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remindmeofthe) wrote2009-07-15 10:16 pm
remindmeofthe) wrote2009-07-15 10:16 pm
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Today, I relistened to the three recent Torchwood audio plays. (I was stocking the giant and vastly depleted soda cooler and needed something to do.) I never commented on them in here, so I thought I'd offer impressions on how well (or not) they held up to a second listen.
(Eventually I will do a proper reaction post to "Day Five," too. I've been putting off watching it again, partly because work has been kicking my ass the last few days, and partly because it turns out that that shit was a lot funnier drunk. I don't even know how much I want to watch it sober.)
* "Asylum"
My impression on the first round is that this was the best of the three, and I was right. It also held up really well on the second listen. The story is spare and simple (and not always clear or logical, but it still makes more sense than many episodes of the show itself), and Freda is a compelling original character. The actress who plays her, Erin Richards, is phenomenal; Freda's fear and confusion over her situation and patchy memory are very convincing without being overdone, and her agony as she remembers her mother's death is heart-wrenching. I may or may not have stopped to cry in the cooler for a few seconds.
I know some people found Freda's speech to be an annoying sci-fi affectation, but I liked it; while the changes in conjugation (I'm assuming that's what writer Anita Sullivan was going for here, rather than just bad grammar) are a little much for a mere fifty years, the different slang and influences from other languages make sense. Why would a girl from 2060's Cardiff sound the same as one from 2009? I'm kind of a language geek, so that and the work that clearly went into keeping it consistent really appealed to me.
Andy and Rhys each get an appearance in one of the plays, and Andy got the better deal by far. While he does get stuck with some ploddingly boring "omgz alien invasion!!!11!" humor upon the revelation that Freda isn't human (or isn't entirely human, anyway), the way in which he sees past Torchwood's ultimate approach to Freda as a potential danger and ends up empathizing and bonding with her is very moving and sweet. It's the most I've loved Andy in any of his appearances in Torchwood. It also helps that there's some very lovely chemistry between Richards and Tom Price. Since "Asylum" is clearly AU - its look at the near future just doesn't mesh with CoE at all - I have decided that Andy ends up becoming Freda's guardian. After all, the team talks about putting her in social services care, and she can hardly end up with a normal family unaware of her origins, now, can she?
To address the flaws: another reason this play is AU is characterization. Specifically, Jack's. I mean, yeah, Jack is a bastard and everything, but his behavior toward Freda takes that to a ridiculously OOC extreme. Not only does he not show a hint of the compassion we all know he possesses toward Freda's situation - displaced from her time and fresh from witnessing her mother's murder via arson - but he rails on about how she cannot be released into society and she has to be either Retconned or imprisoned and her DNA is a danger and FUCK OFF, Jack, where was your worry about introducing non-native DNA when you were knocking Lucia up? One expects shaky characterization in any non-episode work, be it audio play or tie-in novel or whatever (one also expects this IN the episodes where Torchwood is concerned), but this is just flat-out bad and a major sour note in an otherwise excellent production.
(Also painful: Ianto meowing. WHAT.)
* "Golden Age"
By coincidence, the decline in quality in the plays lines up with the order they aired in. "Golden Age" is a perfectly decent way to kill forty minutes, but there's nothing in it that lives up to the standard "Asylum" set for this round.
The story is more intricate and makes sense in that special Whoniverse kind of way - just let the handwavey vague science wash over you and it'll all work out just fine. The characterization is fine. Rote and a bit flat and tiresome in places (Gwen is comically offended by the old-fashioned notion of how women should behave in Torchwood: Dubai! looool I don't think), with a bunch of stuff with Jack regretting the past and immortality sucks ass sometimes and yadda blah. Boring, but fine.
Though I must pause to give credit for a rapidfire exchange between Ianto and Gwen as they wake after being imprisoned and establish that doors are locked, their weapons are gone, and so are their means of communication. For a few seconds, Eve and Gareth's chemistry bring the dialogue to life, and Eve's reading of a simple "Marvelous!" is hilarious.
