Fajrdrako gets upset enough to write a letter...

[fajrdrako]

Written and posted today, to the CBC:

Audience Relations, CBC,
P.O. Box 500 Station A,
Toronto, ON M5W 1E6

Dear Sir,

When the CBC television aired the show Torchwood last year, I was delighted, as a fan of fantasy and SF television. I enjoyed Torchwood immensely and I thank you for co-producing and airing it.

However, I did not like it that the programmes were cut, which became clear on comparison with the Torchwood DVDs. I could understand if what was cut was aerial views of the landscape or scenes without substance, but I was appalled when I realized exactly which scenes were gone. For example, near the beginning of the first episode, the hero muses aloud about having been pregnant, and a male character kisses another man. Both these scenes were excised, though they contributed significantly to the development of each character. Bad enough that the show was cut to fit advertising, but that looks like blatant censorship. I have always admired the CBC for its honesty and courage in programming – what happened there?

But it gets worse. A friend of mine telephoned the CBC to complain about the very same thing, and was told that such scenes were cut to 'reflect community standards'.

Not my community, and not my standards! This is sheer homophobia.

In a nation where people gays can marry and are given the same rights as other Canadians, it is absurd to cut these scenes. This censorship is discriminatory and reflects an archaic, prejudiced attitude that is completely out of place in the twenty-first century.

Torchwood was a progressive and intelligent show, and I had admired the CBC for co-producing it. No longer. I do not want to think that programming decisions at the CBC are made by bigots.

Comments

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

They cut those scenes? Jeez. That's every bit as irritating as Skiffy cutting Jack's "You, too?" line from "Utopia."

What is *wrong* with these people, on both sides of the border? :(

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's every bit as irritating as Skiffy cutting Jack's "You, too?" line from "Utopia."

They did?

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

I Do Not Approve.

What is *wrong* with these people, on both sides of the border? :(

I wish I knew. I shake my head sadly.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I am so proud of you!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you. [g]

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Seriously?

Wow.

When I hear stuff like that, it makes me glad I live here. We have our problems (oh, we do) but good grief, we had gay kissing on a primetime soap years ago. Even Queer as Folk was nearly 10 years ago and you don't get much more explicit than that (not without actually being porn anyway).

Did they cut the Jack/Ianto kiss from End of Days and the Jack/Jack from CJH too?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Seriously?

Yes. Sigh.

good grief, we had gay kissing on a primetime soap years ago.

I am embarrassed for my country.

Did they cut the Jack/Ianto kiss from End of Days and the Jack/Jack from CJH too?

You know, I don't know. When I saw how much they were cutting, I stopped watching it on CBC - which is why my letter only referred to the first episode for examples. It was my friend's phone call and its reply that sparked my letter. To cut the shows is bad enough, but to blame it on the audiences desires - that infuriated me.

I'll check what I recorded and let you know how they treated the later episodes.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

Woooo! Go you! That really is just plain silly, its one line and a few seconds of a snog (you'd think they whole scene being inspired by alien musk spray would have been a bit more of issue than anything else XD) is ridiculous to cut out :P

*waves flags to further cheer you on*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the encouraging flag-waving!

Bad enough that they cut some inoffensive jokey lines and a kiss, but I don't want them to get away with saying that it's my community or my standards that are responsible.

Idiots.

I do hope SPACE treats Torchwood better - so far they have, and I think they will.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*cheers you on*

I have no idea what BBC America did TW (I don't get it) but sci-fi channel destroyed Jack's role in Utopia and SOTD cutting scene after scene *sigh*

It's ridiculous.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

sci-fi channel destroyed Jack's role in Utopia and SOTD cutting scene after scene *sigh*

That's such a shame, and so unfair to the show. I've heard that Doctor Who is comparatively unpopular in the US (John Barrowman was delighted that Torchwood had better ratings) that a lot of that has to do with how the show is treated. Cut and mangled versions of the show aren't going to be as good as the originals.

It's... stupidly self-defeating. The producers make the shows as good as they can. And then the networks mess them up before they reach the audiences.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

I'm really surprised they did that! And it's obviously homophobia: if they cut a wild gay sex scene, they'd be able to say it was cut for 'community standards', but a cute line about being pregnant? RAMPANT homophobia is the only explanation.

I love how polite but utterly firm you are. It's a great letter.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

a cute line about being pregnant? RAMPANT homophobia is the only explanation.

Yeah. And it wasn't even - well. I think there's just no excuse at all.

