Torchwood: Children of Earth

[james_davis_nicoll]

[Poll #1430144]

For the record, I have not seen it because I pretty much hate almost all the characters on Torchwood and I think the writers need remedial writing classes (I suspect the two are related).

Comments

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I won't comment on it until I have seen it on Space next week.

[cyprinella]

I can't say that I really *liked* it (it's fucking depressing) but I do think it's an actually decent piece of storytelling and drama. You know, especially compared to the rest of the episodes.

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

My biggest problem with the writers of Torchwood is pretty much that they seem to feel that it is impossible for more than 2 or more adults (or even 1 adult and one semi-anthropomorphic alien) to be in the same room without tearing off their clothes in a mad fit of lustful rutting fervor.

It's all well and good in penthouse letters, but it's not what I'd want to see in a sci-fi show.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

I have not seen it and I do not plan to see it. Ever. Torchwood was painful and I refuse to do that to myself again.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I had all these Firefly proponents at me, so I watched "Serenity". Now there's no way I'm watching Firefly. Gawd, that was a bad movie!

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

The thing about House is that last season's finalé is also the perfect ending for the entire series.

Well, aesthetically yes, but I don't plan to stop watching.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

I pretty much gave up on TW after S1 due to the bad writing, but I thought S3 was really well-crafted and powerful. I've been particularly amused at the outrage expressed by traditional fandom -- they've killed our fandom, I heard more than once. Oh, really?

I didn't know that TV writers were supposed to be concerned with supporting fanfic rather than with, oh, I dunno, ratings and good critical reviews. Silly me.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

I have to assume (hope) that you're talking about Capaldi, who was just brilliant, wasn't he?

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I betcha you disliked Life as well.

Love House. Never seen Hustle, nor do I want to.

My feelings on Torchwood are conflicted. It has some really beautiful writing, combined with absolute garbage. I'm disappointed the first two seasons weren't up to its potential -- and I blame the writers, not the actors.

I haven't seen Children of Earth -- I expect I will sooner or later.

I'm currently listening to the recent Torchwood radio plays, which so far are quite good. Perhaps the restriction of sound-only makes the writers work harder.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Indeed. He's been haunting my dreams.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

I can't say that I really *liked* it (it's fucking depressing)

It sent me in a three-four day tailspin. Still, I agree. I think that it has something to say.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

The purpose of fanfic is AU fixit. Of course the torchwood-is-my-prime-fandom fans are depressed. They'll (mostly) get over it.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I've heard so much about it from people online that I feel like I've seen it, and since all I hear are complaints, I'm not likely to watch it. The complaints don't seem to be "you've ruined Doctor Who" though, more like "Goddammit, Davies, you're a hack and you suck".

[tomscud.livejournal.com]

Are you sure you're on the internet?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I liked Life but I also have come to grips with the idea that Crews only gets convictions through the direct intervention of Jehovah.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

I bailed on Torchwood after they slipped in a horror story. I do not want to know about a village that eats passersby. No. Nope. Nuh-uh. Bzzzzt.

I mean, I wasn't enamoured of the series even then, for various that-character-needs-a-kick-in-the-head reasons, but that finished me off.

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in college I forgot how to watch movies and TV, and now the entire medium fails to keep my interest. I did read the script for the Firefly pilot, and thought it had some good lines but wasn't the sort of story I'm interested in.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Hustle. No question. I get that she's the woman and she's ok(ish) looking (although I know a friend of a friend who knows her and she's... anyway)... another one of those bloody "beauty pass"-slow mo-camera pan-toss hair shots and I'll throw a brick at the TV.

Far more annoying than Gwen's whinny Welsh stuff.

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

So, I've been wondering...
(not to open a can of worms, if you can pardon the pun, but...)

How does one write illicit Slash fanfic (which focuses primarily on the titulating nature of fobidden love) when the whole bloody canon of the show is Slash.

Or do they just write illicit inverse-slash fanfic about "what if" Jack was really straight?

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this is why Torchwood has such a rabid fan base. It is Slash Fanfic.

But if you want to know the answer to this question --
1) MPreg
2) The Doctor
3) time loops or Torchwood/Torchwood (especially hot Jack/Jack)
4) the cast as teenagers
5) Ianto-Is-Much-More-Than-The-Teaboy (ie, alien (my favorite is the winged one), the Doctor's love child, Jack's love child, ...)

Now I feel dirty. :) For all my intimate knowledge of Torchwood fandom, my hearts belong to the Doctor. (in a 10.5 AU kinda way)

[runningbadger.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Here is an anti-complaint. I didn't think much to the first season, liked the second one enough to watch all the episodes eventually, and thought CoE was incomparably better. Enough better that I wound up sitting through the last three hours back to back in the end. Quatermass IV blended with Spooks, as described above, is a good description; it's simply a much better show that happens to have the surviving members of the Torchwood cast in it. I think you should give it a chance.

Also I agree with the praise for Peter Capaldi above. Excellent. I was amazed by the range he can get out of (un)civil servant, when I got round to remembering Malcolm Tucker, but that took a long time, because there is nothing in the performance apart from Capaldi's features to remind you.

OMG!

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

My EYES...

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Have not seen it, am not planning on it. Had vague interest at initial good reviews, then got spoiled that it was yet another case of "The Hard Man Does the Hard Thing, Oh Woe, it Is so Haaaaard to be Jack."

There is nothing, nothing more I despise in fiction than not only making the victim less important than the murderer, but having the victims suffering not be significant because of *them*, but because of the suffering it causes their murderer.

Hate it, hate it, hate.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

After the not-lulz-enough silliness of The Second Doctor RTD seemed to really sort out whatever was causing the sloppiness that had crept into his writing by the time he started on torchwood ALOT - the next doctor who special was genuinely enjoyable, and I actually ended up liking Ianto in Children of Earth (where the character hadn't been consistently written enough to make any kind of impression on me before) and genuinely thought for a second Torchwood was going to be competent for a moment there.

There was a few moments where the tone whipped from dramatic to comedic to dramatic with no real warning, but aside from those I found myself actually watching it on wednesday, thursday and friday to find out what was going to happen next - I haven't felt that engrossed by any program for a long while.

Also: it worked a quarry pit into the story without being all "OHAI GUYZ, I CAN HAS QUARRY PIT IN DOCTR HOO SPIN OFF y/y!?!?"

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

I am seriously annoyed that Torchwood is not shown on free-to-air TV in Australia, so that I have only been able to see a couple of episodes from the first series.

When I am seriously rich, I shall be buying the entirety of Torchwood and the new Dr Who on DVD. As I am currently a doctoral student in a not terribly commercial field, this is most likely to happen sometime in the 22nd century.