| Author |
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Friday, August 05, 2011 - 10:32 pm 
Well no one can say Torchwood ever holds back. Still feeling a little physically nauseous from that. Bit concerned about how sweet, gentle Calamity will be feeling.
If they don't pull back a bit (lot) next week I'm not sure I'm going to be able to carry on watching.
They did clarify things a bit for us though. Category 1 is dead dead (or should be) with no brain function, not coming back ever. Category 3 is regular alive. Category 2 is the one I still wasn't clear on, but I guess it's those who would normally be dead who are unfortunate enough to not be able to hide it or are unable to look after themselves.
What a show.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Saturday, August 06, 2011 - 8:43 am
It's really that I'm just a wuss, Kitt!
At least we got those couple questions basically answered (though they just led to even more questions for me). The rest of the show - my God.
Oh and angels who need aspirin? But I guess there may be those who would be eager to believe that. The camp manager was all but a caricature who made the Tea Party pol character seem subtle in comparison.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Saturday, August 06, 2011 - 11:34 am
I was all emotional about it last night and worrying about you Calamity! It was an horrific episode.
I had phased out (for self-protection!) by the time it got to Oswald's speech. I still don't buy how he has got such a huge following. When they showed the hecklers I though at least they were being realistic but somehow he managed to win them round by, yes, angels and aspirin.
I think they've made it look like all this has happened in too short a time for what they're saying has happened. It bugs me every week. The Torchwood story seems to have happened in a short, maybe four week period, but the societal things, to my mind, would have taken months or even years to come to the point they are at. They don't gel.
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Saturday, August 20, 2011 - 11:51 am
Well, FINALLY....Jack is back!
I had been thinking how Jack Harkness has been almost an afterthought in this season. In previous seasons he was always the main character/star of the show, but this year it seemed like his role wasn't nearly as important as before. Rex and Gwen have been the main characters driving the story this season, but as of last night, .Jack is once again front and center where he belongs.
We're finally starting to get some answers. The flashbacks and info we learned about his past sure helps when it comes to trying to understand that character. Being killed over and over and over by the man he loved sure explains some of Jack's reticence when it comes to relationships! That was really really really dark.
Now I can't wait for next week.....the story is finally starting to gain some momentum and I'm starting to enjoy this year's story more and more.
ETA - It was great seeing Nana Visitor again! I've hardly seen her in anything since she played Kira on Star Trek DS9.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Saturday, August 20, 2011 - 7:44 pm
Not just Kira but Q in next week's previews!
A very good episode for fans (although I wonder if viewers new to Torchwood would have wondered what was going on). It's been a strange season, horrific at the beginning, then slow last week, then more back to the essence this week to try to get everything back on track.
One thing I'm sure I've said before, but when Russell T Davies writes he really writes.
Only three episodes left and they're going to have to fit a lot in!
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Friday, August 26, 2011 - 1:44 pm
I have to go so there's no time to bore everyone with my thoughts on the last couple episodes. But I think you guys probably would hate me because I'm having more problems with the writing and acting.
When the guy-the-with-the-evil-eye was washing Jack's feet, I half-expected John Barrowman to start singing "Like a Prayer".
And yet, I'm kinda bummed that I'll miss the show tonight and have to catch a replay.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Friday, August 26, 2011 - 2:13 pm
A friend of mine says he can't watch Torchwood because every time he sees John Barrowman he can't get jazz hands out of his head. With that image and now yours I'm going to have difficulty getting into the Torchwood mode!
Don't forget Doctor Who STARTS TOMORROW!! 6 or 9pm with the controversially titled "Let's Kill Hitler" episode.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Friday, August 26, 2011 - 6:07 pm
RFLOL Kitt, I can so see the jazz hands. I also half expect him to break into song (he's not bad but I wouldn't rush out to buy his albums btw).
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Saturday, August 27, 2011 - 11:55 pm
John Barrowman's ok once in a while on the radio, but he's a bit too showy for me.
Torchwood Sad to see the end of Nana visitor so soon. And the CIA really need to work better in weeding out spies. The woman back in the office works for the Three Families now??
