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Post by librarylover on Jul 9, 2011 10:55:00 GMT
I don't know if any of you have seen the first episode yet, but I thought I'd start a thread for it. I had to add the Starz channel to my already stupidly large cable bill, just so I could watch it.
I don't want to post any spoilers, so I'll just say that I think the first episode did a good job of introducing the new characters and starting the set up of the problem facing the world.
Bill Pullman's character is creepy, and it really takes some doing to make him seem creepy, because he has such a nice guy face!
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kirkg
Auton Daisy
"Hello, Sweetie!"
Posts: 442
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Post by kirkg on Jul 9, 2011 20:31:47 GMT
Saw a bunch of ads listed on the BACK COVER of a bunch of tabloid newspaper magazines in the check-out lane of the supermarket this week.
I don't get it. Can somebody explain what Torchwood Miracle Day is?
I have only just watched Doomsday and the "death of Rose Tyler" at the end of season two. Battle of Torchwood went down, and references to the original Torchwood estate and Queen Victoria bannishing Rose and Doctor.
So, what's this, or do I need to watch more of Season 3 than just when Martha shows in "Smith and Jones"? (good intro to the doctor, actually.)
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Post by clocketpatch on Jul 9, 2011 20:54:48 GMT
Torchwood is a "darker and gritter" Doctor Who spin-off with Captain Jack as the lead (since you haven't seen that far into series three yet, I won't tell you the giant Jack-spoiler that the show revolves around). It's, uh, interesting from what I've seen of it...
It's got a large fanbase, but it's not my cup of tea. The first episode is about alien sex pollen and that tells you as much about the show as anything... granted, I haven't seen the Children of Earth mini series which is apparently quite good.
*shrugs*
Personally, I think they really missed the ball by not having it all set in the 1900s. Edwardian Torchwood, that's where it's at. ;D
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Post by aquabluejay on Jul 9, 2011 22:07:12 GMT
Maybe they'll go back and do that eventually.
I think I'm gonna put off watching the new season till it's all out and then just run through it all at once.
Dad, you really need to watch season three. It's my favorite season, and there are some huge revelations in the season finale, which also happens to be the first 3 parter in new who. There's only been one since to my knowledge and that was the end of the first half season six.
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Post by jjpor on Jul 15, 2011 20:13:19 GMT
Personally, I think they really missed the ball by not having it all set in the 1900s. Edwardian Torchwood, that's where it's at. ;D You know it. ;D I finally got to see this last night (good old Beeb, only nearly a week behind the N American broadcast...). It's alright, so far. I'm in the camp who things CoE is the best Torchwood has offered so far, but I seem to remember that even that didn't start to show its true colours until the halfway mark or so, so on the grounds that it's early days, I think Miracle Day is doing well so far. Didn't make me recoil from the screen in horror or derision or anything. I thought Bill Pullman was pretty good as the creepy, twitchy perhaps-main-villain although * I'm not convinced he'd really get out of prison so easily even under the circumstances, or indeed not be reduced to horrific living-corpse-hood by some vengeful member of the public in pretty short order. I did laugh in a good way at the whole ridiculous chase/shootout sequence with the baby and the helicopter and machine guns and missile launchers - you don't see that kind of thing on telly often enough.* Is it just me, or was John Barrowman deliberately underplaying Jack a bit - you know, quite a reserved turn by his own standards (normally, even when he's being serious, Jack, or at least his TWood version, is kind of hilariously angsty). Maybe it's trying to show how the events of Children of Earth changed him (and I'd quite like to know how he got from there to here, via the Mos Eisley cantina in End of Time, although I doubt we'll find out as this first episode seemed to be aimed at initiating new viewers into the concept of the series rather than hitting them with a lot of continuity-serving exposition). Speaking of which... A bit like Children of Earth, this is the sort of scenario that ordinarily the Doctor could not really fail to be all over, and probably UNIT and so on too. I wonder, though, whether this all-new, all-American version of Torchwood is even taking place in the Whoniverse any more - maybe it's a de facto reboot that will just never mention any of that stuff again, a spinoff of a spinoff as it were.
