Torchwood - Children of Earth
 

*** WARNING - here there be spoilers ***

Okay, I'm being indulgent having this thread, because as far as I know only Dani & I are fans.
But I'd like to rave somewhere, and this is my home after all.
And all the other places I could rave are full of squealy fangurls.

I like to be the only squealy one :)

The warning is there for anyone intending to watch it after the British release. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I loved it!
Bless the vulnerability of Ianto.
I was worried there would be no man-love at all, but we did get a snog in the end.
Why can't we see them waking up together? That would give me a month's worth of happiness. And you know when I say happiness I mean...
Quick aside - had an appointment today and the paper on the seat next to me was the Hate Mail. I should have known better than to read an opinion piece. It made me feel nauseous. About how Cameron is right to push financial gain for married couples, but wrong to support the gay rights agenda, because they are actually oppressive and want the breakdown of the family unit. How does that sound to good Conservative-voting, happily married couples who just happen to have had a gay son or daughter? Let alone the rest of us.

ANYWAY.
I really warmed to the cute new doctor (small d). I didn't see where that was going at all! I drew my breath in so sharply I spooked Diz, who was curled up under my t-shirt at the time. I will be billing Mr R T Davies for Germolene. In hindsight all the clues were there. He plays me like a shark every time.
ETA - "Dad"! My jaw dropped. Wonderfully handled.

And the preview at the end, with the crispy man screaming. OMG - that's got to be Jack. That's one hell of a suntan babba - Ianto is going to have to be pretty careful with the old foreskin.

Loved it, loved it, loved it.
Can't wait for the DVD, so I can own it.
Yes I know, 4 episodes to go yet. But I pre-ordered Psychoville today (released in August) and there are 4 episodes to go of that yet.

Then again, the Gents' commentary is the best in the world. Yes, even better than Wright & Pegg. Dani, remind me to lend you my copy of Blood on Satan's Claw. A rereleased 70s horror with an optional DVD commentary by Dyson, Gatiss & Shearsmith. Masterful.

I'm a fan, but I'll be avoiding spoilers for a while yet.

Glad to hear it you dirty dancer, you (you're on my calendar this month)

I have tried not to be too specific.
But I wanted peeps to be aware that the thread might give too much away, especially as the story progresses.

If tonight is anything to go by you're in for a treat anyway :)

Oh it's marvellous. Best Torchwood ever.

OH MY GOD EPISODE 2

SO FUCKING ADORABLE

I NEARLY DIED WHEN IANTO CAME TO THE RESCUE. I think he might be my favorite in the show... I mean, sure, i LOVE jack, but Ianto is just SO GODDAMN CUTE.


aside - my style is totally a hybrid of the Ianto 3-pieces (or at least suits) and bright colours, and Tennant's converse.

"Did they kill you too?"
"Yeah."
*hug*

SO CUTE.

I am loving this format. I know the show stars were upset at the cut in ep numbers (and corresponding cut in budget) but I really think this format works better than the usual season of weekly shows. Much more of an event and they've bene able to throw the budget at it in a way they woldnt be able to with a full season. Makes it a much bigger and better show.


Oh and Ianto. What an actror that guy is. He can get across such a range of conflicting emotions. You really get a sense of his internal world.

What I really love is that Ianto comes to the rescue... in a digger and wearing a hi-vis jacket and hard hat. Which he doesn't take off until he has finished his demolition work. You gotta love a man who abides by health & safety regs when the love of his life is in peril.

I watched the episode last night without subtitles, so I could see all of it.
Then again today with subtitles so I could hear everything (!)
Wonderful.
Oh - I was naughty and pre-ordered from Amazon :blush:
Released on Monday. Like Psychoville (pre-order on play.com), they're really capitalising on the immediate interest. Good for them - I know both would have steady long term sales anyway and it suits an obsessive like me to get them quickly.

Glad to see in the "coming next" that Jack gets his coat back.
Mum sent me a text Monday night to say he'd really "larded up" and was looking really jowly. She didn't deserve a pointed response about her own weight - that would have been unforgiveable. What's a few pounds on such an attractive man? Yeah okay - Rhys is more my body type anyway :yum: So I was pleased to see just two tiny love handles on him when he emerged from the dust. Although I did laugh at how he minced across the gravel. Cap'n Jack may be impervious to injury, but John Barrowman was really feeling the stones!