Doctor Who I'm confused about River's timeline now. I thought the first time we saw her with the Doctor (in the library) was her last interaction with him, and as the Doctor's timeline goes forward I thought her timeline went backwards. But that can't be right if today was her first meeting with him. Very confused.
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Sunday, August 28, 2011 - 12:34 am
I found it confusing, too. I love time travel stories and all the paradoxes they can bring but when the time travel relevant episodes are dispersed among monster-of-the-week episodes and then there are long breaks....I just get lost.
I'm thinking River Song must just be jumping back and forth across time and crosses paths with the doctor at seemingly random times.
She gave her life force to The Doctor in 1938(?) but then the episode ended in 5123 with her talking to what appeared to be a professor (or psychiatrist?) about wanting to learn all about archeology.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Sunday, August 28, 2011 - 2:49 pm
I think that must be right, that they meet at random times. I'm not sure what made me think she was running backwards as he was running forwards, maybe that she was always the one who said "spoilers."
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Sunday, August 28, 2011 - 3:29 pm
Just watching that "Best of the Companions" show from ladt night and they show the clip of River saying "every time we meet I know him more and he knows me less." And the commentators are talking about them travelling in opposite directions in time. Perhaps I'm taking that too literally.
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Llrpurch
Member
07-12-2006
| Monday, August 29, 2011 - 10:25 pm
So glad to find The Doctor here on TVCH!
Yes, I'm totally baffled with the paradox situation. I think it might be kinda like Merlin in the Arthur legends, who lives life backwards in some of the versions.
River 'default' direction is backwards. The Doctor's 'default' is forwards. Both can travel each way but when their time streams cross their basic default direction always takes priority, resulting in her knowing where he's going to be at any given time because she's already lived it.
The thing I wonder now is whether now that they KNOW who each other is, it creates a reversal of sorts. So now it seems like The Doctor knows what's going to happen to this newly regenerated River in HER future rather than vice versa. But then...that's in 1938...but she still killed him as a little girl so...
Oy...it's giving me a headache just typing this.
God I love Doctor Who!
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 10:48 am
Did you notice right at the end the Doctor saw on a screen some sort of notice about how he died? I think now he has that spoiler we'll see how he gets round it.
I briefly managed to get my head round the whole backwards/forwards situation last night, but it doesn't seem so clear this morning.
The Doctor can go back and forth in time, but he can never see his own future, even if it will happen in the past, because it hasn't happened yet to him.
Outside observers (regular folk) see everything that has happened up to the time they are in, which may include ALL ripples the time travellers have and will create - that's the paradox part.
For example:
On his 100th birthday the Doctor travels to 1920 Earth time and paints the moon blue.
On his 101st birthday the Doctor travels to 1970 Earth time and sees the moon is still blue from last time.
On his 102nd birthday the Doctor travels to 1940 and see the moon is blue from when he painted it two of his years earlier. He paints the moon red.
On his 103rd birthday the Doctor travels to 1970 Earth time again. This time the moon is red.
For a non-time traveller/outside observer on Earth in 2011, they remember the moon suddenly turning blue in 1920 and red in 1940.
For a non-time traveller/outside observer on Earth in 1950, the moon could be either red or blue, as it's in the paradoxical time period. (Let's not dwell on that too much!)
Now back to River, although River is a time traveller, she's a different time traveller to the Doctor so she is like an outside observer to his ripples in time (but not her own). For instance we know just after the last episode she went to 5123 to study archeology. Because she'll be in Earth's time 5123 as an outside observer to the Doctor's timeline, she can look back in the history books and see everything the Doctor has done and will do in Earth Year Dot to Earth Year 5123. Then she, as a time traveller, can go back into existing Earth time to where she knows the Doctor will be, and try to help him out, with all the spoilers of how it would have turned out if she didn't help.
OK, that didn't explain the backwards/forwards thing at all, just the spoiler thing!
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Thursday, September 01, 2011 - 2:21 pm
I'm so sorry this is so long and probably doesn't make much sense. Just random, rambling thoughts...
