[episode review] Torchwood 1x02: Day One
These is an episode review done in response to a challenge on scifiland.
Obviously, contains spoilers in the form of quotes and discussion of plot.
This review to the second episode of Torchwood S1 is a reaction post, as I had never seen the episode in full before and decided it'd be a good chance to finally force myself to take the time to watch it. I liked it!
Torchwood 1x01: Day One
"Make me feel human..."
One thing I absolutely love about the Whoniverse is how that at the end of the day, the vast majority of the philosophical discourse it presents, in spite of all the scale and grandeur and epic proportion reality, has to do with the nature of being human. In Doctor Who, even the mythos of the Time Lords and the Daleks all have to do with the various ins and outs and negatives and positives of being human and the things that we are expressly not or can't be or are not supposed to be as human beings.
This holds true in Torchwood so far, as well. As someone who's interested in both philosophy and religion and actually feels fairly comfortable with my beliefs about life, the Universe, and everything, insofar as I have taken the time and energy to develop them, I absolutely adore these shows because they make me think, they make me feel, and they might even disturb me a little, but in the end they help build up who I am, whether I ultimately agree or disagree, without offending me. In spite of the fact that nearly all popular media is littered with potentially insensitive and offensive things, the Whoniverse is a perfect fit for me, and so far I'm going to say that Torchwood is fitting the bill.
I've avoided future spoilers (apart from the death-spoilers which everyone on LiveJournal likely knows now), so I must say I was somewhere between completely not-surprised and taken aback by the fact that there was an Orgasm Monster alien. I read that Torchwood was derived from an idea tossed around by RTD and, I believe, Julie Gardner, before the decision to bring Doctor Who back was ever brought up in earnest, let alone finalized. Torchwood was a vague concept that eventually found itself grafted into the Whoniverse in the vein of Buffy and Angel, shows that have in a lot of strange and very interesting ways affected the New Series of Doctor Who. One of Buffy's accomplishments to my understanding was the way it approached youth and interaction and life with the backdrop of the supernatural and terrible.
Torchwood seems like a British and more mature answer to this, and I don't think it'd actually take knowing the meta background for me to draw this conclusion. At first I was laughing, finding the concept of using a sex monster of some sort rather absurd. It's still absurd--it's essentially embodied Alien Sex Pollen--but I also think that they managed to pull something poignant from it.
Sex was the perfect starting place for this show, not because it's raw and edgy or draws ratings or whatever but because it was a very, very good way to separate itself from its parent show--establishing itself as a post-watershed program, from a technical standpoint--but also giving you the tone for what this show is going to be talking about. In Doctor Who, the Doctor may be a sexual creature to some degree or another, but I get the distinctive feeling that the reason it's left so ambiguous and that I get the feeling that the Doctor doesn't engage in sexual activity all that frequently in my fanon is because he has a lot of reasons and even instincts to focus outward, upon something else besides the immediacy and the urgency of life. His species is programmed for longevity, and thus he knows the pain of having loved and lost, he knows what intimacy feels like, how good it can feel and how badly it can hurt to lose it, but Gallifrey had, prior to its fall, become such a "civilized" society that I get the feeling that it would likely have tended to stifle sexuality as a baser need. This is probably the root for the hypersexuality that we sometimes see exhibited in the Master and, to my understanding, suggested with the Rani, but also it explains why the Doctor was able to develop in such a way that while he may have such thoughts, he's probably going to choose chasing a shooting star any day of the week.
The Doctor shows human beings what they can be outside themselves. He shows them their brilliance and their potential and he gives them this whole helping of perspective that most people never once taste, let alone get to hold.
But that's where Jack comes in. The last thing he got to say to Nine in a conversational way was, "I wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was better off as a coward."