Last episode made me laugh out loud and gasp from shock.
Example of the former, "Who's the queer?" which was funny but of course unfair (in a Last Exit to Brooklyn kinda way).
Example of the latter... oh Jack, Jack. You're as heartless as me.

Will rewatch tomorrow as previously. Didn't get to give it my full attention this time because Mum & Dad are back. Watched it in the kitchen where there's no SkyPlus, hence not being able to rewind when Mum came in to ask me about whether the Avon lady had called, etc etc. Still - I SkyPlused it on the other set, so it's all ready and waiting.

Is the british reporter/anchor lady... the scary woman from Midnight?!

Didn't recognise her myself, but I am so terribly bad with faces (great with voices though!).

Is Decker's overt creepiness a red herring ie he's just a creepy man?
Or does he know more than he's letting on?

Ha, we're lying to the Merkins because of Bermuda. That'll larn 'em. Go behind our backs re Gitmo? Fine, we'll lie about 1965. So there.

Ooh! Do you think we traded the Scottish children as a trade for beating Germany in the '66 World Cup? How many Scots would they want for us to win the Ashes?

Just asking...

Just about stopped crying.
I may cancel my pre-order. Not being melodramatic (well, okay - a bit). Ijust can't imagine watching that episode or the next for pleasure at any time in future.

Too weary to comment on the rest of it. Got some more crying to do I think.

Bastards! I cannot believe they've done that. Bastards.

Awesome tv.

oh god
i havent seen it yet
what did they do
WHAT DID THEY DO
no dont tell me

but oh god please dont let it be ianto. anything but ianto.

that may well be the single saddest thing i have ever seen, i think.

I leaked a bit at the eyes when Tosh & Owen went.
It was moving.
But this time I was crying properly.
I kept hoping that there would be a deus ex machina, but the music told me otherwise.

Decker got a Haz-Mat suit!
How wrong is that?
Nasty weaselly Decker - who I am very suspicious of - got to breathe.

And Ianto looked so good in blue as well. Matched his eyes. And later his skin of course.

All I can hope for now is a down and dirty fistfight between Jack's daughter and the lady-assassin.
That would cheer me up slightly.

Now I have to watch Psychoville online. I was so upset I forgot it was on last night.
That's proper upset.

i find it hard to believe
that they would take
one of the only THREE characters
they DIDN'T already kill off LAST season
and then kill him.

dont forget
this is the beeb we're talking about
they are the masters of retcon, as doctor who has shown us. i'm hoping either for a none-of-that-happened! master-toclafane thing again
OR...

JACK'S MAGIC KISS!

Thanks. It helps a little.
I think I need a bereavement helpline really though :mecry:

I did think, when Ianto was dying that somehow jack's kiss would have passed along some element of his immortality or something equally cheesy but thoroughly romantic and desirable. The bastards.

Maybe a Ianto from an alternative universe will pop through the rift and Jack can seduce him all over again.

i really think theres no way they would kill him off for good at this point... unless they don't plan to have a fourth season...

Could very well be. Or perhaps he has other, preferred, career choices.
I mean this whole story has allowed him to be very close to Jack, with the obvious aim of making it all the more painful when he died. If he was a continuing character there might have been more distance between them.

ah, Torchwood! (swoon!)

Goodness.
Well, that's that then.

I looked forward to this so much. Now I wish I'd never seen it.
It was wonderful, and I can't wait to get my DVD and watch it all again (and let it get less painful!)

But it's quite comprehensively closed the door, and for that I grieve.
Good job I've got series 1 & 2 to watch and pretend it's never going to end.

No it hasnt. Theyve just zoomed jack off into the cosmos so that he can bump into the Doctor during the final specials.

john barrowman has been confirmed as part of the cast for the christmas special and the first 2010 special.

*collapses in relief*
I am pleased.

I can ease myself back in given time, and be seeing him away from a Torchwood setting.
I watched the last bit where he was saving the world all choked up, "He needs his team around him" I moaned.

By the time he's back on my screen I'll be all like, Ianto who?
Maybe.

I have to say, and it's not something I get to say often, I was really impressed with Barrowman's acting in this one. He doesn't always handle the deep emotional stuff that convincingly, but this was a flawless performance. I completely believed him.

And lookee here, what just arrived?
Supposed to be released Monday. And free delivery = 3-5 days, I expected it a week on Monday.
It must be a sign from Jack. He loves me and is coming back after all.

