Children of Earth: The Summary Post

[neadods]

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This post is up late, because I had to come back and edit the draft severely.

Final Episode
The fifth episode is when everything changes. I went into this spoiler free until last night, and I rather wish I'd spoiled myself rotten, so that I would not only be prepared, but would probably have sat it out. And the thing is, up until tonight - yes, even after episode 4 - I was riveted. Up through 3/4 of episode 4 I was even squeeful.

Now I'm sick with nausea. There's an old fandom term, "ose." As in "ose, ose, and more-ose." This was ose turned up to 11.

I may not like children, but I didn't sign up to watch an 8-year-old tortured to death. THAT IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT. The Doctor *will* turn away in shame. Are we supposed to pretend that this won't have happened if Jack shows up at the regeneration?

"I kept thinking of Blake's 7." M told me. "Destroy everything at the end." She's not wrong.

Overall Thoughts
Overall, I think it was an amazingly complex bit of plotting, particularly by Torchwood's usually lax, cheesy standard. Pacing, tone, characterization, tension... all at peak levels. Seeming throwaway bits came back later to be part of the plot. The plotlines at no point involved a main character being dumb as dirt. (I appreciate a story that doesn't require someone to act like they've already donated their brain to science.) Watching Frobisher be broken on the emotional rack was some creepy, compelling TV. The whole thing ended up gutting, appalling, grim... but I can't say it wasn't effective.

This isn't to say that I don't have major qualms about said story. About how Jack became someone who could so easily sacrifice his own grandson. About Ianto's death, and not just in the "damnit, he's my favorite character" sense. No, because the whole shock value of suddenly killing a main character was used twice at the end of last season, and now a mere 4 episodes later, ta da! Here comes the same rabbit out of the same hat. And then, because we can't up the ante with regular characters, we'll kill a kid - *onscreen!* I had to turn away more than once.

Wow, do I wish that it hadn't been labeled Torchwood.

And rumor has it that RTD really wanted to write a completely different show, a new one, and this story would have worked excellently with only minor changes. (Make Not!Jack older, make the 1965 trade his first assignment, put the bomb in his briefcase instead of his stomach, pull him out of the rubble alive, and have only one intact oxygen mask in the escape/backup kit they brought to speak to the 456.) So I feel that if RTD wanted to write a miniseries for Sanctuary something else, he should have up and written a miniseries for Sanctuary something else. I wouldn't have watched it -- but that's one of the reasons why I wish he had. I'm so... shattered... at what Jack has become that I'm finding I can't read the Torchwood book I saved for "afters." Heck, Empty Child/The Doctor Dances are my all-time favorite Who story, and it's going to be a bit, if ever, before I can watch them and see vaguely honorable Jack and not think about how his creator will turn him into someone who will rip his own grandson from his screaming daughter's arms and kill him.

No clue how it could ever be possible to have a 4th season from where it stands. Not only because I would be more likely to reach for a barf bag than watch more of what I got tonight, but because whatever happens next with the remaining characters is going to be derivative. Why derivative? One word:

Jack
Jack is a man who has extensive knowledge of time and space (and the mechanics for traveling them) and cannot die, which means that he will outlive all his friends, many of whom will die during their attempts to save the Earth from alien menace. He has even sacrificed his own planet family in order to end a terrible threat. This makes him very, very emo. Oh, and he works with UNIT when he has to.

Does this sound just a tad familiar?

The strength of both spinoffs is also their biggest weakness. RTD didn't just recreate the Doctor for a new millenia, he Xeroxed the character. Sarah Jane = Three, and at these levels of emo, Jack is rapidly approaching Ten. (Or 10.2 or 10.3, or however he would fit in with the altverse clone.) If RTD wants to move beyond the ties to Who, he shouldn't have stripped the show of everything that made it unique - the Rift, the Hub, Cardiff, Myfanwy, the team the humor, the hope, the camaraderie. If all we've got left is Doctor Lite and his plucky cute woman assistant (and, grudgingly, her boyfriend/hubby), might as well just call them Doctor, Rose, and Mickey and be done with it.

