tysolna | Torch Wood Song (Reply)

Right, so it's two in the morning, I can't sleep, there's no-one around to talk to, and there's really nothing else I can come up with here at the moment than some Torchwood thoughts.

I have to admit I was all hyped up about Torchwood.
Then I watched the first two eppies, and since I have this gift whereby I can turn off my critical mind when I want to, I really enjoyed them. I squeed at the right places, liked all those Whoish references, went "ohmigodtheycan'tDOthis" when required, and generally enjoyed what I saw.

Upon second viewing, I turned on the criticism circuits.

The strange thing about this post-watershed show where "adult themes" run rampant (literally!) is that whereas in Doctor Who, the Slitheen, Krillitanes, and the Abzorbaloff were mostly naked (hang on, all of them were using human looks / bodies as clothing; hmm, subtle subtext?), here in Torchwood, the alien (Weevil) wears clothes. Nice black leather clothes, even. No naked aliens.
Naked humans, however, are another matter, it seems.
And no, standing naked in front of your colleagues is not ample comeuppance for seducing unwilling parters with alien pheromones.

Now, Gwen. Other people have already said so before me, for example

nostalgia_lj here, but at the moment Gwen feels like a Rose-Clone.
But even without that clonality, there are some things that are bothering me about her. First of all, I wish I knew how she got the idea of working for the police in the first place, because apart from the curiosity she exhibits, she doesn't have the traits I would associate with a fictional or real policewoman.
She claims she's never used a gun. Hang on, isn't that basic training?
While trying to break up a pub brawl, she gets punched and thrown at a wall. (What, no self-defense training either?) Where she proceeds to lie still, hurting like ow, while her partner gets beaten up.

Edit: I have meanwhile been told that my preconceptions about the British police are wrong and / or Americanized, so the above points just go to show that one shouldn't post at two in the morning. ;)

She's serving tea while the men discuss the murder case she is working on, for crying out loud! Even at first viewing, that scene rubbed me the wrong way.

And don't get me started about her in the second episode, especially at the beginning. OK, so she's the newbie and gets badgered about it; hey, no problem. But darn it, does she have no spine at all? That hesitant "I'm with... special... ops... yeah, special ops", and then ~~the Doctor~~ Jack comes to rescue her, complete with "oh she's no little girl" quip. Gah. And then she's getting the "little girl" treatment from her supposed colleagues as well. You know, if there's one thing I hate, it's patronizing men, and women who don't stand up to them.
And of course Gwen is responsible for the Bad Things Happening. At least there we get to see that yes, she does have a sense of responsibility and guts. Now, add some intelligence (and please, not only of the "intuitive female nurturing humanizing" kind), and a bit of spine, and she'll be an OK character.

Conclusion: Gwen may be many things, but the strong female lead she is not, at least not at the moment, even given that she is in the "fish out of water" situation. I'm curious to see how things will progress, if at all.

Oh and finally. I wonder how the end of episode one would have felt like if Suzy had been a Martin or a Peter.

Do I like Torchwood? Oh yeah. Am I looking forward to seeing the next episodes? Absolutely. Will I swallow everything the writers dish up without commenting on its taste? Hell no.