Torchwood: Small World. Further Thoughts and Some General Noodlings.

[fangrrl_squees]

As usual, spoilers lurk below

I've slept on it, and I'm still a bit dissatisfied with the story for Small World. Not the acting, not (so much) the effects, not the fact that, once again, the show was clearly underwritten by the Cardiff chamber of commerce.

I'm just not a fairy-tale type of person, I guess. It doesn't help that nothing was explained adequately. The bad guys can do pretty much anything anywhen, huh? Lovely. Let's hope they don't get megalomaniac aspirations, huh? Why did they have to have a human "Chosen One", being (apparently) non-human themselves? Why did they take the dislike to Estelle? Was it just a violent dislike of flash photography, or what? What happened to previous children who were the Chosen One and why did it take these little blighters so many thousands of years to get one to cross over and fulfill whatever need it was that existed?

I can understand the entertainment value of leaving a few things unexplained/to the viewers' imagination, but Small Worlds struck me as just plain sloppy. Acceptable and well-paced eye candy, yes, but sloppily presented. Oh well.

At least the "Can Jack tolerate booze?" question was answered. It wasn't keeping me awake at night, but the tail-chasing (aka, meta gone wild) was starting to get a bit much inside my head.

On a much more irreverent note, I take it I'm not the only slash-happy fangrrl out there who inferred what is probably far too much from that look Ianto gave Jack when the latter rested a hand on the former's shoulder in an early scene? Yeah, I thought so.

I'm sure I'll have something much more interesting to say when I've seen the eps again and I'm not sneaking onto the net at work.

***

I've noticed a few LJ-folks mentioning how that Torchwood isn't quite living up to what it says on the tin, so to speak. A secret organization (with branded vehicles) supposedly out to protect humanity from big bad alien tech, the 21st century is when it all changes, etc, etc. However... all we've seen at this point is the locking-up of a couple of dodgy things, a home-grown threat (Lisa), one extra-terrestrial threat (Day One), and an artifact that is, granted, alien but embroils the team in local crimes, committed in the past by regular ol' humans. So, er, how is this readying Earth for the future?

I agree with those fans who've said that this could be/should have been addressed by not pimping the show as an edgy SF/X-Files-ish thing, but as an urban gothic horror thing with SF overtones. Yeah, yeah, broadcasting is getting too specialized. But really... Torchwood (the Cardiff office, at least) seems to be more of a cleanup crew than the protectors o'humanity. Based on the actions of the Cardiff office, I have a hard time believing that Torchwood could have produced anything like the TCI raygun. I know, I know, the London office was larger by a couple orders of magnitude but if Cardiff is basing their MO on the cues they're getting from London, you gotta wonder what London's telling them. There's also the possibility that these offices are largely autonomous and the show's being run the way Jack thinks it should be, but that kicks off another round of tail-chasing about Jack's motives.

I totally want to see Torchwood and UNIT run into each other, btw. The pissing contest would be epic. There's a fic idea lurking in that, somewhere...

Comments

[ladykoori.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda liking the group's incompetence. It amuses me. Plus, if they really do run into an alien threat complete with alien, other than Weevils, what the hell are they going to do with the alien? Sure they've got the cells, but really, that's not a long term solution. They could ship the alien back to London, but with that office closed that's not an option. Really their only thing would be to let it go or kill it.

Now, I have issues with the kill all the aliens approach. Among others, talk about promoting xenophobia/racism. And its highly likely that more aliens won't come looking for the one's they killed. Letting them go would be the only real option, which I just think some fans wouldn't like.

The trick of the production people for avoiding such issues, don't have them run into aliens! Which means they're going to be dealing with small stuff that is going to be fairly inconsequental. It's not like the 21st century is ending anytime soon. The whole "the 21st century is when it all changes" still has many many more years to happen.

(Sorry, I've ranted at you when you didn't deserve it. But seriously, some of the other fans reactions on this topic has bugged me.)

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the ranting, and you bring up a good point re: the group's limited options.

