Torchwood and superheroes...

[mrph]

Well, ok, that's two slightly different topics, but the online fan reaction to Children of Earth has been interesting, as has the reaction to the latest issue of Marvel Comics' X-Factor...

 

I'm slightly surprised by the reaction to Ianto's death in Torchwood. James Moran, who co-wrote two episodes, appears to have been accused of everything under the sun - including homophobia and risking the health of mentally ill fans.

Yes, they killed the gay guy[1]. No, I don't think they did it just to make the show more suitable for a BBC1 audience. And I'm amazed that some people seem to think that James Moran should somehow have distanced himself from the project (quit?) instead of 'betraying the fans' in this way.

There are already interviews out there regarding season two that confirm the death-and-not-quite-resurrection plotline they eventually used for Owen was originally written for Ianto. Which (at least as far as I'm concerned) can be taken as a sizeable hint that his life expectancy wasn't looking so good...

The Mirror has just slated Torchwood, saying that the season 3 storyline was plagiarised from Wyndham's Midwich Cuckoos (I don't think so...) and comparing the show to Blake's 7. They may have a point with that comparison, although probably not the one they were aiming for - they're both dark shows where the good guys aren't guaranteed to survive, and often end up with blood on their hands in the name of the greater good...

As for X-Factor, which is one of Marvel's many not-quite-X-Men spin offs, this month's issue ended with a surprise kiss between one of the regular cast ( ex-superhero Rictor, who's now lost his powers) and new arrival Shatterstar, a superpowered swordsman who hasn't really been seen in comics since the 90s.

The two characters have a little history - I think there were a lot of subtle hints back when they were friends & part of the same X-Team years ago, but until now there's never been a definite statement that they weren't straight. Well, there is now...

The fan reaction has been largely positive, aside from the occasional 'think of the children' - I think a lot of long-time fans were waiting for this (if Shatterstar ever turned up again...) and it's nice to see that Marvel hasn't copped out again [See also: Northstar, Destiny/Mystique, the Rawhide Kid..,].

The reaction from Shatterstar's original creator, Rob Liefeld has been rather less positive. After stating that he had gay friends, he added that Shatterstar is not gay and that - if he ever writes for Marvel again (he doesn't own the rights to the character) -he'll find a way to undo this at the first opportunity... *sigh*

I don't think that's too likely to happen, mind you..,

[1] I'm quoting this bit from an outraged twitter, not making a judgement as to where Ianto was on the Kinsey scale... :)

Comments

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

It wasn't Ianto's death that was a betrayal, it was yet another RTD deus-ex-machina reverse-the-polarity ending. Four excellent episodes and one almighty shite of a final episode.

Independence Day's "uploading a virus" now seems remarkably well thought-through in comparison to Torchwood Children Of Earth Day Five.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. But it wasn't actually a surprise.

Our heroes were facing aliens with invisible ships, telepathic child-control on a global scale, superior technology and some rather nasty biological weaponry.

Only one of the 456 was actually visible and close enough to shoot. Once you've built that up as a backdrop to the plot, how can you resolve it without resorting to technobabble and deus ex machina? The bad guys are operating on a scale that can only be matched by using a macguffin of some sort - and are too distant and mysterious to try sneaky tricks.

...which, going back to Doctor Who, is why an episode with one Dalek is likely to have a more interesting close than an episode with millions. The only way you beat millions - at least in a RTD story - is by pressing buttons or invoking godlike power.

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

The only way you beat millions? First check there really are millions. It was a surprise to me that there was not a final twist. I genuinely thought the plot would take a deeper, more convoluted, more intelligent line. At the end of Day 4, this is how I thought Day 5 would pan out:

Our heroes were facing an alien who claimed to have invisible ships, superior technology, rather nasty biological weaponry and a large number of fellow aliens supporting it. It had actually only demonstrated:

• A widespread but non-harmful parlour trick of getting all the children in the world to chant and point in unison, roughly as harmful as a stage hypnotist.

• A small-scale lethal biological weapon whose effects quickly dispersed.

• An extremely primitive transmat (and here, as a Classic Who purist, I refuse to use the word "teleport") which looked highly vulnerable to interference.

• Dependence on a specific athmospheric environment which contained its movement to one room.

• Highly addictive dependent behaviour, from a drug supply controlled by humans (i.e. their children), with side-effects including spasms and nausea.

How I predicted Day 5 to conclude was:

• Somebody (possibly Captain Jack, after a dewy-eyed moment with his grandson) makes a heart-warming speech to the UN, US, UNIT, COBRA, whoever, and they decide that sacrificing 10% of the children would destroy society anyway, and commit to calling the alien's bluff at some point on Day 5. There is also a realisation that a drug addict will never kill his supplier so it must be a bluff.

• A faux-unofficial pirate TV / pirate radio / internet viral meme advises everyone to stay indoors on Day 5, ostensibly to safeguard the children (but actually this is a government scheme to contain potential virus spread). The BBC web department get to mock up some cool fake websites and the BBC World Service gets to make some cool fake pirate broadcast trails which are shown eminating from a various radios around the world including a tribe of nomads that they shot whilst on location in Dubai for the last Doctor Who special.

• The army turn up, ostensibly to collect the children (but actually to ensure everyone stays indoors; they don biohazzard suits at the appointed time).

• The bluff is called. Small outbreaks of virus deaths are briefly reported and stop within a couple of hours.

• A law enforcement representative of the alien's race turns up, arrests the alien and apologises for the inconvenience caused by the tiny minority of their race who have succumbed to drug addiction.

That is how an intelligent show like Classic Who or Quatermass would have done it.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

I'd considered the "not a whole race of them" option myself - RTD pulled something vaguely similar with the Slitheen, after all - but I still think it would have felt a little like cheating if the threat itself wasn't real.

I think one of the considerations for the writers must have been keeping the 456 'alien' and keeping Torchwood important, too - bringing in alien cops would have diminished that in some ways.

Doctor Who can have the Doctor outwitting Judoon who are chasing an alien criminal (and don't care who's in their way), after all, but on some level it's still up to the Doctor to save the day and outwit the villain himself - he's involved right up until the final moment.

That's trickier to do with Torchwood, as they lack the Doctor's ability to turn up anywhere, take anything he sees in his stride and persuade people not to shoot/arrest him as he gets involved.

If Children of Earth was a Doctor Who story, he'd simply have gatecrashed the cabinet meeting as well as Thames House (and probably would have outsmarted and/or confused the Ambassador before it released the virus, too...). You can be sure that he'd have a few scathing words for Frobisher and the PM, too...

Torchwood stories can't quite do the same thing.

Torchwood kept the 456 sufficiently offstage (...even an empty box at the end... are they really dead, or just scared off? The blood in the box was red - was that the child dying in the same way that Clem did, not the alien?) that they felt like a deeply creepy species even before the drug revelations.

I think anything that harms that weakens the story as a whole, unless it's got something very stylish to replace it with.

Bad guys in a story like this need to be competent - and if you're going to do the "only one or two of them" revelation, I think it needs to be done earlier, as a stepping stone to the next part of the plot - e.g. a bit where the 456 get desperate and ruthless, falling back on a very nasty plan B they kept in reserve in case they were exposed - not as part of the grand finale itself.

I do agree with your points about the weaknesses of the plot, but I think they run deeper than episode 5. They fail to deliver in the last episode because the groundwork wasn't quite there in the earlier ones. IMO, of course.