Torchwood and Doctor Who

Critical faculty hats off everybody: Rullsenberg tackles the difficult questions of whether Torchwood was worth watching and whether Doctor Who still has IT.







Didn't you spot the 'switch off your critical faculties' line?



What can I say that hasn't already been written? In an age where the internet - especially Twitter and Facebook - mean that every faultline, every contradiction, every incoherant plot thread and every bit of over-emotional music scoring can be dissected within seconds of airing, to the world even before they've had chance to watch themselves... how can it even be possible to comment after the event?

But the point is that all that 'noise', the immediacy of comment, doesn't necessarily make for considered opinion. Not as I am promising considered opinion, but in these fast-moving times I suspect that even something written around 12 hours after the end of the UK screening of Torchwood, and at the mid-point of the second run of episodes for Season 6/Fnarg-plus-one-point-five/32-ish of Doctor Who will appear 'thoughtful'.

For what it's worth then, here are my thoughts (you'd be silly not to anticipate some spoilery remarks:

Torchwood
Well it was bonkers wasn't it? It certainly wasn't up there with Children of Earth level creepiness or emotional wrenching, but neither did it hit the (nevertheless entertainingly awful) lows of some of the episodes of S1 and S2. There were moments when the American-ness of the series threatened to overwhelm everything and turn it into 24, and I could have done without some of the awful "here-are-the-differences-between-the-American-and-English-language" puns, riffs and 'explanations'. But then it worked out more of what it wanted to do and there were some brilliantly unsettling aspects to the story. I was glad that we caught episode five before we travelled (as I would have been really cross to not have the horrors that presented to depart on) and there was something wonderful about squashing in four episodes to a couple of days on our return ensuring we were primed for the finale in tandem with the rest of the UK.

Am I 'pleased' with the ending? Not yet sure. It made no sense at all, but hey: it's Torchwood (kinda like Chinatown but less well written). I liked that it killed Vera off and let Kitzinger survive, and felt utterly baffled that there wasn't more general social chaos post-miracle given that effectively the world had been governed by people prepared to decide who lived and who died (and burning their inconvenient asses in the process). But you know what, I was glad to have it around and it sure beat lots of the other stuff on TV (esp as we don't have access to US TV generally nor most of the cable channels in the UK). A solid 7.5 overall I'd figure (with Children of Earth hitting a good full point or more higher).

Best episodes: The New World, The Categories of Life, Immortal Sins, and (just for sheer bravado nonsense) the finale The Blood Line.


Doctor Who
Three to go. I had to catch up on Let's Kill Hitler once we returned from our travels, thus getting a little out of step with the series as we had caught Fear Him (sic: thanks be to Rob) whilst over in the USA. Hence The Girl Who Waited was my first ep watched in company 'real-time' back on home soil.

Is the series of 2011 as strong as the 2010 one? Not sure. In some ways its better - much more consistent and hey, I like dark (even kids-TV dark). For all the failings others spotted, I've largely loved it --- Pirates! 'Gangers! bonkers eye-patch cobblers! enough wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff to make your eyes bleed!

Seriously though, I haven't felt the disengagement that others have; I've enjoyed the emotional manipulation of old Amy/young Amy (and younger Amy - ah, Amelia Pond, we're ALWAYS happy to see you, even if you are a projection); I've enjoyed seeing Rory become less of a cipher and Matt Smith is still proving to be every bit as good as the Doctor as we wanted him to be from first seeing him in The Eleventh Hour. Are there still unanswered questions? Of course - and I'm not sure I will want or like all the answers to them (not least the 'absolutely killed him' issue of astronaut Melody and the Doctor).

But I'm fully signed up for the ride, and as long as they keep using my old furniture as props (seriously: that wardrobe in Night Terrors had clearly meandered from Nottingham to Cardiff via the charity shop we passed it to), then I will remain happy.

