louisema

Thoughts on TW S4

2009-07-10T12:41:29Z

Other than the obvious, I have two major major questions for RTD and everyone involved in writing.

First:
So Jack 'regenerates' (for want of a better word) from "an arm, a leg, and half a head". OK, fine. I'm going to ignore the whole thing about how if you're within about arm's length of an exploding bomb you're pretty much disintegrated into a red mist, and accept your frankly dubious Science! here, RTD. But as I have accepted it, you have to answer me this:

Why has the other leg, arm, half head and (presumably) torso not similarly regenerated? Or does your massive finale involve two Jacks (in which case, boo to you for copying Doctor Who)?

Second:
You have an alien invasion of the world (specifically, Britain). You have UNIT, and Torchwood involved.

Where is the Doctor?

That is all. I am too busy being hacked off with the end of last night's episode.

Torchwood Radio Plays

2009-07-03T13:55:34Z

Ianto: not seen him for eighty years and starts shooting at him.
Gwen: old flame?
Ianto: definitely.

I am LIKING this episode. Also:

Jack: would I lie to you?....again?

Writer's Block: All-Nighter

2009-06-25T10:29:06Z

When was the last time you stayed up all night? What were you doing?

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The last time I stayed up all night was for a May Ball (I'm at Cambridge University, we have these things) at Peterhouse College on Saturday, 13th June this year. We started queuing to get into the ball at about eight or half past, and we got in just after nine pm. The May Balls traditionally run from nine at night until around 6 the next morning, when there is an official "Survivors' Photograph" of everyone who makes it through the whole night. Peterhouse was the second of these in a row I went to - so I'd done the same thing the Friday night, too - and it was absolutely out-of-this-world amazing. The thing about the May Balls is that although the tickets are expensive (the cheapest is around £100, and they go up to about £150 - Peterhouse was £130), there is literally as much food and alcohol there as you can consume. At Peterhouse, the champagne didn't run out all night - so there was still plenty for the Survivors' photo (and yes, I am holding a flute half-full in that photo!). They're an incredible experience, and because you go with a group of friends, they're amazing good fun and worth every penny you spend on both the ticket and the dress :)

Writer's Block: Rabbit Rabbit!

2009-06-01T20:42:56Z

It's the first day of the month. If you could have one wish come true this month, what would it be?

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I wish I didn't have to go back to my parents' house come the 20th.

(Secondary to that, I wish I could stay in Cambridge without lectures for the rest of the summer, and have all the people I love here too.)

Wishing for a month of world peace just wouldn't work, you see, so I may as well be selfish.

...Oddly, I don't even wish to pass my exams...hmmm...

Writer's Block: Confidences

2009-04-11T11:03:14Z

Who do you think it is easier to talk about your problems with: your friends, your family, or strangers?

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I talk about my problems with EVERYONE. I'm just like that. But my friends get a true representation of how I see it, whereas my parents get the edited highlights. This is because my parents tend to a) judge me b) try to control me and c) mock me for anything not going quite as planned in my life. Strangers tend to get something along the lines of "oh, it's silly really, I'm just over-reacting to..." and then I try to move conversation on.

I have different people I talk to about different sorts of problems. I have a vague acquaintance (a friend of a friend who I've met once) who's been absolutely priceless recently, just because he gives the best relationship advice in a way that makes it easy for me to listen to him - and he doesn't judge, or take it too seriously. I mean, I recognise that the problems I have now probably aren't going to affect me in six months' time, and he's good at keeping that perspective, but he doesn't do it in such a way that it's dismissive. I have my schoolfriends, who are excellent at telling me I need to get over the guy of the moment; I have my best friends (one at home, one from school, one in Cambridge) who just know everything; I have an ex-boyfriend who puts up with my seriously unhinged moments and is calming; and I have a surprise friend (seriously, it's weird how close we are, considering how completely coincidental it was that we even met) who I know I can call at 3 in the morning, if I need. I'm pretty well sorted :)

Writer's Block: Things You Don't Want to Know

2009-03-23T11:47:55Z

If you knew that a friend's significant other was cheating on him or her, would you tell your friend the truth or keep it to yourself?

