Torchwood: The Way it Looks... The Ten Best Visual Details of Torchwood

[fajrdrako]

Excluding people. Picspam follows.

1. Jack's Coat
   
   
   
   It isn't just that it looks good on him; it's that it makes the right kind of statement on several levels:
   
   • It's reminiscent of World War II, and the period when he met Rose and the Doctor.
     
   • It's reminiscent of his hero, role model, and lover, the other Captain Jack Harkness.
     
   • It looks good, stylish in a classic way, a fashion statement - and yet is masculine, militaristic and imposing.
     
   • It's something for Ianto to tend; I love it when Ianto hands Jack the coat, or holds it for him, and of course, I love the scene where he held it to his face, weeping, in "End of Days". Ianto taking care of Jack's coat is also reminiscent of Jack taking care of the Doctor's coat in Doctor Who.
     
   • It has big pockets to keep things in.
   
   Looks good on him, looks good hung on its peg.
   
   
   
2. The pterodactyl, Myfanwy
   
   
   So cool. So unique. A symbol of the far-ranging scope of Torchwood's range, and also of the way it holds the alien, the exotic, and the bizarre in its realm - to tame, to tend, to study, to keep, to control and contain. She's a pet, a guard-dog, and a weapon.
   
   I particularly like it that they let her fly free at night.
   
   
   
3. The window in Jack's office
   
   
   
   I like the way it looks. The Hub is full of interesting shapes; the rectangular tiles, the arched doorways, the interesting juxtapositions of rounded and squared hallways and rooms. Curves and straight lines, all emphasized and complicated with the curves of wires, cords, hoses and other objects in the place. There are several particularly interesting uses of roundness in the design of Torchwood, all of them oddly significant:
   • The heavy round door at the entranceway;
     
   • The entrance to Jack's bedroom;
     
   • The window, which combines the round exterior with the straight panes within it.
   
   The window has diagrams on it, whose significance I am not sure of. Did Jack put them there? Is it possible to understand what it shows? Does it look somewhat Gallifreyan, or Victorian, or contemporary? Though the design isn't precisely the same, there's a similarity to the Doctor's fob watch: circles and intersecting curves with a circular frame.
   
   The window looks out from Jack's office down to the visible main level of the Hub. It isn't clear to me how much he can see from the window, but he can see the workstations, and the entrance. There's something nicely introspective about a window that looks into it own heart, rather than an exterior view of the world.
   
   I also like the way Jack leaves books on his rounded windowsill.
   
   
   
4. The Dragon
   
   
   
   A symbol of Wales, heraldically, except that this isn't the same as the heraldic dragon, and it isn't red. Who put it there, and why?
   
   But it's a nice symbol of Torchwood. Dangerous, far-reaching; something that can burn the unwary. Something that guards secrets in deep lairs. Something that is unpredictable and old.
   
   
   
5. The baby TARDIS on Jack's desk
   
   
   
   It's easy to overlook this, or to not know what it is - it was mentioned in publicity for the show, but it's yet another object which has far more to it than meets the eye onscreen. Almost always under the lamp on Jack's desk, I often think it looks like popcorn or scrambled eggs, but it's coral which, according to Russell T Davis, will eventually grow into a TARDIS, ready to be carved in another 500 years or so.
   
   Interestingly, it looks quite different from episode to episode, though always distinctively yellow. Here's a slightly more detailed close-up:
   
   
   
   I wonder what the other Torchwood employees think of it, or whether they know what it is. They probably just think Jack finds coral decorative. It does add a nice splash of colour.
   
   It raises another interesting question: how many of the objects lying around Torchwood have stories yet to be told?
   
   
   
   
6. The Doctor's 3-D Glasses
   
   
   
   Usually hanging over Jack's lamp in series one, the 3-D glasses are only one artifact of the Doctor that Jack has tracked down and collected. There's the Hand, the televisions from "The Idiot's Lantern" - what else?
   
   
   
7. Torchwood's name
   
   
   
   I love the way Torchwood's name is painted on the tiles of the main room of the Hub. The font gives it that antique-industrial look, in contrast and to highlight the high-tech and futuristic nature of so much of the material in the Hub. The name appears in the background in a lot of significant scenes, along with "cold storage". There's something just a little steampunk about this.
   
   
   
8. Jack's cufflinks
   
   
   
   When did Jack start wearing these? A smart set of cufflinks, shaped like a World War II plane. Commemorative of his own flying days, when he met the Doctor? Or a souvenir of his meeting with the other Captain Jack Harkness?
   
   
   
9. Jack's wristband
   
   
   
   We saw it in use from Jack's first appearances in Doctor Who. It's a high-tech device apparently issued to all Time Agents, which functions as a Vortex Manipulator (allowing for time travel, when it isn't dismantled), a communications device, a hologram projector, a computer, and an encyclopedia. Does it have other uses?
   
   Jack is almost never without his. I don't blame him. If I had one, I'd keep it on all the time, too. But we know Jack takes it off to rest - hard though it is to see his wrists here, there's clearly no watch or wristband:
   
   
   
   And he also takes it off for sex:
   
   
   
   And yes, of course I had to research this detail. It's necessary to be thorough. I wonder if he removes it to shower or bathe?
   
   Here's a more detailed picture:
   
   
   
   Captain John seems to think his might be bigger than Captain Jack's, but we have reason to doubt it.
   
   
   
10. Jack's Handwriting
    
    
    
    As far as I know, the only time we see Jack Harkness' handwriting is in "Captain Jack Harkness", when Owen looks into his personal notebook.
    
    I love the way his handwriting looks: old-fashioned, precise, but still natural. I like to imagine it being used for love letters.

So what are your favourite visual details?

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like all those ideas - and your oh-so-suitable icon! We know Jack would initiate work on that sort of thing, because (a) he's working on his own TARDIS, (b) he likes sonic stuff. Besides which, of course, its usefulness.

Go Tosh! She is magnificent.