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In which Smitty gets to the good stuff early....
So, I never really win anything... largely, it must be said, because I never really enter competitions. But I couldn't quite resist entering a little BBC7 contest for tickets to the pre-launch cinema screening of Torchwood, not least because ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jwaneeta was visiting and wasn't going to get to see it on BBC3 on the 22nd due to a return flight on the 19th. Couldn't hurt to zap off an email to the Beeb, right? Not like I had anything to lose, after all....
To my immense surprise, I won a pair of tickets for the London screening. This is my tale.... :D
For the spoiler-sensitive, I'll just say that it was really bloody good and well worth watching (even if you don't have a mad girly crush on John Barrowman, which I sort of do....) – the type of science-fiction we always knew the BBC was capable of, even if they didn't: exciting, scary, funny, well aware of the daftness of some of the concepts they're playing with, and skimming just the right side of cheesy. It's definitely not a show for kids – there's some bad language and a few genuinely shocking moments, as well as some quite adult concepts that parents probably wouldn't want to explain to the younger set. It feels much more like a contemporary thriller than it does its parent show, and manages to make Cardiff look really rather more dashing and exciting that it really is (having been there last week with the aforementionedjwaneeta). Jack is still Jack – funny, flirty, and ever so slightly dangerous, and the rest of the characters are great – I love them already, even given that some have had only very brief introductions
Just watch it – it's fun. :D And very Welsh.
For those who aren't concerned about spoilage, however,
For the record, there is SERIOUS spoilage here, and to be honest, the last 10 minutes are really something to see for yourself, unspoiled. Of course, the odds of the Big Plot Weirdness not cropping up in the press before Sunday are nil, so....
Still here?
You sure?
Absolutely positive?mimarie, this means you!
Okay, I started trying to type up a huge and detailed review and then realised that it was going to take me all night! So, highlights (in more or less a sensible sort of order):
* Jack's much-discussed commentary on oestrogen in the water cycle is in there, complete with him noting that he's happy he can't get pregnant because he wouldn't want to do that again.... ;)
* There has been some discussion about the Bringing Back The Murder Victim scene already, with some folks getting scandalised that they just tell the poor sod that he's dead rather than breaking it to him more gently, but they do comment on that, noting that they told the last one he was injured and he promptly spent the entirety of his two-minute resurrection screaming for an ambulance. Not very helpful.... ;) Also of interest here is Jack taking over the questioning and quizzing the victim quite fiercely on what he experienced while he was dead (absolutely nothing, as it turned out).
* Gwen is a great character and they handle her various relationships very well, both at work (she has a sweet-but-dim partner whose squad car she pinches at one point) and at home (another sweet-but-dim partner who does the cooking and who just exudes safe-and-dependable). It's not hard to see why she finds Torchwood so exciting!
* Cute moment between Gwen and her fellow cop discussing who the strange Special Ops types of the night before were and bitching about the improbability of anybody doing "CSI: Cardiff"....
* Having utterly failed to track her quarry down, Gwen decides to think laterally (they have to eat, right?) and goes to a pizza delivery place where she discovers that "Torchwood" is a valued customer. Armed with two pizzas and the delivery address, she meets Ianto... who smiles sweetly, locks the door and sends her down into the depths of the Hub. Gwen, by now, is starting to wonder just what the hell she's let herself in for. Walking into the main set (which is STUNNING), she finds the various members of the team stony-faced at their workstations, oblivious to her presence... until Toshiko suddenly starts giggling and they all corpse – they'd been watching her watching them all along and were hoping she'd have to carry on with the pizza girl charade to the bitter end (although Jack was still working on his punchline). This is where Jack introduces everybody and it's a lovely scene, giving a real sense of family to the team – they work together but they also seem to really like each other and Jack is in the middle of it all.
* As a part of this tour, there's a nice moment where something shrieks overhead and Gwen jumps and looks up: "What was that?!!" "Pterodactyl," says Tosh, not even looking away from her monitors. The pterosaur, for the record, is a Pteranodon - think of it as being like a prehistoric pelican. We don't find out if it has a name. ;)
* And, of course: "Who's been ordering pizza in the name of 'Torchwood'???" Owen raises a hand. "Er, that would be me...."
