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SPOILERS: Torchwood - Children of Earth

RTD interview at After Elton

I adore this, because the interview asks so directly about all the stuff that's concerned fandom - the loss of a gay character, the unfulfilled potential of Jack and Ianto's relationship, Jack's lack of a real plan when confronting the 456 - and RTD answers in detail. Interviews usually just give us a handful of quotes without a proper context; this offers far more insight.

The usual hate and ignorance in the comments, though. Frankly, by this point, RTD has made it abundantly clear that the only fans he's knocking are the small number who've been "vicious" and "need to learn a lesson". At SDCC he called the hugely successful charity efforts, such as the Children in Need campaign, "brilliant". Those furious fans insist the amount of money raised represents a widespread demand for Ianto's resurrection. But does it? The Just Giving page describes itself as "in memory of" and "mourning" Ianto, and mentions the "hope" he will return. It's not a petition, it doesn't protest or demand anything. Some of the donors have left comments pleading for Ianto's return; others just celebrate the character.

There's not just wishful thinking here: there's a dishonest effort to exaggerate how much support there is in fandom for Ianto's return FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. Calling RTD a liar because he's only aware of nine packets of coffee reaching BBC Wales - because you personally sent fifty packets to make yourselves look like fifty people? Hold it, girls... contradiction city... :)

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That's reassuring, at least, in that the fuller interview reveals the context of the earlier "highlights" to be pretty much what I assumed it to be.

And it was all so reasonable and diplomatic... until the "Editor's note"! =:o?

What irritates me about the doomed and pointless "brink back Ianto" compaign is that it distracts from more rational critiques of CoE *as a story*, and the earlier abridged version of the interview compounded the impression that RTD (a) was only aware of that one particular point of criticism, and (b) was casually utterly dismissive of it. The full interview deals with point b: We get to see his actual writerly reasons for that specific decision and his awareness of some of the reasons people are upset by it beyond "OH NOES MY FAVEWIT CHARACTAH!". I wonder how long we'll have to wait for the dust to settle on this before we can hear TD & co. respond to the other criticisms of the story? With the DVD set already rushed out (did they manage to finally pin down the choice of music tracks on Ep 5 before it headed to the duplicators?), it'll be a few years before the "special edition" with all the post-broadcast interviews and critical analysis...

In the meantime, here's "The War Games" on DVD: 4 hours of Terrance Dicks, Derrick Sherwin et al. hooting "Good God, how did we get away with this claptrap?!? Blame the writer!" "No, blame the producer!". And yet never a doubt in anyone's mind that they'd made a good, fun, TV show; One where a small team of itinerant world-savers overcome the obstacles set by an in-fighting, self-serving "government", winning over and teaming up with former puppets of said "government", to finally face a tense stand-off in a bare room with an implacable God-like foe, leading to personal tragedy and loss...

I wonder if they ever thought of calling it "Torchwood: Soldiers of Earth"? =:o}

Edited 2009-07-31 16:08 (UTC)

I was going to comment that there were more drugs in COE, but then I remember the set design in The War Games.

Remarkably, RTD refers to the review which described Ianto as dying "in the confusion", which was one of the first things I read in the initial trauma which helped me make sense of what had happened.

Hello. My name is Kim btw.

I have to admit I was one of those traumatized by Ianto's death. If I ever watch Torchwood again I know not to get emotionally invested in any new characters ever again. If they have new characters, that is. But at the end of the day it's just a TV show.

What I really wanted to say was that I, too, am irritated by the constant "Bring Back Ianto" petitions people are trying to push other people into signing. It's over, people. RTD is not bringing Ianto back. Time to move on.

I almost hope none of those viewers DO start watching Supernatural. I personally love the show, but if they do watch, they will hopefully stay out of comm discussions. There is too much wank there already.

Exactly.

The point of good drama is that it makes you get invested in the characters. Making you feel the pain of loss is kind of the point of the exercise. If you're so "traumatized" by a fictional death that they go all crazy, then perhaps they should avoid all fiction.

I unfortunately I have to disagree at this time. Many people I know watch dramas because, generally, we get shiny, happy endings at the end of each episode. We want to forget our own pain of loss, our lonely, miserable lives and we expect TV shows to give us "everyone goes home happy and picks up again next time" scenarios. If we invest in characters only for them to eventually come to unexpected tragic endings we are reminded of what we are suffering in real life and are simply depressed & miserable all over again. If we temporarily avoided real life through fiction but now have to avoid fiction as well because we will only be reminded of real life, that does not leave much left.

I almost hope none of those viewers DO start watching Supernatural. I personally love the show, but if they do watch, they will hopefully stay out of comm discussions. There is too much wank there already.

Hee hee hee hee hee! :D