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moberemk Dread Lord from Canada Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
Dread Lord
#101: Jul 24th 2011 at 6:39:13 AM

Yeah, I realized that last episode; I figured it was one of three reasons:

1)The writers just wanted a gay sex scene to contrast the straight one. (Balanced fanservice I guess?)

2) The writers forgot the "omni" part of "omnisexual"

3) He's tending towards guys lately because he's not over Ianto yet.

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TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#102: Jul 24th 2011 at 10:52:55 AM

It's not even just modern day. He's stopped hinting at women in his past. It was part of my initial assumption that he's been male-oriented in the last thirty years because he hasn't been able to get many men before then, but last week he referenced a boyfriend in the 1800s.

Fresh-eyed movie blog
occono from Ireland. Since: Apr, 2009
TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#106: Jul 24th 2011 at 9:46:53 PM

I'm still not quite convinced that Jack is mortal. He's undergone a change (though it wasn't explicit before now that he always heals from everything, not just mortal injuries), but I'd bet Phicorp stock that he's just exactly like every-other Miracle-affected human, on the same template. I was going to reserve judgement on that point until I saw a poisoned immortal slip out of consciousness, but the woman who was strangled to death soup proves the point well enough.

Fresh-eyed movie blog
Laura from Shintolin Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
#107: Jul 25th 2011 at 7:20:14 PM

[up] Agreed. My guess is that the Miracle means he's immortal anyway, so the Bad wolf induced immortality isn't needed; it's superceded because it's unnecessary. Once (if? Nah, once) the Miracle is disabled it'll come back. Either that or everyone is healing slower, and it's interfering with his normal healing. So he'd die and come back to life again as normal, but without healing. But he can't actually be mortal. We know that. He's a fact, and they can't break that just for this.

He's the Doctor. He could be anywhere in time and space.
TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#108: Jul 25th 2011 at 8:40:43 PM

My first thought was that somehow his immortality had been turned inside-out, but they considered that theory in the first five minutes of episode two, so that's right out.

Fresh-eyed movie blog
TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#109: Jul 25th 2011 at 8:44:02 PM

Is it my imagination, or do I remember an early episode where Jack managed to transfer his undying power to somebody else through a kiss? If there was any time for him to try that, it would have been with Ianto and/or the grandson he had to sacrifice at the end of Children of Earth. But they wanted the victory to have a high cost, so...

Fresh-eyed movie blog
Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#110: Jul 27th 2011 at 9:46:43 AM

Wasn't that Nine/Rose, not Jack?

TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#111: Jul 27th 2011 at 1:15:19 PM

That is not what I was thinking of. Nine absorbed TARDIS energy from Rose in a gesture that happened to be a kiss. I'm recalling a time when someone was unconscious/dead on a table, and Jack bent over them and kissed them.

Fresh-eyed movie blog
ZheToralf Floating Advice Reminder from somewhere in Germany Since: Dec, 2009
#112: Jul 27th 2011 at 1:20:16 PM

Not that I remember, and i recently binged through Torchwood.

You lost!
Tachi Spoiler Alert from the Shadows Since: Mar, 2010
Spoiler Alert
#113: Jul 27th 2011 at 2:55:52 PM

[up][up] Sure you aren't thinking about the episodes with the glove? I don't exactly recall the details, but there were times where people were lying on the table as they used the glove.

Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango?
Scottv2 The Cosmic Dickwad from Down T'Pit. Since: Jan, 2010
The Cosmic Dickwad
#114: Jul 27th 2011 at 3:02:26 PM

I'm pretty sure you mean Ianto, in the Cyberwoman incident. Although obviously, he didn't transfer his inability to die. Also, I think he kissed that crazy orgasm-crazing lady person to satisfy it briefly.

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TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#115: Jul 27th 2011 at 3:10:39 PM

I think I'd remember if the glove were involved. It would have been very early series 1, though.

Okay, combed the TARDIS Wiki's page on him. Under Special Abilities, there's an uncited reference to "An interesting side effect, albeit it was only used once on record, was the ability to transfer a little of his life force to another being allowing that person to recover very quickly."

Also, they have an explanation for why he gets so lucky with everyone he decides to flirt with: "Like other men in the 51st century, Jack possessed evolved human pheromones which made him naturally nice-smelling and attractive to others. (TW: Fragments)"

edited 27th Jul '11 3:14:30 PM by TParadox

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BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#116: Jul 28th 2011 at 2:37:21 AM

The third episode was amazing.