Re: DW
Yes, River & the Doctor's timelines are confusing so I've about given up trying to figure them out, lol. I've been kind of disappointed with where River's storyline has gone anyway. She was so intriguing when we first met her in "The Silence in the Library" but, to me, she's gone from being an enigma to a cipher, from a character to a plot device.
So is River/Melody having part Time Lord DNA due to being conceived on the Tardis in any way related to Rose and whatever happened to her with the time vortex energy as well as Donna getting Time Lord knowledge from the Tardis? (Is that what happened? My memory's fuzzy.) What about how River had regenerations but that duplicate Doctor who came from the severed hand and stayed with Rose supposedly had only one life span? And what about the young woman who was cloned from the Doctor and died but then came back later (at first I'd wondered if she was the little girl)? See, it's not just the timelines that are baffling me!
In "The Doctor's Wife" episode it really seemed as if the Tardis is more than energy and a time/space vehicle. It was like it also has an intelligence, a personality even. Is it alive also? Could it be one of River's parents? Or is something else going on? (My head is starting to hurt.)
Maybe I'm just confused because I'm forgetting and mixing up stuff, lol. Honest to gosh, you need a flow chart to follow this show.
Btw, that banging in Rory's head better have just been Hitler in the closet. The poor guy's died and/or been wiped from existence enough times already. He doesn't need to develop a brain tumor now or something even wilder than that. Maybe his head just hurts from trying to understand this stuff too.
I'm on the fence with this episode, some parts I really liked in spite of myself (the miniature crew in that robot thingy really caught my fancy even while I groaned over there being yet another way for someone/something to pretend to be who/what they're not) and some parts I didn't care for at all.
My favorite part was the banana gun because it reminded me of a scene from Christopher Eccleston's season which I'd just been thinking about due to TW. That was when we were first introduced to Captain Jack and he and the Doctor had a spat over whose sonic tool was cooler which later prompted the Doctor to mention that he liked bananas. (See what I mean about random, off-the-wall, out-of-the-blue thoughts?) I'd been thinking about that because I kind of miss the old Jack. I don't know if the actors got along but I thought there was great chemistry between old devil-may-care Jack and Eccleston's more moody Doctor. They were fun to watch together, in part because they ruffled each other's feathers. Oh and I also liked the banana gun scene because it reminded me of a couple screwball-comedy inspired highlights from past seasons, both involving the Doctor and Donna: their unexpected meeting where they had to mime to each other behind glass and when the Doctor was poisoned and Donna had to help him whip up an antidote and they ended up arguing with each other. This season TW had a similar scenario where they had to Apollo 13 a remedy when Jack was poisoned. That was a great scene ruined only by the cartoonish acting of the bad CIA agent. And I'm really rambling now...
Re: TW
Why didn't the grand-daughter just tell Jack about Angelo? Wouldn't that have saved them the trouble of holding Gwen's family hostage?
And the CIA really need to work better in weeding out spies. The woman back in the office works for the Three Families now??
No kidding, Kitt. And apparently they also don't frisk people when arresting them since what's his name ('Newman' from Seinfeld) apparently had an explosive on his person that no one detected when cuffing him. Way to go, CIA. Rex's "What the hell is wrong with you people?!" could go for them, too, lol. I'm ticked by that because I want to know what Newman meant about having said no to the Families before.
Okay, so what is this Trickster that Jack & Angelo destroyed a couple episodes ago? He said it was an alien creature who could mess with history? The description reminded me of the giant bug on Donna's back although this looked different from what I remembered on DW. And was that Adam character who could manipulate memories something similar? So does a Trickster have anything to do with the Miracle or is this another misdirection? When we first saw the the publicist woman with red hair she spooked me because it appeared like she was trying to lure or tempt people into doing things but it really doesn't seem like she was originally involved in the Miracle since she's only now being promoted to be brought in by those behind it. (Unless she's also an undercover double agent, lol.)
While some of his dialogue was needlessly crude, the CIA chief was a breath of fresh air after so much misery. Calling Jack the Red Baron, ha!
