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altarielI was able to watch the first two episodes of Torchwood not just with Mr A., but with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gair and Gerald. Yippee!
Opinion formed a continuum, although we all agreed the first episode was better. Mr A. and I were much more positive, although I think this is partly because - after the Robin Hood debacle - we had been massaging our expectations down so as to avoid disappointment. So it wasn't completely ghastly.
It wasn't great either, though. I kept on thinking of Ultraviolet as I was watching, and how much better a job it did of adult-orientated SF, and how better drawn the team of characters were too. These characters felt very teenage, to be honest. Swearing a bit and having a snog do not adult characters make. The only character I was really interested in was Gwen's boyfriend.
The colder Jack has great potential, but I miss debonair, seductive Jack. The one who would flirt with the flight computer telling him it's certain death this time because the computer's the only thing around to flirt with. I think, in particular, his recruiting of Gwen should have felt more like some kind of seduction: not necessarily sexual, but I think there should have been some sense that he was corrupting her. Because Torchwood corrupts in the same way as power: we've seen that with Harriet Jones and Yvonne Hartman from 'Army of Ghosts' and 'Doomsday'.
And there was somewhere to do this in the story: there's a brief scene where Gwen serves tea to CID and, later, shows interest in the murder investigation. Could this not have been developed a little more? Jack offers her the chance to be a detective. I think that would work better than the way they're positioning her, as the voice of Jack's better nature: "You must do something with all of this! Something good!" Ah, those civilizing women...! (The first episode of Ultraviolet follows exactly this plot, doesn't it? Copper drawn into shadowy, beyond government organization. It does it a lot better.)
The other thing I didn't like much was the set for the base of operations. It was too cobbled together. It felt like a set with props on. What I would really have liked was much more of all the Victorian tiling we could occasionally glimpse, with just occasional bits and pieces of insanely high tech lying around. Because it would point to Torchwood's origins, and the crumbling imperial dream it represents, and how it's being shored up. And I think it would have made a real contrast to have this sense of the old Empire lying beneath the new city, particularly given the gorgeous night shots we were getting of all the city lights (but then I'm a sucker for cities at night-time).
I was nodding off during the second episode (all right, all right, but it was warm and I was full of curry!) and haven't watched it all back yet. But the bits I did see made me wonder whether this was the same writer who had given us the penultimate episode of Life on Mars (the one with the cell death). It all seemed a wee bit silly.
The references to Rose and the Doctor left me a little ambivalent. It was nice to get the pointers, but I think I would have liked new mysteries to puzzle over. Is Jack planning to grow a new Doctor with that hand? Well, that would solve the whole Lonely God thing, I suppose. (Mr A. wondered at first whether it was the Hand of Boe.)
But I did love the opening scene with the dead man coming back to life, and I did like Jack coming back to life (ooh, symmetry). The trailer for next week looks pretty creepy too. I'll definitely keep on watching, but I hope it genuinely becomes the adult programme we were promised.
gair and Gerald. Yippee!Opinion formed a continuum, although we all agreed the first episode was better. Mr A. and I were much more positive, although I think this is partly because - after the Robin Hood debacle - we had been massaging our expectations down so as to avoid disappointment. So it wasn't completely ghastly.
It wasn't great either, though. I kept on thinking of Ultraviolet as I was watching, and how much better a job it did of adult-orientated SF, and how better drawn the team of characters were too. These characters felt very teenage, to be honest. Swearing a bit and having a snog do not adult characters make. The only character I was really interested in was Gwen's boyfriend.
The colder Jack has great potential, but I miss debonair, seductive Jack. The one who would flirt with the flight computer telling him it's certain death this time because the computer's the only thing around to flirt with. I think, in particular, his recruiting of Gwen should have felt more like some kind of seduction: not necessarily sexual, but I think there should have been some sense that he was corrupting her. Because Torchwood corrupts in the same way as power: we've seen that with Harriet Jones and Yvonne Hartman from 'Army of Ghosts' and 'Doomsday'.
And there was somewhere to do this in the story: there's a brief scene where Gwen serves tea to CID and, later, shows interest in the murder investigation. Could this not have been developed a little more? Jack offers her the chance to be a detective. I think that would work better than the way they're positioning her, as the voice of Jack's better nature: "You must do something with all of this! Something good!" Ah, those civilizing women...! (The first episode of Ultraviolet follows exactly this plot, doesn't it? Copper drawn into shadowy, beyond government organization. It does it a lot better.)
The other thing I didn't like much was the set for the base of operations. It was too cobbled together. It felt like a set with props on. What I would really have liked was much more of all the Victorian tiling we could occasionally glimpse, with just occasional bits and pieces of insanely high tech lying around. Because it would point to Torchwood's origins, and the crumbling imperial dream it represents, and how it's being shored up. And I think it would have made a real contrast to have this sense of the old Empire lying beneath the new city, particularly given the gorgeous night shots we were getting of all the city lights (but then I'm a sucker for cities at night-time).
I was nodding off during the second episode (all right, all right, but it was warm and I was full of curry!) and haven't watched it all back yet. But the bits I did see made me wonder whether this was the same writer who had given us the penultimate episode of Life on Mars (the one with the cell death). It all seemed a wee bit silly.
The references to Rose and the Doctor left me a little ambivalent. It was nice to get the pointers, but I think I would have liked new mysteries to puzzle over. Is Jack planning to grow a new Doctor with that hand? Well, that would solve the whole Lonely God thing, I suppose. (Mr A. wondered at first whether it was the Hand of Boe.)
But I did love the opening scene with the dead man coming back to life, and I did like Jack coming back to life (ooh, symmetry). The trailer for next week looks pretty creepy too. I'll definitely keep on watching, but I hope it genuinely becomes the adult programme we were promised.
