Torchwood - Random Shoes. Reaction Post.
Dec. 11th, 2006 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangrrl_squeesSpoilers ahead, of course.
I'm surprised. For such a lackluster trailer last week, and with an oddball name, I really thought this eps would leave me cold, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Granted, it was Torchwood's answer to Love And Monsters, but without the incredibly awful end scene, so Random Shoes is ahead on points in that regard.
To be critical, it wasn't a Torchwood story - unless the mad-guy-in-Glasgow was the ₤15,000 bidder. Love and Monsters was, at least, still very much a Doctor Who story. One of the few times we've got alien tech to deal with, and TW are on the periphery. Ah well.
It was a lovely little story, primarily because who hasn't identified with Eugene, at least once in their lives? And I must admit that my middling opinion of Gwen went up by a couple of points because, once again, she's the only person who can be bothered to take an interest in the victim's life and tie up the loose ends that aren't of immediate interest to anyone else on the team. And WTF is with Owen's aggressive lack of empathy? A symptom of whatever spat's going on between him and Gwen, I suppose.
What we did see of the Torchwood team was veeeery interesting. Owen and Gwen seem to have gone from flirty-teasing to snappishly passive aggressive in record time - never mind what the trailer for next week suggested - and one can't help wondering what strain the team's under at the moment.
I must admit, I hope we hear more about the collector of beanie babies, alien artefacts and - what was it? It sounded like "nancy-boy nostalgia" - in the future. It might just be me overreading into it, but I sensed a plot hook, there. Or maybe Henry Van Statten got his memory back. Heh.
Technically, the eps seemed well-enough put together, although given that I've only viewed it on my iPod, so far, that might not be saying much. I liked the premise of the story, the dialogue and the production values and, as I said, I found it more engaging than I expected it to be, even if it wasn't terribly original. A 7.5 out of ten, I'd say.
Further thoughts when I've watched it on a bigger screen/had more time to ruminate.
In the meantime,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
agentxpndble has some excellent ruminations on Jack's ethics. Go have a peek.
I'm surprised. For such a lackluster trailer last week, and with an oddball name, I really thought this eps would leave me cold, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Granted, it was Torchwood's answer to Love And Monsters, but without the incredibly awful end scene, so Random Shoes is ahead on points in that regard.
To be critical, it wasn't a Torchwood story - unless the mad-guy-in-Glasgow was the ₤15,000 bidder. Love and Monsters was, at least, still very much a Doctor Who story. One of the few times we've got alien tech to deal with, and TW are on the periphery. Ah well.
It was a lovely little story, primarily because who hasn't identified with Eugene, at least once in their lives? And I must admit that my middling opinion of Gwen went up by a couple of points because, once again, she's the only person who can be bothered to take an interest in the victim's life and tie up the loose ends that aren't of immediate interest to anyone else on the team. And WTF is with Owen's aggressive lack of empathy? A symptom of whatever spat's going on between him and Gwen, I suppose.
What we did see of the Torchwood team was veeeery interesting. Owen and Gwen seem to have gone from flirty-teasing to snappishly passive aggressive in record time - never mind what the trailer for next week suggested - and one can't help wondering what strain the team's under at the moment.
I must admit, I hope we hear more about the collector of beanie babies, alien artefacts and - what was it? It sounded like "nancy-boy nostalgia" - in the future. It might just be me overreading into it, but I sensed a plot hook, there. Or maybe Henry Van Statten got his memory back. Heh.
Technically, the eps seemed well-enough put together, although given that I've only viewed it on my iPod, so far, that might not be saying much. I liked the premise of the story, the dialogue and the production values and, as I said, I found it more engaging than I expected it to be, even if it wasn't terribly original. A 7.5 out of ten, I'd say.
Further thoughts when I've watched it on a bigger screen/had more time to ruminate.
In the meantime,
agentxpndble has some excellent ruminations on Jack's ethics. Go have a peek.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 10:54 pm (UTC)That's why the beanie baby collecting was so funny. Nazi memorabilia, alien artifacts and beanie babies.
