Torchwood, at the edge of the Whoniverse by Capella

CAPELLA'S BLOG

Capella

Torchwood, at the edge of the Whoniverse
Wednesday, December 9, 2009

My next favorite show right after Firefly is Doctor Who. And it is a very close runner up. The Whoniverse is just every storyteller's dream. I mean, the 'verse is fabulous in all it's possibilities, but in the world of the Doctor, you have literally time and space at your hands. Not to mention a larger than life protagonist, who is superhero and most humane non-human at the same time. And some very excellent writers have worked on that legend during the past decades. Plus I find David Tennant way sexy, I hate to see him go. And it is a TV show which has died and was revived twice, the second time with tremendous sucess. That surely spells hope for all browncoats. The Tardis, as constantly changing as her owner, totally grows on you as well. She is a bit like Serenity, in that matter.
So as a hardcore Doctor Who fan, it is pretty much a given that I also watched Torchwood. It is a spin-off, after all. And even though it lacks David Tennant, it does have John Barrowman. Did I say David was sexy? Yeah, sure, and he is the kind of guy I would agree to marry without ever meeting him in person, just based on his acting and the way he comes across in interviews. But John? He is a living, walking testosterone canon. Unbelievable. And man, does he know it. Not the type I'd want to marry ... and gay, too, of course, but I think I'd still try to rip his clothes off should I ever get near him. Sorry, got distracted here ...let me clean up the drool ... where was I going with this? Right, Torchwood. I have to admit, even though I liked a few of the eps in the first season (Countrycide being my favorite), the series as a whole just did not work for me. The different characters seemed pretty fuzzy, there was no consequent character development, no clear line in the whole thing. The second season got a bit better in that (and had James Marsters in a pretty Spike-like guest role) , but still I got the feeling that in some cases the character development was sacrificed for the sake of a story angle or a sometimes just a joke that the writer of the ep wanted to bring across. So even though the second season had me drawn in towards the end (and did intersect nicely with Doctor Who, too), I wasn't too excited about the third season and put off watching it until now. Now I just finished watching the first ep and I am very impressed. I think it wasn't a bad idea to kill off two of the main characters in season two. From what I can say after this one episode, the reduced team works together much better. Ianto and Jack are going steady and start to have couple issues more and more and Russell T. Davies's take on the whole gay thing is as refreshing and natural as you'd expect of him. The scene where Ianto admits to his sister that he is in love with his boss is just so heartbreaking and so funny at the same time. Other good stuff in the ep as well ... the nice doc who you already imagine as new team member and who then turns out to be evil ... that could have been written by Joss, it works so well. Maybe Russell T. Davies had the chance of giving Torchwood nore thought, now that he passes Doctor Who on to Stephen Moffat (and that promises to be brilliant as well ... even without David). So I am totally excited to watch the other 4 eps as well. (Season 3 has only 5 eps which where shown on British TV on 5 consecutive days ... unusual) And there will be a fourth season. Go Torchwood!

COMMENTS

Saturday, December 12, 2009 12:10 PM

WAKEUPSOON

I do love Torchwood, in some ways more than Doctor Who, even, but personally I wasn't overly impressed with the 3rd season. I think it was the format, it just didn't work for me. I'm looking forward to where they take the 4th one .. we'll just have to see what happens.

POST YOUR COMMENTS

You must log in to post comments.

YOUR OPTIONS

THIS MONTH'S ENTRIES

Mar

April 2024

May