(no subject)
Because apparently I've got a bad case of Can't Let Go.
So I went to the writer's blog & asked...
[...] I still wonder, though, if the message we're supposed to be getting from this episode is that TW's Guantanamo-esque treatment of Beth was somehow acceptable or at least a necessary evil -- or that in the end Beth, willing to sacrifice her life to retain her humanity, to avoid hurting others, was more human than the people who strapped her to a chair and made her scream in pain...
... and got this answer:
None of the former, bit of the latter - Beth volunteered, said she'd do anything to prove she was human, and the mind probe just digs information out without her needing to do anything, so it was the fastest way to prove it or disprove it. Yes, it really hurts, and the team weren't really happy about it, but I would never have had them force it on her.
I swear this is the last time I'm going to post about this episode, and I'll hopefully be a happy squeeful TW fangirl again by this time tomorrow, but I'm not exactly reassured by that explanation.
I've said before that my problems with Beth's treatment start way before they come to the mindprobe, so I'll just skip that.
But: Beth volunteered, said she'd do anything to prove she was human
Beth volunteered?! I guess strictly speaking you could say that, but it's a pretty cynical interpretation of the concept. A woman who was terrified and desperate enough to offer to do anything to prove her innocence/humanity (*), because she was even more afraid of what would happen to her when she couldn't? When the other option she faces is (at best) a cell next to the weevils for an indefinite length of time? Not to mention that she could have had absolutely no idea what she let herself in for; even with the glimpses she got of TW she couldn't have know that they'd come up with alien mind-reading technology. She probably thought she was living in a civilised country and despite her experiences at TW on some level probably still trusted them to treat her accordingly; at least not to harm or hurt her physically. But Jack only told her what they were going to do when she was already strapped into the chair and the machine was seconds away from being switched on, and and no one would have bothered to inform her that it'd be painful (never mind how) if she hadn't asked. And Gwen's claim that it was safe was hardly the full truth either. Would they have stopped if she'd asked them to then? Most likely Gwen would have oh-so-gently explained to her that it was really in her best interest to let them do it.
so it was the fastest way to prove it or disprove it.
And that make it right? So it's not even a necessary evil, just a convenient one? What about, oh wait, finding another way, or at least trying to? (Obviously I can see how this is an appealing solution from an script-writing point of view, but it's hardly an argument as far as the ethics of the situation are concerned.)
I would certainly hope they weren't happy about it.
(*) Obviously he wrote the script, but actually she didn't say quite that. What she said was: 'How can I prove it to you? How can I prove to you that I'm not an alien?'. Interpreting this as a carte blanche to use painful and unsafe alien technology on her without further questions or without allowing her to make an informed decision about the specific risks she was taking is--
Right. And I'm really tired of the subject now. Tired, overall; long day with horse duty & aborted-by-tree-across-track trail ride before work. *yawns*
In conclusion, the whole above, beyond and outside thing is not doing team Torchwood any good. And wasn't Jack supposed to come back happier? Or at least I think I remember reading as much?