Torchweek #2:

[neadods]

T3: < lj user="neadods"> < a href="http://neadods.livejournal.com/856017.html">LINK TEXT [Spoilers, CoE 1 and 2]

Before getting into Episode 2, I want to address a comment I keep seeing about Episode 1 - the Christian woman who committed suicide when she found out aliens were real.

A lot of people don't seem to understand this, and yet it's clear as crystal to me, and quite realistic. First of all, let me say that I don't feel that it's Christian bashing (because RTD didn't say every Christian did, or anything of the like) or that it was RTD pushing his atheist philosophy. How can he be, when an almost identical scene about aliens disproving the Bible was used in Alien Nation over a decade ago?

There is a fundamentalist Christian movement, mostly American but it has its missionaries, which believes that the Bible is inerrant and literal. The argument, usually used when cherry-picking verses against gay marriage or abortion or feminism or teaching evolution or doing the same for the supremacy of the rapture or the abusive patriarchal control over wives and children or that particular branch of Christianity over all others, is that if any part of the Bible is not absolutely literally true (by their translation of literal, a whole 'nother post), then the whole Bible is wrong and God is a lie.

Because it is this particular subbranch of Christianity that has produced Operation Rescue, Jack Chick, any number of challenges to evolution (Google "Dover PA"), and the Left Behind series, it's a subbranch with a lot of clout and adherents.

So if someone who is THAT vested in THAT version of Christianity discovers that aliens are real, something not mentioned in the Bible, and isn't able to handwave them away as angels or demons, yes, I can see that someone's faith shattering to the point that they commit suicide.

Hell, the first couple of chapters of Left Behind have several stories of people committing suicide because they realized that they weren't among the elect. It's practically endorsed as The Thing To Do.

As for Ep 2:

On the SQUEE, side:
- The plot thickens. The plot exists! (Let's face it, plot is an occasional extra in Torchwood.) The tension and pacing are building perfectly (I'm probably going to have a cardiac on Thursday night waiting to find out what happens!) It makes such twisted and deliciously suspenseful sense for Gwen to be running straight to the one person who has set all the carnage in motion.

- Gwen continues to kick ass. Both she and Ianto were dazed, confused, hysterical. He ran. She beat the crap out of her persecutors, disarmed them, and shot back. And *then* she doesn't fall for the fakeout, she gets information *and* she gets to Rhys first. You GO, girl!

- Rhys gets a little booty booting himself. "Gimme the bag! You want your trigger finger free, don't ya?" He's well out of his depth and still he's focusing on the important things. "Don't you question my knowledge of the haulage industry!"

- Ianto is providing everything for every fan, isn't he? We're getting equal amounts of cuddle the emo woobie and quiet uber-efficiency.

- Ianto's nephew set new standards in cool. "Shh. We're probably bugged." I don't like kids much, but for that one, I'll make an exception. Even Ianto's brother-in-law gets a noble moment and leads that brilliant blend of attacking back and diversion.

- Lois steps up to the plate! She's been plucky but also in the background; now she steps into the action. She's got a point - "I didn't take this job to commit treason on my second day," but she's doing it for all the right reasons. To REALLY defend her country and her planet. That takes a lot of bravery, spine, and brass equipment to know what's going wrong and step in to fix it, and she does it with a certain amount of suavity and a great deal of thoroughness. A damned pity that Gwen's job offer doubtless doomed her to die.

- "We want a pony. We want a pony." BWAhahahahaa, didn't take long for some kids to start using that for their advantage, did it?

- Jack's reassembly and resurrection was gross as all get-out... but it was the cool kind of gross, if that makes the slightest bit of sense. I do love a good horror movie. (I wonder how many times the Master blew him up? He was awfully sure he'd survive *anything.*) Although I did snicker a bit that either something was taking its sweet time growing back or the Gov't has some really impressive censors on the monitors. (ETA, top posting from comments elsewhere: It would have been rather interesting if not all the bits they picked up originally came from Jack. Or if they'd picked up a random body from the vaults instead of Jack.)

- UNIT *aren't* the jackbooted bad guys! HUZZAH!

- And once again, the last 10 minutes take me utterly by surprise. I'm almost sorry I'm watching alone so I couldn't join the general cheer when Ianto saves them all. And Gwen. YOU GO GIRL! (Although... with the general LOLz of Torchwood, I'm half sorry that they didn't at any point use Jack as a battering ram. Wouldn't that have been hilarious?) However, literally breaking him out by dropping him down a quarry was good. And butt-naked Barrowman always brightens my day, regardless of how they must have taped him up to, er, keep anything from dangling into shot. From the way he was walking, it must have been a bit painful.

