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Jul. 11th, 2009 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I was interested, reading the comments on
copperbadge's 5 things post for Day 5, to see how many people said variations on the "yeah, very good story but not my show, what did you do with my show?!" For me, one of the things that I absolutely loved about it was that it was the show that Torchwood has always been trying to be, done right. Think about Small Worlds. Think about Meat. Torchwood was never supposed to be a comedy light entertainment show.
What absolutely killed me at the end of Children of Earth was that as well as pulling off this incredible story, they showed us how terrible the consequences are for the characters that are still alive (something I always wished Stargate would do). I am frankly in awe of John Barrowman for the quality of his silent acting in the scene where he watches his grandson die and there's nothing he can do about it.
I was also surprised that people seemed to be asking what Gwens sacrifice was, and also that people were defending Gwen by saying it's the loss of her friends. To me, Gwens sacrifice is shown in the video she makes while they are hiding from the army. She has lost her belief, which has carried her through two harrowing years of working for Torchwood, that people are worth the sacrifices that are made for them. She has lost her trust that people are basically good. They have been tried and found wanting. She has become hard now. That video was the moment my heart broke for her because she's lost everyone and now she can't even believe in the cause they died for.
Oh god. I am getting tearful again just writing about this. But it hurts in the way that it should.
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What absolutely killed me at the end of Children of Earth was that as well as pulling off this incredible story, they showed us how terrible the consequences are for the characters that are still alive (something I always wished Stargate would do). I am frankly in awe of John Barrowman for the quality of his silent acting in the scene where he watches his grandson die and there's nothing he can do about it.
I was also surprised that people seemed to be asking what Gwens sacrifice was, and also that people were defending Gwen by saying it's the loss of her friends. To me, Gwens sacrifice is shown in the video she makes while they are hiding from the army. She has lost her belief, which has carried her through two harrowing years of working for Torchwood, that people are worth the sacrifices that are made for them. She has lost her trust that people are basically good. They have been tried and found wanting. She has become hard now. That video was the moment my heart broke for her because she's lost everyone and now she can't even believe in the cause they died for.
Oh god. I am getting tearful again just writing about this. But it hurts in the way that it should.
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Date: 2009-07-11 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-11 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-11 11:13 pm (UTC)My major reservation about the series is that in fact they didn't do this: they didn't put all those recordings in the public domain, or if they did, they didn't show us what happened next. (I lean towards the former, because I don't think RTD wants to saddle Who with having to deal with the consequent unrest, but it's a huge cop-out.)
My minor reservation about the series is that the children are depicted purely as tokens: which I understand is part of the horror, but I can't help thinking Steven's death would have been more affecting if we had a sense of the person being lost, rather than just "Jack's grandson".
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Date: 2009-07-12 09:26 am (UTC)I never thought they would release the tapes, except as a last resort. Much more likely they'll keep them as a lever to be used in case they ever need one again. I was glad to see that Green will get pushed out but I think an interesting consequence of Jack and Gwen being to destroyed by the end to care is that the scary woman is probably going to take over now rather than TW using that leverage to pick someone.
I know what you mean re Stephen - I think Frobishers kids were probably the best realised and it would have made that final scene even more wrenching to do that for him too.