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OK so in the last term, I've actually been in this situation, hence why I'm bothering to answer it. It was made worse by two tiny tiny features:
1. this was not just "a friend", this was my best friend in Cambridge.
2. not only was he cheating on her, he was also coming onto me, as hard as he knew how.

I did tell her, but I only told her about him coming onto me. I didn't forward the email he sent me about it, and I didn't tell her what he told me about other girls. My main reason for not passing that second part on was because she and I both knew the girl involved, and I was about 90% sure he was making it up (I was right). I didn't forward her the email, because I figured that she didn't need that, on top of the whole your-boyfriend-tried-to-talk-me-into-bed thing. I thought she'd leave him on that alone.

Turns out I was wrong about that last bit, and so ever since I've been trying to avoid him because he got slightly violent towards me when he found out I'd told her...that was the only time so far I've been actually scared as a result of being at an all-female college (I was thinking "who's the nearest, large enough guy I could get over here in case it gets nasty?" and the answer was "I don't know who I can call right now" which terrified me). I'm not sure how they are now, because she's more inclined to wait and see how things turn out and then tell me everything in one go than tell me as it's going on, but I think there's stuff going on.

So I have a question for you all: If you knew that a friend's significant other was spending a very large proportion of his time with another girl you know he's attracted to, but you're fairly sure there's nothing physical going on, then would you count that as cheating? And would you tell her?

ouch

2009-02-23T09:20:39Z

Sharp knife. Kitchen cupboard at head height. Gravity. Toe in the way.

Result? MUCH BLOOD.

Sudden Thought...

2008-12-17T12:35:04Z

OK, so I was re-watching Cyberwoman just now (instead of doing the work I should be doing, of course...) and I had a sudden, rather uncharitable thought.

Cybermen don't have emotions, right? They're humans with their emotions suppressed. Gwen was about to be turned *into* a Cyberwoman, wasn't she?

...wouldn't that be kind of an improvement?

Will this work? Or won't it....

2008-12-09T10:58:24Z

Which Torchwood Character Are You? Your Result: Captain Jack Harkness You most resemble the team's outrageous, mysterious leader. Cheeky, sexy, and charming, people are drawn to your charisma, but at the same time you tend to keep your relationships superficial. You aren't afraid of your emotions and tend to just let them out, but you are afraid of truly connecting with those around you.
Ianto Jones
Owen Harper
Gwen Cooper
Toshiko Sato
Which Torchwood Character Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

It probably won't.

It should not make me this happy to be told that I'm most like Capt. Jack Harkness by an internet quiz. Also, guess what? I should be working.

Writer's Block: Physical Education

2008-12-02T12:46:02Z

Call it gym, P.E., recess, or pure hell, most people have participated in a class at school that focused on games and athletics. What sport or game did you hate the most when you were a kid? What sport or game was your favorite?

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Ah, dear. I'm short-sighted, but I didn't get glasses until I was fourteen or fifteen years old, which made playing sports that involved throwing, catching or even being able to see quite tricky, so the list of sports-or-games I hate is scarily long. At my junior school, we played netball in the winter, and rounders in the summer, both of which I hated (although I hated rounders slightly less, because at least it was warm out then). At secondary school, we played tennis in the summer, as well, which was similarly awful, and lacrosse in the winter, which is just not a game girls should have to play. Now that I'm at university, I've taken up archery, which I love (maybe because it involves standing still, and we shoot indoors in the winter?) and I've always been fond of swimming. So basically, I'm a non-team-sports person. I wonder what that says about me.

A moment, please

2008-11-24T16:47:59Z

I would argue that it's unfair of a supervisor to inflict a five-hour deadline upon us without warning halfway through a Sunday. Wouldn't you? Given that when the essay was set it was "please hand in when you can, last one in buys the drinks"?

Gragh.

Children in Need

2008-11-17T09:24:02Z

I burst the Cambridge Bubble to watch the Doctor Who exclusive (after realising it'd been shown from tencrush's post) and I'm now having slight problems.

