Torchwood: My Thoughts

[bluejeans07]

Please do NOT read if you do NOT want to be spoiled.


I think Torchwood is over. The Torchwood that I loved I mean. On one hand, it does open for a world of new possibilities, a new Torchwood, new Hub.

But I wonder if that's really wanted. In the greater scheme of things, what does Torchwood actually serve? Is Torchwood truly needed? This universe has UNIT, the Doctor, the Shadow Proclamation, and eventually the Time Agency. As each part of Torchwood broke down, all that was left was Cardiff and it was Jack Harkness's sheer determination that there be a Torchwood to monitor the Rift, to keep watch for aliens that would go to the Rift FIRST.

At the beginning, I was excited about CoE and I really loved watching Torchwood come into their own but now I realize that there were too many mistakes made. There wasn't anyone to pull back on Jack Harkness and actually TRY to figure out the alien threat FIRST. And while the alien was meant to be the main antagonist, it wasn't the case at all. The adversaries were humans, governments, paper pushers, and soldiers who were following the orders of other orders of a small, tiny group of misinformed people who didn't even TRY to figure out what they were fighting against.

All this time, I wanted to yell at the screen, "Do your research! Don't be stupid! Don't be selfish! It's not about YOU!" They addressed the alien threat SO LATE in the game that there was no freaking choice. Jack HAD to make the ultimate sacrifice, he always, always has to make the ultimate sacrifice, and it ends up being his fault. He made the mistake of going after the government first, the alien second. The alien should have been first.

I'm angry that there wasn't enough focus on what the alien WAS. There was hardly any writing about the 456, about how it's wavelength, when it was known from the START that it was. All the alien technology that exists with UNIT and Torchwood, neither huge military facility had some sort of advanced or alien technology that would deal with wavelengths? I find that HARD to believe. The 456 ended up being completely one dimension: they are a cruel threat with bacteria weaponry who use children as drugs and are made up of wavelengths. That's it. That's all they were. And I'm disappointed that that's all because I wanted so much more. When did they discover that children could be used as drugs? HOW did they discover that children could be used as drugs? Why do they need so many when in the beginning they only needed 12? Why do THEY keep the link with Clem when clearly, they don't need him! WHY did they let out that huge wavelength that killed Clem when all it basically did was show the people of Earth that it HURT the 456?? Also. DOCTOR HAS A PHONE. He doesn't NEED to appear in the episode but he could have been ASKED about the bloody wavelengths!

This season of Torchwood was meant to get Jack out of Earth. They had to cut off all of his ties to the Earth to do so and that means killing Ianto, severing the relationship with his daughter permanently, and showing that Gwen is out of his hands forever. But with Jack gone, it means Torchwood is gone. Jack IS Torchwood. Gwen may be Torchwood's heart, but Jack IS Torchwood. Torchwood is always the small, tough one, the one that makes the hard choices, the one that has to kill so that UNIT and the Doctor don't have to.

Will there be a season 4? I don't know if I can watch a season 4 of Torchwood without Jack and Ianto, and I don't know if a season 4 can exist with just Gwen, Martha and probably Mickey. There were rumors from the beginning that Torchwood was going to become more less adult and focus on a Torchwood with just Gwen, Martha and a new team, but can that team really succeed? Jack and the Doctor have the knowledge of aliens, history, multiple lives, etc. and that knowledge gives them a fighting chance against things that are unknown. Sarah Jane has Mr. Smith. What does Gwen have? A broken Hub? A Rift in Time and Space that can't be controlled? Pterodactyl bacon?

Maybe it's not a Torchwood show that they're aiming for. Maybe it's more of a Jack's Rad Adventures Through Space show. But that's so similar to Doctor Who! Mysterious guy that goes around space that solves problems and saves lives by using wits and muscles?

I'm quite unsatisfied honestly. It was fun but I, as a viewer, wasn't ready for it to be over. I can look past Ianto dying and that he's dead and not coming back, but to have Torchwood dissolved in this way leaves me feeling unsatisfied with so many questions that I have that hasn't been answered and no one is going to answer them now.

Comments

[perrie.livejournal.com]

I think they didn't give us any details about the 456 because, as you said, this series wasn't really about them. They were the formless, nameless threat shrouded in smoke that could be as terrifying as our minds made them because if we really saw them, they just wouldn't be a threat any more. No one knew what they were really facing, so no one knew how to fight back. I think the whole point was that the alien wasn't the threat - the Government, and the people who think they know best are the threat, and it's especially relevent right now when absolutely nobody I know trusts the Government. Not even a little bit - this series showed us exactly what we've all been thinking; that ministers are lying to us and turning things around and not taking anybodys needs into consideration except their own selfish ones. With what's going on over here right now, that made them the enemy and the monster, not the alien at all.