The OC in this one, Lady Eleanor, is interesting in theory, but not so much in execution. Again, I like the acting with her. Jasmine Hyde does what she can with some pretty dreadful dialogue, and manages to create a character who slides from initially seeming like a bizarre mix of Madeline Basset and Honoria Glossip (why, yes, I am evoking Jeeves and Wooster on purpose) to turning out to be completely bugfuck insane. She even makes the moment you realize exactly how crazy Eleanor is fairly chilling. Too bad the writing doesn't do her any favors.
What I find most interesting about this play is that it is, I think, the one that is most rooted in its culture. The Wodehouse-type stereotypes that populate "the club" entertained me well enough, but are probably a lot staler to your average Brit. Also, this American has no real context for all the stuff about India and the British Empire. I'm generally aware of the facts, in a "went to an American public school" kind of way, but it's not my history. I didn't grow up with it like I did the events of American history, and listening to "Golden Age" made me feel like an outsider listening in on other countries' business. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what I was. I've no idea if the play said anything new or interesting about India, the British Empire, or the overwhelming racism inherent in that segment of history (though given the quality of the writing, I'm thinking probably not), but to me it was all new, because it's not stuff I've been taught or immersed in before.
* "The Dead Line"
And here we have the worst of the lot. "The Dead Line" just barely kept my attention the first time around, and I kept drifting away from it today. Which is ironic, since off the top of the my head I'm pretty sure Phil Ford is the only one of the three writers to have written for Torchwood.
The story is crap. Remember that stuff I said above about vague, handwavey science being good? "The Dead Line" is why that was on my mind to begin with. "The Dead Line" is what happens when the writer tries to make the science too detailed and a major framework for the goings-on. I fail at science, and I am pretty damn sure nothing Ford came up with made a lick of sense. "Asylum" has a weird moment with this too, with Ianto citing a bizarrely specific absence of t-cells in Freda's bloodwork as the major evidence for her being alien, but it doesn't linger on it, so it's just a brief misstep. "The Dead Line" turns its dodgy science into the climax, or at least I'm pretty sure it does, because I was only half-listening by then anyway.
The OC is flat. Another woman from Jack's past, with nothing to distinguish her other than her doctorate in some medical field or another that was conveniently relevant to the plot. Also, she isn't totally fucked-up crazy like Eleanor, so she has that going for her. Which is nice. I'm not even sure of her name. Sylvia, I think?
Nope, I just checked. It's Stella. I finished listening to this thing a few HOURS ago and I could not remember her name, you guys, I think that says it all.
And Rhys, bleah. Poor Rhys. Rhys is present, as far as I can tell, to enable Ianto to hang out with Jack's dumb ass in the hospital, so that Gwen has someone to explain the plot to. There are brief flashes of Awesome Rhys (like when he casually appoints himself a member of Torchwood, pointing out when Gwen objects that, hey, Ianto and Jack aren't around and he's not letting her run off into danger by herself), but overall it could have been anyone. He's wicked bland and also seems to have lost a few IQ points, and it made me sad.
Oh, and post-CoE, Ianto's Big Speech in re: time and the blipping thereof is just a boring and overlengthy rendition of the stuff that got covered a lot more efficiently when he died. (Though I do have to give him credit for at least realizing that he ain't gonna grow old working for Torchwood. Just think, a realization like that in CoE could have saved his life.) I thought it would be more poignant and I would be sadder, but instead I ended up giggling to myself and happily riffing it aloud as I worked.
Characterization is something I was too busy being bored at the plot to notice, but the awesome lowlight is again Jack, who decides that, when dealing with an apparent entity who puts people into comas over the phone, calling the number it uses and then ANSWERING when it calls back is a GREAT IDEA. Way to go, Jack. We can certainly see why you're in charge, with decision-making like that.
