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Yes, yes, I know everyone else has already seen the season ender of TW! We're watching on BBCA, okay? We just saw "From Out of the Rain" last week and will watch tonight's episode (whose title I can't even recall; I'm really avoiding spoilers now, srsly)!
A few fun links (stolen from others) and assorted musings below the cut.
Links first.
Stolen from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lunachickk: YouTube vid for TW to the tune of The Firm's "Star Trekkin'." Now I've had that stupid song in my head all week! Spoiler warnings: there are clearly at least two scenes in this vid that come after "From Out of the Rain." I would have remembered those! In fact, I thought I'd even wait until I'd seen the episode in which they occurred on BBCA to post this link--but then I looked over my flist this morning and realized what I said at the top: everyone else has already seen the whole season! If you're one of the one or two others who haven't, you have Been Warned. (I don't imagine these spoilers actually constitute plot points, if that helps. Can't say more. Except maybe: oh, my gosh.:ahem:)
While I'm stealing from Lunie, I'll also give a link I got from her to AfterElton's interview with Gareth David-Lloyd. Nice long interview, much fun. Apparently John Barrowman has difficulty keeping all his body parts inside his clothes. Are any of us really surprised by this? Gareth manages to look even younger in the picture at the top of the interview than he does on the show. He looks young enough to be one of my undergrads, which is disturbing. I'm quite reassured to learn from IMDb that he's actually 27 (and his birthday was last week. Happy birthday, Gareth). He's still younger than I am, but it's thinking that I could be teaching one of the cast on a show I like that really freaks me. (Grad students don't count; some of mine are older than me, and I have no problem with that.)
I wish I could remember where I got this link, but I've rechecked the blogs of the most likely suspects (very fast, I'm afraid) and can't find it; if it was you, or you know who it was, please say so in comments, and I'll edit to credit you. I do like to give credit where credit is due. If Magazine's interview with Gareth. There's a sidebar starting in the middle of the interview that leads to the interviews they did with the whole rest of the cast (though the tidbit with John Barrowman hardly qualifies as an interview, I think; Brilliant Husband suggests John was busy filming that day, worse luck). The ones with Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori are both two-parters. They are great. I love Naoko's bit on getting involved with DW without knowing anything about it. Apparently, the whole cast are a bunch of cut-ups, and the "Torchwood Declassified" team is in constant despair about getting footage they can actually use. I think this might possibly be partly related to the problem John Barrowman has with clothes.
I got hooked enough to go looking for TW fanfic. I can't find anything like the several fine Stargate sites out there (Stargatefan, Wraithbait, AlphaGate, just to name a few), so I ended up at FanFiction.net. Repeatedly. My bad.
Anyway,bentleywg, I know that a long time ago, you asked if anyone knew of any good TW fic. I think there were few or no suggestions (if I'm wrong, please give me links!). I have been through multiple communities and the main Torchwood category, which has over 900 fics even when I exclude the ones with M ratings. I found some good stories; I even set up an account so I could give people proper reviews. Most weren't worth writing home about, however; I like episode tags, a good drabble is a thing of beauty and a joy forever (and quite rare), but what I desire most are original, plotty stories.
Found one! "Lost Inside" by Xenon stays true to the characters on the show, so there are hints of, say, crushes on Jack, but they aren't really the point. Jack, Gwen, and Ianto take a little trip to Jersey to catch smugglers and end up hunting bigger quarry. Elements of horror.
I see that Xenon has written some DW (Mike Yates! Now that takes me back!) and another long TW fic; I'll have to read those when I have time.
If anyone knows of any other good, plotty, TW stories (no porn, please!), please let me know. I know there are TW communities and probably even TW fic recs on LJ, and maybe when I have time I'll look them up. Right now, though, I really don't have time, and they would just be a source of temptation.
Anyway, enough about other people; you really want to know what I think, right? That's why I have a blog, after all! So that I can share my really valuable thoughts and feelings with the world!
