Torchwood: thrillseeking drivers...

[fajrdrako]

One thing I particularly love in fiction, is heroes who drive recklessly. They don't drive badly - these fictional heroes (they're usually heroes) never get into an accident or cause them. They are usually high-action guys like James Bond.

It doesn't count if they are race or stunt drivers or if they only drive wildly in chase scenes - I don't usually like car-chase scenes. It does count if they are habitually in a hurry, or just like to show off.

I'm thinking of heroes who drive wildly just for the joy of it - Bodie springs to mind, the prime example, squealing around corners and stopping on a dime, once doing so an inch from Doyle's front bumper. Perfect.

Then there's Aral Vorkosigan, flying drunk in his light-flyer through the chasms of Barrayar.¹ If I recall correctly, he was drunk enough to fall limply and therefore survive when he crashed. Admittedly, he was somewhat suicidal at the time. This doesn't lessen the appeal.

There's Johnson Johson, driving blind at night in the mountains of Yugoslavia.²

And how happy I am to add Captain Jack Harkness to the list. I was tickled to learn in Torchwood Another Life that Captain Jack doesn't have a driver's license. Of course he doesn't! He's not on record anywhere. Why hadn't I even thought of that? Now I'm reading Torchwood Slow Decay by Andy Lane, and it has some delicious passages about Jack's driving, like this from the beginning of chapter two:

Jack was driving. That was always a bad thing as far as Toshiko was concerned. Especially when she was navigating. He seemed to assume that when she said 'right' or 'left' then that abrogated any responsibility he had to check for other traffic, pedestrians, building, or, in one instance a few minutes ago, the existence of a roundabout which he then went the wrong way around.

A man accustomed to driving a spaceship has probably cultivated the wrong attitude for driving on simple two-dimensional roads. And as for parking:

'...Even if we did have a Torchwood helicopter,' Jack continued, 'where would we land it? SUVs are easier to park.'

'Last time we went out in this vehicle,' Toshiko said quietly, 'you parked it in the foyer of an office block. The time before that, you parked it in the middle of the Taff Bridge. I can't help feeling that finding suitable parking spaces is not high on your list of priorities.'

¹ Lois McMaster Bujold. I think this is in Shards of Honour, when Aral thinks he has lost Cordelia and is drinking heavily to dull the pain. Does anyone remember for sure?

² A reference to Dorothy Dunnett's novel Dolly and the Nanny Bird, or Split Code.

Comments

[toomuchfandom.livejournal.com]

Gibbs is played by the lovely Mark Harmon and David McCallum is indeed in NCIS, playing Donald ' Ducky ' Mallard.

Ziva is a female. Her first episode is in season 3. She's an Israeli and a killing machine.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll try to remember that Gibbs is played by Mark Harmon.

Ziva sounds cool.

[toomuchfandom.livejournal.com]

OH Ziva is quite cool. She's still not 'dumbed down' like most writers do after 2 or more seasons of a strong female character in a tv show.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Don't you wish they wouldn't do that?

[toomuchfandom.livejournal.com]

Yep I do! But oh well, am not a member of The Powers That Be LOL.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

No, and they just don't come and ask our opinions!