It's a great letter.

Thanks. I hope they pay attention.

[gypsylady.livejournal.com]

Wow, those were left in on BBC America! Although they did edit "THAT" scene from Adrift. But it was an edit not a deletion. It was edited so that in the subsequent scene, when Ianto is buttoning his shirt, the viewer is left wondering where he got it from. (They cut the part where he drops to to pick something up from the floor, possibly because it looked like he was going to finish what he'd started as fast as he could...)

Do you mind if I send a link to this to a cyber friend who writes for Canadian television and has a blog that sometimes discusses the way Canadian television is being manipulated by claims of "community standards"?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They cut the part where he drops to to pick something up from the floor, possibly because it looked like he was going to finish what he'd started as fast as he could...

LOL - that sounds even better!

Do you mind if I send a link to this to a cyber friend who writes for Canadian television and has a blog that sometimes discusses the way Canadian television is being manipulated by claims of "community standards"?

Yes, please do. I'd appreciate that.

[elebridith]

*applauds*
I can remember that Buffy got cut for violence when it aired before 8.00 pm, but they showed the uncut version in the late night repeat. But that is just... such silly cuts! I wonder what they do to the Jack/John kiss...?
Please let us know if you get an answer!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The Jack/John kiss isn't being aired by CBC at all. After the first series of Torchwood, they sold the show to SPACE (which is our version of Sci-Fi) and now they're showing it at 10 pm on Fridays; as far as I can tell, it's uncut on SPACE.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

That's appalling. I expect better of Canada.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I expect better of Canada, too. A lot better!

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Good for you!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Let's hope someone listens.

[iosef.livejournal.com]

Here in a country that changed the laws so as no longer recognize international gay marriage only 6 years ago we have had same sex kissing on free to air commercial and government media for over 30 years.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

we have had same sex kissing on free to air commercial and government media for over 30 years.

And that's the way it should be.

I think we are way, way too influenced by American puritanism here. A geographical accident of proximity, and we pay, and pay, and pay.

[editrx.livejournal.com]

Glad you wrote that. Sci-Fi in the US butchered DW and BBC-America cut bits from Torchwood (though they were cutting both sexual innuendo as well as just plain scenes for time savings -- the bastards). At this point I've given up and will only watch what I can get from the UK.

The homophobia on both sides of the border appall me. I've never understood it and I still can't fathom what the hell these people are thinking. I want to think they're pandering to a vocal minority, and hope I'm right that it's still a minority. Sigh.

I keep feeling like it's time for me to get the hell out of Dodge before it gets worse, and go back to Ireland if I can. (Lived there for a bit in the 80s.) But I have a house, a mortgage, a husband who wants to live in the US ... sigh. Not to mention the cats, who really wouldn't survive the quarantine -- especially the Abyssinian who is so scared of cages he stops eating and drinking immediately.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I dislike the way TV stations have no respect for the shows they broadcast. They put their logos in in distracting and annoying ways, sometimes in important dramatic moments; they cut for content and they cut for ads but never to improve style; they put in too many ads, and they pre-empt without conscience. None of these things enhance the viewing pleasure.

they're pandering to a vocal minority

I think that's true. In the US there seems to be a huge fear of the religious, as if they have to be catered to all the time. I don't understand why.

Yes, it's awkward to be stuck in one country when you'd prefer another. I loved Ireland; I'd be happy there. But probably won't leave Canada, which, on the whole, I like.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Makes me glad I'm getting the Doctor and Captain Jack via DVDs and Netflix.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. In my opinion, the way they were cut in the US and Canada, they really weren't worth watching.

On the other hand, SPACE seems to be treating Torchwood well, I'm glad to say.

[sahara-storm.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I hope other people are writing to them, too. But it was their verbal addendum that really annoyed me.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yeah. You go, girl.

I got a "community survey" from the Census Bureau; bemused that it told me I was required, by law, to fill it out, I went at it... and felt quite free to make cogent marginal notes regarding their use of only male/female for "sex," and their tossing in of "marry" and "marriage" without offering any other options for those of us who consider ourselves partnered but excluded from the mainstream of the law. Feh! In this day and age, with the government finally getting wise that people consider themselves mixed in regards to ethnicity (it now says, instead of "mark only one," and I was pleased to see it: "mark one or more," and I did)... well, this bigotry about gender being either/or and people being into mono-het marriage just bothers me and makes me very, very tired.

But, anyway... you go, girl.