Of course, my eBay purchasing record can't be much more ordinary. Antique sewing machines and parts, and laser printer supplies.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 05:18 am (UTC)LOL! I have *nightmares* about co-workers, etc. looking over my buy history... I'm what the truly kind call eccentric. ;-)
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Date: 2006-12-12 12:45 am (UTC)And I guess I find myself a little surprised you liked 1x09 so much... I never can predict you. :-) There is a really good thread going on over at torch_wood that someone started last night about what expectations people came into this with and how they thing things are going and why they like or hate certain eps/things. I, like the post's author, am just having the hardest time figuring out why people love or have various episodes and how all over the board people's opinions are. I never quite know what to expect - it's an interesting fan base.
Which is yet another thing I've been meaning to throw in somewhere... I was a little surprised by the crowd's reaction at Chicago TARDIS. I suppose it wasn't a surprise, really, but at the time I kind of went, what? Basically, there were a lot of men. Old school, Doctor Who fan men. And I wasn't *quite* ready for their reaction to a certain moment in Cyberwoman (the only ep I watched in the video room.) I can't say the moment was exactly pleasant...
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 03:53 am (UTC)re: 1x09, I'm sure that my positive reaction to the eps can be at least partially attributed to the fact that I'm a gooey sentimentalist who's still processing her mother's death, so perhaps the eps resonated a bit more for me than it has for others.
I must have missed your reaction posts to Chicago. I don't suppose you've an URL to share? I'm sorry you ran into the aging/taking itself too seriously-fanboy crowd - they can be a bit creepy. I'm lucky enough to know the able-to-laugh-at-itself-and-party-like-a-Hilton fannish crowd, and I love them to pieces. :) Getcherself over to Gallifrey One, and I'll introduce you. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 05:14 am (UTC)I'm sorry... :::HUGS:::
I must have missed your reaction posts to Chicago.
No, in the end I never did type up a con wrap up post - Just jumped right back into my crazy work schedule and didn't find the time. I had terrible fatigue that weekend and had a good time at panels but really didn't socialize much since I had to sleep/rest a lot. It was a great convention - Don't get me wrong. The Torchwood reaction wasn't all that drastic - Just kind of a reality check... I hang with a really, really open crowd (always have) and it just kind of hit me sideways that I was in unfamiliar company. Most of the room was fine with it but when the Good Ole Boys snorffled in that decidedly insulting (and slightly dangerous) way, the whole room tensed for just a second. Just one of those moments when you realize how skewed your life is and not everyone sees the world the same way as you do.
I really should post a wrap up... I was completely taken with the Big Finish Audio people and that reminds me, I had a question for you about Eight... Later. Have you seen a Mysterious Theatre 337 production? OMG they rocked! Rocked HARD!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 05:35 am (UTC)re: wandering outside of one's fandom/social comfort zone: oh yeah. Been there, done that. I remember stopping a party COLD when I casually started talking about BDSM with someone and then realized that everyone had fallen quiet and was staring at me.
Me: "Uh... I'm not in the Bay Area any more, am I?" and indeed, I wasn't. I was about a hundred miles inland and, it seems, about twenty years behind what I consider current thinking...
I routinely thank circumstance that dropped me into one of the more open-minded, liberal and just generally cheerful spots in the world.
A bunch of homophobes reacting badly to Torchwood? We'd eat 'em for lunch out here. Well, maybe not quite, but you know what I mean.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 01:52 am (UTC)I didn't really like this ep. Though, it had a few good points.
AND, um, I checked my user info, and noticed that britgeekgrrl is not on my friends list. (pout)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 06:11 am (UTC)Oh, I rewatched the ep with Obi-Juan, I made him watch it. It was better the second time through.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-16 10:18 am (UTC)I finally watched this last night, and do you know what, I think I agree with you. There is a deftness of touch here that is surprising after so much hammering the point in. I think this pairs up very well with Love and Monsters (despite certain weaknesses in that story) about the extraordinary and the ordinary colliding. I also know it's that correlation with Love and Monsters that has some people spitting feathers, but it makes sense to me, there has to be more than one story of how aliens, whether it's the Doctor or Jack or something else, touching ordinary people, the ones who don't get to be a companion or work at Torchwood or get to make sense of it all.
I had thought I was going to hate this ep and was very pleasantly surprised that I didn't.
--
Also, yes Gwen comes across so well here and you get the feeling that she and Owen have had a huge breakup spat("why are you the only one with feelings?" "Forget it, I have"). I think I need to watch it again, but probably not before we talk later today...