89 ★ the sacred simplicity of you at my side
More thoughts on CoE, a month later. Not too spoilery. And this is what my thoughts will be about:
(S1 Torchwood intro. I want to post the S2 one, because I'm pretty sure I prefer that one, but I couldn't find it on youtube.)
I realise now, that from Day One, something felt kind of wrong. I'm pretty sure Day One, now that I really think about it, is probably the most Torchwood-esque ep of CoE, as CoE got progressively less Torchwood-like, but still. Something was off. And now I remember why. Starting Day One, I was SO EXCITED OMG, and then-- "Oh... they've lost the original intro. ): No more cheesy Jack voiceover ("Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police... and Torchwood is ready."), which I must admit I loved maybe purely because I LIKE HEARING JB'S SEXY SEXY VOICE, or that CRAZY AWESOME DARK CREEPY THEME TUNE WITH FLASHING RED TORCHWOOD LOGOS THAT MADE MY SKIN TINGLE WITH EXCITEMENT." And I was so disappointed, for that one second, but then I got over it quickly, because OMG FINALLY MORE TORCHWOOD, I guess it doesn't matter if they've just lost the intro, right? Everything else will make up for it!
WRONG. Because, looking back now, that one small thing essentially represents losing the Torchwood we knew and loved. And I was reading other people's thoughts on CoE, and I finally realised, STUPID ME, that we really lost EVERYTHING about the original Torchwood. The Hub, the SUV, (MYFANWY WTF??? well at least Janet might have crawled out of the wreckage thank god), CARDIFF ITSELF. They were in London for most of the show! Torchwood was all about the Cardiff rift spitting out crazy things into Cardiff and Torchwood doing more crazy things with those crazy things, but CoE had nothing to do with that at all. All we had left were the characters. Nothing else. NADA. (And CoE was hardly even that focused on the characters we already knew! It was all about THE GOVERMENT. I THOUGHT YOU WERE OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT, TORCHWOOD, DAMMIT.) And by the end of it, we almost don't really even have our characters at all. The few we have left feel so very distant and unfamiliar.
And that's very, very wrong. That's really stripping everything away. Like, omg, LET'S TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF AND GET YOU NAKED, BECAUSE IT WILL BE EVEN MORE AWESOME FUN TIEMS! But... well, in the end, we don't get the naked fun tiems that we were PROMISED. We just get dumped AT THE NORTH POLE WITHOUT ANY CLOTHES ON and left to freeze to death. That's what it is.
Why couldn't RTD have done this with something new? Not Team Torchwood. Not our Torchwood Three. He could have easily changed the storyline a bit to fit completely new characters into it, because the way things were, S1 & S2 hardly ever mattered. And it might have been so much easier to watch and actually wholeheartedly enjoy. Because while I did like CoE and I think it an absolutely brilliant piece of TV, I cannot say I love it. Not now. Not really. Because emotionally, I hate what S3 did to me, as I am, even now, a month later, still reeling. I must admire it also for being capable of doing that, but I hate that it had to do it. It wasn't necessary.
But I loved that intro. I really did. And I miss it so damn much.
(I still want S4. With Jack in it. I'm not sure if I'll keep watching without Jack, because I didn't come to Torchwood for the canon slash. I came to it for JB, and I'll be staying for JB. But I'm not sure it could ever go back to what it was. They've lost too much.)
I'm sorry that I keep talking about Torchwood. About CoE. Someone else has probably already said what I've said. But I have to do this anyway, because I need to get it out.
I hardly ever rewatch S1 (and by hardly ever I think I mean never, apart from that one ep, Captain Jack Harkness, and some moments, mostly J/I ones, from various eps), and I can see other people doing a rewatching project, so I think I may have to do a rewatch sometime soon, myself. It will be comforting.
As a side note that IS related: My dad e-mailed me after marathoning the first 6 episodes of S2. He said, "Jack surprised me! And Ianto!" AHAHAHA oh dad. Are you saying you didn't see their relationship coming? But Ianto propositioned Jack so very weirdly with that stopwatch in TKKS! AND THEY KISSED IN THE S1 FINALE. (Admittedly, EMBARRASSINGLY, I didn't notice that J/I kiss in End of Days. Then I started reading post-S1 fic, all talking about THE KISS, and I was like OMG WHAT KISS WHAAAAT, so I started looking at screenshots and THERE IT WAS. HOW THE HECK DID I MISS THAT??? My life is bizarre.)