While I'm speaking about the characters:

Gwen
My opinion of her has run hot and cold up until now. I don't think she's a threat to my ship (because let's face it, Jack's OTP is Jack/anything consenting with a hole, preferably in large groups. Jack/Gwen vs Jack/Ianto? Please. He'd be suggesting a foursome with Rhys.) I wanted to like her - but then she'd babble, or screw around on Rhys, or confess to Rhys but retcon him so she didn't have to take responsibility, or put the whole world in danger because she decided she couldn't lose Rhys even though she wasn't treating him very well. So while I didn't actively dislike her, I didn't care about her either. In this miniseries she's been competent, compassionate - but most of all, she's finally a believable ex-cop, something we only truly saw in one previous episode in all of Torchwood. (When she was finding all the people who came back through the rift. EXCELLENT police work on her side, and my heart really broke for her being essentially punished for doing what was right.) This Gwen, still giddy over aliens but comfortable in the group, compassionate but instantly cold when necessary, smart and investigative, determined, strong - this is the Gwen we should have seen all along. The Gwen her fans saw but casual viewers didn't.

Ianto
At first I didn't feel much of anything at all. I was so convinced he *wasn't* going to die, a belief that just got more dogged with most everyone else's often-stated convictions on any and all evidence that he *was* - so when he *did,* my main reaction was "Woah. They were right."

But that doesn't nullify the objections against it. That the character was extremely popular with the general public as well as fandom, and the Jack/Ianto ship got them lots of good publicity in the alternative press.

There was more to this part of the post, about how Torchwood was down past sustainable levels and how it would have been more shocking to kill the pregnant married woman, and how I was sorry to see Ianto go but I wasn't gutted, especially knowing how many ways characters can come back in the Whoniverse. It had the phrase "Schrodinger's Tea Boy."

But it was all drafted before ep 5. Y'know what I think now? I'm GLAD he got out before it got *that* twisted. At least his character isn't warped for me.

tl;dr: Unexpectedly good storytelling overall, but I've gone from squee to sick about anything Torchwood.

Comments

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

I've gone from squee to sick about anything Torchwood

DITTO.

It was angst, pain and suffering FOR THE BLOODY SAKE OF IT.

These are not the characters I signed up to watch.

RTD, you totally lost me. I am DONE.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I'm still processing my reaction, and wondering what the hell RTD is planning now - ie was there ever really a possibility of TW S4, or was that just a bluff for the fans?

But, much as I'm also reeling in shock, and quite a bit of distaste, for what happened in this, the one thing I can understand is Jack sacrificing Stephen. It's horrible, and the visuals were gruesome, and we're meant to loathe Jack for doing that - but what was the alternative? Let the 456 take millions of kids, and maybe come back for more in another 45 years' time? Because I know that was going through Jack's mind. Say 'not my kid' and order them to find another child? Could he have lived with himself if he'd saved his grandson and sent another child to his death? It felt to me as if he had no choice. And, in a way, I do think the Doctor would understand that. How many people close to him did he sacrifice, after all?

But, yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion that anything I write set post-JE and involving Jack now will ignore this mini-series. This is a Jack I don't think I can write.

[evil_plotbunny]

I've been saving my thoughts to do one reaction post at the end of the series, and what I thought I was going to say changed halfway through tonight's episode.

It's up now and I'm debating whether I actually want to watch again at the DWNY meeting on Sunday, knowing what I know now.

[havocthecat]

I am so glad I gave up on that show once I heard that they'd killed Tosh.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I knew the grandson was sacrificed to get rid of the aliens but fucking hell, Jack = Agamemnon now? Unless they're bringing back Alice to go Clytemnestra on his ass--which RTD has conveniently made impossible--I never want to see his face again either and I didn't even watch the damned thing. You just watch, though: They'll bring Jack back to mug and flirt and be the Yank-accented comic relief as if nothing at all's ever happened.

[zinelady.livejournal.com]

I was talking to my John about Jack and 'sacrificing' his grandson to atone for what he did back in 1965. I think Jack was feeling guilty and felt compelled to punish himself. He felt guilty for losing all of the team and did what he knew would make his daughter hate him so that no one would love him anymore because he feels he isn't worthy of being loved.

I'm not sure if there was another child available if he would have used him or her rather than his grandson.

