Torchwood - Adrift & Fragments
Mar. 22nd, 2008 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsIt's either pay the bills or spam LJ. Well, what would you do?
Having caught up on Torchwood, my thoughts. This season continues to mop the floor with last season.
Adrift
I've seen a lot of people foaming about Gwen in this episode, but for once I think the character was used beautifully. Like all the rest, she's much more interesting this season, and this time we got to see *why* she was brought into Torchwood in the first place, and why she was on the way to being a good copper. Instead of just emoting and being The Plucky One, she was determined, unshakeable, reasoned her way through obstacles, and ultimately reached her goal.
Oh, it showed the worst of her too... well, not quite the worst, that being relegated to retconning Rhys so she could have her absolution without actual repentance and reparations on her part. But she's still convinced she's right and stubbornly refusing to communicate because of that - a trait she's learning right from Jack. He could have short-circuited the whole plot by saying "The Rift is spitting them back too old or damaged to go home so we take care of them." But he didn't. Ordinarily I'm furious about plots that could be resolved with 3 minutes' honest communication, but it has long been established that Jack snaps out orders and never explains.
You'd think after all these years of life experience, he'd know what a crappy management style that is.
I also deeply appreciated that it was the Gwen-and-Tosh show for a significant chunk of episode. So many of the plots this year and last ignore the women in favor of The Immortal and His Zombie Sidekick show it's great to see the women working together.
And speaking of working together... what else can be said about canon Jack and Ianto shirtless and groping other than a supersonic "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"? Yes it was blatant fanservice. Yes, it was good for me too. (Although I want to know what John was doing offscreen; having rewatched that scene close to 5000 times, it's impossible to miss that Gwen's not shocked when she stops and runs out, Eve's fighting back giggles.)
It even had a coherent plot (something of an unexpected bonus in Torchwood).
Fragments
No plot this time, but an interesting collection of vignettes to mark the time before the next big plot gears up. (That Myfanwy even got a backstory was a nice touch. So was Rhys being useful, in the know, and competent.) Not too much to say about Owen; it was pretty standard as a story and thus a bit "meh." Ianto... the problem with this season's bouncier Ianto is that he doesn't mesh well with the repressed and silent S1 Ianto. The frantic repeated attempts to impress Jack make sense considering that Ianto's got Lisa to worry about; that he was so chatty and forward enough to insist on being dino-bait and then roll around with Jack and then turned into the monosyllabic "Yes sir, no sir" doesn't quite work.
Jack. Torchwood has been breeding nutters all along, hasn't it? Obviously Yvonne came from a long line of power-mad sociopaths. That he was blackmailed into joining Torchwood makes sense - it's about the only way he would get in, really - but that they took such pleasure in torturing him was disquieting. (But if they were riding him like a derby winner, when did he get off the leash to get married, as evidenced by the photo in Something Borrowed? He must have dealt with the sociopath sisters fairly quickly.)
And speaking of disquieting... the most chilling part of any Torchwood scene has always been the part where they outright say "you no longer have the rights of a citizen." That UNIT has built its own Gitmo is the most controversial part of this, and that I heard those words coming from a UNIT anything were terrifying. The Doctor would have 7000 kinds of fit if he knew.
And yet... I'm not joining the "Rusty has blasphemed UNIT" parade because it's not impossible to think of that kind of thing happening in old school. UNIT's hands aren't clean. Not when Liz Shaw starts her first episode (Spearhead from Space) bitching about how she's been more or less shanghaied. Not when lifetime imprisonment is the *kind* fate for traitors. Tosh committed treason. Yes, she was frightened for her mother, but it remains that Tosh committed treason and for someone with such an amazing intellect, it was amazingly stupid of her to not notify UNIT security that her family was compromised and help them set up a sting instead of betraying their trust in her, building a working weapon, and delivering it to the enemy.
No trial? No appeal? A hell of a lot of countries would have put a bullet through her head right then and there. What does UNIT do? Life inan abandoned warehouse prison. Is the idea of a UNIT Gitmo stomach-churning? Yes. Is it outrageous that they incarcerated her? Not really, not under those circumstances. The horror of Gitmo isn't that it's life in prison - we've got people doing hard life in jails in every state in the union. It's that the people in Gitmo haven't had trials or even solid evidence against them. That standard doesn't apply here. Tosh was caught in the act of turning over a weapon. Her prints are on (and in) the weapon; the blueprints are in her apartment; her fingerprints are on the records vault keypad. Tosh wasn't swept off the streets in a random net, she was clearly, provably guilty of a specific crime.
