New Torchwood!
BBC Radio 4 is currently broadcasting Torchwood radio plays (three all in all), which non-Brits like yours truly can download here until July 7th. Having listened to the first two, here are my reviews:
Asylum guest stars PC Andy and has a lot of Gwen and Andy interaction, and comparatively little Jack and Ianto, which I'm fine with (of the surviving three Torchwood regulars, I love Gwen best, and Andy character exploration is something I've been hoping to see/hear), but which probably won't please the target audience. Which isn't to say, Ianto fans, that there is no Ianto at all, or that he doesn't get any important scenes. What does strike me about this play, as well as last year's radio play Lost Souls and the later Golden Age, which are all different from each other, is that the relationship you actually get a good sense and exploration of as far as Mr. Jones is concerned isn't Jack/Ianto (which is just sort of there), but Ianto & Gwen. Contrary to what a lot of fanfic suppositions, it's Team Wales ganging up on the boss all the way, with Gwen and Ianto getting comrades-in-arms/banter/emotional support type of scenes which makes theirs the relationship I'm actually interested in among the three remaining regulars. Considering that the Torchwood scenes in the Doctor Who s4 finale also had Gwen and Ianto on the one hand and Jack on the other, I wonder whether this is how the tv version will go as well...
Asylum has a lot in common with s2's second episode: it's actually the story of the guest character (Frieda in this case, Beth in the tv episode), a sympathetic female alien (well, half-alien) at first unaware of her true nature, and Jack comes across as disturbingly ruthless. As opposed to the tv episode, however, Frieda survives, and as mentioned Team Wales, i.e. Gwen and Ianto, gang up on Jack and override him, starting a Torchwood asylum policy for aliens. In another parallel to the second season, in this case the episode Adrift, Andy functions as a foil to Gwen, showing her as somewhere between her old attitude and the TW one, and grounding her. (For those of us keeping score with Torchwood's liberal use of retcon - the very element that makes suspension of disbelief at "Jack gets indignant about Donna's fate" stories impossible for me - Jack is all for just dosing both Andy and Frieda; Gwen offers it to Frieda as an option but explains first and accepts when Frieda says no, and doesn't even consider it for Andy.) Pacing-wise, the play could do with some improvements. It's an okay story, neither bad nor really good, but with some excellent individual scenes.
The Golden Age, aside from one glaring flaw, is actually a terrific radio play. It highlights Torchwood's imperialist origin, uses British Imperialism as the true villain in a way that reminds me of later 80s Doctor Who (i.e. the Seventh Doctor era), and does some neat character exploration for Jack by presenting him with a foe who embodies aspects of himself. In it, Our Heroes travel to Delhi where people have been disappearing and proceed to discover that it's due to the old Torchwood India, which Jack, following orders from London, shut down in 1924 without bothering to find out what happened next. The metaphor of an old "members only" country club insisting on extending the past forever, sucking the lives out of the people around them to maintain their living style is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but it works so well one doesn't mind. The Duchess, Eleanor, whom Jack was involved with back in the day (naturally), is a good villain precisely because the 1920s patter sounds harmless at first until more and more casual racism creeps in and the full horror of what she has done is revealed, and because her immortality (due to alien device and exploitation of local population) is a mirror/foil to Jack's own, making it clear just why a "fixed point in time", not changing, can truly be an abomination. Jack, of course, does keep aware of the world outside his immediate circle (though sometimes he's in danger of slipping) and more or less welcomes the changes, which is what keeps him on the hero side of the hero/villain divide.
The glaring flaw? I don't mind that Team Cardiff visits India and basically only interacts with white British characters, because that's the plot point, the evil of the time bubble of an imperialist keep-Indians-outside past, and they are the villains. I do mind that the only Indian character showing up, Mr. Mahajan (via whom the Duchess and her fellow Torchwood India relics interact with the outside world), is not only a collaborator in the exploitation but later, when she turns against him as well, a helpless victim in need to be saved by Team Cardiff. An Indian collaborator per se would not be objectionable (the Raj wouldn't have worked without these) if there were other Indian characters around, preferably some who contribute to the downfall of Torchwood India and their lives-sucking ways themselves. Or, conversely, no Indian characters at all (making the link to the outside world some modern day expatriate Brit isntead). But only one Indian, and that Indian in the collaborator/victim role, undercuts the anti-colonial message they were going for and makes me go *headdesk*.
Still, I found the play so engaging that I'll probably listen to it again in its entirety, whereas Asylum only lures me to a selected scenes relistening. And I'm looking forward to The Dead Line, which will be broadcast today. In conclusion, of the three regulars, Eve Myles is still the best voice actor, which struck me about Lost Souls as well.