Post-Torchwood blues

With commentators at Behind the Sofa watching the Red Riding Trilogy to cheer themselves up, you can probably guess that post-Torchwood: Children of Earth there's a general air of 'blimey: exhausted grimness alert'.

Needless to say I've made a lentil loaf and we're watching The Blues Brothers.

I need some small pleasures.

Reactions for Rosby: watching Torchwood - Children of Earth

Fairly spoiler-free comment on Day Four of Torchwood's Third Series ("Children of Earth").


Quite frankly, I'm all over the place emotionally about this.

I know some have remained unimpressed, and there have been moments of high silliness, but I think the testament that has most reached me is that Cloud has been utterly addicted (and not in a 'let's laugh at Rullsenberg biting her nails' kinda way).

So far we've had tension and half-seen monsters, politics in the way that we've come to expect, grand acting from the likes of Peter Capaldi and Paul Copley and... and ...

... and...

Death.


I am now utterly torn. I can't help but feel that if (and by lordy its a big IF*) that RTD person holds his nerve and actually leaves the urge to make everything all right again, the end of S3 of Torchwood couldn't be a bigger, a more symbolic ending for Rosby growing up and going to University.


Yeah, I know, I'm personalising it: but it was my first thought last night on watching Day Four.


But part of me can't help but NOT want it to end this way, and I hate myself for that. I can't help but have the hope for a better ending, but I know that what I need - what should remain - is the bleakness.

That these deaths, THAT death, should mean something.


And yeah, in case you didn't guess: I did cry.

Guess what we'll be watching at 9pm tonight...

* RTD couldn't leave alone his dramatic finale of Doomsday and though I've been seriously sticking my fingers in my ears all year I can't help but dread that he's not been able to leave alone other endings he's given us. PLEASE DO NOT SPOILER ME. But... GAH. I just wish he would actually leave us with the grief, as traumatic as it is.

Torchwood - Children of Earth trailer

Come on then BBC, tell us EXACTLY when you will be screening the five-night spectacular that will be Torchwood: Children of Earth?

Trailer was released today (Thursday 5 February 2009) with a hat-tip to TV Scoop.

Cardiff in Pictures - January 2009

Cardiff visit - Friday 23 January 2009 to Sunday 25 January 2009

Helen and I decided some time ago that it was rather ridiculous we hadn't visited Cardiff recently (or in my case, at all). It is after all the capital of Wales so we figured it deserved a visit.

We also just wanted a girls' weekend away for peaceful gossip.

Anyway, we were blessed with a beautiful journey down by train (passing through Chepstow and along the river). We stayed at the Barcelo Cardiff Angel Hotel


... and thanks to H's superb skills in hotel booking we got a great deal that gave us dinner as well for 50p extra each -- that's 25p per two course meal. It was yummy.

Here are some shots of the visit:

Cardiff Memorial - we started Saturday by taking a good walk from the hotel past Cardiff Castle and up to the University and old Assembly Building district.


Deciding that a walk to Cardiff Bay from the city centre was a bit much (especially as we expected to be on our feet all day) we hopped on a bus down to the bay. And Glorious Sun came out!




It's hard not to think of this area AS Torchwood, especially as the buildings are so iconic...


As you can tell, I can't resist an arty photograph:


The closer you get to the edge of the bay, the more odd the juxtapositions: for example, this is the old Pier Building, a surviving relic of the area's former life...


And this is the new Welsh Assembly building.

Being a bit dippy, I was convinced we wouldn't be allowed in the building, but Helen persisted in her belief there were people inside and approached the doors. It is an incredible building and I will hopefully add some pics from H later on (she took some crackers of the inner chamber).




We really enjoyed being out and about and the weather was fabulous (even if cold).




And as we killed a couple of hours in the area, we were able to come out and catch the view of the Roald Dahl Plass by night...