ETA: The more I argue this, the more I wish they had had the trial, simply because it would have been so very easy for them to prove their case. The outcome wouldn't have been any different, but the route there would have been both legal and undeniable. I've seen it suggested that the reason they didn't do it wasn't because UNIT has gone to the Gitmo side of the force, but because Jack orchestrated *that* too, in order to force Tosh into working for Torchwood while keeping her name out of the papers, which would ruin her use as an undercover agent.
Is it a betrayal of the old UNIT? I'm convinced the Brig would have pulled the trigger himself. He's a hardcore soldier, with a rock-solid, often-demonstrated "shoot it before it hurts England" attitude. He always operates under battlefield rules, and battlefield rules are very clear about traitors.
ETA 2: It's been pointed out that the Brig did not execute Michael Yates, who also committed treason. I have to rewatch Green Death and Invasion of the Dinosaurs to fix in my mind whether this is because the Doctor argued the Brig out of doing it, or his long friendship and reliance on Yates meant mercy. (Neither of which would help Tosh.) Or if it was a strain of general mercy in the Brig. But still - when all is said and done, the Brig is a soldier, the time frame is during the war on terror (although before the London bombing), and Tosh had just handed a working weapon over to an unfriendly force. I doubt that any court would consider shooting her at that moment to be unjustified.
I have to say on UNIT's behalf that their ultimate actions were not just of mercy, but of forgiveness. Jack says he gets her out because of a favor, but that's a hell of a favor, to get clemency for a traitor. That's well beyond the work of one or two people. And note that in S1 and S2 it is Tosh who is once again working for UNIT (Aliens of London) and working on/delivering reports to them (assorted dialog, Torchwood). Tosh displays little fear of them, and they are obviously peacefully working with her. Ergo, her record has been expunged, but I'm not going to say they "cleared" her, because we saw with our own eyes that she is guilty.
As for the bit about having limited contact with her mother, it's quite obvious that everyone in Torchwood has limited contact with the outside world; that's why Gwen's relationship with Rhys is such a big deal. Tosh appears to have the same limits as the others. But more importantly, she *has not been cut off from her parents.* There's a world of difference between postcards and total silence.
It would be nice to think that Tosh had learned her lesson about reporting compromise and asking for help, but I've seen Greeks Bearing Gifts.
Having caught up on Torchwood, my thoughts. This season continues to mop the floor with last season.
Adrift
I've seen a lot of people foaming about Gwen in this episode, but for once I think the character was used beautifully. Like all the rest, she's much more interesting this season, and this time we got to see *why* she was brought into Torchwood in the first place, and why she was on the way to being a good copper. Instead of just emoting and being The Plucky One, she was determined, unshakeable, reasoned her way through obstacles, and ultimately reached her goal.
Oh, it showed the worst of her too... well, not quite the worst, that being relegated to retconning Rhys so she could have her absolution without actual repentance and reparations on her part. But she's still convinced she's right and stubbornly refusing to communicate because of that - a trait she's learning right from Jack. He could have short-circuited the whole plot by saying "The Rift is spitting them back too old or damaged to go home so we take care of them." But he didn't. Ordinarily I'm furious about plots that could be resolved with 3 minutes' honest communication, but it has long been established that Jack snaps out orders and never explains.
You'd think after all these years of life experience, he'd know what a crappy management style that is.
I also deeply appreciated that it was the Gwen-and-Tosh show for a significant chunk of episode. So many of the plots this year and last ignore the women in favor of The Immortal and His Zombie Sidekick show it's great to see the women working together.
And speaking of working together... what else can be said about canon Jack and Ianto shirtless and groping other than a supersonic "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"? Yes it was blatant fanservice. Yes, it was good for me too. (Although I want to know what John was doing offscreen; having rewatched that scene close to 5000 times, it's impossible to miss that Gwen's not shocked when she stops and runs out, Eve's fighting back giggles.)