Asylum guest stars PC Andy and has a lot of Gwen and Andy interaction, and comparatively little Jack and Ianto, which I'm fine with (of the surviving three Torchwood regulars, I love Gwen best, and Andy character exploration is something I've been hoping to see/hear), but which probably won't please the target audience. Which isn't to say, Ianto fans, that there is no Ianto at all, or that he doesn't get any important scenes. What does strike me about this play, as well as last year's radio play Lost Souls and the later Golden Age, which are all different from each other, is that the relationship you actually get a good sense and exploration of as far as Mr. Jones is concerned isn't Jack/Ianto (which is just sort of there), but Ianto & Gwen. Contrary to what a lot of fanfic suppositions, it's Team Wales ganging up on the boss all the way, with Gwen and Ianto getting comrades-in-arms/banter/emotional support type of scenes which makes theirs the relationship I'm actually interested in among the three remaining regulars. Considering that the Torchwood scenes in the Doctor Who s4 finale also had Gwen and Ianto on the one hand and Jack on the other, I wonder whether this is how the tv version will go as well...
Asylum has a lot in common with s2's second episode: it's actually the story of the guest character (Frieda in this case, Beth in the tv episode), a sympathetic female alien (well, half-alien) at first unaware of her true nature, and Jack comes across as disturbingly ruthless. As opposed to the tv episode, however, Frieda survives, and as mentioned Team Wales, i.e. Gwen and Ianto, gang up on Jack and override him, starting a Torchwood asylum policy for aliens. In another parallel to the second season, in this case the episode Adrift, Andy functions as a foil to Gwen, showing her as somewhere between her old attitude and the TW one, and grounding her. (For those of us keeping score with Torchwood's liberal use of retcon - the very element that makes suspension of disbelief at "Jack gets indignant about Donna's fate" stories impossible for me - Jack is all for just dosing both Andy and Frieda; Gwen offers it to Frieda as an option but explains first and accepts when Frieda says no, and doesn't even consider it for Andy.) Pacing-wise, the play could do with some improvements. It's an okay story, neither bad nor really good, but with some excellent individual scenes.
The Golden Age, aside from one glaring flaw, is actually a terrific radio play. It highlights Torchwood's imperialist origin, uses British Imperialism as the true villain in a way that reminds me of later 80s Doctor Who (i.e. the Seventh Doctor era), and does some neat character exploration for Jack by presenting him with a foe who embodies aspects of himself. In it, Our Heroes travel to Delhi where people have been disappearing and proceed to discover that it's due to the old Torchwood India, which Jack, following orders from London, shut down in 1924 without bothering to find out what happened next. The metaphor of an old "members only" country club insisting on extending the past forever, sucking the lives out of the people around them to maintain their living style is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but it works so well one doesn't mind. The Duchess, Eleanor, whom Jack was involved with back in the day (naturally), is a good villain precisely because the 1920s patter sounds harmless at first until more and more casual racism creeps in and the full horror of what she has done is revealed, and because her immortality (due to alien device and exploitation of local population) is a mirror/foil to Jack's own, making it clear just why a "fixed point in time", not changing, can truly be an abomination. Jack, of course, does keep aware of the world outside his immediate circle (though sometimes he's in danger of slipping) and more or less welcomes the changes, which is what keeps him on the hero side of the hero/villain divide.
The glaring flaw? I don't mind that Team Cardiff visits India and basically only interacts with white British characters, because that's the plot point, the evil of the time bubble of an imperialist keep-Indians-outside past, and they are the villains. I do mind that the only Indian character showing up, Mr. Mahajan (via whom the Duchess and her fellow Torchwood India relics interact with the outside world), is not only a collaborator in the exploitation but later, when she turns against him as well, a helpless victim in need to be saved by Team Cardiff. An Indian collaborator per se would not be objectionable (the Raj wouldn't have worked without these) if there were other Indian characters around, preferably some who contribute to the downfall of Torchwood India and their lives-sucking ways themselves. Or, conversely, no Indian characters at all (making the link to the outside world some modern day expatriate Brit isntead). But only one Indian, and that Indian in the collaborator/victim role, undercuts the anti-colonial message they were going for and makes me go *headdesk*.
Still, I found the play so engaging that I'll probably listen to it again in its entirety, whereas Asylum only lures me to a selected scenes relistening. And I'm looking forward to The Dead Line, which will be broadcast today. In conclusion, of the three regulars, Eve Myles is still the best voice actor, which struck me about Lost Souls as well.