* There is a lift disguised as a paving stone beside the tall silver fountain that goes directly down into the Hub. Anybody standing on the stone in question is shielded by a "perception filter" – people can see/hear them, but just don't really register them consciously. Jack gives Gwen a technobabble theory about this that will register as technobabble to the casual viewer, but to those in the know translates as "someone parked a TARDIS on it and it leaked". ;) Gwen wants to know if they ever get people falling into the hole when the lift is operating and Jack accuses her of being "so Welsh" – being shown something incredible and promptly finding fault!
* And so off to a bar, where Gwen is downing beer as fast as she can while Jack seems to be sticking to water. Here be the rest of the exposition, as Gwen quizzes Jack about the Institute. Here we pick up that this is Torchwood 3 – the London branch (1) was destroyed, the Glasgow branch (2) is run by/consists of some weird old guy, and Torchwood 4 disappeared (which got the B5 fans in the audience sniggering). Torchwood gets the alien tech and plays with it, but doesn't let the government(s) or the UN get hold if it in case they abuse it. Gwen wants to know how they can be trusted not to abuse it and Jack assures her that it's a strict rule that they never take anything out of the base... which is, of course, where we cut to the rest of the team cheerfully unpacking goodies at home! (Suzie is using her glove to resuscitate bluebottles, Tosh has a device that lets her speed-read the classics, and Owen is cheerily dousing himself with super-pheromone and going trolling for casual sex in bars (which some have chosen to read as date-rape, but I think it's notable that Owen is using the spray on himself, not on others, and the other people involved are hardly unwilling participants)!)
* The series is definitely set after the finale of DW season 2, although we don't know if Jack was in this period during those events. So, in real-time, it would be set around 2007/08.
* Gwen offers to be liaison between Torchwood and the police. Jack turns her down. Gwen points out that she can blow the whistle on them with all the info he's given her. Jack replies that she'd have to remember it all first and inquires as to how she's enjoying her drink – he's drugged her. She runs home and starts trying to type it all up before she passes out, gets quite a bit done before Ianto hacks in and deletes it all. She passes out over the keyboard.
* The next day, she remembers nothing, but at work she sees a sketch of the weapon that the pathologists think killed the murder victim (he was the third killed in the same fashion) and finds herself obsessing about it, doodling it, unable to get it out of her head. She's positive that she's seen it somewhere before... but can't recall where.
Are you sure you want to be here?
I mean, really, truly certain?
You really are better off not knowing, you know....
I mean it!
It's not too late to back out!
On your own head be it....
Invisitext: highlight to read, if you're really that determined....
So, Gwen is still flashing back on this weapon and, although she can't work out the details, she finds a pamphlet with a pic of the Millenium Centre on the cover, onto which she has scrawled the word "REMEMBER". So, off she goes. And there she wanders for a bit, on her own... and then suddenly there's a woman there, out of nowhere, by the fountain. And Gwen doesn't have a clue who she is, though the woman seems to know who she is and seems very apologetic about something... and then she produces the blade. Seems that Suzie's determination to test her resurrection glove has led to her "acquiring" a few test subjects of her own. Also seems that living on the Rift can drive you a bit nuts – Suzie loves her job but now she thinks Gwen has worked it out (Gwen is completely bemused) and so she's going to have to run before the others find out. Can't use the knife – Gwen will know who did it if they use the glove – so there's a cute moment while she's rummaging frantically and apologetically ("in here somewhere....") in her handbag for a bloody great gun. Suzie's babbling and while all of this is going on, Jack comes up on the invisi-lift and stands there, watching things unfold as Suzie digs an ever greater hole for herself. The Rift does freaky things to your mind, she says, which is why, amongst everything else, the perception filter doesn't work on her any more....
Which is the point at which she shoots Jack in the head.
Made us jump, that did, and I'd really suggest keeping the kiddies away from that particular bit....