Click to view(S1 Torchwood intro. I want to post the S2 one, because I'm pretty sure I prefer that one, but I couldn't find it on youtube.)
I realise now, that from Day One, something felt kind of wrong. I'm pretty sure Day One, now that I really think about it, is probably the most Torchwood-esque ep of CoE, as CoE got progressively less Torchwood-like, but still. Something was off. And now I remember why. Starting Day One, I was SO EXCITED OMG, and then-- "Oh... they've lost the original intro. ): No more cheesy Jack voiceover ("Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police... and Torchwood is ready."), which I must admit I loved maybe purely because I LIKE HEARING JB'S SEXY SEXY VOICE, or that CRAZY AWESOME DARK CREEPY THEME TUNE WITH FLASHING RED TORCHWOOD LOGOS THAT MADE MY SKIN TINGLE WITH EXCITEMENT." And I was so disappointed, for that one second, but then I got over it quickly, because OMG FINALLY MORE TORCHWOOD, I guess it doesn't matter if they've just lost the intro, right? Everything else will make up for it!
WRONG. Because, looking back now, that one small thing essentially represents losing the Torchwood we knew and loved. And I was reading other people's thoughts on CoE, and I finally realised, STUPID ME, that we really lost EVERYTHING about the original Torchwood. The Hub, the SUV, (MYFANWY WTF??? well at least Janet might have crawled out of the wreckage thank god), CARDIFF ITSELF. They were in London for most of the show! Torchwood was all about the Cardiff rift spitting out crazy things into Cardiff and Torchwood doing more crazy things with those crazy things, but CoE had nothing to do with that at all. All we had left were the characters. Nothing else. NADA. (And CoE was hardly even that focused on the characters we already knew! It was all about THE GOVERMENT. I THOUGHT YOU WERE OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT, TORCHWOOD, DAMMIT.) And by the end of it, we almost don't really even have our characters at all. The few we have left feel so very distant and unfamiliar.
And that's very, very wrong. That's really stripping everything away. Like, omg, LET'S TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF AND GET YOU NAKED, BECAUSE IT WILL BE EVEN MORE AWESOME FUN TIEMS! But... well, in the end, we don't get the naked fun tiems that we were PROMISED. We just get dumped AT THE NORTH POLE WITHOUT ANY CLOTHES ON and left to freeze to death. That's what it is.
Why couldn't RTD have done this with something new? Not Team Torchwood. Not our Torchwood Three. He could have easily changed the storyline a bit to fit completely new characters into it, because the way things were, S1 & S2 hardly ever mattered. And it might have been so much easier to watch and actually wholeheartedly enjoy. Because while I did like CoE and I think it an absolutely brilliant piece of TV, I cannot say I love it. Not now. Not really. Because emotionally, I hate what S3 did to me, as I am, even now, a month later, still reeling. I must admire it also for being capable of doing that, but I hate that it had to do it. It wasn't necessary.
But I loved that intro. I really did. And I miss it so damn much.
(I still want S4. With Jack in it. I'm not sure if I'll keep watching without Jack, because I didn't come to Torchwood for the canon slash. I came to it for JB, and I'll be staying for JB. But I'm not sure it could ever go back to what it was. They've lost too much.)
I'm sorry that I keep talking about Torchwood. About CoE. Someone else has probably already said what I've said. But I have to do this anyway, because I need to get it out.
I hardly ever rewatch S1 (and by hardly ever I think I mean never, apart from that one ep, Captain Jack Harkness, and some moments, mostly J/I ones, from various eps), and I can see other people doing a rewatching project, so I think I may have to do a rewatch sometime soon, myself. It will be comforting.
As a side note that IS related: My dad e-mailed me after marathoning the first 6 episodes of S2. He said, "Jack surprised me! And Ianto!" AHAHAHA oh dad. Are you saying you didn't see their relationship coming? But Ianto propositioned Jack so very weirdly with that stopwatch in TKKS! AND THEY KISSED IN THE S1 FINALE. (Admittedly, EMBARRASSINGLY, I didn't notice that J/I kiss in End of Days. Then I started reading post-S1 fic, all talking about THE KISS, and I was like OMG WHAT KISS WHAAAAT, so I started looking at screenshots and THERE IT WAS. HOW THE HECK DID I MISS THAT??? My life is bizarre.)