Overall: I highly recommend "Asylum," "Golden Age" is as good a way as any (and better than some) of filling some empty time, and "The Dead Line" fails.
(Eventually I will do a proper reaction post to "Day Five," too. I've been putting off watching it again, partly because work has been kicking my ass the last few days, and partly because it turns out that that shit was a lot funnier drunk. I don't even know how much I want to watch it sober.)
* "Asylum"
My impression on the first round is that this was the best of the three, and I was right. It also held up really well on the second listen. The story is spare and simple (and not always clear or logical, but it still makes more sense than many episodes of the show itself), and Freda is a compelling original character. The actress who plays her, Erin Richards, is phenomenal; Freda's fear and confusion over her situation and patchy memory are very convincing without being overdone, and her agony as she remembers her mother's death is heart-wrenching. I may or may not have stopped to cry in the cooler for a few seconds.
I know some people found Freda's speech to be an annoying sci-fi affectation, but I liked it; while the changes in conjugation (I'm assuming that's what writer Anita Sullivan was going for here, rather than just bad grammar) are a little much for a mere fifty years, the different slang and influences from other languages make sense. Why would a girl from 2060's Cardiff sound the same as one from 2009? I'm kind of a language geek, so that and the work that clearly went into keeping it consistent really appealed to me.
Andy and Rhys each get an appearance in one of the plays, and Andy got the better deal by far. While he does get stuck with some ploddingly boring "omgz alien invasion!!!11!" humor upon the revelation that Freda isn't human (or isn't entirely human, anyway), the way in which he sees past Torchwood's ultimate approach to Freda as a potential danger and ends up empathizing and bonding with her is very moving and sweet. It's the most I've loved Andy in any of his appearances in Torchwood. It also helps that there's some very lovely chemistry between Richards and Tom Price. Since "Asylum" is clearly AU - its look at the near future just doesn't mesh with CoE at all - I have decided that Andy ends up becoming Freda's guardian. After all, the team talks about putting her in social services care, and she can hardly end up with a normal family unaware of her origins, now, can she?
To address the flaws: another reason this play is AU is characterization. Specifically, Jack's. I mean, yeah, Jack is a bastard and everything, but his behavior toward Freda takes that to a ridiculously OOC extreme. Not only does he not show a hint of the compassion we all know he possesses toward Freda's situation - displaced from her time and fresh from witnessing her mother's murder via arson - but he rails on about how she cannot be released into society and she has to be either Retconned or imprisoned and her DNA is a danger and FUCK OFF, Jack, where was your worry about introducing non-native DNA when you were knocking Lucia up? One expects shaky characterization in any non-episode work, be it audio play or tie-in novel or whatever (one also expects this IN the episodes where Torchwood is concerned), but this is just flat-out bad and a major sour note in an otherwise excellent production.
(Also painful: Ianto meowing. WHAT.)
* "Golden Age"
By coincidence, the decline in quality in the plays lines up with the order they aired in. "Golden Age" is a perfectly decent way to kill forty minutes, but there's nothing in it that lives up to the standard "Asylum" set for this round.
The story is more intricate and makes sense in that special Whoniverse kind of way - just let the handwavey vague science wash over you and it'll all work out just fine. The characterization is fine. Rote and a bit flat and tiresome in places (Gwen is comically offended by the old-fashioned notion of how women should behave in Torchwood: Dubai! looool I don't think), with a bunch of stuff with Jack regretting the past and immortality sucks ass sometimes and yadda blah. Boring, but fine.
Though I must pause to give credit for a rapidfire exchange between Ianto and Gwen as they wake after being imprisoned and establish that doors are locked, their weapons are gone, and so are their means of communication. For a few seconds, Eve and Gareth's chemistry bring the dialogue to life, and Eve's reading of a simple "Marvelous!" is hilarious.