Next day, we dreaded rain but thankfully it was bright if clouding over gradually as we left. We strolled round the corner from the hotel and walked down past the Riverside Market (did I see Julie Gardner there? Not sure...) and past the Millenium Stadium. Of course, as the stadium commemorates all manner of sporting nations, I could not resist photographing New Zealand:


We ended our visit with a walk past Cardiff Castle: it's a real jumble of gothic styles with a Victorian vision.



And so endeth the visit!

Hitler and the Torchwood S2 finale - beware laughter splutters!

Hysterical hat-tip to Medium Rob.

Explanation of absence

Hi folks, remember me?

As Cloud has given a public explanation for our recent absence - and return - I thought I would make my own here too.

Basically, Neil's dad took seriously ill and we had to quickly up-sticks and depart for New Zealand. It was always going to be a race against the clock, but before we could get our stupidly expensive but necessary flights out he had unfortunately died. So with heavy hearts we had to make the long journey to NZ knowing we were going to a funeral.

We left in winter, we arrived in high summer. We also left on the day our kitchen rebuilding project was due to start which did mean we missed the first two and a bit weeks of demolition (old chimney, former bathroom, outhouse wall to join it all together into one large space). However, we did come back to a kitchen minus a ceiling, minus most of its flooring, needing the outhouse roof to be raised and replaced, with pretty much every room in the house bar one (luckily the bedroom) layered in dust as we had had no time to properly pack away and dust sheet everything. And the builders (who have been lovely btw) were taking out and putting in the new windows. It was still winter in the UK - albeit no longer dark by 5pm. But it was - and remains - bloody cold in the ceiling-less, floor-less, unsealed windowed kitchen space.

We had three days at work last week: mostly sleepwalked them I have to say. After that we had our longed planned trip to London, and boy was it nice to not have to climb over things or take an hour to make a cup of tea [at home it is: find mugs, clean up sink, wash mugs, trace teabags and sugar and useable milk, clean kettle, fill kettle from struggling water-pressure taps, boil kettle, finally make tea in mugs as cannot bear to locate and clean up tea-pot].

London was lovely: we had glorious, if cold, weather and bright sunglasses days. Amongst our many activities, I was 'reluctantly' dragged to the Globe theatre where my inner geek screamed not just Shakespeare but 'The Shakespeare Code'.

Home again we are hoping that next week we get patio doors, a patio, a new kitchen/porch/pantry floor and a ceiling. At some point thereafter we should start to get fittings, cupboards and appliances. Basically a completely new and much more functional kitchen.

In the meantime, jetlag, work, the stress of a major house rebuilding project on top of bereavement has meant that blogging has unfortunately taken a big backseat.


Mind, I did watch both the BBC2 and BBC3 eps of Torchwood this Wednesday...

Description of Torchwood over at TV Scoop

This had me howling with laughter:

We'll get burglaries, abnormal deaths, scenes of torture and claustrophobia... but of course, this being Torchwood, it all feels like a B-Movie full of schlock and mwhahahaing... not that there's anything wrong with that. Torchwood is Doctor Who's little Emo brother listening to pretend punk music really loudly.

*snerk*

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...

The 'Troubled Diva' John Barrowman interview

Come on, read it! You know you want to! (BUT BEWARE!!! ***minor Doctor Who season 4 spoiler...***)

Okay, you're freaking me out

Look, whoever it is in Cardiff who keeps phoning Neil's phone but not leaving a message...



There's no good way I can end that sentence is there?

Neil reckon's it's Torchwood...

42: I know, you were just waiting for me to add my pennies on this.

I doubt she's the only one who wanted it, but this is for Marie. I didn't tell the PTBs "two words: one to do with travel and the other to do with sex" but I sure appreciated the sentiment!

To begin with the obvious:

Chris Chibnall - he of the much derided Cyberwoman and Countrycide from Torchwood - wrote 42.


There. It's been said and you can all have your shudder of horror at the concept.

