Torchwood: Combat...

[fajrdrako]

I watched Torchwood 1x11: Combat on Christmas Day. Loved the story, but wanted more Captain Jack. Another Owen story, soon after the last one! Okay, an interesting episode, especially if you liked Fight Club (as I did), but... why not give us more about Jack? I keep thinking how ecstatic I'd be if Jack got a sex scene or two like Owen got in "Out of Time", and if he had the focus of the storyline like Owen got in "Combat", I'd be thrilled.

And then I think: why doesn't he? I feel cheated.

That being said, I loved the story, the use of the Weevils .... aww, let me itemize this again. Things I loved about "Combat" (leaving out the obvious: Captain Jack in his greatcoat) - and a few things I didn't like:

1. The Fight Club plot was fun. I liked the ineteraction between Owen and the real estate agent. I liked the set deisngs - the huge empty warehouse, the real estate agent's cold, angular flat; the dark tackiness of the place the fights were held. And why did I immediately imagine Wolverine in the cage?



2. Loved the exploration of the question, "Suppose other people knew about the Weevils?" I liked the way no had worked out (or really cared) exactly what they were, but simply exploited them without conscience. All the more moving, of course, when the Weevil at Torchwood was weeping for her friends. And all the more moving that Jack sees them as something he can empathize and wants to protect - even while he wants to protect humans from them. So sad, that he had to shoot the Weevil to save Owen - but so like him.



3. The overall sympathy for the Weevils, from Jack's point of view, and the narrative viewpoint.



4. A Torchwood story that actually had aliens in it! Yay!



5. Loved the story-segment about Gwen and Rhys. Gwen is just so mixed up - why should Rhys forgive her, after the way she's treated him? (Including drugging him, now!) The answer to that question, of course, is "because he loves her", but how far can she abuse his love without killing it? We shall see.



6. So: now Owen has dumped Gwen with contempt. He's even more screwed up than she is. I love this.



7. Loved it that Owen, at the end, is making a stab at speaking Weevil.



8. Loved it that the Weevil we were following was female. Janet.



9. Are we to believe that Owen is somewhat suicidal? Or just angry and reckless?



10. Tosh, come back, I miss you. Loved the moment when she was lurking around the gate with Jack, and exploring the warehouse. She needs more scenes like that. She needs more scenes, period.



11. We saw so little of Ianto. I was watching it with maaseru, who had never seen Torchwood before. "Does he ever get any lines?" she asked me. I told her about his beautiful voice and the brief-but-good lines he sometimes gets, and his beautiful Welsh vowels, but oh, I wish we'd get more! I think my Ianto-love is growing by the moment, but sadly, it's a case of absence making the heart grow fonder.



12. Loved the scene between Jack and Owen in the hospital, with grapes. Nice memories of the grapes in hospital scens in The Professionals.



13. If I really tell the truth, I'm beginning to resent Owen's inclusion in the show because it seems to be at the expense of screen-time for Jack, Tosh and Ianto. I hoped for a moment there that the Weevil had killed him. I'm half-hoping that in the near future he will die, preferably in some redemptive fashion - to save the rest of the Torchwood team, maybe, like Jack going off with the bomb in The Empty Child. I also am annoyed that we haven't got this story yet - how he came to Torchwood, why he isn't practising medicine. We've been given hints. I've certainly guessed at his backstory and don't really expect to be surprised. But... he's the only one for whom we haven't been told. Jack is of course a series of complicated mysteries, but we still know more about him than we do Owen. And one last Owen-complaint: we've seen his flat and his bed and his general living quarters several times. Not Ianto's, and only the feeblest glimpse of Jack's - more of a tease than a revelation.

Next week's episodes look intriguing.

Comments

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I personally wasn't too worried about them finishing off the Owen-arc. It would have been strange for them to have just blithely gone on with a normal kind of story after his experience last time. And yes, I think he is supposed to be suicidal.

I'm afraid I found Fight Club-lite as a plot line fairly irritating. It was so derivative.

Gwen is fucked up, and I am also annoyed that they're not providing with her with a real option in her private life. I know lots of people like Rhys, but I start nodding as soon as he hits the screen. Yes, I know that part of the theme is "safety" vs "risk", but that guy isn't just safe, he's soporific. Someone with a bit of a spark, and who was less passive-aggressive about challenging Gwen on her idiocies could give us all a bit more to chew on.

