The Fairies of Torchwood
I never joined the Doctor Who cult, although I had friends who remembered every episode and could debate whether Peter Davison made a better Doctor than William Hartnell.
At a post-INATS dinner, however, a publisher friend said that I had to see Torchwood, a Doctor Who spin-off. He compared it to the X-Files. Netflix had it, so I ordered Season One (2006).
We-l-l-l. The X-Files it's not. Underneath the aliens and "time rifts" and occasional goriness, it's not as dark--there is not the sense of hopelessness against greater forces and the personal doubts that pervade the world of agents Scully and Mulder.
In fact, every time that I see the four main Torchwood operatives running down the street -- they seem to run a lot, for running and frenetic music cover up plot slippages and cheesy special effects -- I want to sing along, "Hey, hey, we're the Monkees."
But I heartily approved of the episode called "Small Worlds."
Every time I see someone who gets all mushy about fairies, I want to remind them, "The fairies are not your friends, anymore than the coyotes are your friends." You can interact with them, but under other circumstances they would eat you. They are a different life form, and they are not All About Us.
At a post-INATS dinner, however, a publisher friend said that I had to see Torchwood, a Doctor Who spin-off. He compared it to the X-Files. Netflix had it, so I ordered Season One (2006).
We-l-l-l. The X-Files it's not. Underneath the aliens and "time rifts" and occasional goriness, it's not as dark--there is not the sense of hopelessness against greater forces and the personal doubts that pervade the world of agents Scully and Mulder.
In fact, every time that I see the four main Torchwood operatives running down the street -- they seem to run a lot, for running and frenetic music cover up plot slippages and cheesy special effects -- I want to sing along, "Hey, hey, we're the Monkees."
But I heartily approved of the episode called "Small Worlds."
Every time I see someone who gets all mushy about fairies, I want to remind them, "The fairies are not your friends, anymore than the coyotes are your friends." You can interact with them, but under other circumstances they would eat you. They are a different life form, and they are not All About Us.
posted by Chas S. Clifton at 4:30 PM Permalink
4 Comments:
I agree that the way Torchwood is apparently trying to combine both high Sci-Fi drama with the Venerable Cheese Factor that remains a hallmark of the whole Dr. Who franchise is sometimes a miss-- along w/plotlines that often tend to blow it in last few minutes.
But really, how can one not LOVE all the HAWT aliens & bisexuals from the future running around??
I'm glad you made a comment about the little people. We had a local here who went on and on about how she wanted them in her home. Now we're getting e-mails asking for help because things keep coming up missing and she doesn't know what to do. We haven't been of much help to her yet, as we're all just waiting for her to learn her lesson first. :)
Excellent and succinct point of information about fairies. Thanks for posting it (and your thoughts on Torchwood).
Glad to see I'm not the only one who is wary of Faery.
Torchwood's writers, alas, are otherwise enamored of the "scary countryside" meme.
As soon as you leave the safety of urban Cardiff, you encounter cannibals!
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