Torchwood: Children of Earth
Jul. 13th, 2009 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatI'm not actually sure I have a lot to add to the several reviews of this I have already read. I thought it was considerably better than any other Torchwood I've seen and it was certainly TV I would have time for, even without the Who connection, but that doesn't mean it was flawless by a long shot.
As many people have commented, it is interesting to see that the central story, and the one the writers appeared to have put most effort into, was a very traditional 1960s BBC style production in which people in suits stand around talking on a handful of sets while minimal FX are used to build tension. And I was amazed how well that worked translated into an early 21st century setting. It was genuinely gripping and mostly well acted. However, as has been mentioned elsewhere, it's a shame RTD's world view seems to have only the most tenuous grasp of the behaviour of a group consisting of more than three people, let alone the realities of the operation of governments, the civil service or the armed forces.
Then around this rather traditional, but well made, TV SF tale we have Torchwood padding out five hours with capture-escape sequences and big explosions, presumably in order to keep our attention. Again I was interested to note how much less gripping this was than the stand around and talk bits. Torchwood gained points for being more competent this time out - give them a couple more years and I might actually start to believe they're a crack team. As usual they were lucky to be faced with bad guys who were less competent than they were but I was relieved that the whole general level of incompetence on display had raised itself above Torchwood's normal shout at the telly level.
There has been much talk of reboots, and more series. So I was also interested to note that, with RTD taking the helm for the first time, he basically got rid of nearly all the elements that have made up Torchwood - and I wonder now if Tosh and Owen's deaths at the end of last season were a first step in this. It looks very much like he's creating himself a virtually clean slate. If it is true he hopes to continue the show, I think its obvious that he can't have been very happy with what went before and has used this mini-series as an opportunity to clear the decks and allow him to build whatever it was he envisioned in the first place. It's a shame, though, that this story was so much stronger in all the scenes that featured no one from Torchwood.
And yeah, the resolution was throwaway nonsense designed to push obvious emotional buttons with no interest in making any kind of plot sense, but I'm over getting angry at RTD for pulling that kind of stunt.
In summary then, far from flawless, but this felt much more adult than the adolescent sex and angst Torchwood previously served up and looked much more like a show with the potential to produce some good TV SF.
As a last, meta-comment, there are times fandom really depresses me and the reaction of a sub-set of Torchwood fandom to these episodes is one of them. It depresses me that a writer like James Moran who, whatever you think of his work, has put a lot of time into talking with fans (he was great with the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
primeval_denial people, for instance, over the fun they made of him and the Danny Quinn character he created) should feel the need to post the following on his blog: http://jamesmoran.blogspot.com/2009/07/stepping-back.html
As many people have commented, it is interesting to see that the central story, and the one the writers appeared to have put most effort into, was a very traditional 1960s BBC style production in which people in suits stand around talking on a handful of sets while minimal FX are used to build tension. And I was amazed how well that worked translated into an early 21st century setting. It was genuinely gripping and mostly well acted. However, as has been mentioned elsewhere, it's a shame RTD's world view seems to have only the most tenuous grasp of the behaviour of a group consisting of more than three people, let alone the realities of the operation of governments, the civil service or the armed forces.
Then around this rather traditional, but well made, TV SF tale we have Torchwood padding out five hours with capture-escape sequences and big explosions, presumably in order to keep our attention. Again I was interested to note how much less gripping this was than the stand around and talk bits. Torchwood gained points for being more competent this time out - give them a couple more years and I might actually start to believe they're a crack team. As usual they were lucky to be faced with bad guys who were less competent than they were but I was relieved that the whole general level of incompetence on display had raised itself above Torchwood's normal shout at the telly level.
There has been much talk of reboots, and more series. So I was also interested to note that, with RTD taking the helm for the first time, he basically got rid of nearly all the elements that have made up Torchwood - and I wonder now if Tosh and Owen's deaths at the end of last season were a first step in this. It looks very much like he's creating himself a virtually clean slate. If it is true he hopes to continue the show, I think its obvious that he can't have been very happy with what went before and has used this mini-series as an opportunity to clear the decks and allow him to build whatever it was he envisioned in the first place. It's a shame, though, that this story was so much stronger in all the scenes that featured no one from Torchwood.
And yeah, the resolution was throwaway nonsense designed to push obvious emotional buttons with no interest in making any kind of plot sense, but I'm over getting angry at RTD for pulling that kind of stunt.
In summary then, far from flawless, but this felt much more adult than the adolescent sex and angst Torchwood previously served up and looked much more like a show with the potential to produce some good TV SF.
As a last, meta-comment, there are times fandom really depresses me and the reaction of a sub-set of Torchwood fandom to these episodes is one of them. It depresses me that a writer like James Moran who, whatever you think of his work, has put a lot of time into talking with fans (he was great with the
primeval_denial people, for instance, over the fun they made of him and the Danny Quinn character he created) should feel the need to post the following on his blog: http://jamesmoran.blogspot.com/2009/07/stepping-back.html
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 07:40 pm (UTC)I think, if you don't like the direction Children of Earth clearly signaled Torchwood was going in, then its an entirely sensible reaction to cancel orders for Torchwood spin-offery. I know that I, myself, am far too prone to carry on reading or watching a series long after it has ceased to hold my interest. But I do think it's a little silly to do so over one creative decision you don't like, as a kind of revenge on the writers, if you are otherwise happy with the product. The reactions I've seen to Children of Earth seem to fall into both camps and there is sufficient noise to make them difficult to distinguish.
It may be James Moran is being an over-sensitive flower here. But the reactions quoted in his blog post seemed out of line to me, and I wasn't impressed by my quick skim of the twitter log thing.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-13 08:47 pm (UTC)Also, if his claim was true, he would not have been annoyed by the audience reaction - after all, he claimed he had no duty towards them.
It may have had elements of the (worst) Quatermass about it (the non-BBC one) but these writers do not have Kneale's originality or his brilliance in creating realistic characters.