Yes, we need more Tosh! I'm not too worried about Owen's inclusion. How many eps have focussed on him? Just these last two, I think. Of course, I don't think any of the others have had two in succession. I agree we could see more of how the others live.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think he is supposed to be suicidal

Yes, I agree. And I rather like that.

It was so derivative

Well, it was, but I liked it anyway. (Just as "Countrycide" was very derivative and I liked that too. Guess I don't mind "derivative".) I liked the way it didn't take the story the same way Fight Club took it, but played it straight, so to speak.

that guy isn't just safe, he's soporific

Obviously Gwen thinks so!

we need more Tosh!

Absolutely! I'd like to see more Action Tosh, but Tosh in any context would be great.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's true with the difference in the handling of the Fight Club-esque plot - I was certainly less tweaked by the end of it. The Countryside one didn't bother me at all, interestingly enough.

Eee, Action Tosh! I'm right with you on that one. Kick-arse girlie-girls? Mmm mmm. :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Action Tosh! I'm right with you on that one. Kick-arse girlie-girls? Mmm mmm. :-)

She's just so cool. Why are they keeping her behind her computer doing not much of anything? Hmm?

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it as an episode. The Fight Club thing fitted: the young guys involved struck me as the sort who would have seen the movie and decided it was a 'good idea'.

The Gwen/Rhys/Owen situation is unravelling effectively, with the fall-out from Diane dumping Owen.

Yes - poor Janet, and the other Weevil! They may be repulsive and they can kill, but the Fight Club guy was horribly cruel to them! So it is possible to care about Weevils.

The end-of-season double-episode looks very, very promising!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it as an episode.

As did I. I thought the suspense was really good, and the intensity of the acting.

the young guys involved struck me as the sort who would have seen the movie and decided it was a 'good idea'.

Yes, and thinking they were being profound.

They may be repulsive and they can kill, but the Fight Club guy was horribly cruel to them! So it is possible to care about Weevils.

I think it is clear that, while Captain Jack is well aware of their potential for lethal danger, he feels a lot of compassion for them - remember when he first showed the Weevil to Gwen in "Everything Changes", and told her to look into its eyes? He would probably form a humane society for Weevils if he could. Or try to find a refuge for them where they couldn't hurt humans and humans couldn't hurt them. Sending them back through the rift is no more an option for them than it was for John and Emma.

The end-of-season double-episode looks very, very promising!

Doesn't it just. I can hardly wait.

[athousanderrors.livejournal.com]

really randomly late, but I just stumbled across your LJ, and started reading your episode summaries. Hee.

Only one comment on this bit for now (tis late, am tired):

The Fight Club thing. See, I would have really liked it if someone had made a snarky comment about being beautiful little snowflakes, or Owen remarking on how Brad Pitt did it better. Because ripping off something so obvious only really works if you do it cleverly, or self-deprecatingly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, then - welcome to my LJ!

I do see your point about "Fight Club", but I'm not sure that a self-referential comment would have made things any better (for those who were annoyed at the borrowed idea) or whether it would have made things worse (for those who didn't know or didn't care). There are polot and writing points in Torchwood that bothered me, but that wasn't one of them.

[elebridith]

Was not my favorite episode, but had little things I really liked - I got a big grin on my face when I saw Jack sliding down the handrail to the cells, looked so cute! Then as explained in the commentary - the company Lynch Frost is a nod to writers Mark Frost and David Lynch. I like to know such trivia!
What else did I love? Tosh predicting the course of Mark's research on Owen's fake website, she looked so smug! *g*
Rhys was pissed off, yay! And Gwen retconned him? WTF, Gwen? Deal with it! But I liked that she goes to the hub for comfort, and how her expression changes from despair to determination as soon as she's doing police work - home ground.
And Owen speaks Weevil? I know (obviously) that this does not get addressed again in season one - and not in season two in the first three episodes unless I missed it. Hope it will later, sounded interesting. Plus, I like Weevils. *g*
So, not the best episode, but good enough.
Oh gosh, the time. Back to work... *g*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Rhys was pissed off, yay! And Gwen retconned him? WTF, Gwen? Deal with it!

That was disappointing: I wanted to see a confrontation between them. We never did get that. Does Rhys still not know about her affair with Owen? They haven't mentioned it, either way. I like to think she told him, and there's reason to think she did, but we may never know.

I liked the scene where's she's crying over the pizza, and I liked her renewed determination in the work.

I don't think it's a spoiler to tell you that yes, you will get more about Owen and the Weevils further on in series 2.