But here's the thing, despite all our worst fears - and there were plenty - this actually proved to be a fine example of Who. Not just NewWho but also general Who-ness. Because with Graeme Harper at the helm, what could have turned out much worse turned out to be inflected with directoral joys to over-power most of the worse negative Chibnall effects.

[NOTE: does Chibnall know how much he has been slated in print and especially on the net? It's been pretty relentless really. He must know...]

Anyway: here's my thoughts

What worked -

• THAT moment of silence. Genius. Far more emotive. Genuinely effective and beautifully shot.


• The palette of colours. Marie embraced her inner /outer geek and when she said:
  
  

  Oh god, am I really going to say something as geeky as:
  
  I thought the colour temperature was brilliantly handled this episode, contrasting warm orange on-ship / sun colours with the cold blue palate of the escape pod.

  As someone once said, "Quite right too..."


• Limited Sonic Screwdriver. Bliss. Possibly the best decision of Chibnall's script.


• Maths! Happy primes! (Geeky happy clapping)


• "Burn with me..." Dumb villain but a well constructed and unnerving nasty to freak the audience. And I so delighted in thinking "Soft Light" in a a good wat. Pilfer if you must but make it from good stuff.


• Vulnerable doctor. I'll ignore the worst of the "gurning" as its being commonly called, but seeing the Doctor uncomfortable is no bad idea. Better gurning agony than smug.


• Francine Jones. Righteously angry? Led astray by... Mr Saxon...? Will be interested to see how that evolves and her survival.


• Saxon. How excited are we still about that? Answer: very.

Worked worked less well -

• Script. Obvious really since Chibnall still litters his scripts with too many ideas, many ill-thought through. Sorry, but even with the Elvis/Beatles thing as a motive calling mom, that constantly intruding notion sucked. And everything that somewhat sucked came from the inadequacies of characterisation and what Chibnall got the characters to do.


• Running. Either Martha needs better shoes or some serious acting lessons in running cos she sucks. And I'm sorry but the Doctor also needs to review his alter-ego's running from Casanova, because he's definitely lost his touch on running convincingly. He looks as if he is doing what the acting requires which is running in short bursts for the camera to capture over and over again. He looks as if he is running from a standing start every time and it just jars at the moment.

So that's my two pennies. Hope it was worth the wait.

Other Reviews:
Anna
Behind the Sofa - a whole range of Chibnall haters here, and some measured plaudits for 42 as well
Marie
MediumRob
SFX
TV Scoop
TV Today

RT, TVT and other assorted Primeval goodies

Lots of nice coverage in the TV weeklies ahead of Primeval starting Saturday. Henshall is described as a "handsome, flawed hero" in the Radio Times (that's definitely MY kind of hero); and we even get a Sunday re-run... great for those occasions when my video recorder is in high demand.

It'll set me up nicely for that start of NewWho in March/April... if only we could be guaranteed a nice bit of sci-fi adventuring all year round. Perhaps some scheduling to get Primeval flow into NewWho flow into Sarah Jane Adventures flow into... well, I guess Torchwood... what else can we have? (I'm semi-discounting Life on Mars since we already know that's gonna be finishing after this next season, but also because it will overlap with at least Primeval if not NewWho as well...)

Torchwood: season one

Don't get me wrong. It wasn't perfect - far from it. I've probably been one of its more sympathetic reviewers: not quite as enthusiastic as say Paul Burgin or Phil Edwards, but certainly not as negative as say Stu_N and I lack the incisive wit of MediumRob to nail some of its worst flaws with panache.

But overall it's been a solid B grade programme for me on a scale where E is Celebrity Big Brother and A is The Wire. Okay, so there have been far too many D moments, but it HASA had B+ and A- moments (particularly in the first episode, Small Worlds, They Keep Killing Suzie, Out of Time, and Captain Jack Harkness). Agreed, whilst Cyberwoman and Countrycide were superficially exciting, they were both pretty bad (I like horror stuff but Countrycide just sat uncomfortably with the series to that point, whereas the pseudo-gruesomeness of Cyberwoman just made me wince). And most of the other episodes were 'so-so' to 'okay', but - and this is the clincher for me - still better than a lot of what I might have to watch on terrestial TV (remember folks, this is a Freeview blocked and SkyOne free-zone: not by choice but by current circumstances).