- "A throne room. Maybe a slaughterhouse.... They're coming for Britain. Why is that Mr. Frobisher?" Cliffhangers like this ALL WEEK LONG? I'm gonna die. Hands up everyone who thinks creepy engineer is one of them, acting as advance scout.


On the "Aw, hell" side:

- PC Andy as thick as a plank. Everyone else, including the comedy players, got a dramatic and smart moment. I was really hoping he would as well. But no, he leads them right to Gwen, babbling all the way, and then is never seen again. Even Jack's brittle daughter looks like she's going to kick ass next week, but PC Andy's still in the comedy leagues. Damnit.

- The LOLtastically bad OPSEC is really getting too far - that woman has ordered *hit squads* but still not changed her damn password? Hasn't tried logging in and discovered that she can't because she's logged into a different terminal? There's suspending my disbelief, and then there's hanging it by the neck until dead. Although I will give a quarter point for them at least telling the new employee not to walk into the secretest of secrets. A pity I'm deducting 15 points for leading her there in the first place.

- That is the most inefficiently loaded truck I've ever seen in my life. Untrained college kids do better than that stuffing their parent's cars at the beginning of term.


And the "Huh?" side:
- Why does Gwen say "70 miles an hour"? Aren't y'all on kilometers?
- What does Rhys say to Gwen when they drive up in the hearse? I've rewatched it a couple of times and all I can get is "Hello, *I* shouldn't be here? Jack mumblemumbleradishgromit."

Comments

[tiggerallyn.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many times the Master blew him up? He was awfully sure he'd survive *anything.*

I do think the Master had a lot of fun with Jack, once he realized what Jack was. I'm surprised Jack got out of "Last of the Time Lords" sane.

But then I remember he later survived two thousand years buried alive; I wonder what the hell sort of psyops training the Time Agency puts their agents through.

I'm sure the Master was absolutely sadistic with Jack. He knew he could be. *shrug*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the hell sort of psyops training the Time Agency puts their agents through.

I agree with the theory that whatever resets his body also resets his sanity... like it or not.

[fyrdrakken]

It's an idea that Marvel comics have spelled out explicitly with regards to Wolverine's healing factor protecting his mind as well as his body. (The catch being that in Wolvie's case mental trauma gets erased and he may go amnesic.)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

They have a charming amalgam of English and standard measurements over there. Miles per hour ain't no thang. They still compute their weight in stone, bless 'em.

Rhys's line is about how Jack will need carrying.

(What was Rhys's line in the first episode that you're referring to up top? The thing that made me squirm was Gwen's line about adopting a Filipino and putting her to work.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That's the line I was referring to. Was it Gwen? I missed the line, actually, I wasn't paying that much attention at that particular moment and am only now catching up on the "Oh, you did NOT go there!" comments. I'll change the tag.

Thank you for the line, that was making me nuts.

Someone in the Wales exhibit translated stones for us. Computing in 14s seems unnecessarily difficult.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I think the younger generation can compute but I do miles, stones, pounds...all that stuff. I can't work out kgs at all although driving abroad has made me reasonably familiar with kilometres.

I suspect we will always be suspicious of something that was probably invented by the French.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I suspect we will always be suspicious of something that was probably invented by the French.

*snicker*

I can't quite get my head around distances over there at all. When we give directions, even on foot, we're not talking in terms of meters or feet, it's "Go to x landmark and...." So when I'm told to walk x # feet or meters, I'm hosed.

we do not have any sense of humor that we are aware of

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen "oh no they didn't" type comments, and I confess that after a momentary flinch I frankly got over it - she said it with the same tone as e.g. Martin Sheen, in the election-day episode of West Wing, said it was early and there were plenty of results left to falsify. Taking the piss, I mean to say, which is a typical way of addressing even an issue the characters (and thus by definition the writers) recognize as serious. That is: evidently Gwen and Rhys are conscious that Filipinos (or poss. Asians in general) are exploited in their area. They obviously (I felt, given the tone) have no intention of exploiting anyone, and don't think much of the people doing the exploiting.

Given the past four years' worth of tensions Rusty may have trod a little more carefully, but on the other hand he (obviously) may not have done [g], and his own dodgy race issues aren't (imo) a good reason not to have a character make a wiseass remark.

