Torchwood: Children of Earth

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:09 pm

3 seasons in, and it finally got good.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:00 pm

Bastard BBC scheduled it for the only week in July where I had cast-iron plans for Tuesday.

I'm having it Sky+ed for me. I catch up in two weeks.

Barrowman actually gotten naked yet? It's just a matter of time, after all.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 9:40 am

Yep, he's let it all hang out this time.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:25 am

Nick Briggs steps out from behind the camera and vocoder tonight.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:42 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:Yep, he's let it all hang out this time.

It speaks volumes for the show that the only interesting question I could think of is whether a male member of the cast has gotten his kit off... good grief. The series has basically been a countdown to that since Day 1, so it's good that they've finally gotten it out of their system (hopefully).

I've been watching Colin's run as the Doctor recently. I quite like him. Though I've not done Trial yet.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:00 pm

Rebis wrote:Nick Briggs steps out from behind the camera and vocoder tonight.

Talking of members of the cast, anyone caught Peter Capaldi in In the Loop? Completely brilliant... and maybe the best film I've seen this year.

Brendocon wrote:
I've been watching Colin's run as the Doctor recently. I quite like him. Though I've not done Trial yet.

He's my least favourite Doctor.

Revelation of the Daleks is good though. Trial of a Timelord is a bit of a car crash.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:08 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:
Brendocon wrote:
I've been watching Colin's run as the Doctor recently. I quite like him. Though I've not done Trial yet.
He's my least favourite Doctor. Revelation of the Daleks is good though. Trial of a Timelord is a bit of a car crash.

Well, he did get the short end of the stick during his tenure, what with the show being cancelled to make way for Eastenders, and then the rigidity of its resurrection in Trial. It's no wonder he didn't want to be in the regeneration sequence of Time and the Rani.

Still, he's got his own back a few times in the Big Finish audios I've heard.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:29 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:Talking of members of the cast, anyone caught Peter Capaldi in In the Loop? Completely brilliant... and maybe the best film I've seen this year.

I really wanted to see that, by my local filmplex only showed it for about a week.

Brendocon wrote:He's my least favourite Doctor. Revelation of the Daleks is good though. Trial of a Timelord is a bit of a car crash.

Awh, he's alright. He's quite amiable so far, little bit condescending like Davison, absent minded like Tom, but nowhere near as arrogant as Pertwee (who I hate). Reminds me quite a bit of Troughton, to be honest. Well, what I've seen of Troughton. Colin suffers through his stories largely being, well, a bit rubbish.

After his first season (Inferno's great), all Pertwee makes me want to do is go back in time and kill him.

Gonna try to tackle Trial of a Timelord over the weekend. I don't have massive hopes for it, but at least I've got a load of McCoy for afterwards.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 3:27 pm

Brendocon wrote:
I really wanted to see that, by my local filmplex only showed it for about a week. .

Same here, but luckily they were showing it on the plane to NY.

Brendocon wrote:
Awh, he's alright. He's quite amiable so far, little bit condescending like Davison, absent minded like Tom, but nowhere near as arrogant as Pertwee (who I hate). Reminds me quite a bit of Troughton, to be honest. Well, what I've seen of Troughton. Colin suffers through his stories largely being, well, a bit rubbish.

After his first season (Inferno's great), all Pertwee makes me want to do is go back in time and kill him.

Gonna try to tackle Trial of a Timelord over the weekend. I don't have massive hopes for it, but at least I've got a load of McCoy for afterwards.

I know what you mean about Pertwee. But the drab stories don't help... I mean, he's perfectly fine in his first season. I'm not that fond of the rest... but there's The Daemons, Day of the Daleks, The Time Warrior...

Colin's just a bit... stagey I guess. I used to give him a bit of leeway, having seen some of his stuff when I was young, but Trial was the final nail in the coffin. *shudder*

You working through everything in order then?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 3:53 pm

Trying to. I went through a few months back and had a big splurge on Amazon when most of the stories were about 7 quid. Picked up a load of Tom/Davison stuff, watched that through, then basically grabbed a load more watched it through in order. Picked up on stuff from Tom's run that I missed as I went on.

Have basically picked up everything that's currently out on DVD now, except the Lost in Time set, Tomb of the Cybermen (which is out of stock everywhere, though a copy is on its way that I found on Amazon Marketplace) and the Key to Time, because I'm not spending nearly £200 on it.

There's a few Hartnell and Troughtons that I've got but not watched yet (successive stories of that length can kinda take the wind out of you) and am gonna catch up on when I've finished the rest.

I do like Colin though. He's far from my favourite, but he's at least had a smile and the sense that he's trying in the stories of his I've seen. Definitely above Hartnell (solely for being able to remember his lines) and Pertwee (smug, arrogant, condescending and willfully contrary for no reason other than to annoy the Brig by the seems of it... that Jo bird being perhaps the stupidest person in tv history didn't help either).

Col's stuff is propped up by a quality succession of guest stars, though - Brian Glover, Martin Jarvis, Kate O'Mara, Jacqueline Pearce, Paul Darrow and Clive Swift all make Season 22 thoroughly watchable.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 11:24 am

Tomb of the Cybermen is great. I think the 60s stuff works better if you limit it to an episode a night. The War Games certainly wasn't designed to be watched in one 5 hour sitting!

Certainly when Hartnell's on top form he's brilliant. The verisimilitude in his goodbye speech to Susan for instance.

I find the Sixth Doctor/Peri partnership quite aggravating. They're meant to be on a trip of a lifetime and yet all they do is bicker. The same could be said of the Fifth Doctor era, though at least he had better stories and worked better with Peri.

I do like all the Docs, and Colin certainly wasn't helped by a lot of things out of his control (costume, multi-coloured sets, excessive violence - the latter which was especially bad IMO).