"Oooh, that's new." Oh, really. You see, to me, that looked like a Cyberman, which would make it possibly the least NEW thing that could possibly have been behind that door, with the possible exception of a Dalek.

Are they EVER going to stop resurrecting these races-the-Doctor-has-already-wiped-out-and-yet-just-one-managed-to-survive?

Is there something wrong?

2008-11-07T17:24:40Z

So today I nearly fainted while chopping up a dead body. Hurrah - that's not something your average person reads/hears every day. I was also almost sick, and I have no idea why, because I've been chopping up this particular dead body for the best part of five weeks with no such reaction (...although maybe the five weeks is the reason?)

In other news, I took up archery a very short while back (like, about four weeks) and yesterday I twanged myself across the elbow with a bowstring and drew blood and it came up all red. Ow, I thought. This morning I woke up with the HUGEST PURPLEST-SPOTTED RED-AND-BLACK BRUISE I have ever seen in MY ENTIRE LIFE (and I've seen bruises - I bruise STUPIDLY EASILY) across half my arm on the inside by my elbow, and blood spots up and down the inside of my forearm.

Christ.

So I spent all day today showing the other medics and trying to gross them out, and whaddya know? Apparently after about ten or fifteen hours spent cutting up dead bodies, huge bruises don't freak people out any more. Bother.

In other news, will April please hurry up and arrive because I really need more Torchwood in my life.

phew

2008-11-05T08:25:44Z

Turns out America's less stupid than it looks, and I'll be able to sleep safely in my new bed again tonight, too, without fear of a nuclear holocaust or whatever.

Hurrah for that!

Plea

2008-11-04T20:17:44Z

America:

All of you. Please. I'm begging here, and I don't like doing that.

Be sensible. I would like to think that I can go to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow and the world will still make sense. This will not be the case if you vote McCain/Palin.

It used to be ok; I used to think "oh, don't worry, McCain is old, he'll probably retire for ill health or something and then we can have his vice president."

And now I think "Oh God, McCain is old, he'll probably retire for ill health or something and then we'll have his vice president WHO IS COMPLETELY SCREAMINGLY TERRIFYING AND GIVES ME NIGHTMARES FROM WHICH I WAKE IN A COLD SWEAT."

No one should ever use that many capitals all in one go.

Give me a break, here, America; I'm a medical student. I really do not need extra worry in my life; do not let my Cambridge Bubble be burst by the words "MCCAIN LANDSLIDE VICTORY" on a newspaper tomorrow morning.

Thank you.

THREE weeks?!

2008-10-23T13:26:48Z

I'm sorry! It's been three weeks of INSANITY - I started at university and I'm having the time of my life (as you're meant to, of course) but my course coupled with my love of socialising means I've had virtually no time to sit in front of the computer and tell you all about it. This also means that I've lowered my average number of times per day that I worry about what's going to happen in TW S3 from constant-worrying to I-can't-count-that-high, but whatever.

If any of you stalk me around LJ, you will know already that I've been watching Merlin, the BBC's new drama based on the legend of Arthur. It's awesome - there's nothing more I can say - I'm really enjoying it and it's a pleasant hour out amongst all the work and dissections and essays and what-have-you that comes with putting "medicine" down on the UCAS form as my course. If I have time, I'll tell you all why I love it. Give me a few more weeks, and I might be able to tell you some reasons why I don't COMPLETELY love it, but right now that's limited to "it's not Torchwood!" and "the slash might write itself, but it's not REALLY THERE" - basically it's a bit like Torchwood in that respect - the constant audience teasing, the refusal to actually give us a full-blown relationship...God, it's, what, five episodes in? And we've not even had a kiss yet (that I remember....)

Lecture to go to...speak to y'all soon!

Torchwood (again)

2008-09-30T17:20:09Z

OK, so I have work I have to do before I start at Uni on Saturday, so I thought instead of answering the four pages of questions I still have to do, it'd be a really good idea to update my journal. This is how my brain works. It's actually beginning to worry me - I sit down at my desk, get the pen and paper out and something completely unrelated to work and utterly Torchwood-related will pop into my head. Like how much I wish John Barrowman would make the hair-and-make-up lot return Capt Jack's haircut to the forties-style one he had when he first appeared in Doctor Who.

