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Torchwood: Dr Who Spin-Off With Captain Jack

I think Torchwood is definitely being produced and written differently now.
Slower pacing, better characterisation, more realistic acting, better dialogue and plot, sparing use of CGI.
It's really good.
Russell T still throws in that unnecessary gay action from time to time, but apart from that plot diversion, it's pretty good. It seems like they have really made it for the US market.
 
Well obviously the 'superior' american TV market prefers totally slow pointlessly laboured (note the spelling that's ENGLISH) productions padded to death. Oh Well another one bites the dust!
 
Mythopoeika said:
I think Torchwood is definitely being produced and written differently now.
Slower pacing, better characterisation, more realistic acting, better dialogue and plot, sparing use of CGI.
It's really good.
Russell T still throws in that unnecessary gay action from time to time, but apart from that plot diversion, it's pretty good. It seems like they have really made it for the US market.
Click to expand...

Why unnecessary? There was a hetero scene spliced in too, you know!
 
rev_dino said:
Mythopoeika said:
I think Torchwood is definitely being produced and written differently now.
Slower pacing, better characterisation, more realistic acting, better dialogue and plot, sparing use of CGI.
It's really good.
Russell T still throws in that unnecessary gay action from time to time, but apart from that plot diversion, it's pretty good. It seems like they have really made it for the US market.
Click to expand...

Why unnecessary? There was a hetero scene spliced in too, you know!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was a bit unnecessary too... :)
 
The 5th episode was just as watchable as the others, but I'll still have a moan about the story dragging. Get on with it!

After the blurb in the paper said "the Torchwood team discover the shocking truth behind the Miracle", or somesuch, my hopes were raised slightly too high. We discovered nothing of note, did we? OK, so there's a dastardly plot to burn the "category 1" patients, but that still has absolutely nothing to do with what caused the event. Presumably, it will either be aliens (which will jar somewhat with the new grittier, more realistic, tone of the show) or some parallel species of super-humans who have been effectively farming us for millenia.

Well, I'm firing guesses off into the ether with that last bit, but I do like to give these things some thought!
 
If it's guess' you want...

Dastardly aliens poisoned the whole planets water supply a few generations ago with drug X, which integrated with our DNA. Following the death of the worlds oldest woman (who had been living in deepest darkest Cardiff, and put her longevity down to a stiff G+T and a good supply of batteries for her rampant rabbit), those dastardly aliens have returned, emitting a sonic wave across the planet that 'activated' the active ingredient in drug X, causing the polarisation of the death cell inside each and everyone of us. Except Jack, whose death cell had previously been deactivated, so was now turned on. The death cell that is, not Jack per se, but hey he might pull again. (I say, Matron!) Thereby causing the none death of the population. Jack is so despondent at the prospect of getting older and suffering pain, he embarks upon his last night before topping himself, beginning in yet another boy bar, where the DJ inadvertently plays Lady Gaga at the wrong speed, which mimics the frequency of the original sonic wave. Jack leaps to his death, but is thwarted following the Lady Gaga mistake. The team then have to subject themselves to hours of mindless pop music to find the right tune, which causes Greg to promptly die. All Lady Gaga recordings are burned in the conveniently placed burning chambers, Team Torchwood gets reinstated and get a new HQ in Wetwang. Result!
 
Don't worry. You won;t be any wiser at the end of episode 6 either. :eek:

This really is beyond a joke now.
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
Don't worry. You won;t be any wiser at the end of episode 6 either. :eek:

This really is beyond a joke now.
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I'm glad that I haven't bothered to watch any of it, then!
 
Cultjunky said:
If it's guess' you want...

..... All Lady Gaga recordings are burned in the conveniently placed burning chambers, Team Torchwood gets reinstated and get a new HQ in Wetwang. Result!
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I think you've got the plot the nailed down there Cultjunky (it sound better than thesolution of the mystery that's likely to come up on TV) and a spooky coincidence too, at this very moment I've a item about the former railway station in Wetwang open in another Window.
 
Wetwang. Is that near Numberwang?
 
I'm rather enjoying it, which is odd, I have a low tolerence for drawn-out shite as a rule, but for this I'm even putting aside my netbook, turning off Twitter and actually watching the thing. :shock:
One thing I've noticed; John Barrowman doesn't look so well. There's something about the colour of his lips, makes me think he has heart trouble.
Someone suggested that the whole thing could be a McGuffin to allow him to age; I'd wager they aren't far off the mark.
 
Actually, thinking about it, I've long harboured the thought* that immortality would be the most horrendous curse, so the whole thing struck a chord with me. I even started writing a book on exactly this scenario several years ago, but discovered someone was ahead of me on it and promptly gave up.