It even had a coherent plot (something of an unexpected bonus in Torchwood).
Fragments
No plot this time, but an interesting collection of vignettes to mark the time before the next big plot gears up. (That Myfanwy even got a backstory was a nice touch. So was Rhys being useful, in the know, and competent.) Not too much to say about Owen; it was pretty standard as a story and thus a bit "meh." Ianto... the problem with this season's bouncier Ianto is that he doesn't mesh well with the repressed and silent S1 Ianto. The frantic repeated attempts to impress Jack make sense considering that Ianto's got Lisa to worry about; that he was so chatty and forward enough to insist on being dino-bait and then roll around with Jack and then turned into the monosyllabic "Yes sir, no sir" doesn't quite work.
Jack. Torchwood has been breeding nutters all along, hasn't it? Obviously Yvonne came from a long line of power-mad sociopaths. That he was blackmailed into joining Torchwood makes sense - it's about the only way he would get in, really - but that they took such pleasure in torturing him was disquieting. (But if they were riding him like a derby winner, when did he get off the leash to get married, as evidenced by the photo in Something Borrowed? He must have dealt with the sociopath sisters fairly quickly.)
And speaking of disquieting... the most chilling part of any Torchwood scene has always been the part where they outright say "you no longer have the rights of a citizen." That UNIT has built its own Gitmo is the most controversial part of this, and that I heard those words coming from a UNIT anything were terrifying. The Doctor would have 7000 kinds of fit if he knew.
And yet... I'm not joining the "Rusty has blasphemed UNIT" parade because it's not impossible to think of that kind of thing happening in old school. UNIT's hands aren't clean. Not when Liz Shaw starts her first episode (Spearhead from Space) bitching about how she's been more or less shanghaied. Not when lifetime imprisonment is the *kind* fate for traitors. Tosh committed treason. Yes, she was frightened for her mother, but it remains that Tosh committed treason and for someone with such an amazing intellect, it was amazingly stupid of her to not notify UNIT security that her family was compromised and help them set up a sting instead of betraying their trust in her, building a working weapon, and delivering it to the enemy.
No trial? No appeal? A hell of a lot of countries would have put a bullet through her head right then and there. What does UNIT do? Life in
ETA: The more I argue this, the more I wish they had had the trial, simply because it would have been so very easy for them to prove their case. The outcome wouldn't have been any different, but the route there would have been both legal and undeniable. I've seen it suggested that the reason they didn't do it wasn't because UNIT has gone to the Gitmo side of the force, but because Jack orchestrated *that* too, in order to force Tosh into working for Torchwood while keeping her name out of the papers, which would ruin her use as an undercover agent.
Is it a betrayal of the old UNIT? I'm convinced the Brig would have pulled the trigger himself. He's a hardcore soldier, with a rock-solid, often-demonstrated "shoot it before it hurts England" attitude. He always operates under battlefield rules, and battlefield rules are very clear about traitors.
ETA 2: It's been pointed out that the Brig did not execute Michael Yates, who also committed treason. I have to rewatch Green Death and Invasion of the Dinosaurs to fix in my mind whether this is because the Doctor argued the Brig out of doing it, or his long friendship and reliance on Yates meant mercy. (Neither of which would help Tosh.) Or if it was a strain of general mercy in the Brig. But still - when all is said and done, the Brig is a soldier, the time frame is during the war on terror (although before the London bombing), and Tosh had just handed a working weapon over to an unfriendly force. I doubt that any court would consider shooting her at that moment to be unjustified.
I have to say on UNIT's behalf that their ultimate actions were not just of mercy, but of forgiveness. Jack says he gets her out because of a favor, but that's a hell of a favor, to get clemency for a traitor. That's well beyond the work of one or two people. And note that in S1 and S2 it is Tosh who is once again working for UNIT (Aliens of London) and working on/delivering reports to them (assorted dialog, Torchwood). Tosh displays little fear of them, and they are obviously peacefully working with her. Ergo, her record has been expunged, but I'm not going to say they "cleared" her, because we saw with our own eyes that she is guilty.