What I liked:

for all his woodenness, it was nice to have Captain Jack back (though that may be mostly for the references made to The Doctor). And for the breath-taking final moments of the season where his (dead) eyes finally lit with some hope and joy.

Suzie was great. Indira Varma is still wonderful if sadly highlighting the acting limitations of pretty much everyone else in the series.

Ianto's character developed nicely from gopher to a more integral figure. Still can't think seriously about stopwatches without shuddering though...

What I didn't like:

Owen, Owen, Owen - quite possibly the quickest progression from acting potential (Bleak House) to get-him-away-from-my-TV-screen (Torchwood). Redeemed only by the characterisation in Out of Time, and even that was predictable, the figure of Owen was quite possibly the worst thing about the programme. I so wanted him to be die from Ianto's shot.

actors not being given anything decent to do a lot of the time. Eve Myles and Naoko Mori clearly have potential but are largely screwed over by the rubbish dialogue they are given and the pants direction. When done well, each can show some talent, but the programme is not settled enough yet to allow that.

So what next? Series Two is supposedly underway, and one can only hope that Jack gets back some of his verve with an injection of the Doctor. If we could only hope that Chris Chibnall were to be sent into some kind of void, Torchwood may develop into a much better series. Here's hoping for improvement.

Home viewing

As you do, I'm off to look at houses with a friend today, 'cos that's what friends make themselves available for, especially when plumbers are at work in their own houses putting in bathrooms (yes folks, the fabled bathroom may ACTUALLY be happening!)

See ya'll tomorrow just in time to comment on my thought about the ending of S1 of Torchwood and my hopes and fears for the 'finale' of Green Wing. I think that This Life +10 (hopefully taped last night) may well have to wait till the weekend to be viewed and reviewed.

All that mockery of ISBN references on Torchwood recently...?

Is it true 10 digit ISBNs are being replaced by a 13 digit number? According to my subscription newsletter from Shaker Publishing it is:

The established ISBN - in conjunction with the development of electronic publications - was on the verge of going beyond the scope of the ten-digit ISBN system as an identification feature for publications and their world-wide distribution (with 170 countries now affiliated to the ISBN system). The international ISBN agency thus decided to revise the standard using the EAN/barcode version and hence extend capacities with the 13-digit code.

Up to now the ISBN has consisted of four elements: the group identifier, publisher identifier, title identifier and check digit. For example, in the ISBN 3-8322-4968-0, 3 stands for German-speaking areas (the group number can identify language areas as well as countries or geographic regions and relates to the location of the publisher). 8322 identifies the publishing house and 4968 a certain publication or edition from this publisher. The 0 is the check digit that is determined according to a fixed arithmetic process and permits the detection of typing errors in an ISBN.

With the new ISBN-13 the number is now preceded by the prefix 978. This prefix is set aside for published products within the EAN (European/International Article Number) and become a firm part of the ISBN. This means that the check digit also changes since it is calculated from all of the preceding numbers. For example, the ISBN 3-8322-4968-0 becomes the ISBN 978-3-8322-4968-7. The X symbol is no longer used as a check code. EAN and ISBN are now identical in all positions.

Apart from the 978, EAN International had already assigned publishers the number 979, thus doubling the range of possible numbers. In the majority of countries the prefix 979 will not be issued until all ISBN areas with the prefix 978 have been used up.