Gwen is freaked out, of course, though not as freaked as a now-hysterical Suzie is when Jack, complete with bleeding hole in the middle of his forehead, pushes himself back up to his feet and tells her to put the gun away and come with him. With her boss inconsiderately refusing to stay dead, she does the only thing left to make it all go away, puts the gun under her jaw, and blows her own brains out. It's all going on in Cardiff these days! :D
And so, the next day – standing on top of the Millenium Centre for some reason – Jack offers Gwen the position that seems to have suddenly become vacant at Torchwood. And explains that he does seem to have a small issue with dying – he simply can't (I guess that's why he wanted to know what Murder Victim saw - doesn't want to miss a party!). He did once, but it didn't last and now nothing seems to kill him and he hasn't got a clue why. The others don't know and he'd like to keep it that way, but Gwen did rather see the evidence! And so, with the pterodactyl flapping about overhead (that must give the local gulls something to think about!), we leave our happy gang and prepare for the next episode with a montage of clips from, I think, throughout the series... and a reminder that we have one character who can't die, and four who quite definitely can.
(It occurs to me that Peter Wingfield has just signed up for a stint on Holby City - I can think of one or two people out there who may need to be tied down when those crossovers start appearing.... ;))
I'm sure I've forgotten some bits and mangled others, but damn - looks like this one is going to be fun.... :D If folks can try to be good and not put/repeat spoilers in the comments, it would be very much appreciated (I will delete anything explicitly spoilerish) - email me if you have any specific questions about things!
jwaneeta was visiting and wasn't going to get to see it on BBC3 on the 22nd due to a return flight on the 19th. Couldn't hurt to zap off an email to the Beeb, right? Not like I had anything to lose, after all....To my immense surprise, I won a pair of tickets for the London screening. This is my tale.... :D
For the spoiler-sensitive, I'll just say that it was really bloody good and well worth watching (even if you don't have a mad girly crush on John Barrowman, which I sort of do....) – the type of science-fiction we always knew the BBC was capable of, even if they didn't: exciting, scary, funny, well aware of the daftness of some of the concepts they're playing with, and skimming just the right side of cheesy. It's definitely not a show for kids – there's some bad language and a few genuinely shocking moments, as well as some quite adult concepts that parents probably wouldn't want to explain to the younger set. It feels much more like a contemporary thriller than it does its parent show, and manages to make Cardiff look really rather more dashing and exciting that it really is (having been there last week with the aforementioned
jwaneeta). Jack is still Jack – funny, flirty, and ever so slightly dangerous, and the rest of the characters are great – I love them already, even given that some have had only very brief introductionsJust watch it – it's fun. :D And very Welsh.
For those who aren't concerned about spoilage, however,
For the record, there is SERIOUS spoilage here, and to be honest, the last 10 minutes are really something to see for yourself, unspoiled. Of course, the odds of the Big Plot Weirdness not cropping up in the press before Sunday are nil, so....
Still here?
You sure?
Absolutely positive?
mimarie, this means you!Okay, I started trying to type up a huge and detailed review and then realised that it was going to take me all night! So, highlights (in more or less a sensible sort of order):
* Jack's much-discussed commentary on oestrogen in the water cycle is in there, complete with him noting that he's happy he can't get pregnant because he wouldn't want to do that again.... ;)
* There has been some discussion about the Bringing Back The Murder Victim scene already, with some folks getting scandalised that they just tell the poor sod that he's dead rather than breaking it to him more gently, but they do comment on that, noting that they told the last one he was injured and he promptly spent the entirety of his two-minute resurrection screaming for an ambulance. Not very helpful.... ;) Also of interest here is Jack taking over the questioning and quizzing the victim quite fiercely on what he experienced while he was dead (absolutely nothing, as it turned out).
* Gwen is a great character and they handle her various relationships very well, both at work (she has a sweet-but-dim partner whose squad car she pinches at one point) and at home (another sweet-but-dim partner who does the cooking and who just exudes safe-and-dependable). It's not hard to see why she finds Torchwood so exciting!
* Cute moment between Gwen and her fellow cop discussing who the strange Special Ops types of the night before were and bitching about the improbability of anybody doing "CSI: Cardiff"....
