Torchwood: Theories and thoughts after "Fragments"...

[fajrdrako]

One thing I was thinking of on contemplating "Fragments" is that there are so many delightful surprises to me - things that I didn't predict. Words cannot say how much that pleases me, when most television is extremely predictable. So many twists and surprises in their background that I loved, and theories to be garnered from them:

1. Owen's appearance. Owen used to fit the image of a 'real' doctor: suits, authority, respectability and the respect of his peers. Then the events surrounding his fiancée's death threw him so off kilter that he is the one who wears lurid t-shirts, plays video-games at work, and has a snarky (if not rude) comment for every occasion. No sign then that he ran after multiple sex partners or one-night-stands or fuck-buddies.
   
   
2. Owen's outlook. The most amazing thing about Owen: he used to be idealistic. The extremity of his cynicism now simply indicates the extent of his former idealism. Or is the cynicism at least partly false?
   
   Well: depression tends to destroy idealism, optimism and drive, and we are witnessing Owen's fall.
   
   
3. Ianto's meeting with Jack. Ianto was attracted to Jack, and flirting with him, from the start. Setting Jack up, of course; maybe not to seduce him sexually, but to attract him and make Jack think there was a chance of having him, just enough to bait a hook. Only it's one thing for a man to concoct a long-range scheme of deception, quite another to be dealing face to face the with man he is deceiving. I think Ianto liked Jack more than he expected to - and on levels he didn't expect to - and was overwhelmed by the horror of what he was doing. But he did it anyway, of course. He had to. At quite a psychological price. No wonder he was stubborn about the Cyberwoman.
   
   
4. The Two Torchwoods. I was suprised (though pleased) that Jack had severed ties between Torchwood Three and Torchwood One "a long time ago". That is vague enough not to help in guessing exactly when; I suspect New Year's Day, 2000. As soon as he could.
   
   
5. Jack through the centuries. Though Jack knew from Tarot Girl that he would not find the Doctor until after 2000, that doesn't seem to have stopped him from looking. I wonder if his various travels might be to places the thought the Doctor had visited.
   
   Obviously Jack wasn't always in Cardiff. We know he travelled through the US in the 1880s; that he was in India in the early 1900s; that he was in both World War I and World War II; but of course none of these situations is incompatible with working for Torchwood.
   
   
6. Jack and his Torchwood files. I would guess that when Jack took over Torchwood, he took all the files on himself and burned them - except for the photos he wanted to keep for one reason or another. The photos he put in a tin in his desk drawer, to look at when he felt like it.
   
   
7. UNIT and politics. UNIT is very nasty, and that makes me think that something should be done about it. I think the Doctor has already taken the matter in hand by influencing them to hire Martha, who, having saved the world once already, can use her smarts to do what Jack did with Torchwood: rebuild it and reform it with the Geneva Convention in mind. I don't think Martha, at this point, has any idea about any of this.
   
   The UNIT scenes fit nicely with what we saw of the Valiant in "Last of the Time Lords".
   
   
8. UNIT and sex. This gives me a whole new perspective on what Jack had in mind for sex games with Ianto wearing the UNIT cap. Some dom/sub play, perhaps? No wonder Ianto appears more self-confident these days.
   
   
9. What Ianto knows. I had always assumed that Ianto had no idea how old Jack was, or what era he was from. Now we know that Ianto did know about the healing factor, if not the immortality, and if he didn't already know (from Torchwood One) that Jack was from the 51st century, Jack tells him on their second meeting. Pheromones. Hmm. Gotta love those pheromones.
   
   
10. Dark pasts. I am still fascinated that it's Ianto and Tosh who have police records. Who'd have guessed? I would have thought it would be Owen, if anyone.
    
    I've always thought that Ianto seemed unexpectedly immature, even innocent, considering what he'd been through. I now think that this is - not part of his act, but a side effect of his act: that he is suffering from the trauma of Lisa's loss as well as the reintegration of his own personality, finding as he goes a selfhood he can live with. He is clever and adaptable and (once committed) unshakably loyal. But he is also more of a wild card than I had imagined.
    
    
11. I wonder why UNIT owes Jack favours.
    
    
12. Jack's drinking habits. The impression we got in "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" is that Jack likes to drink, especially in extremis: hypervodkas before execution. And "Fragments" would reinforce that - it appeared to be a drunken brawl that Jack was killed in, in his first flashback scene, and Jack's reaction to Torchwood's heavy-handed techniques to force him to join them seems to have been to return to the pub and get drunk. Makes me suspect that he knows he tends to drink in reaction to stress, and is curbing that. Hydration is a bonus.
    
