Torchwood Season Three

Scott · July 10, 2009, 11:07:22 PM

I hear there will be a 4th if this does good with the ratings. After seeing the last one, I can't see why the ratings wouldn't be high enough. I'm even gonna watch the episodes on BBC America even though they are going to cut most of each episode out (That's why I downloaded em, gotta see them as originally intended). Stupid commercials.

Meds · July 11, 2009, 01:18:12 AM

Java check the dr who thread. You'll find it under Doctor Who Series 5 and Specials. No news on another series of Torchwood, i don't think it will happen due to Russel T Davies going on to other things.

Darkmolerman · July 11, 2009, 02:14:23 AM

Just finished children of earth, I am so buying the DVD...
I had some damp eyes, more crocodile "oooh so sad" the full on "that's sad" tears. I guess that makes me emotionally dead... :cylon

[spoiler] Awesome season start and finale, I was hopping the itchy trigger finger lady was going to die and what happened to the SUV? I was hopping it was going to come back and play a huge role maybe become a space ship or have a mini tardis engine.... [/spoiler]

Feathers · July 13, 2009, 02:29:49 AM

Overall, an excellent series - the best Torchwood yet but it may be a case of 'going out on a high'. I'm not sure where they can take it from here, or even if they can take it anywhere.

[spoiler]
The ending was actually a little weak since once the main 'situation' was resolved, i.e. the aliens left, everyone across the country seemed to know all about it instantly and it was all hugs and kisses and sadness. In reality, I suspect the Army would have continued with their task until orders came down to cease and desist. It may have been for 'drama' or it may have been that they were short of time but it was a poorer ending than it could have been.

I hate to think what it will look like in the US once they start cutting it and adding adverts!

I also fell that the chances of an American general taking over the British Government is about nil or less. It does shouw the stereotypical view of the US from a UK perspective though!

Oh, as for the SUV - if anyone can find a bunch of kids on a council estate who can turn a land rover into a spaceship I'll be impressed. Torchwood just isn't that kind of show.
[/spoiler]

Darkmolerman · July 13, 2009, 03:05:14 AM

Quote from: Feathers on July 13, 2009, 02:29:49 AM

[spoiler]

Oh, as for the SUV - if anyone can find a bunch of kids on a council estate who can turn a land rover into a spaceship I'll be impressed. Torchwood just isn't that kind of show.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]

Well I just wanted closer on that, it just was a small joke with how bad Ianto's day was it was unneeded.
[/spoiler]

Rico · July 19, 2009, 07:51:28 AM

Starts tomorrow night for its run on BBC America! Nice!

Rico · July 20, 2009, 07:37:26 AM

Don't forget that for Torchwood fans in the US, this 5 night event starts tonight (7/20) on BBC America.

ChadH · July 24, 2009, 08:21:07 AM

I've been recording the episodes on DVR this week. I've only watched through episode 2 so far but I'm really enjoying the show. Great characters and story. :)

Rico · August 09, 2009, 03:32:13 PM

Well, I finally finished watching this. First, I don't think they cut anything at all on BBC America. Each part ran about 1 hr. 15 min. with commercials. So, that was nice although it made some weird recording times (but my TIVO handled it very well). Overall I liked it but I had a few problems with it. And frankly I enjoyed the other seasons of "Torchwood" more. While I think this had a good overall concept I had one big issue with it (see spoiler box for more).

[spoiler]Maybe I'm a bit naive and a bit of an idealist, but I had a huge problem with the government going along with the idea of turning over all those children. They had some toss away lines about what if not everyone in the military goes along and so on, but I mean come on. No one even really tried to fight them - not really. Yeah, I know they couldn't detect them in orbit and all but until Jack and Yanto showed up the others were acting like scared little kids. Let me put it this way if Jim Kirk had been the negotiator. It would have gone something like this.

The 456: Give us 10% of your children.
Kirk: No!
The 456: Then we will wipe out your species.
Kirk: Fine - go ahead. Then you get nothing!
The 456: Umm, hmmm. Well, give us some of just the naughty kids.
Kirk: No!! Now leave or I will blow up the Earth myself and you with me!

You get the idea. Their threat was weak. And frankly, if you ask any parent if they would give up their kids to do something like this to them, I think they would take Frobursher's route (although that was a bit dumb too - I mean he was on the inside, he could have found a way to save his kids).

Anyway, don't misunderstand I enjoyed it pretty much and it sure had a hard to watch final ending with Jack and his grandkid, but I guess it annoys me to find people being so weak in positions of power like this. Again, I'm sure I'm being naive, but that's just the way I am I guess.[/spoiler]

X · August 09, 2009, 03:52:12 PM

Quote from: Rico on August 09, 2009, 03:32:13 PM
Well, I finally finished watching this. First, I don't think they cut anything at all on BBC America. Each part ran about 1 hr. 15 min. with commercials. So, that was nice although it made some weird recording times (but my TIVO handled it very well). Overall I liked it but I had a few problems with it. And frankly I enjoyed the other seasons of "Torchwood" more. While I think this had a good overall concept I had one big issue with it (see spoiler box for more).

[spoiler]Maybe I'm a bit naive and a bit of an idealist, but I had a huge problem with the government going along with the idea of turning over all those children. They had some toss away lines about what if not everyone in the military goes along and so on, but I mean come on. No one even really tried to fight them - not really. Yeah, I know they couldn't detect them in orbit and all but until Jack and Yanto showed up the others were acting like scared little kids. Let me put it this way if Jim Kirk had been the negotiator. It would have gone something like this.

