Thursday, January 17, 2008

First thoughts on Torchwood mark II

Better.

What I liked: Captain Jack is more like the Jack we knew and loved from Doctor Who. The team seem to have a bit more purpose to them. I thought Ianto especially had been well developed - the Jack/Ianto 'relationship' being better handled (did I get a sense of there being some fan-fic awareness on some of these elements?) The introduction of Spike Captain John was promising (and the trailer for the remainder of the season makes it clear there is more of him to come). I loved, loved LOVED the Star Wars reference. It was generally more exciting and much funnier. There was enough cross-over to Doctor Who to bring some smiles without it being too over-done. Nice.

From the only review I have read so far over at TV Scoop (I await the others...):
They missed a trick though, with those cargo containers. Having started the "homage" theme with the Obi-Wan message, they could easily have revisited this while they were looking for Gwen. Opening up one of the empty containers to find a Peter Petrelli look-alike in there, chained up without his shirt. "Oh, sorry," they'd have said coyly, and shut him back up again.
Hee hee hee...

Still needing work: the music got a bit overwrought at moments. The blowfish didn't really work - though it was a tad amusing (the shoot-out was a bit overstretched at the start).

You know what, I hardly even noticed the Chibnall-ness of the episode. I have higher hopes all round...

4 comments:

Rob Buckley said...

It was better, wasn't it? My review over at the usual place of course.

Anonymous said...

did I get a sense of there being some fan-fic awareness on some of these elements?

Possibly they could have been a bit more blatant, but only if they'd put a caption on screen saying 'YES, WE'VE BEEN READING ALL THE SLASH. RUSTY PARTICULARLY LIKED THE IANTO STUFF.'

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Stu - oops, I should really have made sure my quote marks for irony were mentioned in that line...

Anonymous said...

It's still not doing it for me. Too much snogging. For me, will-they-won't-they works much better than yes-they-do-it-all-the-time. I don't think this particular Scooby gang is sufficiently develeoped, and all the running around isn't great television.

Sarah Jane Adventures was actually a better Who spin-off.