The Owen Trilogy: Reset, Dead Man Walking, A Day in the Death
Everyone else thinks death is the best thing that ever happened to Owen. I've argued, and I still think it's undeservedly cruel. I do believe that Owen would have stopped short of actually having sex with that woman after his use of the alien pheromone; that would indeed have been rape, but he seems awfully relieved to get a call and leave her and her boyfriend. Yes, I know by that point her boyfriend has been added to the mix, but I really want to believe Owen would have thought better of it. Owen is a terrible jerk and worse, but I think death is a bit much for him. He can't do any of his three favorite things anymore, can he? That's just too cruel!
I still think so, but actually, I'm now inclined simultaneously to believe that it is the best thing that ever happened to Owen. (I credit my ability to hold simultaneous conflicting ideas partly to DW and partly to Chaucer.) Now he has to think with something other than his Little Brain. ("Let's all have sex!" "Just when I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse.") He's actually showing signs of turning into a decent, if deceased, human being! He's being decent to Tosh! He went to see a movie with Gwen and Ianto! (Team movie night!) Of course, I'm not complaining about the great jokes it provides. "She thought I'd gone off," was great, but nothing beats Ianto's "I was brought up not to speak ill of the dead--even if they are still doing most of the talking for themselves."
So I'm subtitling The Owen Trilogy: Owen Learns There's More to Life than Sex.
I loved having Martha for "Reset," and I hope she'll appear from time to time, but I hope she doesn't ever stick around too long. She has had her own problems; I don't want her to end up like this lot. I'm hard put to say who is the best-adjusted of them; it's kind of a race to the bottom.
After the Owen Trilogy
I thoroughly loved "Something Borrowed"; it may turn out to be my favorite of the season (although "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is stiff competition--wait, did I just make a vaguely dirty joke?). Total crack! That's what I love about this show! I get enough angst from BSG (a rant for another time); I can handle a certain amount from TW, and it wouldn't be TW if there were no angst, but I just about laughed myself sick. Good thing we have TiVo: we kept laughing so hard at one line we'd have to run it back to hear the two or three that came after. Rhys is a good man. I really want Gwen to get her head on straight and realize that--and, mostly, she does. He's not as exciting as Jack, but that's a good thing. Now if she can just not talk about marrying him as if it were some sort of last resort! ("Who else would...?")
Other great moments:
Ianto getting the dress--and again later, showing Jack which one he picked
Tosh throwing the much larger Banana Boat against the wall
"We need a bigger gun."
Gwen concealing the gun behind the bouquet! (I loved Jack's comment on this, too; anyone remember the wording?)
Owen wearing a corsage on his t-shirt.
Gwen momentarily thinking Ianto was cutting in to dance with her (she's only the bride, after all!)
and of course "That's what I love about Torchwood. By day, chasing the scum of the universe; come midnight, you're the wedding fairy."
"From Out of the Rain": I gather not many people liked this! I did; I enjoyed the mystery of it, and I'm not sorry we never did learn whence those people or things came. Maybe I watched too much X-Files; maybe I just realized XF started getting bad not only because Mulder and then Scully left, but because they tried to explain things. No explanation was ever going to satisfy me, I suppose--but the contradictory explanations got annoying.
I loved seeing Ianto as an important member of the team; I am nervous he could be reduced to just being Jack's lover on the show. Of course there was this fun little exchange; I'm not complaining about that!
Jack: Ianto, with me; I need your local knowledge.
Gwen: Oh, is that what we're calling it now?
I'm getting the feeling there's some backstory here about why Ianto got quite so upset about the family. Lost a sibling? I love backstory! Give me more! (I know there's some about each character in an upcoming episode, but I don't know what; please don't spoil me!) Ianto has unexpected layers. I can't believe I wanted him killed during "Cyberwoman."
I don't suppose we'll ever find out more about what Jack was doing undercover with the circus? For whom was he working then? And is it really smart to go undercover in a job that requires you to shoot yourself in the head publicly and repeatedly? Just sayin'.
