![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangrrl_squeesMental note: never buy CD-Rs on special at Fry's. I've had four out of six disks turn out to be defective. I wish I had the receipt, as I'd return the things but, oh well, I'm only out about $10.
Never mind my woes: Torchwood thoughts.
Everything Changes is your basic setup episode, it does what it does in the expected straightforward manner.
I like Gwen Cooper a lot. She's smart character, dealing as best she can with a weird situation. And it's a minor thing but I like the fact that they've cast an actress (Eve Myles) who is not drop-dead gorgeous. She's pretty, certainly - Alex called her striking - but she's (relatively) realistic, too. In good shape, of course, but also a bit short and with a hairstyle that does have one thinking "You don't spend much time in front of the mirror, do you luv?" so kudos to the director/designer for that. If Gwen had been some fashion plate vamping around in a police uniform, I would have been vexed.
The episode itself? As I said, your basic setup episode and not all that remarkable. Nice production values, solid performances, somewhat oversimple story, but you don't want to alienate your new viewers with too much, too soon - particularly if you're trying to lure in non-Doctor Who fans.
Day One tries a little bit too hard to be, well, post watershed with the sexual parasite thing. But the humor saved it, thank god - and it looks like next week's eps will be more action-oriented. I guess they'll be going for the post-watershed bodycount, hm?
I like how Gwen's finding her way - some brilliant moments, some complete clangers, and the rest of the team's similarly imperfect. Hooray for imperfection! I'm a big believer in the notion that its the mistakes that make a character interesting. Perfect is boring.
The "You're out of touch with humanity" bit came about earlier than expected - I thought they'd hold that off for a few episodes - but I think that maybe it's better to get that inevitable observation out of the way. Better than building an entire, angsty storyline around it, which was what I was fearing might happen. It might yet, I suppose, but I hope not.
The stories for both eps were pretty straightforward - all "A" plot and no "B", unless you count the ongoing speculation about Jack. I like the fact that Jack's keeping information back - there's some things even Torchwood won't believe, I guess - and I'm assuming that Gwen's presence will pry little admissions out of him from time to time. I very much appreciate the "I can't die" thing - a legacy of Little Miss Time Goddess (as rpg!Jack calls her) doing her thing, and it makes sense. Granted, I'm sure it'll inevitably bite him on the ass (or has already) but for the meantime, well, at least this show's protagonist has a reason for being able to take a ridiculous amount of damage and keep on going - unlike so many action heroes.
Favorite line by Jack: "Work your way through my back catalog and we'd be here 'til the sun explodes" - although "Go home, Gwen Cooper. Eat lasagna, kiss your boyfriend. Be normal - for me" came in a close second. And speaking of rpg!Jack (aka![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jack_harkness_), you know I'm going to be using Jack's "At least I can't get pregnant. I'm not doing that again." line for fodder... ;)
I'm guessing the hand in the jar was the Doctor's. Cute. It was a left hand, and if it's important only to Jack... I'm guessing that importance doesn't derive from it being a Gallifreyan tissue sample. Mind you, that does, of course lead into all sorts of questions about what Jack's thinking about the Doctor, these days. Given that a crossover between Torchwood and Doctor Who has been confirmed (Season 3 for DW, I think?) I suppose we'll hear a few of those thoughts eventually. If at least one of them isn't Jack going huminahuminahumina at Ten, I'll be sorely disappointed.
Overall, I agree with the Guardian critic who said that Doctor Who is (generally) a kid's show that appeals to adults, and Torchwood looks like an adult show that'll appeal to kids. I think that if the stories get a bit more complex - B plots never hurt anyone, ditto story arcs - and they get over their "Oooh, look! We're post-watershed" giddiness, it could be a solid, long-lasting bit of entertainment. There are moments of that potential complexity peeking through in Day One, but RTD loves throwing in these beautiful moments and then going nowhere with them (viz that amazing scene between Ten and Finch in School Reunion: I used to have so much mercy) so the possibility of it all crashing and burning has not been ruled out, imho. As a DW fangirl, naturally I'm hoping for the better outcome...
And, thank god, now I can go read all of my friends' thoughts on the show, too. Whew.
EDIT: And I knew it wouldn't last. I caved and bought myself a couple months' worth of paid subscription. If I keep using the journal, I'll keep it up. The ads just got to me...
Never mind my woes: Torchwood thoughts.
Everything Changes is your basic setup episode, it does what it does in the expected straightforward manner.
I like Gwen Cooper a lot. She's smart character, dealing as best she can with a weird situation. And it's a minor thing but I like the fact that they've cast an actress (Eve Myles) who is not drop-dead gorgeous. She's pretty, certainly - Alex called her striking - but she's (relatively) realistic, too. In good shape, of course, but also a bit short and with a hairstyle that does have one thinking "You don't spend much time in front of the mirror, do you luv?" so kudos to the director/designer for that. If Gwen had been some fashion plate vamping around in a police uniform, I would have been vexed.
The episode itself? As I said, your basic setup episode and not all that remarkable. Nice production values, solid performances, somewhat oversimple story, but you don't want to alienate your new viewers with too much, too soon - particularly if you're trying to lure in non-Doctor Who fans.