Jack was completely prepared to face his own death in The Parting of the Ways, even if he was frightened. However, when Rose brings him back to life because of her love for him, and then the Doctor runs from him due to 'instinct', we find that Jack has seen this beautiful, bright and shining thing that the Doctor teaches his humans companions that they can be--he's become it. And yet, he was one of the ones that the Doctor had (unintentionally) fashioned into a weapon. He was prepared to die, he sacrificed himself, died a hero's death, even if there had been a time he'd been a coward in life, but then all of that is subverted by the fact that he does not get to die fully and then can never die. Jack will never know peace of full absolution for everything he has done because he cannot stop existing. Even the Doctor will do that, eventually, but Jack won't.
So in essence, Jack has lost his humanity because he's lost the very thing that makes humans able to have such perspective and to be "so human". And yet he clings to the shadow of what he once was--as all the Doctor's companions do when looking at things from the half that's empty, rather than the half that's so full of the beauty about the Doctor and his relationships with his companions. Torchwood, in my opinion and understanding, introduces us to the rubble that touching stardust leaves behind.
Sex is something that Time Lords, likely, considered a baser desire and drive. However, for humans, so many of our relationships are determined by sex. I can't remember where I read this, but I read that back in Old Who canon/book canon that there was some convoluted mess that Time Lords had to reproduce with looming or something because they were cursed?? Um... I don't really remember, but regardless my point is that even our familial relationships are ultimately based on once-formed sexual bonds (I'm sorry for reminding my readers, I promise).
"All this sex. All we see, all we think. So much beauty ... and so much fear. We want it but we're so afraid of it ..."
The way the above was illustrated through Carys's eyes was as beautiful as it was rather tragic, and I think it's true. Even in times when sex hasn't been so prevalent in the media an equal amount of energy was put forth into trying to maintain the opposite, so everyone was still always thinking about sex.
And this bit of Carys's dialogue ultimately explains its context in the metanarrative of the episode. Because, in the end, it isn't about sex, not entirely. It's about the thing that all of the Whoniverse is ultimately about, only from the perspective of the young and vital and alone, it's about what we love and what we fear and what he hate and what we need and what we want. It's, ultimately about the one thing we all think about: Being human.
"You travel halfway across the universe for the greatest sex. You still end up dying alone."
So far I'm loving everyone except Owen.
Obviously, contains spoilers in the form of quotes and discussion of plot.
This review to the second episode of Torchwood S1 is a reaction post, as I had never seen the episode in full before and decided it'd be a good chance to finally force myself to take the time to watch it. I liked it!
Torchwood 1x01: Day One
"Make me feel human..."
One thing I absolutely love about the Whoniverse is how that at the end of the day, the vast majority of the philosophical discourse it presents, in spite of all the scale and grandeur and epic proportion reality, has to do with the nature of being human. In Doctor Who, even the mythos of the Time Lords and the Daleks all have to do with the various ins and outs and negatives and positives of being human and the things that we are expressly not or can't be or are not supposed to be as human beings.
This holds true in Torchwood so far, as well. As someone who's interested in both philosophy and religion and actually feels fairly comfortable with my beliefs about life, the Universe, and everything, insofar as I have taken the time and energy to develop them, I absolutely adore these shows because they make me think, they make me feel, and they might even disturb me a little, but in the end they help build up who I am, whether I ultimately agree or disagree, without offending me. In spite of the fact that nearly all popular media is littered with potentially insensitive and offensive things, the Whoniverse is a perfect fit for me, and so far I'm going to say that Torchwood is fitting the bill.
I've avoided future spoilers (apart from the death-spoilers which everyone on LiveJournal likely knows now), so I must say I was somewhere between completely not-surprised and taken aback by the fact that there was an Orgasm Monster alien. I read that Torchwood was derived from an idea tossed around by RTD and, I believe, Julie Gardner, before the decision to bring Doctor Who back was ever brought up in earnest, let alone finalized. Torchwood was a vague concept that eventually found itself grafted into the Whoniverse in the vein of Buffy and Angel, shows that have in a lot of strange and very interesting ways affected the New Series of Doctor Who. One of Buffy's accomplishments to my understanding was the way it approached youth and interaction and life with the backdrop of the supernatural and terrible.