I thought it was stupid of his daughter to let someone else watch her son so she could go see what 'dad' was up to. I would have taken him and run as far away as possible.

Another point in my self punishing mode of Jack was that he transported himself using his gizmo that had been through an explosion without testing it first. I don't think he cared where he ended up as long as it was far away from Gwen as possible. He couldn't stand being near Gwen because she cared about him and he believes he's unlovable.

[not-hathor.livejournal.com]

Thank you, NEA.

I have never really minded 'spoilers' -- I could quote the last five minutes of the last Episode of Blake's Seven word for word long before I actually SAW it, just from reading the fanfiction.... I watched the Highlander TV Episode That Never Happened, knowing full well what to to expect.... Thanks to you, my dear friend and sometime roommate, I now know that I will NOT be watching TORCHWEEK later this month.... I've learned my limits.

Currently taking applications for a Clan Denial:Cardiff Branch....

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

RTD had better pack a tin helmet and a flak jacket for his attendance at Comic Con - 'cos he's gonna need it when the fans meet him!

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

I have never liked Torchwood but thought the first episode of this miniseries interesting, even if the characterisation seemed to have changed totally since the last time I bothered to watch. However, then the pacing sagged like hell, and it felt very, very stretched to cover the next three episodes, in which I was not particularly interested.

The last episode made my angry, but not for your reasons. I loathed the shoddy manipulation and sentimentality and, in particular, the use of cute kids in that manipulation. I also disliked the recycling of Dark Season yet again. It did not engage me. It did not teach me anything. It did not entertain me. It did not move me.

My own theory is this is RTD blowing off Torchwood fandom. Be careful. He may do the same to Who fandom in the last of the specials.

[dancing-hamster.livejournal.com]

I thought the story itself was pretty good and if it had been another show then I probably would have loved it. However it was not the Torchwood I started watching the show for. I liked the campy cheesiness of the show (more in s2 than s1) and it just completely took all that away.

I was gutted when Ianto died because I got into the show late, after JE and he was the reason I took an interest in it and I knew from the way the show started to feel they were not going to bring him back after that death scene. (Is it wrong for me to worry about GDL career and when we will see him on screen again?)

I agree with the original post, I feel sick when I think of Torchwood right now and I need a distraction until it isn't so raw and I can come back and enjoy the fandom again.

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

I stopped to gas up Baby last night (the Omaha-St. Louis run) and while I was there I punched up a spoiler synopsis via Twitter.

You know, on the one hand I was perversely pleased to see I was right on every point I mentioned the other day. But boy I didn't think it'd go that far on the "bastard scale".

Frankly, it felt to me like a scorched Earth solution. Everything connected to Jack's Torchwood is gone. Time will tell if Gwen keeps up the fight--and does it right this time.

[isabeau.livejournal.com]

..........I am so glad I stopped at day three. Sigh.

(and I have renewed interest in working on the origfic novel that I keep thinking of as Torchwood Without The Skeevy Morality Handwaving. um. it lacks a pteradactyl, though.)

[rudolfrassen.livejournal.com]

The Wife(tm) told me you were commenting on the show, so I figured I'd give my opinions after I finished watching it.

From a story standpoint, I thought it was extremely well written. I wasn't always able to guess what was going to happen next, and for me that's pretty impressive, given much of the cliched writing that goes on nowadays. There were lots of good cliffhanger, lots of great little moments, and overall it kept my attention.

I was only upset at Ianto's death because it came right after the recent deaths of Tosh & Owen (I was always a Tosh fan). Did they really need to kill off another major character?

As for the final part, it really was a slit your wrists episode. You felt dirty after watching it. After the whole part about Jack feeling bad for sacrificing the kids in 1965, he then does it again with his Grandson, and so nonchalantly (The one tear at the end just didn't cut it for me). Granted he saved all the other children, but he should have been more broken up about what he did.

As a side note, I hated the actress playing Jack's daughter. A lot of the times she looked like she was smiling when confronted by horrible things (like when she watched the video of the Prime Minister talking about how they will sacrifice the children). It was quite creepy.

Overall, I enjoyed Children of Earth a lot, but I never want to see it again. I might watch Torchwood again if they do a fourth season, but they would have to work a lot to really get my interest again.