Actually, I was inpressed with all the actors. Especially Ianto, as you have said above. And Jack of course - being a musical leading man it can be assumed his acting is always writ large. But he does TV very well. And when you compare him to the (written) outrageous flirt of the Captain back when he met Rose... wonderful.

Talking of brilliant acting. The guy who played Frobisher. Wow. That man is amazing. Didn't he also direct the show as well?

Just as an aside - Mum was asking about an actor who was in Torchwood and Bleak House.
Fat face, kinky black hair.
Said I didn't know and would have to look it up. Mum sez - maybe he was only in one, it's just the one I happened to see. Don't worry, Mum - sez I - I'll look it up on the internet. I'll have it either way because I have them all on DVD.

Only Owen Harper (Burn Gorman)! Played William Guppy.
Fat faced? Dark, kinky hair?
Have since seen the pics and okay, he wasn't fat faced (or with particularly kinky hair). But I don't have my Mum's ability to recognose actors, and I admire it. Shoot, if someone takes their glasses off I get confused. For example I spent the whole of Heat baffled - I kept mixing up the leads.

Did you notice the Dalek maestro himself, Nick Briggs, in the Downing Street scenes? He was the PR guy who was saying they would be able to sell the cull to the public as a good thing.

I love that guy. He is at the helm o fthe Big Finish audio productions I listen to. You shuold check those out Sundae, you might enjoy them.

Dani, trust me - I recognise no-one facially.
Missed that completely.

I was a League fan when they were on the radio and it still took me to the end of series two on TV to work out which actor played which part. Can you get three more individual faces?

Although saying that - the first time I watched Have I Got News for You I immediately pegged Angus Deayton as having been in Radio Active/ Rowan Atkinson's straight man (I had Rowan Atkinson Live on cassette tape).

Of course now I can listen to the multi-voiced League commentaries, where they all talk over eachother, and have no qualms about matching voice to Gent. Okay, it helps that they all come from such diverse parts of the country. When they are using accents, it's harder :)

and, Frobisher was in the Pompeii episode!

oh and i was wrong about the midnight lady
apparently the reporter was... actually a reporter, Louise Minchin. an actual BBC anchor. as herself. heh.

Ha. Didn't recognise her for herself either - although I know the name.
I'll tell you all about the lovely extras as soon as I get a chance to watch my spanking new DVD.
Extras as in commentaries, making of etc, not as in supporting artists :)

Am watching. Didn't see Day One, but I don't think it matters. I read the plot summary on WikiP, too, so I know what happens, sorta. I just wonder--Will our boys ever get their quickie? Maybe in the afterlife.

Girls, Torchwood will never die--there's always fanfic. And believe me, there's a ton of Jack/Ianto fics out there, too. After all, it's canon!

In order to fill a certain gap... I got into the Torchwood books in the last two weeks.
Almost Perfect is just that - a gorgeous tapas meal of a book - delectable little, lip-smacking morsels, jokes, asides and knowing nods to the fan. Yum yum yum.

Then again, just finished Twilight Streets - thouht I'd love it (with IJ on the cover and all that) but it was the book I've liked least so far. Seriously - if I'd got that one out of the library first I never would have bothered with the rest of them. It's not awful, but I don't give TV spin-off books much of a chance, and this one did not inspire me.

There's a saveinatojones website, with a link to a charity site. Someone has set up a way to donate to Children in Need (UK charity) in Ianto's name. It's a wonderful was to let the Beeb know that we love Ianto, as well as raise money for a really great cause. Yes, I did donate. No, I will no longer account for the money I have spent. Let's put it this way, I'd have spent it one way or another, and I always support Children in Need anyway.

I thought it was a lovely idea. Better than sending coffee to BBC Cardiff :) Although I heartily approve of the reason for it!

Just watched it. Wow. Up until this season, I had only bought into Torchwood halfway. But this was excellent.

I liked this, as well as being what I'm hoping, it's well done.
And according to gossip, he's well hung too :)

FTR - my counsellor understood why I cried that Thurs night. I started to tell her about my week, and that something had upset me, and when I got to Thursday and Torchwood she just said, "Ianto?" She cried too. At the time I mean, not in the session.

Gutted that our sessions are over!

Wow, indeed.

I have to say my fave part of Torchwood was always Capn Jack, anyway. And as we know he can never die . . .

Yay for all the strong women, too. Gwen, Lois, even bitches Bridget and the assasin lady all came through. Gwen, especially is a rock.

Over £3.5k ($5.7-ish) already donated in Ianto's name.
So at least something good is coming from this.