* since reading a short story called The Weariest River, I can't remember who by, but I know you fellow geeks will come up with it. Then reading The Mayflower 2 by Stephen Baxter.
 
beakboo said:
Someone suggested that the whole thing could be a McGuffin to allow him to age; I'd wager they aren't far off the mark.
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Same here - as they've already established in the Whoniverse that Jack's really immortal (or near as dammit) or he couldn't be the Face of Boe: so they have to explain why he's now obviously older than he was on-screen six or seven years ago.

I'm guessing HD exposes a multitude of sins non-HD could keep under wraps with a judicious bit of slap here and there.
 
Barrowman has visibly aged, it's true. However, he does still look good for his age.
I agree with this idea that this is a plot device to explain why the immortal Jack Harkness has started to age. I mean, he can't regenerate like the Doctor, so there has to be a way to work around reality while continuing Torchwood...
 
We don't know for how long Captain Jack was bopping around in time and space before he returned to Earth anyway. Could have been hundreds of years since we last saw him. Or maybe it's John Barrowman who isn't immortal?
 
gncxx said:
Or maybe it's John Barrowman who isn't immortal?
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[sucks in breath] ...No, it can't be that... ;)
 
Only enjoyed the last 5 mins the rest was a huge snoozefest.I used to really like torchwood, but my attention is wavering.
 
I am persevering with this series (can't bring myself to call it 'season')in the faint hope that it will all turn out be a dream and Captain Jack will emerge from the shower his usual immortal self :) but seriously i am finding it a bit slow, there is the odd bit of the old Torchwood humour thrown in but even that is few and far between :( It probably doesn't help that i am halfway through watching the first three series so am sorely missing weevils, resurrection gloves and weird lesbian aliens!
Hopefully Ep 6 will give us a bit more of an insight into why it actually happened in the first place!
 
Special guest tonight is "Winston" from "Ghostbusters".

Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?

Winston - If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.
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:lol:
 
Last week I learned they were burning the dead.

This week I learned the world learned they were burning the dead.

Next week I might finally get a glimpse of something alien.

The trade off is I have to watch John Barrowman fall in love in (circa) turn of the 20th century America.
 
Not a bad episode I thought, a bit more momentum than previously, although next week's looks like a flashback episode which could put paid to that. Still, we did get a glimpse of a wriggly worm in the trailer. Whatever could it be?
 
I think I can see where elements of this might be going as a good(??) Catholic I might ask the papacy to sue!!
 
gncxx said:
Not a bad episode I thought, a bit more momentum than previously, although next week's looks like a flashback episode which could put paid to that. Still, we did get a glimpse of a wriggly worm in the trailer. Whatever could it be?
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Goa'uld!
 
Yeeeee! almost like the old days! more of the same please! and more of Gwen, in black, on a motorbike causing big explosions! :blissed:
 
My perseverence has been rewarded :D much better episode, the action actually started at the beginning this time! bring on the aliens!!!!!
 
Filling in the backstory tonight before we can move forward into the home stretch over the next episode or two. Slowed things down a bit, though. Nice reference to the Doc, so he hasn't forgotten his roots. And of course John Barrowman showing us his immortal arse.

Oh yeah, and Nana Visitor (which is what you are when you go to see your grandmother), another refugee from cult TV as a baddie - watch for Q next week!
 
Oh dear I think I can see where this is going.....

So far we have been kept in the dark as to motive - with the obvious hint that Jack is different (by which I mean Jack is the motive). Now I think it is laid bare. It may not be all the parts but I think its enough for the general direction.

At least we have the fanboy employment of some ageing start trek actors hamming it up to look forward to.

Actually I love Kira & Q so I'm happy. Damn you RTD! ;)
 
Ah - I didn't recognise Nana Visitor. That's to say, I knew that I knew her from somewhere (a bit like Dot's sister in Eastenders earlier last night...*), but I couldn't place her precisely.

Thought the episode was a bit of a "meh" hour of telly, actually. OK, we get the idea that John Barrowman likes to get his kit off, but the actual story moved on less than it could have because of all the romantic goings-on.

Gwen is boring me now as well, and I'm not really too fussed about all the guest stars who appear one week and then disappear the next. Even Bill Pullman's Danes seems to be wholly irrelevant to the plot. He and red-haired girl (who at first seemed quite satanic, but now seems more of a red herring) haven't been seen in two weeks, bloke from Ghostbusters came and went, spindly Dollhouse girl with the broken neck hasn't returned yet, and the one character I was starting to warm to (the good doctor) managed to get herself killed in a world full of immortals. Bummer or what...

Still, the story may eventually be coming together: I'm not sure where the creature in the box fits in (and I was jarringly reminded of Sarah Jane on CBBC when the phrase "Trickster's Brigade" was uttered), but it seems to be that the 3 mysterious men took some sample from Jack to discover the secret of eternal life, and lover-boy was cut in on the secret to seal the deal. And now we've got 3 episodes (or is it 4? Like Dirty Harry, I kinda lost count in all the excitement) to sort it all out.


*Polly Perkins, apparently. WHO? Quite - I was wrong - I didn't recognise her after all.
 
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