I liked that Earth was left all alone too - No Doctor, no Martha, no outside help. Just bureaucratic decisions and wrong decisions and everything going to anarchy because quite frankly, we destroyed ourselves. Phoning the Doctor would have been like a get out clause - oh, we're in terrible mortal danger and the world is going to shit but hey, let's phone a friend! He'll know what to do. And the 456 needed more children because, like any drug user, they got greedy. They wanted more hits, more highs, and they were using terror and coersion and threatening moves to blackmail Earth into giving them exactly what they wanted. Isn't that how any addict acts? The 456 could need children to start a war or repopulate their planet and in that case Earth could almost be seen as helping a species, but they're not, they're giving their children freely to drug addicts, and they're convincing themselves that it's the right thing to do that. That really tugged at me more than anything else.

To me, this series was the end series. That's it. Done. No more Torchwood, no more series 4. The BBC do that a lot - Fawlty Towers, Robin Hood, Life On Mars, loads more I can't think of right now. One big, immense piece that takes out it with a bang. I like it so much better that way, instead of dragging it out until the show changes too much, the cast changes too much and us fans are left with just a shell. I'd rather have a few sharp shocks and then that's it. Done.

Anyway, those are just my ramblings. And a lot of them too. Big snogs, Jeanie-o. I know I'm in the minority for thinking that that episode was absolutely right, but that's okay by me. (:

[bluejeans07.livejournal.com]

I always have problems with a story that involves convenience in the plot because it feels like things that haven't been earned. Clem was a useless character, he was a lucky tool for plot, as was Steven, and in the end, so was Ianto. Also, so was weird creepy guy that humped the alien glass. He was meant to be Weird and Creepy and that's it. It's so convenient that no one is studying the 456, no one is trying to figure it out when all of a sudden TADAH, it's a wavelength? Where did THAT come from? What about the air they breath? What if you took the air out? What would happen? How did they release the disease into the building? How did they initiate the lock down of the building when they are only tennicled entities that vomit when they talk? For another: HOW ARE THEY TALKING???

The 456 was made to be almost like a PERSON which annoys me too because they're emphasized to be this GREAT ALIEN THREAT. You're completely right that they're written to be addicts but does that mean the entire planet of 456 are addicted to children? How can an entire planet get hooked on getting high on just 12 children? That goes back to all of my questions that I put in above. XD

The idea of the Government being the actual threat is a great idea don't get me wrong, but I don't think it was pulled off to the extent that it could have been. The Government was indeed a tightly wound entity onto itself, arrogantly thinking of their own wants, but there were so many questions unanswered. In the end, the Government almost seemed just as one dimensional as the 456. They were meant to be a THREAT and do the worst things as possible: sacrifice children, kill Torchwood, get Jack off the planet.

Also, people kept asking, "What is the 456? What is it?" That keeps me asking about them too and because the characters are asking, I WANT TO KNOOOOW. If there's anything Doctor Who has emphasized on, is that aliens come in all shapes and forms, and that they are INTERESTING in what they need, and what they want, and how they live.

I agree that the series is the end series, but I'm so unsatisfied with that mainly because the first two seasons weren't that great and they were getting better! Each main characters' journey was awkward except for Gwen's who finally, finally managed to come into her own. Ianto's was cut short, there was no time to explore his relationship with Jack and to explore his sexuality which to me, he seems fiercely in denial of. And Jack, we do NOT get to go into his head. I understand that we don't for the Doctor, we're not supposed to go into a Time Lord's mind, but Jack is human, he is an immortal human and the way he thinks is similar/close to the way we think and I want to know more about that.

The thing is, this was mortal danger. And if I was in mortal danger and I knew a friend could save me, I would phone my friend! Do I want to die, no! The way that they saved the world left me with a lot of questions: why does it have to be the wavelength with a child when Clem wasn't a child? What about the Sub Wave Network that used the Hub and the Rift Manipulator as a big telephone signal strong enough to call the Doctor through TIME AND SPACE and yet not strong enough to transmit through defeat an alien? Of course we can't do that, that'll keep the story going and get Jack off the earth!

Now, I don't have problems with serieses (seriesi? plural?) ending. That's SUCH a problem in American animation that it becomes a franchise and series exists to keep the money truck rolling. This was the reason I preferred anime for a long time because things would be limited to 24 episodes or less on certain series that really focused on a good, strong plot. I have to say that CoE for me ended prematurely because I didn't get all the explanations that I thought were needed, the alien was practically forgotten about, and the whole point of this series was to end it. I am unsatisfied. But oh well, it's over.

I'm glad that you think it's absolutely right that's great, but I'm just not satisfied. It's like having really great foreplay and then the sex turns out to be lame to the point that you don't really orgasm.

[strollerman.livejournal.com]

I need a hug.

[bluejeans07.livejournal.com]

I send buff man hugs from SoCal! If hugs are sendable and I was a buff man to send them...

[strollerman.livejournal.com]

Ok, well, you'll be at SDCC, right? I'll take your girly-girly hugs, unless you can find me a cute buff boy to follow me around...

[bluejeans07.livejournal.com]

I won't be, not this year. :(

[strollerman.livejournal.com]

Aww, well, I'll take your virtual hug then. Gallifrey?