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 rabecka | |
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So... many, many others have written brilliant post mortems, and now that I've seen all 5 episodes, I'm not going to compete. However, I have a somewhat different complaint, that I hope others might find interesting.
Essentially, it aggravates me that the team had to be pretty incompetent for COE to play out like it did. There were just so many missed opportunities, right alongside things that worked that shouldn't have. Now obviously, these were a plot device, but it's a plot device I happen to hate. (Remember season 1, Day One, when Carys grabbed the hand and Jack yelled "Put that down. It's only important to me." From a former conman??? That's the type of thing I mean.)
Day One:1. If Ianto could track any car (as stated in Day 2) why couldn't he track the SUV. And why did he wait til he got back to the hub, then not even get on the computer to look for it? 2. Why was Jack unable to contact anyone? Are you telling me that in 100+ years, the only contact he had with UNIT was Martha, and the only government contact was Frobisher (and not even a direct line)? And what about the crown – that's where their authority comes from after all. Yup, head of a top secret agency, blocked by a sergeant and secretary. 3. When Jack knew he was about to blow up, why didn’t he give his Vortex Manipulator to Ianto? He used it to start the lift, but Ianto wasn’t out of range immediately. Day Two: 4. After working together for years, Gwen and Ianto couldn't think of one place to meet without specifying the place name? WTF?? 5. What about any preplanning at ALL. They're in a dangerous profession, facing aliens with who knows what capabilities and technology, and it never occurred to anyone to plan for the hub being compromised. Or for agents being outside of the hub during a lockdown. On things that should not have worked:
6. The funeral director was tied with his hands in front of him. Um, pull off the gag? Your hands are right in front of it… 7. Jack's rescue was ludicrous without tight coordination btwn Gwen and Ianto. Consider… Gwen goes into a secure facility, and blanks a security camera. She then walks into the next room, and in full view of that camera, points a device at it, and it goes dead. Like that wasn't going to bring everyone running. As for Ianto, without Gwen and Rhys, he would have been immediately captured. The only way this makes any sense is if Gwen was a decoy to draw the guards, so Ianto could do his thing. And good thing the keys were left in the cement truck... 8. And just to nitpick, ever seen concrete being poured? It doesn't set up that fast. Day Three: 9. Jack was a former conman, and indications are that his history with Torchwood wasn't exactly hearts and flowers. Wouldn't he personally, have set up false identities and bolt holes for himself? (We see Owen with a batch of fake ID's in Ghost Machine.) Also, given compound interest, the number of years he's lived and knowledge of the future, he should have accumulated enough money to pay off the national debt without half trying. It may not be a big concern for him, but I can't believe he wouldn't have squirreled away enough to run if he wanted to.
9a. If I really wanted to make Jack competent, and manage a completely different track for COE, I'd speculate that he had offsite stashes of alien artifacts that he kept from Torchwood. He was a Time Agent, and could easily have considered some things too dangerous for the timeline. 10. After the hub is very publicly destroyed, and an attempt made to kill the whole Torchwood team, there's STILL no one Jack could contact at UNIT, who might talk to him?
11 After Stolen Earth and Journey's End, he knows Sarah Jane, and knows about Mr Smith. There's another contact. Oh, and Sarah Jane showed up with a warp star in Journey's End, so Jack knows all about her having alien devices. 12. OK, I'll admit I find this hilarious, but has it dawned on everyone that the critical piece of technology (i.e. the contact lenses) required to make everything work was only available because Gwen took them home to play sex games? Now that's the Torchwood we know and love. Except why do Gwen and Rhys get kink, and Jack and Ianto get beans? No, no, NO! 13. The Torchwood thieves. Obviously played for laughs, but uh, folks... when you lift something, don't run. No better way to draw attention to yourself. Certainly Jack, as a conman should have known that. Day Four: 14. Once the situation is clear, why didn't Jack try to call the Doctor? In Stolen Earth, they sent the call thru the hub, so presumably, he had the number. Even if he didn't have it from that, do you really believe he wouldn't have gotten Martha to share? And memorized it. 15. Personally, I don't see Jack as either arrogant enough or naïve enough to believe that the monsters are going to go away just because he walks in and tells them to, which rather makes the whole thing fall apart for me. Now if it was the Doctor doing the talking, he'd believe it. 16. Which brings us to: Jack’s speech facing the 456 was just lame. Basically, a powerless bluff. Why not invoke the Shadow Proclamation? Let them know he’s immortal. That he has ways to get off the planet, and contacts off world. That he'll never give up tracking them down. The result might have been the same, but at least it had a chance, and would make Jack appear dangerous rather than clueless. 17. Ianto's “Go back 150 years and see what you're facing” was a great line, but unfortunately it makes no sense. Why would the 456 have records of Jack from 150 years ago? It's not like he's on the Internet. (Interestingly, this might have worked anyway, since the 456 seem to have some psychic ability and might have picked up the intent.) 18. Shooting the tank? Really? When the 456 presumably have enough ships in orbit to transport millions of children. Yeah, that works.
Day Five 18. Torchwood's computer systems have been compromised for years? I don't know about anyone else, but I really, really don’t want to believe that Tosh wouldn't have noticed. And, actually, this didn't change anything, so it was just a gratuitous slam.