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Post by johne on Jul 15, 2011 20:58:53 GMT
Speaking of which... A bit like Children of Earth, this is the sort of scenario that ordinarily the Doctor could not really fail to be all over, and probably UNIT and so on too. I wonder, though, whether this all-new, all-American version of Torchwood is even taking place in the Whoniverse any more - maybe it's a de facto reboot that will just never mention any of that stuff again, a spinoff of a spinoff as it were. RTD has said, as I recall, that the Cardiff Rift was one of the cracks from last year's series, and was therefore closed in The Big Bang. Perhaps Torchwood the series is now on the other side of said crack, along with The Next Doctor and The Stolen Earth and all the other things Amy didn't remember?
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Post by clocketpatch on Jul 16, 2011 1:23:54 GMT
RTD said it, and I still scratch my head over how that works exactly... but then, we still haven't got a proper explanation on that whole Explode-y TARDIS thingy so... but if the TARDIS explosion caused the cracks and the past TARDIS was using them for fuel, then was the Old Girl cannibalizing off of herself?!
My head hurts.
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Post by jjpor on Jul 18, 2011 21:47:44 GMT
Yeah...how the...what the...? It probably sounded funny and/or clever when Rusty said it, but on reflection it makes no sense whatsoever. But hey, it's Rusty. ;D I do think you're onto something there, though, johne - regardless of the logistics of cracks, I think the reboot of the universe in The Big Bang is pretty much Moffat-era Who's equivalent of the Time War in providing a nice, conveniently handwavy, sort of "explanation" for these sorts of little grey areas...
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Post by jjpor on Aug 28, 2011 17:19:40 GMT
Regarding the "is Torchwood Whoniverse any more?" question. In the last episode (yep, I'm still watching it and quite liking it, unlike many in fandom, despite it being quite gloriously stupid - if nothing else, it shows off RTD's pretty low opinion of human beings, or at least of human beings in groups acting from fear without thinking things through, which was also the point of Midnight and Children of Earth. This isn't as good or as thoughtful as CoE, though, I don't think), we saw: * Jack in 1927 New York talking about the Doctor in his usual wistful manner, and quite bizarrely a mention of the Trickster as seen in SJA (not the big baddie, though, as amusing and unexpectedly cool as that would have been - just a passing mention). And I believe UNIT was mentioned briefly in one of the earlier episodes - again just a one-line mention. So make of all that what you will.* Something that confuses me a little (and I'm not whiting it because I don't think it's important plotwise) - there are various references to Jack being hundreds or thousands of years old and all the places and people he's seen etc etc. Now, I know technically he actually is at least 1500-2000 years old or so, because of that time in S2 when Captain John took him back in time to Roman Britain and buried him alive until the 1901 Team Torchwood dug him up and stuck him in the freezer for another century (yes, I've watched too much Torchwood. I know). However, as far as I'm aware he only actually spent about 140-odd years give or take actually running around for Torchwood. So, even if we assume that the pre-Bad Wolf Jack was older than he looked due to 51st Century medical techniques or whatever, he's still only spent a couple of hundred years, tops, actually doing stuff. Hmm. I know this is a deeply fanboyish quibble of no interest to any of the rest of you, but I'm suspecting some sort of pointless stealth retcon. I can live with retcons, but only when there's a reason for them and they're kind of acknowledged. Unless it is plot-important, and I should have whited all that out...
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Post by johne on Aug 28, 2011 23:16:22 GMT
Regarding the "is Torchwood Whoniverse any more?" question. It may think it is, but has anyone asked the Whoniverse's opinion on the matter? (By a similar token, the presence of Oolon Colluphid and Arthur Dent makes Who part of the Hitchhikers' Guide universe...)
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Post by jjpor on Aug 30, 2011 21:49:48 GMT
Regarding the "is Torchwood Whoniverse any more?" question. It may think it is, but has anyone asked the Whoniverse's opinion on the matter? Good point.
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