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butterflyThe thing is, Jack isn't a good leader. That's not a spoiler and it's not related to anything in CoE except that it's just as true there as it is in DW and in all the previous episodes of TW. It's like saying that Gwen has nice hair (btw, Gwen has nice hair). It is, was, and likely always will be true. Unless she shaves her head.
Jack was never meant to be a leader. He got charge of the job of running TW3 when his 'boss' killed himself and the rest of the team. So Jack built himself a new team, but because of who Jack is, he picked the brilliant and broken people. And then he made them more broken.
There's always something wrong with Torchwood, something dangerous, because it's built on fear. Fear of the outside, fear of the future, fear of the other. Torchwood was created because Queen Victoria looked at the reality of the world of Doctor Who and couldn't handle it, condemning the people who saved her right along with the one who would take her throne. It exists to be a weapon and to create weapons.
Torchwood is power without a proper guide. In Doctor Who, the Doctor, quite literally, has senses that humans don't. He knows things that humans can't. Jack, for all his knowledge and all his charm, is still only human. Immortal now, yet human still. The Doctor is also a natural leader (for all that he doesn't want to be most of the time; also, Rose grew into a pretty smashing leader as well; Martha is the best independent operative you could ask for; and Donna is all-round bossy and extremely competent once she realizes she can make a difference). Jack... is a natural second-in-command (I read people complaining about Jack having a crappy plan and was all... yeah, duh. It's Jack. Of course, he has a crappy plan. The very first time we ever met him was in the middle of a crappy plan). I've been saying since S1 that the place would be more competently run by Gwen, and Jack only continued to prove my point in S3. And, hey, if that's what she wants, then it probably is being run by Gwen now!
Woo!
Anyway, yes, Jack is and always has been a crappy leader. He was not meant for leadership. Gwen, though, was meant for leadership. She'll make a fantastic boss (hopefully for Lois, Johnson, and maybe Bridget? All female TW, woo!).
So, it kinda looks like RTD set up TW and then basically let it run itself for two seasons before swooping in with his epic five-run of awesome. What exactly is it that he sets up in "Everything Changes" (the only episode he has a writing credit for before S3)?
Gwen as hero: check.
A member of the Torchwood team dies: check.
A lead member of Torchwood basically says that Earth is crap: check.
Murder/suicide plotline: check.
Betrayal by someone the audience originally believed they could trust: check.
Humans (or a human) are the real bad guys: check.
I feel bad for the people who miss Ianto, of course. I mean, I would have liked to be able to feel shock and mourn him, too, instead of going, "oh, that's how he dies, then," but we can't have everything we'd like, can we?
The show broke my heart last season when Tosh and Owen died. It startled me and got my attention in the first place due, in part, to Suzie dying.
This is what Torchwood does. This is what Torchwood is.
It was never a Jack/Ianto romance (I'm... startled that anyone could actually interpret the show that way), though Jack and Ianto certainly loved each other. It wasn't a show that supposed to be light, fluffy crack, though they sometimes fell down on the execution and ended up with that.
It's a show about an organization built on fear. It's a show about a woman discovering a life for herself more fulfilling and dangerous than anything she'd imagined before. It's a show about the consequences of what the Doctor (and Rose) did in S1/2 (Out of fear, Queen Victoria couldn't handle the contradiction of the Doctor's manner versus his actions/motivations; out of love, Rose didn't want Jack to die, and he was the person who did bring some light to TW in the end, broken though he was), the consequences that face the people who can't walk away. It's a show about trying to build a family in a world that takes and takes. It's a show about a man who used to be able to run but who was condemned to wait and, just when he has begun to truly love what used to be his cage, gets what he cared about ripped away from him. So, he runs again.
This is what happens when the world is ending and the Doctor doesn't come. There are no computers where people get to live forever; no alternate universes with a happy ending. There's just this world and people who are willing to let themselves be argued into deciding that a tenth of the world's children won't be missed.
People still fight (like they did in "Turn Left"), but they die so much more easily. People are still heroes (Ianto's family being a prime example of genuine kindness, compassion, and determination). There is still hope (in the promise of a new generation; in a sacrifice that works to save a world), but it's never quite as shiny.
It's a bleak world, but a beautiful one all the same.
