[Torchwood] The End Of An Era

[eumelia]

For me, that is.

I hated it.

I suffered through ten episodes, the respite of episode 7 notwithstanding, in order to come to the conclusion that Torwchood ended for me with "Children of Earth" (which, yes, I'm one the ones who loved it).

The painful conclusion that Torchwood outside of Britain, outside of Wales, just isn't the Torchwood that comforted me, that made me friends in fandom, that got me view television with a critical lens that I just hadn't used before hand.

This show? It felt cheap.

It felt as though I was being bashed over the head with an extremely heavy hand.

I felt as though I was being subjected to a cornucopia of badly written, badly thought out B-Movie CGI crap.

What, oh snakrs, would be the difference between the above and the first three seasons of Torchwood?

How about, parody? Self-deprecation? The knowledge that Torchwood is part of a larger and distinct universe? That Torchwood had a queer sensibility and a queer dynamic and this show had gay sex scenes interwoven with straight sex scenes.

Not the same. At all.

This show felt like a pitch to American audiences, while the first three seasons were unapologetic is what it was, a camp sci-fi queer extravaganza.

What I watched, had "metaphors" and "allegories" so offensive I considered not watching until the end, but this was Torchwood, how could I abandon it.

Well, now Rusty did it. He produced a series so bad, that the love I had for it is not enough to carry me through should more canon be created (as the ending seems to suggest).

I just... it makes me sad. I'm sad. That my love for Torchwood is now nostalgic, a memory of an original show that I studied for an academic paper, with which I honed, as I mentioned, my critical thinking when it came to reading texts (television or not).

I'm going to start a rewatch of Torchwood this weekend, starting from Jack's first appearance on Doctor Who ("The Empty Child"), because in October I'm giving a lecture about Jack's immortality and his renewing body at the local Sci-Fi and Fantasy con. I'll be liveblogging my insights and ideas.

I hope you enjoy the nostalgia trip as much as I do.

P.S. I'm planning on showing short segments of important events on the show, but I have no idea how one creates clips. Any tutorials out there that you peeps recommend? Thanks in advance!

Comments

[trouble]

I just couldn't keep watching it after the first few episodes. Putting aside the change in tone, I just couldn't stand how it was put together. I didn't care about any of the new characters because we were never really introduced to them, and I didn't like what they did to our favs.

[eumelia]

I know what you mean. During ep five (the concentration camp ep) I wanted to throw things at the tv, but it wasn't mine so I refrained.

The new characters were so removed and just, felt as though they'd been transplanted there for no reason other than to look pretty (Esther) and be homophobic (Rex).

[kindkit]

The more I hear about Miracle Day, the more I'm glad I didn't watch. Like you, I loved Children of Earth and I thought it was a fitting ending. (Unlike you, I never thought of Torchwood as camp fun. S1, I thought, was mostly as bleak as all hell; S2 was an attempt to make the show more fun, and to me it felt like the show was going astray; Children of Earth was a return to Torchwood's roots. Anyway, Miracle Day never sounded like just a relocation, but like a rewriting as an American-style action show [not sff] in the style of 24. Yuck.)

[eumelia]

Camp is so not fun. Camp is serious business. Camp in "Cyberwoman", "Random Shoes", "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang". Camp to me is a distinctly queer style of presentation and aesthetic - "we laugh so that we don't cry").

That said, yes, CoE was a fitting ending and that's now my canon. I'm not usually a person who picks and chooses canon, but after MD, I feel I must.

[kindkit]

Ah, I see what you mean. You're using what I think was the original definition of camp; unfortunately the way it's used in fandom now is mostly as a synonym for either "cute" or "kitschy."

Sometimes picking and choosing what canon to accept is the only self-defense there is.

[eumelia]

*nods* I do use it in the original sense, the way Susan Sontag, Esther Newton and Jack Babucio used it (I'm not just name dropping, you should check what they wrote about! It's awesome and full of queer history!).

I kind of hate that it's synoinous is fandom with kitsch, because it's pretty much the opposite and I keep going, "That word, I don't think it means what you think it means".

I've picked and chosen exactly one other time; the epilogue is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", I don't think I would have been able to keep liking the books if I acknowledged that as part of canon.

[starlady]

I use MPEG Streamclip to clip things, it's a free download. I'm sure there are tutorials out there, but I found it to be fairly intuitive to figure out. Of course, I also am not one of those people who reads the manuals unless it's absolutely necessary.

[eumelia]

Thanks a bunch! I'll check it out.