Titles published this year usually bear both the valid ISBN-10 as well as the future ISBN-13 in the transitional phase. Only the ISBN-13 will be used as of 1 January 2007. This applies for all new publications and the so-called backlist. Although books that have already been printed can still be sold with the ISBN-10 information; the titles will be identified by their newly converted ISBN-13 in all catalogues and automatic storage systems. This will primarily effect the catalogues and ordering systems of the publishers, suppliers and retailers as well as the bibliographic databases in libraries. The old ISBN will be replaced by the new ISBN-13 on and in reprints (including unchanged ones) of titles that have already been published.

How did I not know this???

Postman Pat and Torchwood

Not yet read Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn in the Guardian today? Put down your tea before reading his comment on Torchwood.

Torchwood revisited

You know what, Medium Rob was pretty on the money about the most recent episode of Torchwood: it wasn't all bad.

Good points:

the title "They Keep Killing Suzie" - bleak and suggestive

the script wasn't entirely bollocks and had a decent level of developing through the episode

Indira Varma was fantastic (I would think that as I have fond memories of her from this)

the resurrection glove effects were pretty cool

Bad points:

that whole stop-watch thing at the end. I refer you to MediumRob's dirty mind...

badly handled humour about naming - it didn't work

"... there's only a few minutes..." said in darkness: next scene takes place in broad daylight. Clearly Wales has a different relationship to the whole sun/moon thing than the rest of the world. Was there an eclipse they didn't mention?

this Torchwood secrecy thing must be one of the biggest jokes of the series. Are all the police gonna get retcon pills? (and btw in discussing the Whedonverse 'retcon' was when they fitted in backstories that had previously not been mentioned or even directly contradicted previous information: not sure how well that reflects the action of the amnesia pills)

Of course the Behind the Sofa team have screamed loudly about how bad the whole series has been and I do love their humour enough to appreciate their points (could this really be the end of the Tachyon TV podcasts according their latest release?). But I have tried to remain sympathetic to Torchwood despite it being way off mark at times with both its intentions and actions.

Have you stuck with it?

Touchwood (sic)

Took time off doing family history research last night - more on that in a mo - to watch the episode of 'Torchwood' I taped Wednesday night (more on that later too).

I've called it 'Touchwood' in the title after the inestimable Nick M called it that, and the 'sic' could easily have been 'sick' for this week's ep. Yes, yes: you're a grown-up programme. But do you have to keep shifting to look at the dead and bloody and semi-cybered body over and over again?

Still, it was more exciting than other episodes, but lordy you have to admit it really isn't up to the Who standard (even the Who standard of recent years). Enjoyable though it is - "urgh" factor aside (and this from someone who has 'happily' sat through the Tetsuo films: maybe it was because the TV-ish film stock used gives a different level of realism) - it really is a stocking filler rather than a 'must-see'. And I was seriously disturbed by the complete forgetting of the cyber-scientist's body once the sheet was pulled over him, never mind the hapless pizza girl who had her head chopped open and whose fate seemed to raise none of Gwen's earlier concerns to 'focus on the victim'.

Nevertheless, as said, in the absence of much else - and my inability to access BBC4 and the impending British Science Fiction fest - it will have to do. And at least Cloud tolerates me watching it.

Next task: get him to ask a toy shop for a Doctor Who David Tennant giant cut-out. Mmmmmm...

Russell T Davies' faith and optimism: a defence and discussion

Not mine, if you thought I could do such a thing, but a finely articulate argument and analysis from Phil over at Actually Existing. Phil admits that Torchwood is tosh (and by Medium Rob's scarcely spoilering review, episode three travels further down this line) but Phil provides a wonderful discussion of the core features of RTD's work that make it both appealing and dictate its focus. I'll let you read it for yourself, but it is one of the clearest pieces I've read on why some find RTD's work difficult to appreciate.

For me, I guess that I have a certain sympathy with the three core concerns, albeit that I can equally be enthralled by darkness, wickedness and internal character believability. Sometimes that's IS what I want, but lightness too has its place and it is nice to see it so well explained by Phil in his post.