The 456: Give us 10% of your children.
Kirk: No!
The 456: Then we will wipe out your species.
Kirk: Fine - go ahead. Then you get nothing!
The 456: Umm, hmmm. Well, give us some of just the naughty kids.
Kirk: No!! Now leave or I will blow up the Earth myself and you with me!

You get the idea. Their threat was weak. And frankly, if you ask any parent if they would give up their kids to do something like this to them, I think they would take Frobursher's route (although that was a bit dumb too - I mean he was on the inside, he could have found a way to save his kids).

Anyway, don't misunderstand I enjoyed it pretty much and it sure had a hard to watch final ending with Jack and his grandkid, but I guess it annoys me to find people being so weak in positions of power like this. Again, I'm sure I'm being naive, but that's just the way I am I guess.[/spoiler]

I don't think it would have went that way at all. This is clearly a case of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few or the one.

[spoiler]While it's a good idea to say that you would resist, think about it in the greater scheme of things. How many people would honestly resist with you. Either everyone dies are 10% are stolen. I don't think it's hard to imagine that a government would give up 10% to save 90%. I also don't think that a we'll kill ourselves negotiating tactic would work. What happens when they call your bluff? Are you willing to kill all of the human population to spite the 456? What happens if the 456 decided to just kill the adults and take the kids once they are gone? I think by them demanding the 10% that gave them a bit of easy in getting their mission done. they wouldn't need to do the ground work to round the kids all up, but it really wasn't that weak a threat.

Either way the earth would have lost and I just can't see a majority of humanity willing to die to protect kids that aren't theirs. The Kirk method just wouldn't have worked. he would have been laying on the floor dead like Ianto and they would have been back to getting the 10% together.[/spoiler]

Rico · August 09, 2009, 04:03:24 PM

But here's the thing. They did beat them in the end - and what did it take 5-10 minutes of air time? They were too many weak people in this one for me. Sorry, maybe they should have spent some time trying to figure out another way sooner to beat them rather than tucking their tails under their legs and giving in.

Oh, and Kirk would have beat them. Because he doesn't believe in the no-win scenario. That, and he has Spock backing him up too. ;)

Rico · August 09, 2009, 04:14:06 PM

I know you can pull anything apart, and I did enjoy this mini-series but there is one other big thing that kind of bugged me:

[spoiler]Once they learned that they wanted the kids for pumping "drugs" into their bodies they really had them at that point. The 456 were "junkies." A junkie is very easy to own and manipulate. Granted these are alien junkies - but you get the idea. The big thing they should have at least mentioned was creating a synthetic drug for them. I don't care what kind of hook up those kids have, but humans have come up with TONS of drugs to simulate a "high" that hormones can produce. It should have been at least mentioned and I know this is Sci-Fi, but kids for drugs? Really??[/spoiler]

Feathers · August 10, 2009, 04:29:31 AM

With the reputation of politicians in this country at the minute, the thought of a cabinet room full of weak spineless people (just in it for the expenses) sort of matches the national mood - I suspect no-one even batted an eyelid at that idea over here!

I suppose I agree with the 'alternative solution' arguement but they'd pretty much painted thenselves into a corner time-wise with that. It wouldn't have fitted neatly into the remaining episodes (even in TV time) plus it wouldn't have involved 'the team'. I guess it would have been more likely, but not Torchwood.

But then I come from the perspective of not liking Torchwood very much so I took this as an improvement from a low baseline rather than a downward step. I guess we're just all different :)

Rico · August 10, 2009, 05:54:11 AM

Funny about you saying that bit about it being not Torchwood. There was a lot of this five part series that really didn't involve them much at all. I guess I missed the team solving the problem together more - as in previous seasons.

X · August 10, 2009, 09:11:42 AM

Quote from: Rico on August 09, 2009, 04:14:06 PM
I know you can pull anything apart, and I did enjoy this mini-series but there is one other big thing that kind of bugged me:

[spoiler]Once they learned that they wanted the kids for pumping "drugs" into their bodies they really had them at that point. The 456 were "junkies." A junkie is very easy to own and manipulate. Granted these are alien junkies - but you get the idea. The big thing they should have at least mentioned was creating a synthetic drug for them. I don't care what kind of hook up those kids have, but humans have come up with TONS of drugs to simulate a "high" that hormones can produce. It should have been at least mentioned and I know this is Sci-Fi, but kids for drugs? Really??[/spoiler]

[spoiler] Having met many junkies due to previous lines of work, they aren't that easily manipulated. I know that they are painted that way on tv, but these are people that will try to get their fix by any means necessary. You have a better chance of stopping a charging bull with a firm no.

As for the idea of using synthetic drugs. Again, for the most part, junkies aren't complete idiots. They have these kids that provide them with an unlimited drug supply. Even if they figured out how to duplicate every single hormone in the body, it would not be a renewable resource like the children were for them.

Also for the kids for drugs idea ... it was pretty cool and very close to real world in application. It's like toad licking on an interplanetary scale. If there are animals here we can milk for drugs, it's not a hard stretch to see some aliens pulling the same thing on us.

We also have to remember that these people are more than just junkies, they cured a pandemic with no problems and seem to have far better tech than we do. I guess in the end, what you saw as faults, I saw as good ideas in story telling. I could see how the government would turn the kids in. We've done far worse in the past to the children in as recent as the 60's. We also turn a blind eye when it happens in other places.

I think that because of those things, it made the rest of the premise too easy to accept. People in power aren't usually there for the sole reason of protecting everyone. When something needs to happen it's usually the poor that are affected first. It was just damned good writing to me because it was too plausable. [/spoiler]