    This fits too with his relationship with Captain John Hart, a heavy drinker. In "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang", Jack pretends to drink alcohol - but doesn't so much as sip from the bottle.
    
    
13. What did Alex foresee? janne_d had a theory that I love; that when Alex looked into his future-seeing gadget, he saw The Year That Never Was. Of course he would freak. This theory is backed by the visual effect of his gadget, reminiscent of the Gallifreyan watch fob which we saw in that episode. Was this manipulation, or accident? Had Alex fallen to a con job set up by - well, take your pick, Bilis? the Master? - or was it a matter of finding a piece of alien tech he didn't know how to handle or understand?
    
    Alternatively, it could have been a glimpse into an alternate universe that failed to happen because of his death and Jack's taking over Torchwood.
    
    I am reminded of the time-paradoxes in Heroes, where alternate futures come and go.
    
    
14. Masks. With the exception of Gwen, no one at Torchwood is quite what they appear.
    
    
    • Jack, who seemed to be the one with all the personal secrets, seems to have very few now, at least from the Team.
      
    • Toshiko, who seemed quiet and conscientious, is the one with the burden of a prison sentence and a secret deal with Jack.
      
    • Owen, who seemed rebellious and cynical, is burdened with a heart that wants to save everyone and a tragic love as terrible as Ianto's love for Lisa.
      
    • Ianto, who seems so quiet and reserved, is the one who was able to pull a successful con job on Jack - successful, at least, to a point. And then adopted the persona he had assumed permanently, when he fell in love with his mark.
    
    
    
    
    
    

Comments

[gillo]

I find the portrayal of UNIT quite disturbing, because back in the 70s it was a generally benign organisation, multinational, dedicated to fighting threats which conventional forces couldn't deal with. The Brigadier was never a full assistant (as companions were known back in the day) but always on the Doctor's side. It's hard to see what could have turned them into such a brutal and threatening outfit. The treatment of Tosh had very strong Guantanamo Bay overtones, especially the clothes she was forced to wear. Such bright colours as uniform for prisoners are, to the best of my knowledge, unknown in the British prison system.

[justinej.livejournal.com]

Yeah, wasn't the Brigadier from UNIT and I don't get why they have suddenly become the baddies.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I find the portrayal of UNIT quite disturbing

And so it is.

back in the 70s it was a generally benign organisation, multinational, dedicated to fighting threats which conventional forces couldn't deal with

Am I right, then, in thinking of it as Doctor Who's equivalent of U.N.C.L.E.? Or Marvel's SHIELD?

Well, SHIELD too in now a semi-fascist organization allied to a dangerous regime. It's a sign of the times.

The Brigadier was ... always on the Doctor's side.

I should hope so!

But that isn't the only transformation. Back in series one, Harriet Jones was a good guy - someone who fought alien menaces at the Doctor's side and helped save the day. Ten ousted her and things got worse. Harold Saxon was elected.

The other day I turned on the radio and they were talking about a place where government-based armed soldiers would knock on people's doors demanding entry - people were terrified. But I'd turned on the radio in mid-item, and I couldn't guess what country they were talking about. The item when on for another minute or so but I never did find out. And it's a sign of the time that I can't even limit my guesses to a handful of possibilities.

It's hard to see what could have turned them into such a brutal and threatening outfit

Corrupt leaders? We've seen this sort of thing happen in Doctor Who before - I'm thinking of "The Long Game", but there are other possibilities.

The treatment of Tosh had very strong Guantanamo Bay overtones

Yes, absolutely. The thought being, "if it can happen there, it can happen here. If it can happen anywhere, it can happen here, if no one stops it." And no one stopped it. Which is why I hope Martha will. (Go, Martha!)

It doesn't seem difficult for me to imagine a UNIT like that working in perfect accord with Yvonne's Torchwood One.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

P.S. In relation to UNIT, I couldn't help thinking of The Professionals and what CI5 might have become without Cowley in charge.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This doesn't mean the Brigadier was bad - it just means that he didn't have the power to fix things. Was he in charge of UNIT? Was there a coup?

We saw how bad things were in the Year That Never Was.

It will be interesting to see what happened with the Brigadier, and how, and why.

came here from torch_wood comm...

[stopwatch-plz.livejournal.com]

In addition, I have a bit of a... theory.

There's a bit in the Jack/Ianto scene that goes:

Ianto: "When (Canary Wharf) burned, two members of your team scavenged the ruins"

Jack: "We didn't want the equipment getting into the wrong hands"

I reckon that, amongst the "equipment" they took was the cyber conversion unit. They'd definitely not want that getting in the wrong hands (oops!) and would explain how it was in Torchwood3 for Ianto to use. Ok, so that would still mean him getting his half-metal girlfriend across the country and into TW, but it's a start! *lol*

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

On the Unit Thing: In 2008, I don't think you can present a super secret organization with no governmental oversight as anything but morally gray at the very least. These days, peaople simply don't believe that any military agency that isn't watched closely will act beneificently. We have doubts and it makes sense that that is reflected in New Whoniverse.

