Torchwood (again)
Feb. 14th, 2008 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestPosting this separately so's people who don't want to see them don't have to cope with spoilers.
Well, what an abundance of riches last night, two Torchwoods inexplicably scheduled in a row, on different channels. Very odd. Not that I'm complaining.
Adam
Well, in what is apparently a minority opinion, I really liked this. Interesting idea, have someone insert himself into a group by modifying their memories. I thought it was clever, and mostly well done. The Gwen/Rhys stuff where she didn't know him was heartwrenching (Rhys! Poor bunny!). I really liked self-confident Tosh, because it seemed that so little would have had to be different in order for her to be that self-confident - a bit of positive attention at the right moment, and she knows she's sexy. Fantastic. I liked nerdy Owen, too, though not quite as much, because it seemed to me that there would have had to be a lot more changed for Owen than for Tosh, and the memory modifications would have to have been pretty extensive - he did not get to be the Owen we know and love/hate in easy steps.
No surprise at all that Ianto keeps a hand-written diary which kicks off the revelation. GDL really goes for the emotional stuff, doesn't he. And I *loved* the way Jack flatly refused to believe that Ianto could be the monster Ianto thought he was.
The frustrating thing, though, was that they've all gone through an experience which ought to prove to them that they have no right to mess with people's memories. It swam up to the surface last week with Rhys, and it was obvious here - mess with what a person remembers of his/her life, and you mess with the personality, because a person's memories, a person's experiences, are fundamental to who that person is. But, grrr, because they've had to mess with their own memories in order to erase Adam, they don't have the chance to recognise that messing with memories is wrong. No carefully preserved note written in Ianto's diary to explain why they can none of them remember the past two days (though, hmm, Rhys might have some interesting revelations for Gwen when she gets home).
Is memory going to be important to whatever happens at the end of the season? I'd be really happy to see them forced to think about their strategy of erasing their existence from other people's minds.
Reset
Well. I was delighted to see Martha, whom I like enormously, and I thought her interactions with Jack were fabulous. I liked that scene with Martha and Ianto. I liked the awkwardness of the scene where Owen belatedly accepts Tosh's invite out for a date. I adored Ianto's little *face* when that wossname shot past him when Owen was trying to show off to Martha.
I also liked the idea, the trail of murders, the universal cure, the nasty parasitic bugs.
So why didn't the episode work so well for me as the previous five of the season? I don't really know. Maybe... once Martha got inside the research institute, things seemed awfully straight-lined? Maybe because Owen finally figuring out how to use that Magic Device smacked too much of Star Trek and/or was Just Too Inevitable? I'm really not sure. It just didn't quite satisfy me as much as I wanted it to.
Also, that bit at the end, no. Just, no. Don't do that! I mean, yes, do it because bad things should happen, but, no! And now, I don't know whether to hope it is permanent - no, because I like the character, but yes, because, well, death usually *is*.
Well, what an abundance of riches last night, two Torchwoods inexplicably scheduled in a row, on different channels. Very odd. Not that I'm complaining.
Adam
Well, in what is apparently a minority opinion, I really liked this. Interesting idea, have someone insert himself into a group by modifying their memories. I thought it was clever, and mostly well done. The Gwen/Rhys stuff where she didn't know him was heartwrenching (Rhys! Poor bunny!). I really liked self-confident Tosh, because it seemed that so little would have had to be different in order for her to be that self-confident - a bit of positive attention at the right moment, and she knows she's sexy. Fantastic. I liked nerdy Owen, too, though not quite as much, because it seemed to me that there would have had to be a lot more changed for Owen than for Tosh, and the memory modifications would have to have been pretty extensive - he did not get to be the Owen we know and love/hate in easy steps.
No surprise at all that Ianto keeps a hand-written diary which kicks off the revelation. GDL really goes for the emotional stuff, doesn't he. And I *loved* the way Jack flatly refused to believe that Ianto could be the monster Ianto thought he was.
