{"id":11345,"date":"2007-09-17T07:29:50","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T14:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/09\/17\/torchwood.html"},"modified":"2007-09-17T07:29:50","modified_gmt":"2007-09-17T14:29:50","slug":"torchwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/09\/17\/torchwood.html","title":{"rendered":"Torchwood<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

We’ve watched two episodes now (“Everything Changes” and “Day One”) of the Doctor Who<\/em> spin-off, Torchwood<\/a><\/em>.  First impressions:<\/p>\n

The Good <\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The conceit of a “special operations” group, accountable (so far) to nobody, who investigate and deal with alien threats is not exactly ground-breaking, but it’s nicely done here.<\/li>\n
  2. As is the fish-out-of-water, as a down-to-earth cop gets caught up in a black ops the-truth-is-out-there (and-we’re-covering-it-up) crypto-organization.  (Boy, that’s a lot of hyphens.)<\/li>\n
  3. A few nods to date to the parent series, but not obsessively\/exploitatively so.  Torchwood<\/em> is enriched by having the Doctor Who<\/em> background, but it’s not dependent on it.<\/li>\n
  4. A few nods to the issues of personal exploitation of appropriated alien technology, and of personal morality in a “who watches the watchmen” sort of way.<\/li>\n
  5. Nicely done aliens, from the excellent facial prosthetics on the “Weevils” to the succubus alien last night.<\/li>\n
  6. Captain Jack Harkness has plenty of mystery about him, even for those of us who saw him in Doctor Who<\/em> Series 1 (which presumably happened before this series).  He’s also just a hoot.<\/li>\n
  7. I’m also enjoying Gwen Cooper, aforesaid fish out of water.  I like the fact that she’s neither passive nor uber<\/em>-competent, and I really like the fact that she’s not a tall fashion model blonde. <\/li>\n
  8. I still enjoy the fact that I’ve been <\/em>there (Cardiff) and walked around all those places and took pictures of that waterfall-fountain by the stadium. It adds a frisson of fun.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Bad <\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Granted that the Torchwood Institute took something of a beating during the Dalek\/Cybermen war, it still seems improbable that it’s largely (to date) just a group of five down in some industrial works under Cardiff.  That may be addressed later, but for the moment it makes the show feel small<\/em>.<\/li>\n
    2. Under #1-2 above, they will need to make these two tropes even more fresh and meaningful, leveraging the characters and the situation, if they want to make the series something more than “just a cop show” (as Margie rightfully put it).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The Ugly <\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Beyond Jack and Gwen (and, possibly majordomo Ianto), the cast — Gwen’s boyfriend, techie Toshiko, boor Owen — are so far largely ciphers. Yes, it’s only been two episodes.  But, honestly, I know more about the person who didn’t make it out of Episode 1 than I do of the others.  We need more character hooks, people!  Chop-chop!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         Grade so far:  a solid B:  good enough to keep in the DVR and look forward to, but with room for improvement (or disappointment if they don’t).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        We’ve watched two episodes now (“Everything Changes” and “Day One”) of the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood.  First impressions: The Good The conceit of a “special operations” group, accountable (so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12046,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/03\/tv_review_torchwood_serie.html","url_meta":{"origin":11345,"position":0},"title":"TV Review: Torchwood, Series 1","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 3-Dec-07 7:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The first series of Torchwood wrapped up on BBC America this past weekend, and ... ... well, maybe we'll hop below the cut for those who haven't seen it...","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","block_context":{"text":"TV","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-tv"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/torchwood.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9847,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/20\/carrying_a_torchwood.html","url_meta":{"origin":11345,"position":1},"title":"Carrying a Torchwood","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Oct-06 1:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The BBC has formally premiered the series Torchwood, a \"grown-up\" sexy urban SF spin-off of Doctor Who. The ties to DW are numerous, from the starring role of Captain...","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","block_context":{"text":"TV","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-tv"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/Torchwood.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12413,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/10\/torchwood_series_2_finale.html","url_meta":{"origin":11345,"position":2},"title":"Torchwood, Series 2 Finales","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-May-08 11:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While there is a sense that the final two episodes of Torchwood were connected (by the last denouement scene of the first), in reality they are (NO SPOILERS) worlds...","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","block_context":{"text":"TV","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-tv"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/torchwood.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11102,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/10\/out_with_the_old_in_with.html","url_meta":{"origin":11345,"position":3},"title":"Out with the old, in with the new","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Apr-07 9:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"I mentioned a few days back how BBC America will begin showing more contemporary BritTV, including Torchwood. \u00a0This article details the sea change at BBCa, and how making room for...","rel":"","context":"In "TV"","block_context":{"text":"TV","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-tv"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12140,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/11\/07\/tv_im_watching.html","url_meta":{"origin":11345,"position":4},"title":"TV I’m Watching","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 7-Nov-07 10:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"We watch about 90-95% of our TV off of our DVR, which seems fairly remarkable.\u00a0 So what is it I'm watching these days? Torchwood:\u00a0 This Doctor Who spin-off has...","rel":"","context":"In "Doctor Who"","block_context":{"text":"Doctor Who","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-doctor-who"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/tv-philco-predicta.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11300,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/09\/30\/tv_topics.html","url_meta":{"origin":11345,"position":5},"title":"TV Topics","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Sep-07 8:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bionic Woman:\u00a0 Gritty as expected.\u00a0 Nice fx.\u00a0 Decent acting.\u00a0 While the Evil (or Morally Questionable) Government Black Ops Thang is hardly new, nor is the Rogue Experiment That Had To...","rel":"","context":"In "Doctor Who"","block_context":{"text":"Doctor Who","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-doctor-who"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/tardis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}