Amatara

 

All in all, I enjoyed this season more, and was annoyed by it less, than what fandom reactions had led me to expect. Not that all of the criticism wasn’t justified, because yes, characterizations jumped all over the place, some stories were either unoriginal or cheesy or plain bad, plus there were instances of Very Bad Acting (yes, Gareth David-Lloyd in Cyberwoman, I’m looking at you) – but, apart from a few real clunkers that managed to suffering from all those flaws at once, I actually didn’t mind so much. And there are some minor annoyances throughout – like, why does the SUV have Torchwood printed on it in big letters if they’re supposed to be a secret organization? Are they a secret organization? – but those aren’t really a turnoff, more a source of amusement.

 

It makes a huge difference, I’m sure, that I saw Children of Earth before the rest of the series, hence being aware of the characters’ potential and the kind of persons they eventually become. I have an image in my head of what makes them tick, and whenever the writers fail to portray any of them consistently, I find myself trying to fill in the blanks on my own, and moving on from there. Without COE, I might not have been half as touched by Gwen and Rhys, or found it in my heart to sympathize with Ianto, or have seen Jack as more than a bitter, brooding shadow of his old self. Still, it would have been nice to have gotten a deeper glimpse of, say, what exactly made Ianto decide to stick around after all; or if the writers had shown Gwen, who was a policewoman after all, acting a little less like a flailing, frightened teenager. But as it is, enough of the seeds of character development were there for my perception of the characters to remain intact.

( More (spoilery) thinky thoughts under the cut... )

Don't think I've ever recced any fanfics before, but this one just took my breath away and I couldn't not share:

The Myth of Fingerprints by kaydeefalls

A Torchwood fic that draws the pattern of Jack Harkness' life, through Children of Earth and The End of Time and far beyond that, in a way that is totally faithful to canon, never once becomes sappy or self-indulgent, and infinitely comforting. It also takes all of Jack's loved ones, future and past, from Ianto to Rose to Stephen and Alice to Alonso and even the Doctor, without ever demeaning one over the other, and weaves them together in one big tapestry. After Children of Earth, between all the AUs and fixits and zomg-Ianto-is-the-only-one-for-Jack declarations, this was so very much everything that I needed. Apart from that, it's also marvellously well written. Go, ye, read!

Various reasons for squeeing:

- Just started watching season 4 of New Who, and I already love Donna to pieces. That silent exchange between her and The Doctor in Partners in Crime, pulling faces through the glass.. *can't stop grinning*. And I love that, despite the fact she's been looking for him for ages and wants to travel with him more than anything in the world, she's not at all the weak one in the relationship. Donna does not take the Doctor's crap, no she doesn't! *cheers Donna* Also, the ending of the Pompeii episode, "Just save someone!" - just perfect. Incidentally, I am finding Ten less and less sympathetic. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the hell out of watching him, and I'm still impressed by DT's performance, but - getting whiny over how brilliant Martha was, and that he'd destroyed half her life? Cowardly move, Doctor, for one who's supposedly so brave. You could have told Martha that, just once, couldn't you? *is still fuming a little*

- Also watched the first episodes of Farscape, and the pilot of Stargate Atlantis. Love the atmosphere of Farscape: very psychedelic in a way, the music, the décor. Love Zhaan, Aeryn and John, and the others are growing on me, even though I haven't quite reached the point yet where I stop seeing Rygel, Pilot and the others as puppets. Atlantis I wanted to try because it seems to be one of the top fic-producing fandoms these days - despite many of the fans claiming half of the episodes are bad bad bad, which is a little puzzling to me, I must admit. :) I'm pretty neutral about the pilot: it wasn't bad at all, yet I'm not super-tickled to continue looking either. Not yet, anyway, I guess we'll see.

- Bought Torchwood: Children of Earth, and will probably watch it once we've finished New Who s4 - I'm not sure the two will mix well. My main reason for buying it right now, rather than waiting a little longer, being: I was planning to go to FedCon (a yearly convention in Bonn, Germany) and Gareth David-Lloyd aka Ianto Jones will be there. So I figured, unless I want to get spoiled all over, better watch the thing now. Except I now realized I won't be able to go to the con as it's smack in our April South-Africa holiday. Pity and shame (not the holiday, of course, but missing the Con) as I was hoping some other European LJ-ers might be there too...? Anyway, there's always next year!


In me news:

Health has been a bit sketchy of late, which the control freak in me does not like at all. I don't think it's serious, just impractical - mainly a case of having funny spells at weird moments, for no obvious reason.

( Cut as I can imagine not everyone'll find this interesting. ;) )

Conclusion: I, um, may need to take it easy for a little while, fandom-wise, until I'm back on my feet. Seeing as both work and house-hunting are pretty much obligatory now, the only thing that's left for me to exchange for sleep is online time. *sniffles* I'll keep on reading and interacting and maybe posting some smaller stuff, but I'm going to try and lay off on fics and bigger stuff for a while. Meanwhile - send me virtual chocolate and fic recs? *shameless*