I loved seeing Gwen, Owen, and Ianto head to the cinema with nothing romantic or sexual about it. They've had some rocky times, but they are a close team; they are friends. I love team even more than backstory! I can has more team, pls?
A few fun links (stolen from others) and assorted musings below the cut.
Links first.
Stolen from
lunachickk: YouTube vid for TW to the tune of The Firm's "Star Trekkin'." Now I've had that stupid song in my head all week! Spoiler warnings: there are clearly at least two scenes in this vid that come after "From Out of the Rain." I would have remembered those! In fact, I thought I'd even wait until I'd seen the episode in which they occurred on BBCA to post this link--but then I looked over my flist this morning and realized what I said at the top: everyone else has already seen the whole season! If you're one of the one or two others who haven't, you have Been Warned. (I don't imagine these spoilers actually constitute plot points, if that helps. Can't say more. Except maybe: oh, my gosh.:ahem:)While I'm stealing from Lunie, I'll also give a link I got from her to AfterElton's interview with Gareth David-Lloyd. Nice long interview, much fun. Apparently John Barrowman has difficulty keeping all his body parts inside his clothes. Are any of us really surprised by this? Gareth manages to look even younger in the picture at the top of the interview than he does on the show. He looks young enough to be one of my undergrads, which is disturbing. I'm quite reassured to learn from IMDb that he's actually 27 (and his birthday was last week. Happy birthday, Gareth). He's still younger than I am, but it's thinking that I could be teaching one of the cast on a show I like that really freaks me. (Grad students don't count; some of mine are older than me, and I have no problem with that.)
I wish I could remember where I got this link, but I've rechecked the blogs of the most likely suspects (very fast, I'm afraid) and can't find it; if it was you, or you know who it was, please say so in comments, and I'll edit to credit you. I do like to give credit where credit is due. If Magazine's interview with Gareth. There's a sidebar starting in the middle of the interview that leads to the interviews they did with the whole rest of the cast (though the tidbit with John Barrowman hardly qualifies as an interview, I think; Brilliant Husband suggests John was busy filming that day, worse luck). The ones with Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori are both two-parters. They are great. I love Naoko's bit on getting involved with DW without knowing anything about it. Apparently, the whole cast are a bunch of cut-ups, and the "Torchwood Declassified" team is in constant despair about getting footage they can actually use. I think this might possibly be partly related to the problem John Barrowman has with clothes.
I got hooked enough to go looking for TW fanfic. I can't find anything like the several fine Stargate sites out there (Stargatefan, Wraithbait, AlphaGate, just to name a few), so I ended up at FanFiction.net. Repeatedly. My bad.
Anyway,
bentleywg, I know that a long time ago, you asked if anyone knew of any good TW fic. I think there were few or no suggestions (if I'm wrong, please give me links!). I have been through multiple communities and the main Torchwood category, which has over 900 fics even when I exclude the ones with M ratings. I found some good stories; I even set up an account so I could give people proper reviews. Most weren't worth writing home about, however; I like episode tags, a good drabble is a thing of beauty and a joy forever (and quite rare), but what I desire most are original, plotty stories.Found one! "Lost Inside" by Xenon stays true to the characters on the show, so there are hints of, say, crushes on Jack, but they aren't really the point. Jack, Gwen, and Ianto take a little trip to Jersey to catch smugglers and end up hunting bigger quarry. Elements of horror.
I see that Xenon has written some DW (Mike Yates! Now that takes me back!) and another long TW fic; I'll have to read those when I have time.
If anyone knows of any other good, plotty, TW stories (no porn, please!), please let me know. I know there are TW communities and probably even TW fic recs on LJ, and maybe when I have time I'll look them up. Right now, though, I really don't have time, and they would just be a source of temptation.
Anyway, enough about other people; you really want to know what I think, right? That's why I have a blog, after all! So that I can share my really valuable thoughts and feelings with the world!
