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| Torchwood
| Torchwood is the first main Doctor Who spin-off. Its name came from jumbling up the letters of Doctor Who. It is a more adult Doctor Who which has more gore, more death and a homosexuality undertone which runs throughout the series. The team is lead by Captain Jack Harkness, a 51st Century Time Agent and four companions. The adventures centre in and around Cardiff where there is a hole in space and time. |
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| | James | October 26, 2006, 7:10 pm | Saw the first two episodes last night and thought they were ok. It doesn't quite fit for me yet. Haven't made my mind up on it yet.
Doctor Who had the feel of a children's programme which could work for adults and that fitted well. Torchwood has the same feel, to me, but is supposed to be an adult oriented show.
It's no X-Files. Maybe I'm not approaching it in the right way? That seemed to be the intention with it but it plays more like a cartoon. It tries to create tension but undermines itself with a humourous tone. Which is all the stranger considering it actually has some pretty harsh themes (i.e. they effectively executed the alien that possessed the woman in the second show). I suppose that in X-Files all the characters were very aware of what they were doing and suffered the depressive consequences. In this the Torchwood team seem to detach themselves from what they do with humour. Maybe they're in denial. Things like having a stash of spare bodies to substitute for alien affected victims were dealt with flippantly by Captain Jack. He and his team are only viewing problems logically. Ethically they're pretty corrupt and Gwen is there to balance that out.
It strikes me as having a similar structure to RTD's Doctor Who. A female lead is brought into a situation and acts as the writer's link between the audience and the alien characters she interacts with. This time the Torchwood team have a half alien, half human feel to their actions. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Torchwood are task driven and don't consider the ethical implications of their actions. Gwen should have a more direct influence over how the team develops.
Plot wise the mysteries varied. The first episode had a pretty good emotional mystery. The second episode was ambiguous to me. I liked the way Gwen was prepared to execute the alien in the second episode, but I'm not sure where RTD was going with that. If she's the ethical barometer for the series, is RTD saying that she'll provide moral stability towards Torchwood's actions with humans ony?
Overall, I wasn't immediately drawn to it in the way I was to something like X-Files. But I'll give it another viewing. |
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