I'm more vexed at the *marketing/PR* dudes who, one hopes, had a little bit more to go on when creating the PR campaign than a five minute chat with RTD but, who knows, that might have been ALL they had to go on...

Torchwood limited options

[genus-loci.livejournal.com]

It's set in Cardiff - surely that limits the options as to how far the bounds of credulity can be stretched? The fact that Wales can be a rather dull, tourist aimed place doesn't help with the suspense of disbelief when there are aliens, fairies, Weevils and branded Torchwood vehicles people just accept being there without any questions.

If they're not part of the government how on earth do they get funded? I presume they all have salaries? Where's the Torchwood Cardiff bank account they'd need for running the place or is it all dealt capably by Ianto?

The marketing/PR dudes did a good job promoting it (although I think all those hints dropped into the Dr Who scripts probably helped too). Things are never how the marketing sells them to be though. Torchwood will never be the X-Files or some American sci-fi/horror fare. It's home grown (and in its first series) so nobody should expect miracles from it or its marketing department. I wonder how much the BBC spend on each Torchwood episode.

[agentxpndble.livejournal.com]

...when the latter rested a hand on the former's shoulder in an early scene? Yeah, I thought so.

It was actually a little more of an intimate, back rubbish sort of thing than a pat. ;-) Gah!

I thought the episode was ok but a bit on the dull side - I got a little tired of the endless "fairies-coming-to-get-ya" sequences. Some nice little stuff though... That thing with Ianto, the bit at the end with the team getting upset with Jack (there's the pot calling the kettle black,) and a few other isolated moments.

By all means, I should of loved all the back story on Jack - and the relationship with Estelle (I'm usually a sucker for angsty Highlander-style immortal storylines.) But I kind of feel uneasy about what they gave us. I had trouble reconciling it with my own vision of what Jack was doing (and what his personality was like) pre-Who. So what I came up with in my own head was that these flashbacks were back to a time when he was on the job for the Time Agents - not connected to the time he spent in WWII when we met him with the Doctor or during the time he went rogue. *Or* (here's an interesting thought) maybe Jack *didn't* hitch a lift back to Cardiff 2006 - Maybe he hitched a lift back to Earth 1900 or something and it's been a 100 years for him since his time with the Doctor. Which would add an awful lot to his emotional state if that's what happened. I don't know - I'm strangely unhappy with it for some reason.

I really liked that he chose to let the child go - Whether or not there were plot holes with that, I don't care. I just liked the decision and what it did/does to him.


I just reread all that... It doesn't make a lot of sense to me either... I seem to have lost the ability to speak clearly and concisely today. ;-)

[moviegrrl.livejournal.com]

I have had Torchwood/Unit ideas for a couple of weeks now which I am trying to ignore, but it's hard. Watching Spearhead from Spacethis evening hasn't helped either, and I'm sure I don't remember the Brigadier being that flirty with Liz Shaw....

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

Oh, I dunno, I always got a vibe of bit-of-a-devil-in-his-younger-days vibe from AL-S, but maybe that's just me. ;)

I think a UNIT/SJ Smith/Torchwood crossover makes a lot of sense. It seems to be popping up here and there on the F-list. Great minds thinking alike and all.

*chortle* although I have an irrepressable mental image of Ms. Smith taking one look at Jack, hoisting him over her shoulder, so to speak, and cheerfully marching off with him, muttering something about to hell with the mission and having a thing for time travellers. ;)

[moviegrrl.livejournal.com]

I've actually promised someone an SJ/Jack fic and I'm desparately trying not to let it get filthily out of hand...

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

hehehe, you're so noble!

[iko.livejournal.com]

Torchwood (the Cardiff office, at least) seems to be more of a cleanup crew than the protectors o'humanity.

Oh most definitely! They are the clean up crew. I think them being on the rift gives them more cases of having to clean up the messes that the Doctor leaves, that aliens leave, etc.

You gotta crawl before you learn how to walk, and that's the Cardiff team.