Anyhow, 4 nights in and Children of Earth is still on top form.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 11:36 am

I did the first disc of Trial last night.

Er. I feel like I've wandered into the wrong film halfway through.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 4:11 pm

I've just found out a friend of mine was one of the people who got their laptops stolen in Day Three.

He kept it quiet.

Also, I failed to recognise him when I watched the episode, prior to being told, that is.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:22 pm

What a fabulous miniseries. Though it's hard to see where it can go from here.

This is what Torchwood should have been all along. Smart, adult, thrilling scifi. As opposed to Carry On In Cardiff With Monsters.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:17 am

I still just dont get torchwood or dr who in generall. most of this weeks mini series could have been done in 1 episode.

theres essentially a very small plot, alien turns up, wants 10% of the worlds kids. ok. done.

Jack seems to spend 5 evenings driving about in his porsche, posturing on the phone that hes going to 'do somthing' ...

it always feels a bit cheap to me, creating more questions then it answers. Its how i can put it, very british.

Right, my questions, what the hell wa the alien in the box, where was it from, do they come in a space ship, why was there a box made for its arrival?
What if I just gassed, electroshocked, blew up, nuked the thing?
will more come, is it a one off etc, etc... none of this is answered for the casual viewer. tad annoying.

So, kids screaming back at the pedo monster kill it. what a message! kids, scream at nasty pedos and they will go away!

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:58 am

Capaldi was magnificent. I think he's my favourite typecast-as-a-politician actor at the moment.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:58 am

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:
it always feels a bit cheap to me, creating more questions then it answers. Its how i can put it, very british.

I thought it looked pretty flash to be honest, though apparently they didn't get any extra cash this time round.

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote: what the hell wa the alien in the box, where was it from, do they come in a space ship, why was there a box made for its arrival?

The box provided life support... but are any of the other points really important? For once an alien with a sense of mystery, instead of your standard bug-eyed monster. The moral dilemmas in the programme were more important.

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote: What if I just gassed, electroshocked, blew up, nuked the thing?

Fire a nuke at the centre of London? Any of those options would have been an act of war. The way they were defeated was actually neatly set up (some would say unusual for RTD) and meant the "4,5,6" would think again about coming back when the humans have an effective weapon.

Though again I don't think it's the "how" that matters, more the fact that Jack actually went through with it, sacrificing his own grandkid over the needs of the many. Be interesting to think how the Doctor would have got round that one.

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:29 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:Be interesting to think how the Doctor would have got round that one.

one word; starts with 'sonic' and end with 'screwdriver'...

Post by **Best First** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:08 pm

Thought it was pretty good.

Think you can summarise almost anything as a few points and make it sound brief but it was, as far as i was concrened, all about putting a bunch of people through the wringer and seeing how they came out, and it did it pretty unflinchingly.

Not watched much other TW as thought the opening eps were pretty poor and i find the whole TW set up a bit... vague, are they sanctioned, are they non sanctioned, are they a network or one site? If they are one site they seem a bit ill equipped to defend the world from alien threats unless that threat is kind enough to head in their general direction. I know they have their own intergalactic hellmouth but given where aliens come from the suggestion they garvitate towards cardiff 9/10 doesn't quite do it for me.

However, this was a nice little TV event. The middle was probably a bit stronger than the end, which felt slightly rushed. I thought the scene where the cabinet decided what to do was fantastic.

My only gripes, which were largely overidden by how it all played out, were that the UK government seemed to do rather too good a job of concincing themselves there was a threat they could not cope with if a war situation emerged, UNIT seemed a bit too willing to go along with at last but not least i am not convinced UK squaddies would unanimously go along with kidnapping British kids.

Liked that copper lad though.

Overall good fill in until who comes back. Like Dave says hard to see what is next for them. Maybe it will go along with RTD?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 6:05 pm

Best First wrote:Not watched much other TW as thought the opening eps were pretty poor and i find the whole TW set up a bit... vague, are they sanctioned, are they non sanctioned, are they a network or one site? If they are one site they seem a bit ill equipped to defend the world from alien threats unless that threat is kind enough to head in their general direction. I know they have their own intergalactic hellmouth but given where aliens come from the suggestion they garvitate towards cardiff 9/10 doesn't quite do it for me.

From what they've said about it in TW and DW, Torchwood began as a single site in Scotland, under the employment of Queen Victoria in 1879. As the British Empire's response to 'supernatural/alien/etc' threats, they constructed sites Empire-wide (therefore, virtually worldwide).

After Jack came back from 200,100AD, he joined Torchwood 2 (the Cardiff site) and set about changing Torchwood's Mission Statement to be more in-line with the Doctor's. This seems to have involved altering the way various sites work, or shutting them down.

By the time of TW, there is, apparently, only the Hub left operational.

So, it does seem a bit difficult for them to deal with non-UK located threats, yes.

However, under the direction of Harry Saxon PM, they were sent off to the Himalayas. So they do, on occasion, go further afield.

Like Dave says hard to see what is next for them. Maybe it will go along with RTD?

Actually, given the potential scope, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some kind of partial reboot series, along the lines of Torchwood: Down Under, or Torchwood: Canada. Something similar to the CSI spin-offs.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:25 pm

Finally seen it. Good stuff.

Lucky for everybody it didn't happen when Saxon was PM, though.

"10%? That all? Tell you what - have all of 'em. Go on. Really, I don't mind."

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 4:25 pm

Brendocon wrote:Finally seen it. Good stuff.

Lucky for everybody it didn't happen when Saxon was PM, though.

"10%? That all? Tell you what - have all of 'em. Go on. Really, I don't mind."

lol!