Re: we do not have any sense of humor that we are aware of

[neadods.livejournal.com]

If it were up to me, I'd say it was just Gwen taking the piss, but RTD could have done it without going in that direction, IMO.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I'm actually wishing that this was my introduction to Gwen, because I do NOT like the Gwen I was introduced to in S1 and S2. Here, she's lost (or just not showing) the traits that made me dislike her. And, yes, she's kickarse.

I'm hoping Lois survives, though she probably won't. I did, though, have a sudden thought tonight that Jack's family could end up getting wiped out :( (and I am unspoiled for any of the plot, so that's just gut instinct).

Oh, and in the UK they still talk in terms of miles. It's a while since I've been there, so I don't know if any of the official signs have been changed to kilometres, but the UK is The Great European Integration Holdout, and that includes staunch resistance to metric measurements, even when these are mandated by law ;) Someone actually got arrested - and became a martyr in public opinion - for refusing to price his fruit 'n' veg in kilos.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Here, she's lost (or just not showing) the traits that made me dislike her.

I feel the same - I wanted to like her, but then she'd do something really skunky like sleep around and beg Rhys for forgiveness but retcon him so she didn't have to take responsibility. I think the BBC is hoping that this will be many people's introduction to Gwen, as the show is moving to the flagship Beeb.

Jack's family could end up getting wiped out :(

I hope not, if for no other reason than Jack not moping around like Ten.

in the UK they still talk in terms of miles

You'd think I'd've been paying attention in January, but I wasn't driving. Wouldn't dare; all my reflexes are backwards.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

It's a while since I've been there, so I don't know if any of the official signs have been changed to kilometres

Not yet, at least not in Northern Ireland (and changing, say, the 30mph limit sign to just a '50' in a red circle is going to cause epic confusion if they ever do bring it in...)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see everyone bolting down the road at 50 mph saying "but it's on the sign!"

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Actually although legally we're on kilometres, most of us still talk in miles, be it speed or distance. We're stubborn and different, us Brits! :D

I must admit Dekker seems awfully laid back, all things considered, which makes me suspicious!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's the disconnect between being on kilo and talking in miles that puts me off balance, like when the reader of Pratchett books talks about "dollars and pence." There's a "bwa?" moment every time.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Heehee...

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

- "A throne room. Maybe a slaughterhouse.... They're coming for Britain. Why is that Mr. Frobisher?" Cliffhangers like this ALL WEEK LONG? I'm gonna die. Hands up everyone who thinks creepy engineer is one of them, acting as advance scout.


Hands up everyone who thinks the cage full of poisoned gas is probably not going to turn out to be a perfectly-adapted biosphere for the ickle aliens to live in? y/y

[danel4d.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, wouldn't it be adorable if the aliens are actually perfectly friendly? "You've been going around killing people to cover up our previous relationship? Really, how rude. We were only trying to make arrangements for somewhere to go on holiday, making sure to warn you that we were coming in advance."

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I'm thinking "slaughterhouse" was a warning.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

In distance, it's still miles, even though the govt went through all the fuss of getting weights from Imperial to metric, I don't think they could stomach changing all the road signs to km.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

In distance, everything's still in miles and there's no pressure to change that AFAIK. Probably it doesn't seem like a Good Plan after the pains of making all the shops switch to metric weighing.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'd think it would be tidier to have either everything metric or nothing - but then, I live in a country that chose "nothing" because people went hysterical back when we were told we had to switch in the 70s. I rather wish they'd done it then; the dust would have settled by now.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

We got very upset about the weights. We don't like change. We like things to be ridiculous and complicated. Hence the House of Lords.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

We don't like change either, but we seem to go nuttier about it. I was in London right before the mandated change to pound coins and people weren't happy, but they weren't begging for terrorist attacks or threatening to leave the UK because of it. As opposed to politics as usual here.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

We're British though! We have to be restrained and dignified in our grumblings! (One of the thigns my sister liked about living in France was when any sort of public transport got cancelled, instead of quietly grumbling then going home a la Britain, the French would threaten to riot until someone got them a replacement bus.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'd say something pithy, but that would mean that America had public transport that could be relied on in the first place...

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

But miles an hour makes so much more sense than kilometres an hour. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Does it? I mean, I'm used to it, but if I drive north long enough, I'm gonna find people who think the other way 'round...