Day One tries a little bit too hard to be, well, post watershed with the sexual parasite thing. But the humor saved it, thank god - and it looks like next week's eps will be more action-oriented. I guess they'll be going for the post-watershed bodycount, hm?
I like how Gwen's finding her way - some brilliant moments, some complete clangers, and the rest of the team's similarly imperfect. Hooray for imperfection! I'm a big believer in the notion that its the mistakes that make a character interesting. Perfect is boring.
The "You're out of touch with humanity" bit came about earlier than expected - I thought they'd hold that off for a few episodes - but I think that maybe it's better to get that inevitable observation out of the way. Better than building an entire, angsty storyline around it, which was what I was fearing might happen. It might yet, I suppose, but I hope not.
The stories for both eps were pretty straightforward - all "A" plot and no "B", unless you count the ongoing speculation about Jack. I like the fact that Jack's keeping information back - there's some things even Torchwood won't believe, I guess - and I'm assuming that Gwen's presence will pry little admissions out of him from time to time. I very much appreciate the "I can't die" thing - a legacy of Little Miss Time Goddess (as rpg!Jack calls her) doing her thing, and it makes sense. Granted, I'm sure it'll inevitably bite him on the ass (or has already) but for the meantime, well, at least this show's protagonist has a reason for being able to take a ridiculous amount of damage and keep on going - unlike so many action heroes.
Favorite line by Jack: "Work your way through my back catalog and we'd be here 'til the sun explodes" - although "Go home, Gwen Cooper. Eat lasagna, kiss your boyfriend. Be normal - for me" came in a close second. And speaking of rpg!Jack (aka
jack_harkness_), you know I'm going to be using Jack's "At least I can't get pregnant. I'm not doing that again." line for fodder... ;)I'm guessing the hand in the jar was the Doctor's. Cute. It was a left hand, and if it's important only to Jack... I'm guessing that importance doesn't derive from it being a Gallifreyan tissue sample. Mind you, that does, of course lead into all sorts of questions about what Jack's thinking about the Doctor, these days. Given that a crossover between Torchwood and Doctor Who has been confirmed (Season 3 for DW, I think?) I suppose we'll hear a few of those thoughts eventually. If at least one of them isn't Jack going huminahuminahumina at Ten, I'll be sorely disappointed.
Overall, I agree with the Guardian critic who said that Doctor Who is (generally) a kid's show that appeals to adults, and Torchwood looks like an adult show that'll appeal to kids. I think that if the stories get a bit more complex - B plots never hurt anyone, ditto story arcs - and they get over their "Oooh, look! We're post-watershed" giddiness, it could be a solid, long-lasting bit of entertainment. There are moments of that potential complexity peeking through in Day One, but RTD loves throwing in these beautiful moments and then going nowhere with them (viz that amazing scene between Ten and Finch in School Reunion: I used to have so much mercy) so the possibility of it all crashing and burning has not been ruled out, imho. As a DW fangirl, naturally I'm hoping for the better outcome...
And, thank god, now I can go read all of my friends' thoughts on the show, too. Whew.
EDIT: And I knew it wouldn't last. I caved and bought myself a couple months' worth of paid subscription. If I keep using the journal, I'll keep it up. The ads just got to me...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 11:48 am (UTC)*end pedantry*
I loved the way she looks so geeky and small in the police uniform, you're right she's not traditionally good looking and it's totally realistic that she should have the BF she does.
- yup, it's the Doctor's hand, that's been confirmed in last week's Radio Times, but I love the way Jack's so attached to it (as it were)
- it does feel like a show finding it's feet and I think it's unfortunate that Day One had to be the "girl infected by gaseous alien who knobs people to death", but yeah, I'd say it was promising. And I really want a story arc, really really really...
- loving the Welshness of it too "They should have CSI Cardiff, measuring the velocity of a kebab" and so on ....
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 01:47 pm (UTC)re: Day One: If they hadn't made a few cracks along the lines of "stopping an alien from knobbing people to death" then the eps would have been eye-rollingly awful. If you're gonna have an atagonist like that, it can't be taken too seriously. Well, you can try, but you'll only get the audience switching off in disgust.
Looks like they're going to try to establish their action/violence watermark next week. Maybe things will settle down a bit after that.
I'm with you, I really really want a story arc. Even just a little one. RTD wrote Queer As Folk, I know he's familiar with the notion of something that lasts more than one (or two) episodes... *crosses fingers*
I've heard some terrible, terrible jokes as to *why* Jack's so attached to that hand, but I can't bear to repeat 'em here. ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 02:53 pm (UTC)Thank you. :))) (Grabs Lysol again...)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 02:58 pm (UTC)I'm pleased to hear a cross-over is planned - A lot of the early articles I saw insisted there *wouldn't* be.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-24 04:30 pm (UTC)*blink*
By jove you're right. (ahem)
Now I'll have to take another squint at the jar.
Mind you, I'm terrible at telling my left from my right with my *own* hands. Getting confused by one in a jar's about par for the course for me. ;)