![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrphSorry. I know that some of you don't like to hear that word, but I've finally finished watching the first season of Torchwood. And ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evilruss was right...
It's an odd idea for a series, is Torchwood. Apparently it's something RTD has wanted to do for years - but once it arrived, he only wrote one episode of season one, and he may not be writing any of season two.
It's not Doctor Who, but sometimes it's not sure what it is. It's in Cardiff, it's saving the world on a smaller scale, it's packed full of sex and bad language.
And then there's Captain Jack. The only familiar character... but Gwen is the character the viewer's usually supposed to identify with, and often gets far more screen time. Despite his reputation, Jack seems to be getting far less sex than the rest of his team, too...
Sometimes it completely misjudges itself. Sometimes it almost hits the mark - and, just once or twice, it comes up with something that's really quite special. Captain Jack Harkness, for example - best episode of the season, by a long way. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
So, that's the episodes. One final word, though. Villains. Torchwood isn't Doctor Who and the dynamic works differently. You can't use the same types of villains in both.
The Doctor is smarter than the bad guys. Hordes of alien soldiers? He'll run rings around them. Evil masterminds? They'll trade speeches and the Doctor will somehow outwit them - even if it's the Master or Davros. That's how it works. The Doctor wins through wit, not violence. And he talks a lot, so he works well with talkative villains he can swap insults with.
Torchwood is different. The first really good villain it's cooked up is Bilis Manger. He doesn't gloat before he kills you. He doesn't stop to explain himself before he's won. In fact, sometimes he doesn't talk much at all. He's a little unsettling and extremely manipulative. Torchwood are continually one step behind him - sometimes more - and struggling to catch up. He messes with their heads and lays snares decades in advance.
He's exactly the sort of villain they need - he would have made a wonderful Sapphire and Steel bad guy too - and he wouldn't work nearly as well in Doctor Who, would he?
...and on some level Torchwood, like Doctor Who, has to measure itself by the quality of its villains. So, when season two arrives, let's have more like Bilis and Suzie, less like Mary and Lisa the Cyberwoman, please.
I'm a little concerned that lead writer Chris Chibnall seems to be so patchy (End of Days isn't bad, as noted - but Day One and Cyberwoman...?), but reassured that Cath Tregenna (who wrote Captain Jack Harkness is writing at least two season two episodes.
The real question, though, is why they haven't borrowed the writers who've really done well on Doctor Who - Steven Moffat, Paul Cornell, Rob Shearman... I mean, Paul Cornell's comic series Wisdom was almost an audition for Torchwood, wasn't it? :)
Edit: Having said that, they've got Matt Jones signed up. He wrote Impossible Planet and Satan Pit for Doctor Who, so that's a good start...
evilruss was right...It's an odd idea for a series, is Torchwood. Apparently it's something RTD has wanted to do for years - but once it arrived, he only wrote one episode of season one, and he may not be writing any of season two.
It's not Doctor Who, but sometimes it's not sure what it is. It's in Cardiff, it's saving the world on a smaller scale, it's packed full of sex and bad language.
And then there's Captain Jack. The only familiar character... but Gwen is the character the viewer's usually supposed to identify with, and often gets far more screen time. Despite his reputation, Jack seems to be getting far less sex than the rest of his team, too...
Sometimes it completely misjudges itself. Sometimes it almost hits the mark - and, just once or twice, it comes up with something that's really quite special. Captain Jack Harkness, for example - best episode of the season, by a long way. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
- Everything Changes - Meet the gang. Not bad, with a nice twist at the end. A decent start, setting the tone for the series. One of RTD's better moments - especially the pizza.
- Day One - Torchwood's edgy, see? Sex, violence, bad language. And this episode's trying too hard. Alien sex vampire? No thanks.
- Ghost Machine - Another artifact story, the second one in three episodes. Torchwood does this a little too much for my taste, although (as in this case) some of them are interesting character pieces.
- Cyberwoman - look, it's a Doctor Who monster! But with added sex appeal. I can see how this might have been workable, but the finished product wasn't. Trapped in the base with something bad? Not a bad plot idea. But cyberman vs. pterodactyl? Um, no. Please. On the other hand, it's the first decent Ianto episode. Poor boy.