If you're interested.

Season four has been approved.

Jack is back - that's something.
Although it's sad RTD set up a character that supposedly doen't age - did he have no idea about how sexy the Cap'n would be to the rest of us? Barrowman will obv age, which so limits his shelf-life :(

Loved the audio drama and books, even if they're not canon.
And yes, Cloud - I know fanfic is out there. It's fun to fantasise to, but the depth (!) doesn't reach that of the professionals. Because after all, these series do give you good slashfic imaginative material...

Got a good deal on a used copy of The Sin Eaters.
Being a CD I didn't have to worry about it being sticky :)

In case you don't know (I didn't) it's an audio book read by Ianto. And he really has the other characters down pat. I can't promise it's a real American accent for Jack - I know it's not - but he has his intonation at least. You can also tell whether he is speaking as Ianto or Gwen, and his Rhys is immediately identifiable.

I haven't collected the audiobooks before - only being interested in picking up the radio dramas (radio drama is where each actor speaks a part, an audio book is where someone narrates). But this was so yummy, I'll look out for other cheap ones in future.

My only issue was that there was no way to tell which disc to start with. I ended up listening to about 3 mins of disc 2 before I realised even Torchwood wouldn't have started with that much assumed back-story!

Just as an aside - I spoke to a Cardiff boy on the phone when I was booking my tickets to La Cage Aux Folles. He's seen Barrowman walking around Cardiff when he's been home. I was all trying not to be all fangurl...! Apparently, he's really approachable (well, no real surprise there) and always happy to have photos taken/ sign autographs. I still fancy the Captain as opposed to the actor, but what a sweetheart. I think I'll have to put a card in at the stage door (as I did with Mark Gatiss)

The audiobook "Everyone says hello" is excellent. Read by Burn Gorman (Owen).

I've got really into audiobooks ever since I got landed with a council laptop :P I don't use the thing much for work (use my own comp mainly) But I have discovered the joys of nighttime audiobooks (and plays) using the laptop.

So far the best audiobook I've listened to is Darkly Dreaming Dexter. (not a Torchwood) It's so beautifully written and the guy doing the reading has such an amazing voice. It just flows over you.

Sundae did you hear the Torchwood radioplays? A couple of them were a bit so-so, but "Asylum" was just brilliant. The acting was excellent, it was intelligently written and had something to say. Gwen came out particularly well in that one.

I love the show so much, I really should get around to reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter. They should have gotten Michael C. Hall to read the audiobook, if they didn't already...

They didn't. I think it predates the series.

The book is similar but not identical to the first series. The series drew from the book and followed most of the arc of the story. But there were important elements in the book that woudn't have worked so well on the tv. So much of it is to do with Dexter's internal landscape, and the effect events have on that landscape. I am being careful not to say too much because I found even having watched the show, I wasn't entirely certain where the book was going to take things. I wouldn't want to spoil that for you. It is different enough to throw in surprises and twists you won't be expecting.

The characters are for the most part very similar. But again there are important differences. Mostly this is because the book takes them to different places and leaves a very different emotional legacy for the characters to pick up in the next book.

The tv show, to an extent tones down Dexter's darker side. The books go into much more detail about his rituals and killing methods. The tv show hints at some of it, but misses out stuff that might have risked making the character harder to sympathise with. Probably a good decision, because we don't have so much of Dex's internal world to fall back on in the show. Even where Dex is doing things and rationalising things in an entirely unsympathetic manner, the fact that we are viewing things entirely from his perspective counters that.

The guy who narrates the book is wonderful. I now have two very clear and very similar Dexter's in my mind. They're different but they merge. It threw me for the first minute or so, but the man has such a beautiful voice and he acts the reading so well, revels in the wordplay just as Dexter's character does. There are passages in it that are completely haunting, then there will be a witty, clever little line that raises a wicked smile.

It's one of the best audiobooks I've listened to. That and Paul McGann's reading of 'Vurt' are my top two audiobooks. Alas I only have Vurt on an old cassette (ask your parents what they are Ibby:P) and it goes a little shaky half way through. Whoever I bought that off on Ebay must have listened to that section a lot.

I don't think it was ever released as a cd...but if it is and you can find it it's a fabulous listen. Vurt's a wonderful book. I read it years ago, long before the audio. By a Manchester author called Jeff Noon. A very strange surreal Manchester is the setting of his books. Has an amazing way with words. It's almost poetry. And Paul McGann's voice. Woof!