I believe I was going to give you all a list of reasons I hate Torchwood, wasn't I? Here goes, then. And before anyone lays into me with all the how-can-you-hate-Torchwood-it's-so-great! stuff, please read the one before about how much I love Torchwood. Also, read this sentence: There is virtually nothing they could do to Torchwood that would make me stop watching, short of killing Ianto and exiling Jack to the Planet Zog and leaving Gwen in charge for real this time and making the fourth series "Torchwood: Gwen Cooper's Personal Mission to Save The World" or something. I really, really do love Torchwood. But I also hate it. Here's why:

1. CONTINUITY. It hasn't any. It's the REASON there are so many of us out there on the internet and in the comfort of our own homes TYPING AWAY on LiveJournal and the fora and whatever about the show. There are just...staggering character inconsistencies every week, it feels like. I refer you to Tencrush's journal and her solution to the problem. The problem is basically RTD's amazing new idea of not having character bios or whatever. The writers just write what they want, so one week we get an episode that's practically collapsing under the weight of innuendo and Jack/Ianto implications, and then the next week we get Jack all over Gwen again as if the week before hadn't happened (which it probably hadn't when it was written, in all fairness) (Something Borrowed, anyone?). The result of all this is that anyone who watches more than occasionally is consumed with frustration as, just when we think we've got it all worked out, we get thrown a curve ball. One of the cast (no, I can't remember who) said that they thought the reason Torchwood was so popular was the fact that it's got "some of everything" and cited romance, comedy, it's like a soap, sci-fi and so on as examples. It does have all those things, but I reckon half the reason we all think and talk and type so much about it is because unlike the average soap, there is no continuity! And we all know it could just be fixed by tencrush's piece of A4 paper. *sigh*

2. Captain Jack Harkness. I know, I know, I said he was one of the reasons I love it. BUT I did also say that there was a massive "but" clause attached to that. Here it is: I love Captain Jack Harkness BUT I don't think he's actually main-character material. Hear me out here. Anyone see Pirates of the Caribbean? I'm sure some of you did. In the first of the trilogy, Captain Jack Sparrow was great. He stole scenes, he made me laugh, I loved him, he was amazing, it was all great. EVERYONE I KNOW loved him. And the writers realised this, and realised there was more money to be made here. So they made a sequel (or two) and they gave Jack Sparrow lots and lots of lovely scenes. Trouble is, you can't steal the scene if it's been handed to you on a platter, and most of the Sparrow lines didn't really work when he was so obviously meant to be the star of the show, plus he lost a lot of the whole good-or-bad conundrum in the process. Remember where this all started? Back with Captain Jack Harkness, in Torchwood. I LOVED Jack in Doctor Who, I really really did, and I love him still but he is a similar sort of character. He works best in the background, where he can flirt and steal scenes doing it. He worked really well as a slightly ambiguous character who you couldn't quite work out. People loved him! And the writers realised this, and they gave him his own spin-off show as the immortal boss of a secret underground alien-catching organisation. Except. Except, except, except, as the boss of a secret underground alien-catching organisation, and the lead character of the BBC's favourite spin-off drama, Jack can't steal scenes, because he's handed them on a platter (sounding familiar yet? Do you see why I dragged you down that tangent about Pirates of the Caribbean now?). Jack now has to be complex and mysterious, but he also has a lot of screen time, which makes it hard to maintain that aura of mystery, rather. And suddenly, Jack was not about fun and flirting, he was serious (admittedly, still about flirting, but hush, I wrote myself into a slight corner there) and I loved him a little bit less. Sure, after he went off to Doctor Who at the end of the first series (and I remembered why I loved him...) he got funnier and slightly more relaxed, as if the writers remembered how to write him, but I still have my doubts. I still remain not quite completely convinced that he's leading-character material.