Torchwood seems like a British and more mature answer to this, and I don't think it'd actually take knowing the meta background for me to draw this conclusion. At first I was laughing, finding the concept of using a sex monster of some sort rather absurd. It's still absurd--it's essentially embodied Alien Sex Pollen--but I also think that they managed to pull something poignant from it.
Sex was the perfect starting place for this show, not because it's raw and edgy or draws ratings or whatever but because it was a very, very good way to separate itself from its parent show--establishing itself as a post-watershed program, from a technical standpoint--but also giving you the tone for what this show is going to be talking about. In Doctor Who, the Doctor may be a sexual creature to some degree or another, but I get the distinctive feeling that the reason it's left so ambiguous and that I get the feeling that the Doctor doesn't engage in sexual activity all that frequently in my fanon is because he has a lot of reasons and even instincts to focus outward, upon something else besides the immediacy and the urgency of life. His species is programmed for longevity, and thus he knows the pain of having loved and lost, he knows what intimacy feels like, how good it can feel and how badly it can hurt to lose it, but Gallifrey had, prior to its fall, become such a "civilized" society that I get the feeling that it would likely have tended to stifle sexuality as a baser need. This is probably the root for the hypersexuality that we sometimes see exhibited in the Master and, to my understanding, suggested with the Rani, but also it explains why the Doctor was able to develop in such a way that while he may have such thoughts, he's probably going to choose chasing a shooting star any day of the week.
The Doctor shows human beings what they can be outside themselves. He shows them their brilliance and their potential and he gives them this whole helping of perspective that most people never once taste, let alone get to hold.
But that's where Jack comes in. The last thing he got to say to Nine in a conversational way was, "I wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was better off as a coward."
Jack was completely prepared to face his own death in The Parting of the Ways, even if he was frightened. However, when Rose brings him back to life because of her love for him, and then the Doctor runs from him due to 'instinct', we find that Jack has seen this beautiful, bright and shining thing that the Doctor teaches his humans companions that they can be--he's become it. And yet, he was one of the ones that the Doctor had (unintentionally) fashioned into a weapon. He was prepared to die, he sacrificed himself, died a hero's death, even if there had been a time he'd been a coward in life, but then all of that is subverted by the fact that he does not get to die fully and then can never die. Jack will never know peace of full absolution for everything he has done because he cannot stop existing. Even the Doctor will do that, eventually, but Jack won't.
So in essence, Jack has lost his humanity because he's lost the very thing that makes humans able to have such perspective and to be "so human". And yet he clings to the shadow of what he once was--as all the Doctor's companions do when looking at things from the half that's empty, rather than the half that's so full of the beauty about the Doctor and his relationships with his companions. Torchwood, in my opinion and understanding, introduces us to the rubble that touching stardust leaves behind.
Sex is something that Time Lords, likely, considered a baser desire and drive. However, for humans, so many of our relationships are determined by sex. I can't remember where I read this, but I read that back in Old Who canon/book canon that there was some convoluted mess that Time Lords had to reproduce with looming or something because they were cursed?? Um... I don't really remember, but regardless my point is that even our familial relationships are ultimately based on once-formed sexual bonds (I'm sorry for reminding my readers, I promise).
"All this sex. All we see, all we think. So much beauty ... and so much fear. We want it but we're so afraid of it ..."
The way the above was illustrated through Carys's eyes was as beautiful as it was rather tragic, and I think it's true. Even in times when sex hasn't been so prevalent in the media an equal amount of energy was put forth into trying to maintain the opposite, so everyone was still always thinking about sex.
And this bit of Carys's dialogue ultimately explains its context in the metanarrative of the episode. Because, in the end, it isn't about sex, not entirely. It's about the thing that all of the Whoniverse is ultimately about, only from the perspective of the young and vital and alone, it's about what we love and what we fear and what he hate and what we need and what we want. It's, ultimately about the one thing we all think about: Being human.
"You travel halfway across the universe for the greatest sex. You still end up dying alone."
So far I'm loving everyone except Owen.