In my post-series 3 mourning, I found this.
Just cos I'm not drinking, doesn't mean drinking games don't make me laugh.

In fact the only time I've really played one was an Only Fools & Horses Christmas Special - and we made that up ourselves. We were drinking real Jamaican rum - at a ridiculous proof rate- and it took Rob most of the night to get home. He lived approx half a mile away (on foot I should add!)

Oh, should say - this one is from here

It's not perfect, but parts of it made me smile.
I think the dig about Americanisms could only have been made by an American (bear with me) because these shows are very popular in the UK and are often referenced in normal conversation. My parents for example, watch all three CSIs and will mwention them occasionally in day-to-day conversations. And my bro loves American sport.

That is pretty funny. Don't understand about the brandishing weapon with a torch. Is that when people hold a gun and a flashlight, together? That always seemed pretty awkward to me.

There must be some way to play that game without drinking. With pennies, maybe?

Wouldn't they stick in your throat a bit?

(giggle)

Chillies!
Then you could have the shits next day and pretend you are Owen when he's dead. Unable to process food I mean... the unfilmed scene before the spectacular projectile vomiting, where everything Owen had previously eaten heads for his arse on express delivery.

I haven't thought about this at all.

Just listened to a podcast interview with John Barrowman by The Stage (UK theatre paper which my Mum gets). He seems pretty positive that Torchwood will be back for a 4th series. He says that given the ratings (especially in America) the BBC would be stupid not to and there have already been some discussions.

It would make sense to have the filming at the same time as the 11th Doctor's 2nd series (the first is already well underway) because they share a studio complex and it's more financially viable.

Then again, he (Barrowman) is also in talks about joining Desperate Housewives... He says he has no intention of leaving the UK, but you have to wonder about how he'd fit it all in - American shows film in seasons which are far longer than UK series - Torchwood 1 and 2 had long runs by UK standards, as does Dr Who.

Still, this is a man who is currently doing 8 shows a week in the West End, filming a children's TV series during the day (Animals at Work - it's worth watching just for him!), promoting a book - within signings and interviews and has a concert DVD coming out for Christmas so no doubt will be promoting that too. Oh and of course will be in panto in Cardiff from 12 December onwards. So I suppose if anyone can manage a trans-atlantic filming schedule it's him!

I know I said I'd start a proper Torchwood/ Barrrowman/ Dr Who thread.
But I forgot. Or couldn't be bothered or something.

Anyway - quick news. For those in the UK, John & family are on Family Fortunes this evening. Yum yum. For those outside, I'm sure it will be on YouTube before too much time has passed.

And we've got a new Dr Who coming very soon. The Waters of Mars is on Sunday 15 November. This time next week! Yay! Supposed to be very dark. No JB in it though. I should stop being so greedy.

John Barrowman has confirmed that he will be appearing in Desperate Housewives later this year.

From the Mail:
So I might even sit through an episode!

There's been a rumour flying about teh interwebz that one of the reasons RTD has moved to America is that there is a possible American verson of Torchwood planned: still with Jack, but set over there instead of in Cardiff.

I have very mixed feelings about that idea. It'd get a hell of a lot more budget, and probably be much slicker; but I can see it would probably lose a lot of its core (the sexuality of the show, the British camp element, and its humour, which is that very quirky Brit humour).

I also think it'd be a real shame if 'we' lost RTD and his creations so completely. I know he's grown increasingly annoyed and frustrated by the budget restrictions of the BBC and the narrowing vision of its production since the economic slowdown; but flying away just speeds that process up. If we lose the champions of BBC drama, then we lose what makes it great.

Oh, and my usual gripe about US networks preferring to remake British shows rather than just air them (as we do with American shows); with the obvious exception of The Office which relied on a familiarity with a particular kind of culture.

I've certainly hear dthat RTD is making an American Torchwood. It's wrong in my book. Make a new series. Don't piggyback off the quintessentially British Dr Who. Call it Excalibur (one of the original names) and divorce it totally from the Whoniverse. Which also means keeping Jack out of it.

I'm sure JB would be in it if time commitments allowed. I mean however big the original is, Torchwood USA would have a far wider audience, run for longer and pay a lot more (look at Queer As Folk for example). And he's a businessman as well as an entertainer. I would be grieved all the same - I think of him as "ours" too. After all, all his family are already in America :(

Bob's take on "Children of Earth", from the other side.