The OC in this one, Lady Eleanor, is interesting in theory, but not so much in execution. Again, I like the acting with her. Jasmine Hyde does what she can with some pretty dreadful dialogue, and manages to create a character who slides from initially seeming like a bizarre mix of Madeline Basset and Honoria Glossip (why, yes, I am evoking Jeeves and Wooster on purpose) to turning out to be completely bugfuck insane. She even makes the moment you realize exactly how crazy Eleanor is fairly chilling. Too bad the writing doesn't do her any favors.
What I find most interesting about this play is that it is, I think, the one that is most rooted in its culture. The Wodehouse-type stereotypes that populate "the club" entertained me well enough, but are probably a lot staler to your average Brit. Also, this American has no real context for all the stuff about India and the British Empire. I'm generally aware of the facts, in a "went to an American public school" kind of way, but it's not my history. I didn't grow up with it like I did the events of American history, and listening to "Golden Age" made me feel like an outsider listening in on other countries' business. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what I was. I've no idea if the play said anything new or interesting about India, the British Empire, or the overwhelming racism inherent in that segment of history (though given the quality of the writing, I'm thinking probably not), but to me it was all new, because it's not stuff I've been taught or immersed in before.
* "The Dead Line"
And here we have the worst of the lot. "The Dead Line" just barely kept my attention the first time around, and I kept drifting away from it today. Which is ironic, since off the top of the my head I'm pretty sure Phil Ford is the only one of the three writers to have written for Torchwood.
The story is crap. Remember that stuff I said above about vague, handwavey science being good? "The Dead Line" is why that was on my mind to begin with. "The Dead Line" is what happens when the writer tries to make the science too detailed and a major framework for the goings-on. I fail at science, and I am pretty damn sure nothing Ford came up with made a lick of sense. "Asylum" has a weird moment with this too, with Ianto citing a bizarrely specific absence of t-cells in Freda's bloodwork as the major evidence for her being alien, but it doesn't linger on it, so it's just a brief misstep. "The Dead Line" turns its dodgy science into the climax, or at least I'm pretty sure it does, because I was only half-listening by then anyway.
The OC is flat. Another woman from Jack's past, with nothing to distinguish her other than her doctorate in some medical field or another that was conveniently relevant to the plot. Also, she isn't totally fucked-up crazy like Eleanor, so she has that going for her. Which is nice. I'm not even sure of her name. Sylvia, I think?
Nope, I just checked. It's Stella. I finished listening to this thing a few HOURS ago and I could not remember her name, you guys, I think that says it all.
And Rhys, bleah. Poor Rhys. Rhys is present, as far as I can tell, to enable Ianto to hang out with Jack's dumb ass in the hospital, so that Gwen has someone to explain the plot to. There are brief flashes of Awesome Rhys (like when he casually appoints himself a member of Torchwood, pointing out when Gwen objects that, hey, Ianto and Jack aren't around and he's not letting her run off into danger by herself), but overall it could have been anyone. He's wicked bland and also seems to have lost a few IQ points, and it made me sad.
Oh, and post-CoE, Ianto's Big Speech in re: time and the blipping thereof is just a boring and overlengthy rendition of the stuff that got covered a lot more efficiently when he died. (Though I do have to give him credit for at least realizing that he ain't gonna grow old working for Torchwood. Just think, a realization like that in CoE could have saved his life.) I thought it would be more poignant and I would be sadder, but instead I ended up giggling to myself and happily riffing it aloud as I worked.
Characterization is something I was too busy being bored at the plot to notice, but the awesome lowlight is again Jack, who decides that, when dealing with an apparent entity who puts people into comas over the phone, calling the number it uses and then ANSWERING when it calls back is a GREAT IDEA. Way to go, Jack. We can certainly see why you're in charge, with decision-making like that.
Overall: I highly recommend "Asylum," "Golden Age" is as good a way as any (and better than some) of filling some empty time, and "The Dead Line" fails.