So... Torchwood

[purplecat]

The start of season 2 Torchwood, plus numerous soundbites from Chris Chibnall suggested the production team have surprisingly perhaps (given many of the New Who production office statements) taken the criticisms of season 1 to heart and made a good attempt at fixing the problems without completely rewriting the characters or concepts. So the Torchwood team, while still being a bit useless, are at least no longer obviously stupid and mutinous.

It did occur to me, though, that the show is still too tied to the Dr Who template. Ultimately Dr Who is all about the Doctor and only in exceptional circumstances can the companion really save the day (this is one of the reasons why it still struggles with allegations of racism and sexism). Torchwood is an opportunity to do a proper ensemble piece and yet it still has to be Jack who kills the Blowfish and only Jack is actually competent to handle Captain John. This may have been a dramatic necessity to re-introduce him as an important component in the show but I did feel a little that I was watching a show called Captain Jack not a show called Torchwood.

At the end of the day it didn't leave me fuming with irritation like the latter half of season 1 did but I'm not exactly jumping up and down with excitement. I guess that's the problem with listening to fans, you do what they want and they say "that's nice" and then go looking for something more interesting and unexpected. I suppose another problem is that I never really took to the Torchwood team (even Captain Jack who I've liked whenever he's been in Dr Who) and since they haven't had major character surgery I'm still not particularly interested in them.

As something of an aside I was interested to note while reading SFX last night that the production team perceived the major complaint to be the swearing. Really? I hardly noticed any swearing in season 1 and was more irritated by the idiocy of the characters and the adolescent attitude to sex. Anyway, apparently the swearing has been toned down - SFX helpfully informed me that there were only two swear words in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, though it must be said I couldn't tell you when either of them occurred.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's pretty much it. The team are still unlikeable incompetants - at least Gwen has cut her hair, which will stop my brother harping on about it. The plots still do not make sense. Continuity is still shot to hell. The acting remains dire, but there is now an invasion of stunt casting and the show mocks the team's incompetence rather than not noticing it and there were just about as many good one-liners as in the first episode of season one (which was the only one that showed an inkling of wit.)

It may actually improve and become watchable, given that Chibnell is one of their worst scriptwriters.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I think the adolescent attitude to sex will remain, though a theme just might be a struggle towards maturity, with Jack trying to establish a relationship with Ianto, and Gwen getting married (or not).

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

I recommend f33b's catch-up guide to Season 1 (http://f33b.livejournal.com/42876.html?view=180092#t180092) - whether you've seen it or not.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

(here via lil_shepherd)

"Ultimately Dr Who is all about the Doctor and only in exceptional circumstances can the companion really save the day."

That's certainly not been my experience with nuWho. The number of episodes in season one in which the Doctor actually saved the day himself could be counted on the fingers of one hand, possibly without using the thumb, and the successor is still having to be the ineffectual bumbling idiot so that everyone around him can shine rather more of the time than I would like. I agree that Doctor Who should be primarily about the Doctor, and that Torchwood should be more of an ensemble show, but neither of them is getting it right at the moment in my opinion.

[purplecat]

You are absolutely right, I realised even as I wrote it that it was incorrect. In fact half the point of season 1 was that the Doctor didn't save the day. I was just feeling too lazy to try and sort out my intuition more articulately. I think, even in New Who, which has been trying manfully to both equalise the roles of Doctor and Companion and question the Doctor's status as hero the format naturally defaults back to the Doctor is hero, the Doctor is "best", this show is about the Doctor and that follows from the fact that he's a 900+?x-year-old time old, who knows more than anyone else around him, who possesses ill-defined super-heroic powers (even as early as End of the World where he gets through those irritating rotation blades) and who takes charge of any situation he finds himself in. When you have a character like that its a real fight to give equal weight to any other character around him. They clearly tried very hard in season 1, but I think as the new series has progressed its become harder and harder for them to resist this sort of natural pull from the Doctor's character and even in season 1 I felt there were problems. The strain of trying to make Rose an equal without giving her super-powers of her own often made the plotting (never New Who's strong point) seem more strained than it needed to.