Friday 10 July 2009

Torchwood: Children of Earth (BBC1)

Tonight we watched three of this week's Torchwood episodes in a row. It was much more exciting this way than Monday and Tuesday's lone episodes. I don't usually watch Torchwood but you know, with no Doctor Who on we've all got a bit desperate- and I had faith that as it was a special, five hours in total, they would have to knock the standard up a bit.
These episodes of Torchwood were really good- a good story I mean. The problems only occurred when there were moments of dialogue unrelated to the children-are-alien-crack plot, ie whenever Ianto talks to Jack in a boyfriend-capacity his character seems to get more and more blah, and nobody cares when he dies.
I like Gwen and I like her average bloke husband, I even ended up liking Ianto's comic relief family, but Ianto and Jack together were so boring! How could a relationship ever have happened between them when Ianto had NO personality!?! Jack is also boring and very one-dimensional for a character who has supposedly broken all sci-fi boundaries or whatever...
The supporting cast and characters on the other hand are what made the five-day special very watchable, I loved the girl who was their spy on the inside, she was the best Torchwood team member. Sea-gully (Paul Copley) was great as a convincing looney, Peter Capaldi was fabulously teary as usual and Nick Farrell was, as usual, confusingly gorgeous as the slimy PM.
Anyway, it is a shame that Torchwood is over after these episodes proved that it wasn't all shite. But I think Torchwood fans probably missed the "sexy banter" and all the inbreeding going on in the office, whereas I appreciated it as a good fun piece of science fiction and felt it was at it's worse when Ianto wasn't focused on saving the Earth and instead was sighing; "Jack, will you still remember me in 1000 years? sob, cry, etc."

2 comments:

  1. Just finished the final couple of episodes. I think I'm pretty much with you in that it was an excellent slice of sci-fi goodness, but the weakest parts were Jack and Ianto. Jack I found annoying the whole way through, especially when he was swishing around in his stupid coat, or pointlessly running somewhere. I think that could be why I never got into Torchwood. Ianto kept most of his personality in his suits, and together they were very squishy-faced and unconvincing.

    I like Lois Habiba (how many times was her name said?) and Gwen. I was creeped out by the alien voice and the kid-drug thing. Gross. I liked how I would have absolutely believed it if they had in fact given the aliens thousands of children at the end. Never trust the government.

    Yes, those are my thoughts. :)

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  2. Nick Farrell gets my vote.
    I thought his secret was going to be that despite his kids being grown-up he had a secret mistress and child somewhere who had to be given up too and that was going to make him break. Turned out he was just one dimensional, as all Prime Ministers should be.
    Farrell never gets to play the parts I want him to! I should write him a play or something. Damn his face!! Why does it confuse me so!? Gah! BLUE! BLUE! BLUE!

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