Do not obey in advance.
Nicknacks Ding-ding! Going down... from Land Down Under Since: Oct, 2010
Ding-ding! Going down...
#117: Jul 28th 2011 at 7:08:46 AM

I really enjoyed all the interactions. Jane Espenson just knows character. :D

She's writing, what, half the episodes this season? She's freaking great.

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Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#118: Jul 28th 2011 at 2:06:43 PM

The writers of that last episode really likes Ho Yay, apparently. tongue

Foringinn Pleb, for the moment. Since: Aug, 2009
Pleb, for the moment.
#119: Jul 29th 2011 at 7:51:46 AM

This is roughly how I fell about the new series.

TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#120: Jul 29th 2011 at 1:30:12 PM

There's a good point they come close to making in that video. The format Torchwood is in now is probably the hardest way to attract dedicated viewers.

There's a tough balance to make between variety and constancy in characters. I'd argue that the more characters you can rely on to stick around, the more interesting their arcs can be. This series is asking us to invest in ten weeks of one story when only two of the leads are people we already care about.

A monster of the week show can afford to take an episode here and there to introduce or send off a character. A one-story season is committed to its leads through it's whole run, and then every major change in the next season makes it less of the same show, so there's a diminishing incentive to come back.

We're already at the point where it seems like we have a couple familiar characters grafted onto a completely different show.

Fresh-eyed movie blog
Tachi Spoiler Alert from the Shadows Since: Mar, 2010
Spoiler Alert
#121: Jul 31st 2011 at 4:55:30 PM

Sometimes it feels like this Miracle is just one big abuse of And I Must Scream. Particularly the car scene... just... the car scene.

edited 31st Jul '11 4:55:50 PM by Tachi

Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango?
moberemk Dread Lord from Canada Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
Dread Lord
#122: Jul 31st 2011 at 7:06:13 PM

Yeah, but then there was the rest of the episode. Which was basically the "Rex is always awesome" episode. It might count as Shilling the Wesley...except Rex is totally awesome.

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JOZeldenrust Since: Jul, 2010
#123: Aug 1st 2011 at 6:12:52 AM

[up]Rex has the advantage of being a colossal prick to the people around them, and those people dislkike him for it. He's right of course, keeping away from family and friends when people are trying to find you and hurt you is the right thing to do, but he's still very hard on Esther.

Unlike Wesley, Rex actually has something to contribute, and unlike Wesley, when he's a prick people react accordingly.

By the way, just binged the four episodes so far. I had thought I would dislike the show because of the premisse, but I was pleasantly surprised: noone dying may have removed the existential threat to any individual character, but the threat to society is quite credible.

The only thing that bugged me so far was the reference to Sheldrakes crackpottery. Morphic fields are nonsense. They explain nothing, and add a nondefined metaphysical state. It's pseudoscience at its worst.

The Miracle might be something akin to an effect in a morphic field, but even then it would be the only such occurrence ever, so referring to Sheldrake was unneeded. Now some poor saps might start believing that daphnia water fleas telepathically tell eachother to sprout defensive spines.

It's not as bad as denial of global warming or the holocaust, but it's the same sort of sloppy thinking.

Tachi Spoiler Alert from the Shadows Since: Mar, 2010
Spoiler Alert
#124: Aug 1st 2011 at 12:03:39 PM

[up][up] Really? I didn't get that vibe at all. He wanted to be on first line in the mission, but once again Gwen and Jack excluded him and went in on their own. And I thought it was quite obvious he was being a hypocritical shitface when shouting at Esther for visiting her sister... who was it that went to see dear daddy again?

Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango?
TParadox Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: The captain of her heart
#125: Aug 2nd 2011 at 6:30:23 PM

There's discussion in the Doctor Who thread about how/if Torchwood relates to DW these days. Stopped myself from making a comment that's entirely about Torchwood. Which is:

I've seen two broadcast messages on the show that I'd like to think are dramatic exaggerations, and further that if I'd seen them made in real life (without knowing what we've been let in on that the populace doesn't know) I'd see through them immediately.

First: Co E- "We need to vaccinate your children. This is completely safe. It will stop them from doing that crazy stuff and is entirely safe. Send your children to school and we'll take care of it. Did we mention how safe the vaccines are?"

Second: MD- "I'm not calling for free drugs, I'm calling for free access to drugs. Because the drug companies are here to look out for us. Companies like Phicorp. What's good for Phicorp is good for everybody. I love Phicorp."

Fresh-eyed movie blog

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