I thought there were three episodes left but I counted again in my head and I guess it's only two? Part of me is relieved, thinking it's about time to wrap this up, the other part of me is thinking they better be able to wrap this up in time! There are a couple things that I really hate about this season (one, the sadistic violence and carnage; two, the somewhat superficial and trite way it dealt with very serious issues) but I do want to find out who, what, when, where, why, and how all this happened so I can't protest too much since I'm still watching.
Llrpurch: Ah, the Once and Future King!
P.S. Kitt: I think I saw 'Owen' in previews for some new show on BBCA.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Friday, September 02, 2011 - 11:13 pm
Doctor Who and Calamity: your memory's better than mine on past DW's, I can't really remember enough of the things you mention about Rose or Donna. Ooooooh I think maybe not having a wonderful memory might be a benefit to me, as I don't remember details on any of the tricky things you did so not as much to confuse me - blind ignorance, sometimes a good thing!
But I do remember the Doctor's Wife episode, and from that I did get the impression that the Tardis was alive, in a sentient but non-organic way, kind of like AI. But I didn't think it could insert DNA into the baby making process, the only organic parts it had were when it was integrated into that person that time. When the person was separated, it was back to computer parts and electric fields. Or so I thought.
Torchwood: I think the Trickster reference was just a fun comment about FDR and the effects Jack has had on the timeline. Apparently it's a character from The Sarah Jane Adventures.
The publicist, Jilly, I think just somehow got into the Three Families' network, because they noticed how ruthless she was. Then her handling of the Oswald situation made them realise she could be even more useful.
John De Lancie is wonderful as the CIA chief!
(Owen is in The Hour on BBCA, but I didn't watch it, I'm not keen on spy thrillers, I can't keep enough names in my head and get lost!)
Today's Torchwood: that thing looked like it came out of the ground, like it was on the wrong plane to be something that went through the centre of the Earth. And what, does it want to eat Jack?? Why would his blood be creeping towards it like it's blood-magnetic?
They sure have a lot to fit in next week's finale, yep, already!
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Saturday, September 03, 2011 - 12:19 pm
I'm now wondering if there is a Tardis or some weird alien-y connection to a Tardis that's in the center of the earth.
Remember, Jack became immortal after he was killed (on a space station I think) during an adventure with the Doctor and Rose. Rose touched the Tardis light/intelligence and its power was infused into her and suddenly she was all powerful for a bit. At one point she waved her arm or something to save someone's life....however, unbeknownst to the newly all powerful Rose, Jack had just been killed in another part of that space station and when she waved her arm he came back to life with the side effect being that he was now alive...forever!
Maybe there is another Tardis in the earth between Shanghai and Buenos Aires and it recognizes the energy from another one if his kind in the blood of our own Jack Harkness. Maybe it just wants to reunite with Jack.
That's my best guess at this point, considering all I have to go on is my vague memory of the Dr Who episode that immortalized Jack Harkness for the first time.
Or maybe it's just a dream on a hidden island that's a cork to hell in the Pacific southwest somewhere. 
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Saturday, September 03, 2011 - 12:19 pm
I'm now wondering if there is a Tardis or some weird alien-y connection to a Tardis that's in the center of the earth.
Remember, Jack became immortal after he was killed (on a space station I think) during an adventure with the Doctor and Rose. Rose touched the Tardis light/intelligence and its power was infused into her and suddenly she was all powerful for a bit. At one point she waved her arm or something to save someone's life....however, unbeknownst to the newly all powerful Rose, Jack had just been killed in another part of that space station and when she waved her arm he came back to life with the side effect being that he was now alive...forever!
Maybe there is another Tardis in the earth between Shanghai and Buenos Aires and it recognizes the energy from another one if his kind in the blood of our own Jack Harkness. Maybe it just wants to reunite with Jack.
That's my best guess at this point, considering all I have to go on is my vague memory of the Dr Who episode that immortalized Jack Harkness for the first time.