* Having utterly failed to track her quarry down, Gwen decides to think laterally (they have to eat, right?) and goes to a pizza delivery place where she discovers that "Torchwood" is a valued customer. Armed with two pizzas and the delivery address, she meets Ianto... who smiles sweetly, locks the door and sends her down into the depths of the Hub. Gwen, by now, is starting to wonder just what the hell she's let herself in for. Walking into the main set (which is STUNNING), she finds the various members of the team stony-faced at their workstations, oblivious to her presence... until Toshiko suddenly starts giggling and they all corpse – they'd been watching her watching them all along and were hoping she'd have to carry on with the pizza girl charade to the bitter end (although Jack was still working on his punchline). This is where Jack introduces everybody and it's a lovely scene, giving a real sense of family to the team – they work together but they also seem to really like each other and Jack is in the middle of it all.
* As a part of this tour, there's a nice moment where something shrieks overhead and Gwen jumps and looks up: "What was that?!!" "Pterodactyl," says Tosh, not even looking away from her monitors. The pterosaur, for the record, is a Pteranodon - think of it as being like a prehistoric pelican. We don't find out if it has a name. ;)
* And, of course: "Who's been ordering pizza in the name of 'Torchwood'???" Owen raises a hand. "Er, that would be me...."
* There is a lift disguised as a paving stone beside the tall silver fountain that goes directly down into the Hub. Anybody standing on the stone in question is shielded by a "perception filter" – people can see/hear them, but just don't really register them consciously. Jack gives Gwen a technobabble theory about this that will register as technobabble to the casual viewer, but to those in the know translates as "someone parked a TARDIS on it and it leaked". ;) Gwen wants to know if they ever get people falling into the hole when the lift is operating and Jack accuses her of being "so Welsh" – being shown something incredible and promptly finding fault!
* And so off to a bar, where Gwen is downing beer as fast as she can while Jack seems to be sticking to water. Here be the rest of the exposition, as Gwen quizzes Jack about the Institute. Here we pick up that this is Torchwood 3 – the London branch (1) was destroyed, the Glasgow branch (2) is run by/consists of some weird old guy, and Torchwood 4 disappeared (which got the B5 fans in the audience sniggering). Torchwood gets the alien tech and plays with it, but doesn't let the government(s) or the UN get hold if it in case they abuse it. Gwen wants to know how they can be trusted not to abuse it and Jack assures her that it's a strict rule that they never take anything out of the base... which is, of course, where we cut to the rest of the team cheerfully unpacking goodies at home! (Suzie is using her glove to resuscitate bluebottles, Tosh has a device that lets her speed-read the classics, and Owen is cheerily dousing himself with super-pheromone and going trolling for casual sex in bars (which some have chosen to read as date-rape, but I think it's notable that Owen is using the spray on himself, not on others, and the other people involved are hardly unwilling participants)!)
* The series is definitely set after the finale of DW season 2, although we don't know if Jack was in this period during those events. So, in real-time, it would be set around 2007/08.
* Gwen offers to be liaison between Torchwood and the police. Jack turns her down. Gwen points out that she can blow the whistle on them with all the info he's given her. Jack replies that she'd have to remember it all first and inquires as to how she's enjoying her drink – he's drugged her. She runs home and starts trying to type it all up before she passes out, gets quite a bit done before Ianto hacks in and deletes it all. She passes out over the keyboard.
* The next day, she remembers nothing, but at work she sees a sketch of the weapon that the pathologists think killed the murder victim (he was the third killed in the same fashion) and finds herself obsessing about it, doodling it, unable to get it out of her head. She's positive that she's seen it somewhere before... but can't recall where.
Are you sure you want to be here?
I mean, really, truly certain?
You really are better off not knowing, you know....
I mean it!
It's not too late to back out!
On your own head be it....
Invisitext: highlight to read, if you're really that determined....