The frustrating thing, though, was that they've all gone through an experience which ought to prove to them that they have no right to mess with people's memories. It swam up to the surface last week with Rhys, and it was obvious here - mess with what a person remembers of his/her life, and you mess with the personality, because a person's memories, a person's experiences, are fundamental to who that person is. But, grrr, because they've had to mess with their own memories in order to erase Adam, they don't have the chance to recognise that messing with memories is wrong. No carefully preserved note written in Ianto's diary to explain why they can none of them remember the past two days (though, hmm, Rhys might have some interesting revelations for Gwen when she gets home).
Is memory going to be important to whatever happens at the end of the season? I'd be really happy to see them forced to think about their strategy of erasing their existence from other people's minds.
Reset
Well. I was delighted to see Martha, whom I like enormously, and I thought her interactions with Jack were fabulous. I liked that scene with Martha and Ianto. I liked the awkwardness of the scene where Owen belatedly accepts Tosh's invite out for a date. I adored Ianto's little *face* when that wossname shot past him when Owen was trying to show off to Martha.
I also liked the idea, the trail of murders, the universal cure, the nasty parasitic bugs.
So why didn't the episode work so well for me as the previous five of the season? I don't really know. Maybe... once Martha got inside the research institute, things seemed awfully straight-lined? Maybe because Owen finally figuring out how to use that Magic Device smacked too much of Star Trek and/or was Just Too Inevitable? I'm really not sure. It just didn't quite satisfy me as much as I wanted it to.
Also, that bit at the end, no. Just, no. Don't do that! I mean, yes, do it because bad things should happen, but, no! And now, I don't know whether to hope it is permanent - no, because I like the character, but yes, because, well, death usually *is*.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-15 12:37 am (UTC)I completely missed that there were two Torchwoods on last night. Bugger. I must scour the schedules and try to find the second one repeated.
I also loved Adam, BTW. There is something quintessentially Torchwood about the fact that they had to mess with their memories to save themselves from the baddie that proved how bad it is to mess with people's memories.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-15 03:27 am (UTC)Basically: things are proceeding as planned on BBC2, except with BBC3 jumping the gun. I think they're only doing it for Freema's episodes, though.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-15 03:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-17 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-15 03:58 am (UTC)But oh, I've been looking for Freema's episodes for as long as I've known about their existence. There's this chemistry between her and John - Martha and Jack - that's totally different from the way Jack interacts with his team. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that to Jack, though he's overprotective of everyone, except for maybe the Doctor, Martha is more of an equal than his team would ever be. He's so... paternal towards them, especially in the end of Adam, when he gently takes care of them when they swallow their retcon.
Anyway, I'm rewatching Reset because I totally squeed myself through it last night, and missed a lot of things. You know what I didn't like? Martha tentatively asking Ianto about Jack's "dabbling" manners. It's just... like, Gwen years and loves and angsts in quiet, and that's her cross to bear, so whatever. Martha's intrigued, and I totally get that, but asking Ianto smacked of desperation that seems out of character for her? Especially after her whole defiant thing with the Doctor and stuff.
But Ianto's smug look? Oh, ♥ x billionty.
Cutest thing about Adam (the episode, not person)? When Owen gives Tosh the screen wiper thingie. *dies from cute* Oh, just... *flail*
no subject
Date: 2008-02-17 12:46 pm (UTC)I agree about the chemistry for Martha and Jack - they're equals in a way that Jack cannot be equal with his team members. And they were just so pleased to see one another, lovely!
I sorta liked Martha asking Ianto about stuff, it felt to me as though she was making sure Jack was okay.
I'd have liked to have found Owen's Adam character a bit more believable... very well portrayed, but somehow harder to believe in than the change in Tosh. But, definitely, cute moment there!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-17 11:49 pm (UTC)I think the giggly, gleeful look on her face as she asked Ianto whether she was right in thinking he and Jack... *gigglewink* was... beyond awesome. And I agree, that was making sure Jack was okay. Asking about Jack's... dabbling? Not so much. She should've asked Jack himself - he would've offered a demonstration. ;)