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*.