I hear that there's actually an excellent chance of a S4. Upon reflection, I welcome it. A cleansing by fire may have been just what the Torchwood organization needed and Gwen would make a truly capable leader.
Jack was never meant to be a leader. He got charge of the job of running TW3 when his 'boss' killed himself and the rest of the team. So Jack built himself a new team, but because of who Jack is, he picked the brilliant and broken people. And then he made them more broken.
There's always something wrong with Torchwood, something dangerous, because it's built on fear. Fear of the outside, fear of the future, fear of the other. Torchwood was created because Queen Victoria looked at the reality of the world of Doctor Who and couldn't handle it, condemning the people who saved her right along with the one who would take her throne. It exists to be a weapon and to create weapons.
Torchwood is power without a proper guide. In Doctor Who, the Doctor, quite literally, has senses that humans don't. He knows things that humans can't. Jack, for all his knowledge and all his charm, is still only human. Immortal now, yet human still. The Doctor is also a natural leader (for all that he doesn't want to be most of the time; also, Rose grew into a pretty smashing leader as well; Martha is the best independent operative you could ask for; and Donna is all-round bossy and extremely competent once she realizes she can make a difference). Jack... is a natural second-in-command (I read people complaining about Jack having a crappy plan and was all... yeah, duh. It's Jack. Of course, he has a crappy plan. The very first time we ever met him was in the middle of a crappy plan). I've been saying since S1 that the place would be more competently run by Gwen, and Jack only continued to prove my point in S3. And, hey, if that's what she wants, then it probably is being run by Gwen now!
Woo!
Anyway, yes, Jack is and always has been a crappy leader. He was not meant for leadership. Gwen, though, was meant for leadership. She'll make a fantastic boss (hopefully for Lois, Johnson, and maybe Bridget? All female TW, woo!).
So, it kinda looks like RTD set up TW and then basically let it run itself for two seasons before swooping in with his epic five-run of awesome. What exactly is it that he sets up in "Everything Changes" (the only episode he has a writing credit for before S3)?
Gwen as hero: check.
A member of the Torchwood team dies: check.
A lead member of Torchwood basically says that Earth is crap: check.
Murder/suicide plotline: check.
Betrayal by someone the audience originally believed they could trust: check.
Humans (or a human) are the real bad guys: check.
I feel bad for the people who miss Ianto, of course. I mean, I would have liked to be able to feel shock and mourn him, too, instead of going, "oh, that's how he dies, then," but we can't have everything we'd like, can we?
The show broke my heart last season when Tosh and Owen died. It startled me and got my attention in the first place due, in part, to Suzie dying.
This is what Torchwood does. This is what Torchwood is.
It was never a Jack/Ianto romance (I'm... startled that anyone could actually interpret the show that way), though Jack and Ianto certainly loved each other. It wasn't a show that supposed to be light, fluffy crack, though they sometimes fell down on the execution and ended up with that.
It's a show about an organization built on fear. It's a show about a woman discovering a life for herself more fulfilling and dangerous than anything she'd imagined before. It's a show about the consequences of what the Doctor (and Rose) did in S1/2 (Out of fear, Queen Victoria couldn't handle the contradiction of the Doctor's manner versus his actions/motivations; out of love, Rose didn't want Jack to die, and he was the person who did bring some light to TW in the end, broken though he was), the consequences that face the people who can't walk away. It's a show about trying to build a family in a world that takes and takes. It's a show about a man who used to be able to run but who was condemned to wait and, just when he has begun to truly love what used to be his cage, gets what he cared about ripped away from him. So, he runs again.
This is what happens when the world is ending and the Doctor doesn't come. There are no computers where people get to live forever; no alternate universes with a happy ending. There's just this world and people who are willing to let themselves be argued into deciding that a tenth of the world's children won't be missed.
People still fight (like they did in "Turn Left"), but they die so much more easily. People are still heroes (Ianto's family being a prime example of genuine kindness, compassion, and determination). There is still hope (in the promise of a new generation; in a sacrifice that works to save a world), but it's never quite as shiny.
It's a bleak world, but a beautiful one all the same.
I hear that there's actually an excellent chance of a S4. Upon reflection, I welcome it. A cleansing by fire may have been just what the Torchwood organization needed and Gwen would make a truly capable leader.