3. John Barrowman. More specifically his acting. Not always quite up to standard, is it? It pains me to say it, but there we go. There were moments when I actually winced - and not just in the bloopers reels. That scene in Cyberwoman where he's ordering Ianto back into the Hub. The moment in Countrycide where he comes bursting back in with his tractor and his array of guns - not the line "oh, really?" because I thought that was great, but the facial expression as he shoots the cannibals. Oh dear. End of Days - the staggering, and the "just you" line at Gwen (ANOTHER PET HATE), and the yelling and arms-outstretched-ness with Abaddon (which could be the directing, but whatever, it looked ridiculous to me). Basically anywhere where he gets his "I-am-acting" face out. He's great when he doesn't think about it! Actually, scratch that, he's great when he's not trying to show some extreme of emotion (that scene with the RETcon pill in the cells in Adam...wince).

OK, I'm exhausted now. So much frustration there! But there's more, unfortunately, to follow. If I have time (for which read: if I don't die of Freshers' flu when I get to university) then I'll go through specific irritations, most notably, GWACK. Can they please just STOP?!

Also, the single MOST annoying thing about Torchwood right now? I have to wait until APRIL for the next series. And yes, I am addicted. Shut up.

Torchwood - things I love

2008-09-18T07:43:12Z

OK, so I have a seriously love-hate relationship with Torchwood. For those of you who have not a clue what I'm talking about, back away now. Torchwood is a Doctor Who spin-off show starring a character from Who, Captain Jack Harkness. (Have a look at my icon; that's the guy). I'd like to state here before I start that, short of killing Ianto Jones, extraditing Capt. Jack to another planet and locking him up there, NEVER TO RETURN TO EARTH, and making Gwen Cooper head of the team, I don't think they could do anything to make me stop watching Torchwood. And after the almost-improvement in Gwen's character in the much-hated radio show "Lost Souls" (which now, thank God, has gone off the BBC website, meaning I can't torture myself with it any more), I'm not even sure that would make me stop watching. Although, ask me again in April when I've seen the first of the next series, and I might have a different opinion :-S

So this, gentle readers (of whom I'm not sure I have any, but hey), is the first part of a Torchwood special. These are the reasons that I can think of off the top of my head why I *love* Torchwood.

1. Ianto Jones. This character (played by Gareth David-Lloyd, who am I rapidly growing to like very much indeed) is just awesome. He makes coffee! And uses a stun gun in a very sexy way! And is just generally fantastic! Seriously. He is the antidote to John Barrowman as Capt. Harkness (more of that later).

2. Moving on from the fact that I love Ianto Jones, I love Jack/Ianto. Partly because they're HOT together, and partly because they (more specifically, the way their relationship (or possibly lack thereof) is written) give lots and LOTS of fuel for discussion.

3. It hurts me a little to say this, really it does, but basically the aliens in Torchwood are better than the aliens in Who. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

4. Torchwood is actually just all-round more FUN than Who. Even the fans are a bit more relaxed about it (the Doctor Who forums are just plain scary, whereas I've never found that with Torchwood forums. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places but please don't disillusion me just yet), and it's not just the bloopers reel on the DVDs that's fun. The episodes have more funny in them! Usually from Ianto, see above.

5. Lots more kissing. I know they're forever going on about how Torchwood isn't all about sex and it's just a misconception from the fact that the first properly featured alien was a gas cloud that fed off orgasmic energy, but that aside, there is a lot of kissing in Torchwood. Some of this comes from long-established couples like Gwen and Rhys, or Jack and Ianto, but there are also passing aliens (Mary in Greeks Bearing Gifts, for example), rescued WW1 soldiers (Tommy) and people who fall through the rift (Diane and passengers). Plus, we have been promised that Jack's ex, John Hart, will be coming back next series. Which guarantees kissing.

6. I know it's bad, but I love Captain John Hart. I know he's only an incidental character and that we'll probably only see him once or twice a series at most, but he's so much fun! He went to rehab for drink, drugs, sex and murder: 'nuff said, really. Plus, James Marsters is a genius.

7. I really really do love Captain Jack Harkness, but there's a massive "but" clause attached to this which will follow later.

