Torchwood - Everything Changes

[catalyst2]

Well, I watched it and


This wasn't what I expected at all. No-one told me it was so funny! That, btw, made it all the better because I love that whole "laughter under fire" vibe!

Visually it is gorgeous - who would have thought Cardiff - frakking Cardiff for goodness sake! - could look so metropolitan and just, well, so damn cool? Jack looked every bit as gorgeous as everyone (well, lots of people, any way) has raved on about. The rest of the cast slotted in very smoothly and to lose a "major" cast member so early was good too - although, as a BtVS fan, it is a familiar device! I wonder if Suzie will become as instantly forgotten as Jesse?

I did notice that Jack seems to like to stand on the top of tall buildings a lot (a la Dark Knight, I suppose) but that gave us some very iconic shots too - also showed up a part of his detachment from humans.

I like that the issue for the team was their detachment from people - covering up deaths without a moment's hesitation, bringing people back from the dead just to test the glove (of Myhnegon? just kidding!) - because that is a very under-explored dynamic in situations like this. Think about how soldiers who come back from combat struggle to reconnect. I liked that as the theme for this episode.

What could have been cool (but didn't actually work here because of 10's saturation advertising and the tagline they gave the series) was when Jack was shot dead but then came back (see 10, if you center your entire campaign around "The man that can never die", there's no drama in this scene!) but it would have been a great moment if it was a surprise!

I also liked the entire pizza delivery sequence - behind the hidden door is NOT a beautiful metal/glass/tile antiseptic lab of SF cliche but a dirty, grotty tunnel leading into an untidy, messy (and, let's face it, slightly chaotic) workshop. The talented. high-powered team WERE NOT FOOLED FOR A SECOND by the transparently obvious ploy and in fact tried to play along until they laughed out loud. And then Owen admits he orders pizza to Torchwood and that he's a twat! There were just so many SF staple plot devices in that one sequence and every one of them was inverted and used to good effect.

In short, a great opener - we know a bit about what these people do, the new team member is deftly slid into position and there's a whole lot of unanswered questions to draw me back in next week - which will, most assuredly, happen!

Comments

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

So, did you like it? It sounds like you did. I have to warn you about ep 2, it's a bit racy.

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

Hell yes, I liked it a whole lot. The people I was with didn't on the whole. One hated the music, saying it was completely distracting and cheesey and the other didn't get the "laughter under fire" vibe ate all. Mind you, and I can barely contain the horror in my voice as I say this, she doesn't like BtVS! The horror, the shame - she's my partner!;-)

Next week is a little racy - the faster the better, I say (because races are fast and ...... yes, that was lame even for me, I know - I seem to have lost my "joke generator" or something this week!

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

I see a lot of homages to the Whedonverse on this show. There's the similar style, the "laughter under fire" vibe you mentioned, the look and feel of the Hub (the Serenity ship), Jack being immortal and haunted by a past (Angel), and a lot of other themes, and sometimes even the dialogue sounds Buffyesque. Russell T. Davies is a Whedon fan and it shows, but some people think he's overdoing that.

Yes, racy. It's an episode about race cars. Have fun!

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

I missed the whole Serenity/Hub thing but, now that you point it out, it seems quite obvious!

It's about race cars? It's Dr Who meets Drive!

And yes all the last few months listening to you squeeing about John Barrowman seem quite justified - he really is very charismatic and quite gorgeous.

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I was intrigued by Jack when he first appeared in DW, but it was the focus on him on TW that grabbed me. While I like the stories and other characters on the show, my love for Torchwood is all because of John Barrowman. He's the bees knees.

[asgaja.livejournal.com]

I remember the first time I saw Torchwood, it was soo intersting though I found Jack and his motivations really annoying for some reason but after going back and watching the Doctor Who episodes where he appears Torchwood was suddently so much better and I found myself really liking him.

Now I'm just hanging on waiting for season two that'll be aired somewhere around the first quarter of 2008.

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

There do seem to be a lot of comments that the first half of Torchwood is fairly awful but that the second half definitely picks up and is really good. I certainly liked the opener so I hope the rest is as good!

[tw-watch.livejournal.com]

Hey there! :)

We've been pointed your way and asked to link this review in torchwood_three, however, since we didn't receive the request from you and your post didn't show up in any of the Torchwood communities we're watching, we thought it best to run this by you first. :)

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

Not a problem - link away! I haven't really got into too many Torchwood communities as I was trying to stay unspoiled - Torchwood only just started here (Australia) - hence the review!

[dave7.livejournal.com]

Righto, added the link in. :)

[sakenichi.livejournal.com]

Hello! I just go redirected here from torchwood_three. I help run Australia's Torchwood Fan Club if you're interested in joining our forum (http://torchwoodaustralia.com/forum/YaBB.pl). Episodes and spoilers are discussed as with the airdates in Aus so you won't ruin things for yourself :)

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

Sounds good - I have attempted to stay unspoiled for this although it has been very hard because we are so far behind. I would love to join the forum!

[sakenichi.livejournal.com]

Great! :) We've only just started up so we're looking for members from all over Australia to join. We'd like to soon have people running groups and organising meets in their state.

If you don't mind, I'd like to link to your review from the 'Everything Changes' board :)

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

No problem - feel free to link to the review. Just joined your forum too so I will be interested to see what's happening.

[sakenichi.livejournal.com]

:) I see you! I'm one of your three friendly admin, going by 'Gwen Cooper'. I shall link it up now. Cheers!

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

I submitted this post to torchwood_three. It's in this issue.

I'm going to remind you when the time comes, but when you write your review of ep 12, you MUST mention that it's my favorite episode! :)

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see the folks at torchwood_three contacted you. Very good.

Oh, and remember when?

No spoilers, 'course.

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

I did wonder how the review got brought to their attention. Thank you for doing that - it's the first time anything I've ever written has gotten linked to like that!

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the first time it happened to me I was kind of thrown. A couple things I posted recently got linked there and the DW one recently. I liked that my Jack/Ianto smut fic made it in. Heh.