Torchwood and Doctor Who: Another thought...

[fajrdrako]

This one's about values.

A few spoilers for "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang", so I'll

Motives. I was thinking about motives, and the currency that was important to significant characters. This was sparked by the dialogue between Ianto and Captain John when Ianto asked what Captain John was doing this for, and Captain John said sex and glory mean nothing, the only worthwhile thing is money.

So that's what he's after.

Made me wonder what the motivation of others is. For the Doctor, I'd say 'adventure' - learning new things by way of having adventures. He loves to fix the broken situations, but that isn't what he's travelling for: he's travelling to see what's out there.

For Jack? Love. It's all about love. Honour is important to him, but what matters most to him is loving and being loved, both in the personal sense of earning the love of those he values, and the abstract sense of loving the planet he has adopted.

For Gwen? Curiosity leads her on.

Toshiko? Analysis.

Owen? Getting his kicks. No, really, I can't think of better than that.... I'm trying to see another way of looking at it but coming up blank. Owen likes shocking people, he likes winning, he likes success.

Ianto? 'Love' in a specific narrow sense: he needs someone or something to care for and take care of. Torchwood One; Lisa. Torchwood 2; Jack. He has abstract loyalties too (like saving the world) but he's at his best when serving someone personally: bringing Jack coffee, carrying his coat, acting as his valet - he likes to be needed.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What do you see as Ianto's specialty?

mmm, I find this hard.

Yes, so do I. Perhaps we haven't really seen him come into his speciality yet. I like your idea that he is an arranger. He does seem to be quite an ideas-man.

I can imagine there being quite a lot of administrative stuff to be done

So it would seem, but I would be skeptical of this. Each member of the team presumably has to file reports on their cases and keep records of their work and research, which, I would imagine, Ianto keeps track of as archivist.

As for the rest: my belief is that Torchwood Three, being above the law and beyond the government is also outside all the normal rules, because it is primarily a con game of Jack's, and he doesn't need to do paperwork for anyone but himself. (I could be persuaded that he also has to do paperwork for the fund or trust or whatever it is that finances Torchwood; canonically their funding is unclear. What commodirified calls "handwavium". Which is fine by me.)

My point is: If Torchwood is answerable to no one, has no taxes, doesn't even officially exist, there must be only internal paperwork, and only as much of that as Jack would deem necessary.

I don't think Jack is much of a paperwork kind of guy.

Of course, they'd have a century of back records for Ianto to deal with.

Thanks for more Doctor background info!