Torchwood: Sleeper...

[fajrdrako]

Loved it. Edge of seat. Didn't bite my fingernails, which shows massive self-control. Would have liked more personal focus on Jack, but it was fun to see him in professional mode here.

1. The Torchwood version of a Skrull invasion. I like it. I like it that Beth was sympathetic and heroic.



2. Jack was mostly in soldier mode, and maybe a little under-characterized. Which I didn't mind in the least. He looked good. I couldn't take my eyes of his forearms. Oooh.


3. How long has Jack been back? How long since Captain John Hart left? Jack seems to be reestablished as being in charge, with Gwen as a scond in command - or was I reading that into the show?



4. Nice too to see the team being efficient, honest, and working well together. How I wanted that last series! Now I have it, and it makes a world of difference.



5. Ianto! James Moran gave him such delightful dialogue. Keep it up, Ianto baby, I begin to see what Jack sees in you. ("And I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse.") All that mischievous playfulness, courage and clever comments.
   
   So I find myself wondering where Ianto's head is now. Is he over the anger and fear we saw last week, or hiding it? Is he giddy because Jack is back? Is he showing off, to get Jack's attention? Is he having sex with Jack again, or hoping to? How long till they tell us? Meanwhile... seems to me the field is open for lots of interpretations.



6. Again, Toshiko was sharp with the technology. Right on top of it. I begin to be convinced she's as good as her advance billing.



7. Gwen. Adorable. My Gwen-love continues.



8. No PC Andy. No Rhys. I missed them. And there was a murder: shouldn't Kathy Swanson have been on the scene? (Sulk.)



9. Scariest moment: when Beth killed her husband. I didn't see that coming.



10. No snogging. Pity. No Captain John: pity about that, too.



11. Loved the scene where we got a good look at Jack's cleaned-up desk. I was afraid at first that the TARDIS-embryo was gone, but no, it's still there - I guess Gwen kept it because she didn't know what it was and it reminded her of Jack. And she knew he'd want it there if and when he did come back. I didn't notice the binoculars or the 3-D glasses, are they still there? I did notice the televisions from "The Idiot's Lantern".



12. I continue to quite like Owen this season. It's somewhat scary.



13. They put Beth in morgue-drawer 007 too, just like Suzie and Jack. Seems the people they put there never stay put. Maybe they should check it out, or rename it "the resurrection chamber". And wasn't Beth frozen in the same freezer/cupboard that Gwen and Owen were in in "Cyberwoman"?



14. I assume there will be a sequel to this story - more alien sleeper agents will turn up? We didn't learn the aliens' name, did we?



15. Have Ianto and Jack had their date yet? I want to see it!



16. Gwen's mother is alive. I'd wondered.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I loved the writing in this one. It was by James Moran, who also did the very good "Captain's Blog" on the BBCA website.

My interpretation of Jack in this one: He had to go into 'soldier' mode, because his greatest concern is survival and freedom of the earth - anything to stop enemy invasion. So he had to be tough. But he doesn't feel tough, which is why he asked Ianto if he was scary enough. It was part bluff, in a way, but a sincere bluff - Jack does whatever he has to do, and hopes that threats work before the torture gets serious.

I see it as very similar to "Cyberwoman", where Jack sees what a threat the Cyberwoman is, but Ianto still sees the woman within the metal. In "Sleeper", Beth really was an innocent victim of the aliens - but she was already doomed, long since, and too dangerous to live. Which she figured out.

I hope we see the Sleepers again.

[elebridith]

Soldier mode - that's a good one! *nods* sounds about right. What I found really scary was the point when the sleeper awakened. And I just realized that I'm channeling "Dune" here... *lol* Anyway - all those people who looked suddenly on their arm and tuned out - especially the woman with the pram she lets go, and you can actually hear a sound that indicates it has been hit by a car. That was creepy.
And yes, Cyberwoman parallels. Team shooting...
Yes, they could use them again. Absolutely, and please with the same guy writing it? *g*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The scene with the baby in the pram was terrifying - and showed how very much the Sleepers had infitrated our planet, and how powerful they were. And, consequently, why Jack was so afraid.

The same writer has said he will be writing one of the Torchwood episodes next year.