As for the bit about having limited contact with her mother, it's quite obvious that everyone in Torchwood has limited contact with the outside world; that's why Gwen's relationship with Rhys is such a big deal. Tosh appears to have the same limits as the others. But more importantly, she *has not been cut off from her parents.* There's a world of difference between postcards and total silence.
It would be nice to think that Tosh had learned her lesson about reporting compromise and asking for help, but I've seen Greeks Bearing Gifts.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 01:21 pm (UTC)Stealing a member of a family to ensure compliance goes all the way back through recorded history. It was even codified in the middle ages, with the idea of sending your son off to be a squire at the lord's castle. So it doesn't just beggar the imagination, it bankrupts it, puts its house in forclosure, runs it out of town and parties with its wine cellar to suggest that one of the most sophisticated and advanced security agencies in the world would be caught by surprise at that tactic. "Wow, who'd a thunk it? We have no protocols for the most obvious trick EVER, one that gets used on Law and Order once a month at least." Why in hell didn't Tosh ask for help?
AUGH! I like Tosh, but at this point she qualifies as idiot savant, very good at engineering and dim as a post anywhere else.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 11:14 am (UTC)And speaking of working together... what else can be said about canon Jack and Ianto shirtless and groping other than a supersonic "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"?
I'm amazed you were that coherent-- I wasn't able to vocalise anything for the entire scene. I'll be interested to see what stays in the kiddie version on Tuesday, though consensus amongst my UK friends is that it'll be fine. (Ten to one it gets chopped from the BBCA version, though...)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 01:43 pm (UTC)Hmmm.... Let me think on that.
Ten to one it gets chopped from the BBCA version, though...
My bet is that they keep half the scene - show the first initial kisses, but cut to Gwen before Ianto shoves his hand down Jack's pants.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 01:57 pm (UTC)Hmmm.... Let me think on that.
Also, potentially to avoid any possibility of giving away what's in the basement, now that I think about it.
Ten to one it gets chopped from the BBCA version, though...
My bet is that they keep half the scene - show the first initial kisses, but cut to Gwen before Ianto shoves his hand down Jack's pants.
Might do, though it may also depend on what time BBCA run it. I seem to recall eps of s1 running on Saturday afternoons, which hurt my brain... :P
no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 11:01 pm (UTC)Really good point.
The more I argue this, the more it's annoying me that they didn't have a trial, for two reasons.
1) The lack of trial is the real inhumanity charge that can be laid at UNIT's door, not the sentence.
2) They could have won the trial easily.
The biggest hint that there is no case against the men in Gitmo is that everyone keeps saying that there doesn't need to be a case made against them. If guilt is clear, then guilt is CLEAR - fingerprints on a forbidden keypad, plans in an apartment, witnesses to a handover and recruitment for other jobs.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 12:00 am (UTC)Except that it does. Simply because there is compelling evidence available means absolutely nothing to a person's guilt or innocence until it is tried and tested in a court of law. And that is such a fundamental part of the legal history of this country, and of evidence procedures, that to defend the idea that it's okay not to have a trial cause it's obvious someone is guilty I find disturbing, to say the least.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 01:31 am (UTC)That's not what I'm arguing. (Oh HELL no I'm not arguing that in a country that had lynchings because they were "guilty of something"!!)
Both Tosh and UNIT committed crimes against the state (Union? Peace? Crown? Don't know the right word) according to what we saw in Fragments. Everyone is focusing on OMGWTFUNIT... and I'm over in the corner going OMGWTFTosh! Because she *is* guilty. There is a difference, law and morality, between randomly grabbing someone off the street (presumably what happened to Mrs. Sato) and being literally caught in the act of committing a crime. For one thing, in the latter case, I believe British law permits the holding of a person for a short period of time to determine the facts
Guantanamo, to our national shame, is full of people randomly grabbed off the street.
Until I double-checked Jack's words, I was fairly sure that she had *had* the trial and we hadn't seen it due to time constraints, just as Law and Order never really shows the crime, it shows the mop-up after. When there are only 42 minutes to play with, a certain visual shorthand is given.
I'm not saying UNIT did right. But I'm not excusing Tosh either. No way in hell am I saying that just because UNIT abrogated her rights that she shouldn't have been able to foresee that this was Not Going To End Well.