Or maybe it's just a dream on a hidden island that's a cork to hell in the Pacific southwest somewhere.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Saturday, September 03, 2011 - 12:50 pm
Or maybe it's just a dream on a hidden island that's a cork to hell in the Pacific southwest somewhere.
lol!
Tardises can materialise anywhere so one could have appeared in the centre of the earth somehow, and it would explain it sucking Jack's blood.
I'm a bit confused by the timeline of The Blessing. Say a Tardis or something is in the centre of the Earth, and causes some sort of ray to travel out in opposite directions, hitting Shanghai and Buenos Aires, when did it happen and what did the Three Families have to do with it?
Were the Three Families looking for a way to be immortal, decided to have a look at magnetic fields (say) and found an anomoly in the Earth and explored it? Was everything normal until the thing was uncovered at the Earth's surface and that started Miracle Day?
Or... was this thing growing through the Earth and when it reached the surface Miracle day happened, and the Three Families just happened onto it after the fact?
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Saturday, September 03, 2011 - 2:31 pm
Maybe Jack's blood activated the thing. There has been a lot of talk about his blood, but it wasn't until that single drop of Jack's blood started moving towards the thing in the earth did it seem to mean much.
Also, they have collected a lot of Jack's blood over the course of the last two months of the story, so we know it's an integral part of the explanation....and the title of next week's finale is "Blood Line".
I still think that there must be another alien in this season besides that one snakey-tentacley looking thing in the box that Jack poured a solvent on. Torchwood isn't Torchwood without aliens! Maybe the families are aliens?
I just realized....why am I trying to figure this out? It's not like Lost....they ARE going to explain it in one week! Well,they's better explain it next week!
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Friday, September 09, 2011 - 9:38 pm
I thought they did a really good job of wrapping everything up. Although we'd like to know everything about it, we don't need to know what it is, just what it does, and they described that pretty well. I was very... satisfied with it.
I knew having some Jack in him would do Rex wonders  .
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Saturday, September 10, 2011 - 5:54 pm
"I knew having some Jack in him would do Rex wonders"
LOL
I gotta say...I was half expecting a sudden gasp of "back-to-life air" from Rex...
Are there plans for an American Torchwood spinoff with Rex at the head of it, while keeping the original Jack Harkness/Torchwood series intact as a British series?
Somehow having two immortals in the same series doesn't seem quit right somehow.....I think having a separate spinoff series where Jack and Rex only occasionally work together (like Jack and The Doctor do) would work out well, though.
This season ended well and they explained everything I needed explained. I'm happy with it...aside from the fact that it's already over for the year!
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Saturday, September 10, 2011 - 6:09 pm
I thought that was originally the plan, for this Torchwood to introduce a regular US cast, with Jack then maybe going back to Cardiff, but this is all I can find now:
"'Torchwood' is not one of the shows we went into thinking about a yearly return," Albrecht said during Starz's executive session. "[Russell T Davies] has a lot of things on his plate. If 'Torchwood' is at the top of his list, that will effect the future of 'Torchwood.'"
That's what was quoted from a TV Critics' Association meeting. I think it's going to be worked around Dr Who again, if it does come back, and they don't sound patient about Russel having split loyalties.
I was waiting for Rex to gasp too, I actually told my hubby he was going to gasp when he first got up after the blood came out of him, but he didn't! I hope if they do come back Rex will be more of someone they call up to help with a small bit of the case, rather than being a main character.
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Rissa
Member
03-19-2006
| Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 8:15 am
Two complaints: 1) It's over.... and no idea when the next series (if there is one) will start.  2) Didn't make sense that you would sit on a park bench with beautiful flaming red hair and full makeup (including all that red lipstick as Gwen pointed out LOL) and then complain about how the CIA and other officials are hunting you. She was too smart a cookie for that.
Otherwise, good ending. Torchwood never ends with sunshine and roses and this walked the line between that and tying up loose ends perfectly.
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Hobbs
Member
08-05-2002
| Monday, September 12, 2011 - 8:51 am
"Torchwood - Web of Lies" is listed in IMDB as a 2011 television series with John Barrowman Eve Myles, and Eliza Dushku.
IMDB.com
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