See the Fangrrl Squee

Twelve words or less? Yeesh, you don't ask for much.

hmmm....maybe something like 'even the guardians needing guarding'?

I've really not thought about it much. Now, I have something to muse over while not listening to my classics professor blunder on about the Iliad.

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I agree, I'm being limiting with that "12 words or less" bit, but I'm trying to head off any potential comments that confuse "What's the theme" with "What's it about?" Granted, the two can be said to have some overlap, but I don't want anyone to feel obligated to provide their 5000 word recap of the first season. Does that make sense?

Happy thinking!

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TwoP's recap of "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" had me simultaneously falling over with laughter and making thoughtful "Hmm, good point" noises.

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cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com

Heheh, yeah. Jacob is one of the best recappers there :)

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May I humbly propose:

Secrets will kill you.

On brief and informal mental review, it seems like the time things go catastrophically wrong are when a member of Torchwood has a secret from the others. The team works best when information is shared appropriately.

I welcome debate as I haven't done a formal review of the eps.

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OH! That's a good one. Definitely seems to be the way it works.

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britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com

What she said. :)

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"People are really, really, really fucked up." Or royaly fucked over... Or just plain fucked and/or fucking.

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Speak English... Who is TwoP and where do I find this?

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So, what you're saying is the theme of Torchwood is fuck. I like it! :)

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In all seriousness, I really think it is. Probably the base "sex sells" kind of fucking, not the profound "humanity is fucked up". But, whatever... They have *my* dollar.

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cmdrsuzdal.livejournal.com

I like.

This also helps me with my current peeve that so far in 3 out of 4 eps they heroically save the day from something that was mostly their own fault.

Also, it totally fits on an icon.

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Along similar lines... There's a lot of "giving in to temptation (use of alien techology, etc.) and paying for it three-fold" going on too... I've been shocked/horrified/disgusted a few times at the things Gwen has done (mostly to Rhys) and then there was the first episode when *everyone* went wonky and took stuff for personal use.

Now I'm reading the books (Slow Decay) and it's more of the same - Gwen taking home an object to use on Rhys and making the situation even worse.

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Oh, yes, definitely a lot of things coming back three-fold going on. And for being the audience in to the show, Gwen was really pretty stupid and selfish at times. I mean, Rose had her moment with her father but she seemed to learn her lesson whereas Gwen just kept repeating herself.

I really need to get my hands on the books.

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Television Without Pity

It's awesome.

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britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com

PS www.televisionwithoutpity.com

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britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com

*perk*

There are books? Are they available in the US?

(otherwise, I shall wait for Gally)

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Yes, three. They were released earlier this month, not available in the US as far as I know. Rumor has it that JB is reading two of them for the audiobooka while Eve does the other.

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With Rose, it seemed a little more subtle - Just normal, young girl, self-absorbed life lessons. With Torchwood, it seems to be a more repetitive, in your face, theological/underlying message. There's also a little bit of a "humans just don't have the brain power needed to handle alien technology without destroying everything" in the message too, not just personal greed biting you in the ass.

Amazon.co.uk will ship the books to the US but OMG, the shipping has gone out of control in the past few months! Amazon.com looks to be stocking them late next month.

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Awesome - thanks!

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I just checked Amazon.com - The pre-order for February has turned into an "available now" but with a 4-6 week shipping date. Still, no postage (as opposed to Amazon.co.uk which is getting ridiculous on shipping costs to the US.) I'll bet they will have copies at the con - it's been out in the UK since Christmas.

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Intersting. Let's examine this.

'Everything Changes'
Plot Point- Suzie is killing people to experiment with the glove.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Day One'
Plot Point- Alien is living off orgasmic energy which kills people.
Plot driven by sex? Yep

'Ghost Machine'
Plot Point- alien device shows glimpses of past and future.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Cyberwoman'
Plot Point- Ianto hides partly cyberconverted girlfriend in basement of Torchwood. Chaos ensues.
Plot driven by sex? Nope (love maybe?)

'Small Worlds'
Plot Point- Faeries are taking a young girl.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Countrycide'
Plot Point- Cannibals are making people disappear.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Greeks Bearing Gifts'
Plot point- Alien gives Tosh a telepathy device and seduces her in an effort to get into the Hub to regain it's transportation device.
Plot driven by sex? Yep

'They Keep Killing Suzie'
Plot Point- Torchwood resurrects Suzie to solve horrible murders involving Torchwood.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Random Shoes'
Plot Point- Torchwood wannabe 'haunts' Torchwood after swallowing alien eye in effort to understand his life.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Out of Time'
Plot Point- Group of travelers stranded in time. Torchwood tries to help them integrate into modern life- doesn't really work very well.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Combat'
Plot Point- Owen is in childish, nihilistic rage over woman leaving him. Goes undercover to investigate 'Fight Club- Weevil Edition'.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'Captain Jack Harkness'
Plot Point- Tosh and Jack get trapped in the past with original Capt. Jack. Team works to free them, Owen opens Rift.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

'End of Days'
Plot Point- Opening the Rift has cosmic repercussions and allows Big Bad Thing thru. Team turns on Jack. Jack kills it with life.
Plot driven by sex? Nope

So out of the first season, while sex occurs as window dressing quite a few times (and I loves me some window dressing), it is seldom integral to the plot.

I must humbly disagree with my Learned Colleague.

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True, the sex selling is pure window dressing. But they still fuck up to some degree in most of the episodes.

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The only thing I'll fight you on is the use of the word "learned". :::snerk::: Not an adjective I'd use to describe myself. ;-)

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Yes, but people fucking up in dramas is hardly novel. Any number of TV shows wouldn't really have anything going on if everybody did everything right!

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LOL. Very true. That wouldn't be interesting at all.

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Okay- more thoughts on secrets.

Throughout the series, the team has questions about everything they don't know about Jack. Jack is just one big Secret! This sense that Jack isn't being honest with them is one of the reasons it's so easy for them to turn against him in 'End of Days'. Therefore Jack's secrecy becomes a huge plot point thru the course of the series.

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Makes you wonder how they're going to follow that up with the second series.

"So, yeah. I can't die. Let's get to the budget meeting, shall we?"

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This also helps me with my current peeve that so far in 3 out of 4 eps they heroically save the day from something that was mostly their own fault.

You're not the only one thinking this way. I fear the best talent got wiped out at Canary Wharf...

Although I suppose it could be said that, indeed, self-made destruction is a theme of the show. No-one's better able to get you into trouble than you are...

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*nod* Yeah, pretty much anything DW/TW shaped that I want right now is marked "Wait for Gally".

I'm going to go beserk in the dealers' room. Absolutely. Beserk.

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