So, Gwen is still flashing back on this weapon and, although she can't work out the details, she finds a pamphlet with a pic of the Millenium Centre on the cover, onto which she has scrawled the word "REMEMBER". So, off she goes. And there she wanders for a bit, on her own... and then suddenly there's a woman there, out of nowhere, by the fountain. And Gwen doesn't have a clue who she is, though the woman seems to know who she is and seems very apologetic about something... and then she produces the blade. Seems that Suzie's determination to test her resurrection glove has led to her "acquiring" a few test subjects of her own. Also seems that living on the Rift can drive you a bit nuts – Suzie loves her job but now she thinks Gwen has worked it out (Gwen is completely bemused) and so she's going to have to run before the others find out. Can't use the knife – Gwen will know who did it if they use the glove – so there's a cute moment while she's rummaging frantically and apologetically ("in here somewhere....") in her handbag for a bloody great gun. Suzie's babbling and while all of this is going on, Jack comes up on the invisi-lift and stands there, watching things unfold as Suzie digs an ever greater hole for herself. The Rift does freaky things to your mind, she says, which is why, amongst everything else, the perception filter doesn't work on her any more....
Which is the point at which she shoots Jack in the head.
Made us jump, that did, and I'd really suggest keeping the kiddies away from that particular bit....
Gwen is freaked out, of course, though not as freaked as a now-hysterical Suzie is when Jack, complete with bleeding hole in the middle of his forehead, pushes himself back up to his feet and tells her to put the gun away and come with him. With her boss inconsiderately refusing to stay dead, she does the only thing left to make it all go away, puts the gun under her jaw, and blows her own brains out. It's all going on in Cardiff these days! :D
And so, the next day – standing on top of the Millenium Centre for some reason – Jack offers Gwen the position that seems to have suddenly become vacant at Torchwood. And explains that he does seem to have a small issue with dying – he simply can't (I guess that's why he wanted to know what Murder Victim saw - doesn't want to miss a party!). He did once, but it didn't last and now nothing seems to kill him and he hasn't got a clue why. The others don't know and he'd like to keep it that way, but Gwen did rather see the evidence! And so, with the pterodactyl flapping about overhead (that must give the local gulls something to think about!), we leave our happy gang and prepare for the next episode with a montage of clips from, I think, throughout the series... and a reminder that we have one character who can't die, and four who quite definitely can.
(It occurs to me that Peter Wingfield has just signed up for a stint on Holby City - I can think of one or two people out there who may need to be tied down when those crossovers start appearing.... ;))
I'm sure I've forgotten some bits and mangled others, but damn - looks like this one is going to be fun.... :D If folks can try to be good and not put/repeat spoilers in the comments, it would be very much appreciated (I will delete anything explicitly spoilerish) - email me if you have any specific questions about things!
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I think I missed the description during the climax (if you will), I wasn't really thinking straight at that point with the whole "omgomgomg" thing going on. Well done for keeping a cool head. Were you taking notes? lol.
Adding to memories now. Very Welsh and well worth watching =)
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THAT IS SO FRACKING COOL. Wonder how the Doctor will react in the Season 3 reunion! X3333333333333333333333333333333
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Poor old TARDIS; it's so old it's gotten incontinent!
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Or if I did know it I had already forgotten. ;)
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It sounds excellent, too bad it will probably be a year before we get to see it. :( I'll just have to visit again and be pimped on it. ;)
Or, you know, download it. Whichever.
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I saw the screening in Manchester, and I agree with most of your comments and loved the episode of the whole, but this bit made me really twitchy. Both the characters who he went home with made it quite clear, before he sprayed himself, that they wouldn't have given him a second glance, much less sleep with him if he hadn't used the chemical. That he used it on himself is irrelevant, because his intentions with using it were to alter the perceptions of the intended, and coerce them into sleeping with him.
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It's played for laughs though, and gets them - it's just your classic fairytale "love potion" sequence set in Cardiff clubland (and central Cardiff after 11pm is truly a sight to see!) and treated with realism rather than romance. It's just a little aside to show a bit of characterisation for Owen (bit of a lad, not above using tech to take a shortcut, sexually open-minded), just as other bits in that sequence show that Tosh is an educated geek and Suzie an insane workaholic. I found myself really liking Owen during the show - he's a handful, but he's an interesting one! :D
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