Re: came here from torch_wood comm...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, that's quite brilliant - a wonderful theory!

Now, we would have to assume that Jack didn't know what it was - that he didn't know what it could do. Because once he learned it existed at Torchwood, he wanted it dismantled and destroyed.

But how could Jack know what it was? He has not had first-hand experience with Cybermen, and it makes sense that he would take it for study, especially if it had been dismantled at least partly already. And if Ianto found out where it had gone - the fact that he knew Jack's people had been there in the first place indicates that he was looking into it.

So Ianto found out where it had gone, and that was why Torchwood itself was the only place he could possibly save Lisa and restore her to humanity. It wouldn't be so had to smuggle a woman-sized metal person into the basement, compared to bringing the whole cyber conversion unit from London to Cardiff and getting it down on the Lift. I don't think they take cyber conversion units on the train.

It explains Ianto's desperation - he couldn't just set up shop in some abandoned warehouse, he had to do it at Torchwood and nowhere else would do.

Good call!

[halfspokenwords.livejournal.com]

Much more recently than the seventies, even. 'Battlefield' was, I think, set in the nineties. So whatever happened, it happened in the interim ten years or so. Maybe when the organization changed hands after Brigadier Bambera, since we know that UNIT was still a-okay when she was in charge?

I have to say, I rather wish they'd just left UNIT alone, instead of making everyone as morally ambiguous as Torchwood is. It's a disservice to all the old school UNIT characters-- and to the Doctor, who worked for them, after all! They were the good guys, if a little trigger-happy (though in that way the Brig and Jack are the same sort of companion), and it was always about Geneva first. It really makes me sad.

[dangerous-47.livejournal.com]

Maybe he was dead? Or something.

New people in control. Who knows.

It was very disturbing to me.

Re: came here from torch_wood comm...

[stopwatch-plz.livejournal.com]

I was worried to post it anywhere in case people thought it was a bit out-there :)

I don't think they take cyber conversion units on the train

I nearly choked on my wine then - can just imagine "Sorry, Sir, we don't take potentially lethal alien technology in standard class. You have to go first class for that!" XD

and yep - for Ianto, getting into TW3 was the only way to save her. And he'd do anything to get there - though things didn't quite go to plan, poor emo!Ianto! ;) Also, he brought the subject up quite randomly - it didn't lead on from anything and didn't lead to anywhere.

Now... who would be the "two members of his team" though? Who was working with him by then?

Mmm.... Torchwood!plot ;)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - a reflection of our times. There is too much media exposure these days of militaries and governments ignoring human rights and common decency in the name of "anti-terrorist security".

And maybe these days bad organizations with power look more interesting, story-wise, than good organizations with power.

And it gives our heroes a problem to fix. - not to mention a good source of character suffering.

Moreover, our lead characters of Torchwood and Doctor Who, Jack and the Doctor, are both wild cards without government or even much respect for the law. Neither of them exist. Neither of them are citizens of anywhere. Neither of them pay taxes, owe allegiance, or have social security cards. It's a freeform set-up that's perfectly tailored to combatting evil authority.

Jack has said that after his experiences with Harold Saxon, he'll have nothing to do with Whitehall, which I assume to include all government authority - though we've seen him talk nicely to them on the phone to keep them cooperative. Does he still do that? I wonder. It would be in his best interests to keep an eye on them and have their cooperation, so I suspect he does.

And after all, UNIT owes him favours.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I rather wish they'd just left UNIT alone, instead of making everyone as morally ambiguous as Torchwood is.

I would say that Torchwood is not morally ambiguous: it's in a process of change. It used to be bad. Jack is trying to make it good. We don't know about the funny man in Scotland.

Do you not like the idea of UNIT changing? I like the idea that it can be recovered and saved again. I like that as a theme.

Anyway, it's been evil ever since "The Last of the Time Lords", so it didn't just start with "Fragments".

It did come as a surprise, though.

These things do. We're supposed to be unhappy about it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

UNIT was already bad in "The Last of the Time Lords"... wasn't it? They served the Master without question.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Maybe he was dead? Or something.

He might be dead, or in one of the cells, or fooled, or helpless - we won't know till they tell us.

Definitely new people in control.

It's supposed to be disturbing, and I hope this will be an upcoming storyline.

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

"And it gives our heroes a problem to fix. - not to mention a good source of character suffering."