In truth, most of the reasons why I hate Torchwood are only there because it's addictive and so I watch every episode. But hey, such is life. I will put all that in another (possibly slightly hysterical) post later.

Random thought

2008-09-14T13:14:29Z

Is it just me, or is David Tennant's relationship with Georgia Moffett one massive Oedipal mess? Her Dad was the Doctor; David IS the Doctor; she played the Doctor's daughter...

Maybe I should lay off reading books about Freud for a while.

Userpic/display photo/icon/whatever it's called

2008-09-12T08:13:22Z

OK, so I needed one, so I made it. In Paint. It's simple; I don't care. It reminds me why I first loved JB and, more accurately, Capt. Jack Harkness.

That reason is: his haircut. His amazing, de-aging, '40s haircut as seen in "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances". I mean, this episode went out in 2005, right? So that'd be THREE YEARS ago. We know that they filmed it before it went out (duh) so probably 2004 (I don't know the exact dates, does anyone?). So, four years ago. The Barrowman looks about 24 or so in this photo, I think. Certainly he doesn't look anything like the 37 or possibly 38 he was when it was filmed. Lucky him.

Cut to four years down the line and his appearance in the Torchwood promo posters and suchlike, or even the beginning of Torchwood back in October 2006. From those photos (see what you get if you Google-Image search them) I can sadly oh-so-easily believe that John is the 40-ish that he is. How sad for him. I completely blame the floppy, over-my-face fringe THING that he has going on there (make-up and hair, PLEASE get rid of it) that looks as if it's stiff with product and probably took longer to straighten and arrange than MY hair ever does. It's very offputting.

The other thing related to this: the face. Hasn't changed that much, although they do seem to quite like using lighting that makes THE WHOLE CAST look supernaturally pale for the posters, at least. He has started doing what other people refer to as his "KERAYZEEACTINGFAYCE" a lot more (please don't, PLEASE please don't) lately (again, compare "The Empty Child" with, say, ANY Torchwood episode, but in particular the Stopwatch Scene from "They Keep Killing Susie"), but I could completely utterly overlook that if it were not for the hair. There is only one thing linked to this that worries me: that little thing in an interview in April. I quote: "I've had Botox. I don't swear by it, but...I think it's quite good."

No, John, please. You need to be able to MOVE your eyebrows, because apparently that's mostly what your acting entails. Please leave off. I don't know if it's the lighting on the Torchwood set or that I'm imagining it now that I know this little fact about your life and face, but your face does not NEED stiffening. It does not need Botox; it doesn't need to be made to look like a plastic mask. You have come a long way in acting with what seems to be a scarily limited range of facial expressions (more on that at another time) and I'm FINE with that, but remember that those facial expressions require the use of your facial muscles. Thank you.

Hello!

2008-09-11T09:53:50Z

I feel like I ought to do something special for my first entry, but seeing as how there's nothing for this to be special in comparison to, this'll have to do.

OK, so this is here because:
1. I need somewhere where I can work off all the excess frustration that comes, mainly, from either general stupidity or from the Torchwood and Doctor Who script-writers NOT doing what I want them to and

2. I got fed up of reading journal entries I agreed with and not being able to comment on them to say so!

Bad things in my life right now: "Lost Souls", the Torchwood Radio 4 play yesterday afternoon. This was so underwhelming I actually want to believe I dreamt it and it never really happened.

Good things in my life: John Barrowman and Daniel Boys' version of "I Know Him So Well" on Radio 2 last Sunday. If you're interested, it's on Elaine Paige's show at 54 minutes and 20-odd seconds in. I love this song, and hearing the Barrowman singing almost makes up for the INCREDIBLY flat delivery of the vast majority of his lines in the radio play. Although nothing can make up for how very little Capt. Jack seemed to care about the impending comatose-ness of Ianto.

Meh, I shall go listen to that for the fourth time and try to forget all about the disaster that was trying to link Torchwood with the firing-up of the LHC. We did NOT NEED our sci-fi to mess up our science! PLEASE, never do that again, BBC.