- Small Worlds - I really wanted to like this one. I'm a huge fan of PJ Hammond's Sapphire and Steel, after all. And it almost worked - another nice twist ending. However... at this point I wasn't entirely sure what a Torchwood story was, but this still didn't feel like it should be a Torchwood story. Lovely moments, but something missing. And the special effects sometimes didn't help.
- Countrycide - large chunks of this might be heavily inspired by Dog Soldiers and a few other films, but it's still a guilty pleasure. I really quite liked it. The team finally get out of their urban environment... and get out of their depth in something that they shouldn't really be involved in at all. The ending has a nice line and a poor shoot-out, but on the whole it's pretty good.
- Greeks bearing gifts - Toshiko's moment in the spotlight, and it's not one of the strongest episodes. Another alien artifact, a passable story and a fairly weak finish.
- They Keep Killing Suzie - I liked this one. Aside from the Avengers reference in the title, which quickly raised a smile, it's an effective sequel, a powerful character piece and another good look at just how much Torchwood messes up its staff (something which is one of the better themes in the series...). And for once it's a decent villain and a a decent finish.
- Random Shoes. Torchwood's answer to Love and Monsters. Which actually works reasonably well. Narrated by a dead bloke who never quite knew what was going on. A very different tone from the rest of the series. But not bad at all. Quirky. Another artifact/MacGuffin story, though.
- Out of Time. No villain. No artifact. No mystery or dastardly plot. Just three people caught up in the rift, appearing fifty years away from home. Really not sure what I think of this one. It's a story Doctor Who would never do, and it's very definitely Torchwood. It didn't have the ending I expected. It had some lovely character moments - for Owen, for Jack and for two of the guest stars. We might also see a recurring character come out of this. Maybe. But it also had moments that made me cringe...
- Combat - 'Weevil Club'. Competent, another good Owen episode. I don't actually like Owen, but sometimes he's very watchable. Especially when he's broken. This one's Fight Club with aliens... and a nice finish, which sets the scene for what comes next.
- Captain Jack Harkness. Best episode in the season. A few moments let it down, but this one was what Torchwood needs to be if it's going to succeed. It has a plot, it has a villain, it has angst. And it has a great final scene with Captain Jack leaving 1941.
- End of Days - not quite as good as the previous episode, but a nice example of things going to hell in a handbasket. Secrets get revealed, our heroes get outwitted and manipulated, something Very Bad gets loose... and is a little less impressive than its herald, but never mind that.
So, that's the episodes. One final word, though. Villains. Torchwood isn't Doctor Who and the dynamic works differently. You can't use the same types of villains in both.
The Doctor is smarter than the bad guys. Hordes of alien soldiers? He'll run rings around them. Evil masterminds? They'll trade speeches and the Doctor will somehow outwit them - even if it's the Master or Davros. That's how it works. The Doctor wins through wit, not violence. And he talks a lot, so he works well with talkative villains he can swap insults with.
Torchwood is different. The first really good villain it's cooked up is Bilis Manger. He doesn't gloat before he kills you. He doesn't stop to explain himself before he's won. In fact, sometimes he doesn't talk much at all. He's a little unsettling and extremely manipulative. Torchwood are continually one step behind him - sometimes more - and struggling to catch up. He messes with their heads and lays snares decades in advance.
He's exactly the sort of villain they need - he would have made a wonderful Sapphire and Steel bad guy too - and he wouldn't work nearly as well in Doctor Who, would he?
...and on some level Torchwood, like Doctor Who, has to measure itself by the quality of its villains. So, when season two arrives, let's have more like Bilis and Suzie, less like Mary and Lisa the Cyberwoman, please.
I'm a little concerned that lead writer Chris Chibnall seems to be so patchy (End of Days isn't bad, as noted - but Day One and Cyberwoman...?), but reassured that Cath Tregenna (who wrote Captain Jack Harkness is writing at least two season two episodes.
The real question, though, is why they haven't borrowed the writers who've really done well on Doctor Who - Steven Moffat, Paul Cornell, Rob Shearman... I mean, Paul Cornell's comic series Wisdom was almost an audition for Torchwood, wasn't it? :)
Edit: Having said that, they've got Matt Jones signed up. He wrote Impossible Planet and Satan Pit for Doctor Who, so that's a good start...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-26 08:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-27 07:25 am (UTC)