Oh, totally. i'm guess that martha is going to discover some ugly things about Unit in season 4 of DW, and that's how she's going to end up in the TARDIS again.

I'm guessing that the Brigadier has either been fired or retired. They wouldn't tar a beloved, Old Who character, with evil.

[dangerous-47.livejournal.com]

Yeah. But it would surprise me if he was still alive. *Shrugs*

Yeah, I guess so.

[onlyechoes.livejournal.com]

It will be interesting to see what happened with the Brigadier, and how, and why.
Huh? Doctor Who has showed The Brigadier retire, although I'm not sure what happened after that. So I guess whatever happened to Unit happened after his retirement. Or then, I may have gotten your comment wrong. :P

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

i'm guess that martha is going to discover some ugly things about Unit in season 4 of DW, and that's how she's going to end up in the TARDIS again.

I'm hoping that will be the case!

No, I'm pretty sure the Brigadier is still a good guy. They've done something to him or with him. It might be that whoever is in charge of UNIT now is or will be a major villain.

Re: came here from torch_wood comm...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was worried to post it anywhere in case people thought it was a bit out-there :)

Naw. It has that perfect ring of truth, and it totally explains Ianto's desperation - not to mention fitting in with his goals and the sort of information he has.

"Sorry, Sir, we don't take potentially lethal alien technology in standard class. You have to go first class for that!" XD

Hee. Or even just: "I can't get my luggage to fit into the overhead rack..." Just as well they don't have to declare anything at customs on the Welsh border!

he'd do anything to get there - though things didn't quite go to plan, poor emo!Ianto!

Yes! Oh, I do love that boy sometimes.

he brought the subject up quite randomly - it didn't lead on from anything and didn't lead to anywhere.

But it was on his mind.

who would be the "two members of his team" though? Who was working with him by then?

Hmm. What indications of time do we have? Tosh would be there - she's been with Torchwood almost five years now. Suzie, probably, though we don't know when she came on board. I think Owen was more recent... can't be 100% sure.

My guess is that it was Tosh and Suzie, or possibly Jack and Suzie. It's also possible that there have been one or two Torchwood Three agents, now gone, that we don't know about, between 2000 and the present.

One of the things I loved about this episode was that so many plot-threads came together.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I'd noticed references at Wikipedia mentioning the UN's current lack of enthusiasm for being linked to UNIT by the producers of Whovian TV. No idea how that lack of enthusiasm started, if it's true.

UNCLE, so far as I know, was never really supposed to be connected to the UN at all. SHIELD was dragged into theirs by Frank Miller(and others?) back in the 1980's, and while there's been some lack of communication among Marvel's writers and editors over the decades since then, they seem to have gradually come to stick with that. You can add the current incarnation of DC's Checkmate, from the end of Infinite Crisis onwards, to the list of pop-fiction UN-linked soldier-spy organizations.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Doctor Who has showed The Brigadier retire, although I'm not sure what happened after that.

Presumably whatever happened, happened without him. Maybe he is just enjoying his retirement, and has no idea that any of this is happening. Though that seems unlikely, if he is like other friends of the Doctor - intelligent and resourceful. If not dead or otherwise put out of the picture, he could be retconned or brainwashed. After all, the Master brainwashed most of the planet.

Re: came here from torch_wood comm...

[stopwatch-plz.livejournal.com]

Jack and Suzie definitely seems good with me! Suzie being Jack's second-in-command at that time, probably, and with such a major event as the fall of their head office, he'd want someone senior with him...

I love the fact that, although they give so much away, they also open things up to more speculation (and fic-writing. Huzzah! :D)

[selenityshiroi.livejournal.com]

I have to say, it amazes me that so many are taking the UNIT vilification so badly.

It's pretty obvious that any organisation will look differently depending on perspective. We were seeing it from Tosh's perspective, so of course they looked horrible. From their point of view, even though she was coerced, Tosh managed to be very dangerous to national security and they had to contain her.

If we'd seen a scene of them discussing how dangerous a person like Tosh is (who can break into MoD offices, steal official secrets and develop dangerous weapons...on her own) then maybe some people would be a little calmer about it.

Of course, I think that UNIT ARE being set up as bad guys, but still!

It's like Harriet Jones in the end of The Christmas Invasion. If you look at things from her POV then she was probably right to do what she did (I certainly thought so), but because we look at things from the Doctor's POV she was seen as someone awful from then on.

[cthonus.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought of Guantanamo the moment I saw the jumpsuits. It wouldn't be entirely impossible for an organisation like UNIT to be taken over by hawks and turned into something entirely less wholesome, especially over a period of almost 40 years.