometabolism. What about 'orgasmic energy'? What about men who explode into fairy dust when they climax? I'm all for a bit of hooky science as long as it's believable. Killing aliens in the film Evolution with selenium, because they are nitrogen based, and selenium has the same relative position to nitrogen, as arsenic does to carbon, on the periodic table, might be a little far-fetched, but it has a logic.
How about this:
'I have made changes. But if people say I've introduced a soap opera element into the show, I take that as a pejorative. What they mean is drama. A soap opera element would be the Doctor turning round and saying "Iam you father, Rose". But if you mean people are happy or sad or affected by events, that's drama.'
OK, now he's alienated soap fans! More importantly, he hasn't thought this through. Does this definition mean that Star Wars is a soap opera? What about Jane Eyre ('We are cousins, Jane...').
And this, discussing Torchwood's post-watershed position:
'That doesn't necessarily mean being more adult in terms of sex and violence... I'm not terrible interested in depicting sex and violence; they can be so sixth-form if you don't do them correctly - so much in terms of emotion.'
Meaningless sex in a public toilet with an explosion into fairy dust seems a very fitting topic for childish sixth-formers. (There goes the youth audience!)
And for all 'geeks' out there( particularly male, middle-class and white!):
'It also attracts a lot of geeks. You can't deny that when you get a mailbag like mine. And what we've done on Doctor Who is to take it away from them, which has left a lot of the men screaming and crying. But to get eight million people watching it, which is the whole point, that male white middle-class audience that dominated the audience (sic) for so long has to put up with no longer being pandered to.'
Because, of course, it was little known before Russell T came along. Conceit in the first degree!
Well, here's a thought. Russell T himself is a geek, and his scripts for Doctor Who are nothing more than fanfic! This is something in itself which I don't object to, but let's not get carried away. What he is writing is no more remarkable than some of the fanfic found on the web. The difference is, he gets to screen it. Here's another thought. If RTs scripts are fanfic, then Captain Jack is an OC. It's common for fanfic writers to invent OCs and then sometimes they like them and give them their own story. That's what Torchwood is, the fanfic of an OC!
Yes, I shall continue to watch Torchwood. I want to see how it pans out. Captain Jack could be an interesting character - if he is allowed to be. He is also in danger of falling into parody.
Russell T concludes about Torchwood that:
'...you don't want to waste your time chasing after people who don't want to watch. You just have to concentrate on making it good. That's all that matters. People will watch something that is good.'
Here's hoping for something good.
If you want to read the whole article, go here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22877-2407543.html
Some thoughts on Torchwood and Russell T... (turn away if you're easily offended)
Put John Barrowman in a red uniform, give him a Cary Grant-style accent and it could have been that indestructible and indispensable member of Spectrum. Come to think of it, Spectrum's job was to deal with aliens too.
Yes, I, like
aaron1972 thought of Captain Scarlet when watching Torchwood last night. The revelation of Captain Jack's immortality rather trampled on the shows credibility for me. Sex-crazed aliens did nothing to amend this situation.
I wonder how long it will be before the word 'retrometabolism' will be heard? Even Gerry Anderson realised he'd made a rod for his own back with the devise, which allows for no character jeopardy. It had dubious merit in the 'sixties, and now is up there with 'it was only a dream', and, dare I say it, 'Bobby in the shower' (which of course was a variation on the dream scenario).
Maybe the article written by Russell T Davies in the Saturday Times 'Knowledge' magazine, which I read before the programme, didn't help. His comments range between naive and conceited but also offensive to many people who are likely to be his audience.
Take this for example:
'I have always loved Doctor Who... It's a passion that's never left me. But I understand why there's still a taboo around it. I've never liked fantasy. I get very put off by elves and dwarves and any sort of Middle-earth fantasy land . I can't stand The Lord of the Rings. Science fiction, to me, is quite different. More rational, closer to the real world. My homemade definition of science fiction is that it deals in rational, scientific rules, rather than fantasy's world of magic... If there was a Doctor Who story in which magic occurred, I simply wouldn't allow it...'
A couple of points here already. First, he's just alienated (excuse the unintentional pun) the Tolkien fans, and maybe other fantasy fans too. Second, Lord of the Rings is not a good example of a fantasy full of magic, not the kind he's talking about, anyway. Chants of Abracadabra, wingardium leviosa or izzy-wizzy-lets-get-busy tend to be thin on the ground: he would have been more correct to cite Harry Potter or Earthsea.
Secondly, he prefers 'rational, scientific rules'? I've already mentioned retrometabolism. What about 'orgasmic energy'? What about men who explode into fairy dust when they climax? I'm all for a bit of hooky science as long as it's believable. Killing aliens in the film Evolution with selenium, because they are nitrogen based, and selenium has the same relative position to nitrogen, as arsenic does to carbon, on the periodic table, might be a little far-fetched, but it has a logic.
How about this:
'I have made changes. But if people say I've introduced a soap opera element into the show, I take that as a pejorative. What they mean is drama. A soap opera element would be the Doctor turning round and saying "Iam you father, Rose". But if you mean people are happy or sad or affected by events, that's drama.'
OK, now he's alienated soap fans! More importantly, he hasn't thought this through. Does this definition mean that Star Wars is a soap opera? What about Jane Eyre ('We are cousins, Jane...').
And this, discussing Torchwood's post-watershed position:
'That doesn't necessarily mean being more adult in terms of sex and violence... I'm not terrible interested in depicting sex and violence; they can be so sixth-form if you don't do them correctly - so much in terms of emotion.'
Meaningless sex in a public toilet with an explosion into fairy dust seems a very fitting topic for childish sixth-formers. (There goes the youth audience!)
And for all 'geeks' out there( particularly male, middle-class and white!):
'It also attracts a lot of geeks. You can't deny that when you get a mailbag like mine. And what we've done on Doctor Who is to take it away from them, which has left a lot of the men screaming and crying. But to get eight million people watching it, which is the whole point, that male white middle-class audience that dominated the audience (sic) for so long has to put up with no longer being pandered to.'
Because, of course, it was little known before Russell T came along. Conceit in the first degree!
Well, here's a thought. Russell T himself is a geek, and his scripts for Doctor Who are nothing more than fanfic! This is something in itself which I don't object to, but let's not get carried away. What he is writing is no more remarkable than some of the fanfic found on the web. The difference is, he gets to screen it. Here's another thought. If RTs scripts are fanfic, then Captain Jack is an OC. It's common for fanfic writers to invent OCs and then sometimes they like them and give them their own story. That's what Torchwood is, the fanfic of an OC!
Yes, I shall continue to watch Torchwood. I want to see how it pans out. Captain Jack could be an interesting character - if he is allowed to be. He is also in danger of falling into parody.
Russell T concludes about Torchwood that:
'...you don't want to waste your time chasing after people who don't want to watch. You just have to concentrate on making it good. That's all that matters. People will watch something that is good.'
Here's hoping for something good.
If you want to read the whole article, go here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22877-2407543.html