The Owen Trilogy: Reset, Dead Man Walking, A Day in the Death
Everyone else thinks death is the best thing that ever happened to Owen. I've argued, and I still think it's undeservedly cruel. I do believe that Owen would have stopped short of actually having sex with that woman after his use of the alien pheromone; that would indeed have been rape, but he seems awfully relieved to get a call and leave her and her boyfriend. Yes, I know by that point her boyfriend has been added to the mix, but I really want to believe Owen would have thought better of it. Owen is a terrible jerk and worse, but I think death is a bit much for him. He can't do any of his three favorite things anymore, can he? That's just too cruel!
I still think so, but actually, I'm now inclined simultaneously to believe that it is the best thing that ever happened to Owen. (I credit my ability to hold simultaneous conflicting ideas partly to DW and partly to Chaucer.) Now he has to think with something other than his Little Brain. ("Let's all have sex!" "Just when I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse.") He's actually showing signs of turning into a decent, if deceased, human being! He's being decent to Tosh! He went to see a movie with Gwen and Ianto! (Team movie night!) Of course, I'm not complaining about the great jokes it provides. "She thought I'd gone off," was great, but nothing beats Ianto's "I was brought up not to speak ill of the dead--even if they are still doing most of the talking for themselves."
So I'm subtitling The Owen Trilogy: Owen Learns There's More to Life than Sex.
I loved having Martha for "Reset," and I hope she'll appear from time to time, but I hope she doesn't ever stick around too long. She has had her own problems; I don't want her to end up like this lot. I'm hard put to say who is the best-adjusted of them; it's kind of a race to the bottom.
After the Owen Trilogy
I thoroughly loved "Something Borrowed"; it may turn out to be my favorite of the season (although "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is stiff competition--wait, did I just make a vaguely dirty joke?). Total crack! That's what I love about this show! I get enough angst from BSG (a rant for another time); I can handle a certain amount from TW, and it wouldn't be TW if there were no angst, but I just about laughed myself sick. Good thing we have TiVo: we kept laughing so hard at one line we'd have to run it back to hear the two or three that came after. Rhys is a good man. I really want Gwen to get her head on straight and realize that--and, mostly, she does. He's not as exciting as Jack, but that's a good thing. Now if she can just not talk about marrying him as if it were some sort of last resort! ("Who else would...?")
Other great moments:
Ianto getting the dress--and again later, showing Jack which one he picked
Tosh throwing the much larger Banana Boat against the wall
"We need a bigger gun."
Gwen concealing the gun behind the bouquet! (I loved Jack's comment on this, too; anyone remember the wording?)
Owen wearing a corsage on his t-shirt.
Gwen momentarily thinking Ianto was cutting in to dance with her (she's only the bride, after all!)
and of course "That's what I love about Torchwood. By day, chasing the scum of the universe; come midnight, you're the wedding fairy."
"From Out of the Rain": I gather not many people liked this! I did; I enjoyed the mystery of it, and I'm not sorry we never did learn whence those people or things came. Maybe I watched too much X-Files; maybe I just realized XF started getting bad not only because Mulder and then Scully left, but because they tried to explain things. No explanation was ever going to satisfy me, I suppose--but the contradictory explanations got annoying.
I loved seeing Ianto as an important member of the team; I am nervous he could be reduced to just being Jack's lover on the show. Of course there was this fun little exchange; I'm not complaining about that!
Jack: Ianto, with me; I need your local knowledge.
Gwen: Oh, is that what we're calling it now?
I'm getting the feeling there's some backstory here about why Ianto got quite so upset about the family. Lost a sibling? I love backstory! Give me more! (I know there's some about each character in an upcoming episode, but I don't know what; please don't spoil me!) Ianto has unexpected layers. I can't believe I wanted him killed during "Cyberwoman."
I don't suppose we'll ever find out more about what Jack was doing undercover with the circus? For whom was he working then? And is it really smart to go undercover in a job that requires you to shoot yourself in the head publicly and repeatedly? Just sayin'.
I loved seeing Gwen, Owen, and Ianto head to the cinema with nothing romantic or sexual about it. They've had some rocky times, but they are a close team; they are friends. I love team even more than backstory! I can has more team, pls?