Comments anyone?... Tags: meta
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Dramatic license. ;) If everything had to be accurate and make sense on TV then there wouldn't be any of those 5 million forensic policing shows around! It's more about the emotional flow of the drama keeping the viewers engaged.
I actually really liked the "where do we meet" conversation between Gwen and Ianto specifically because they don't give a named place - they have every reason to think their conversation is being listened to, so they have to be obscure and not just give the game away to the assassins.
You know that I have a much happier view of Jack's time with TW than most. ;) And while I agree that he should have oodles of cash squirrelled away, getting at it in those circumstances might be tricky.
Can't invoke Sarah-Jane. Last thing you want is the kiddies trying to tune in! Ditto the Doctor. ;) Mind you, what would the Doctor have actually done? Stood there and yelled at the 456 a bit, no doubt, and we've seen how were that approach worked out!
(and besides, it's all his fault anyway - none of this would have happened on Harriet Jones's watch! ;))
Actually, don't have any problem with the idea that Tosh might have missed something. I do get a bit uncomfortable with fandom's insistence that she was infallible at times, so it's almost nice to see something getting in, at least partially, under her radar!
I loved CoE overall - sure, there were oddities and plot holes and unlikely coincidences, but the pace carried it along and there wasn't really anything worse than in most major dramas (doubly so for all the aforementioned forensics nonsense). Certainly nothing worse than in s1 or s2! But then, I'm happy with the character choices made and the possibilities opened up for any s4, so I might have a more relaxed view than many fannish folks. :)
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| From: jsks |
Date:
July 25th, 2009 05:53 pm (UTC)
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a few more things to add to the plotholes from hell.
the destruction of the hub was justified by the thinking that jack's gift was connected to the hub, yet if they had hacked into torchwood records how could they not know the fact that jack could not die long before he first stepped into the hub as seen in fragments. so blowing up the hub (all of this with in a few months of exit wounds when would presume that city might be still be under heightened security) and not picking the team off when they were alone and away from the hub starts to look not so bright on johnson's part. would not have taking the hub intact have been smarter because amoung all the alien toys that might have found a weapon to use against the 456?
jack steals an expensive car and drives it to the hub 2, just a thought but wouldn't a car like that have a high end security system to maybe track it?
london has an extensive cctv system(american and i know about it) monitored by the police 24 hours a day, yet jack is able to steal a car, the scooby gang goes on a petty crime spree, ianto goes shopping in broad daylight, gwen calls and has face to face meetings with lois again in the daylight, gwen calls andy and arranges clem's release, again johnson and crew during this state of high alert( with all the high tech gear at their fingertips) they are not monitoring uk cctv, keeping an eye on friends,family and workmates of of gwen,ianto and rhys, oops guess someone missed basic spy craft 101 that day.
this is making me feel a lot better. thank you.
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From: kholran |
Date:
July 25th, 2009 06:17 pm (UTC)
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Yep, you definitely make a lot of good points. The plot holes, they are everywhere.
The one I wanted to add, and maybe one of the most important? How did the 456 know you could make drugs from kids way back in the 1960's? Did they demand 12 kids first/for another reason, and then were all "Hey dudes, guess what they can do!"? Or did they have one kid somewhere that they had been making Space Meth out of before, and then decided they needed some more? Did they get the idea from another alien species that had abducted some kids earlier? It makes no sense to me that a species that had (hypothetically) never seen a human being before suddenly shows up in 1965, knowing that kids = super high.
Also, after the sound waves kill off the 456 in the big Sea Monkey tank, why does it become suddenly empty? Did the fire beam burn off the gas? And if so, why didn't the gas burn off when it arrived via the same teleport pillar of fire? And damn, that glass was STILL spotless despite the number of times the thing threw up on it. Maybe it used the kids as Alien Windex too.
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It makes me a little bit sick to see people blindly praising CoE, because a lot of these plot problems are just, well, stupid.
Yes, let's madly shoot a bulletproof tank of glass! Even if we thought it was breakable, we just saw that in order for a human being to exist inside it, he needed protective gear, but no matter! It's not like Jack doesn't know the 456 are capable of bio warfare! Let's just conveniently forget the 456 lives in poisonous gas and hope for the best!
I mean, the glass did't break, but come on! If it had broken, the what? They'd have just loosened themsevles and gotten alien goo all over everything.
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Some others I noticed.
The scientist surviving by getting into the Hazmat suit AFTER he had already breathed the air that should have killed him. And his comment about surviving by standing back - so if that holds true everyone who was running about outside the room trying to escape and who died should have survived also.
Jack was the master of the long con and Ianto was a disaffected drifter teenager with convictions for shoplifting and GWEN has to teach them how to nick stuff.
The government is worried about fallout from something that another government did 50 years ago. Governments today arenèt even bothered about getting caught about stuff they do today.
Soldiers would just round up screaming kids without at last some of them asking questions, rebelling.
Not one politician, not one government worldwide wanted to fight to protect their children.
Firing bullets at a tank full of poison gas without a gasmask, not too bright. Besides, all you would have done would have killed one of the 456 - hardly a threat to the rest.
Being fully aware how dangerous the Rift is, they set off a bloody bomb in the middle of it.
Blank page passed from Frobisher to Spears indicates a secret anonymous untraceable assassination order - which she then sends out in an email under her own name.
Then there were the stereotypes, cliches, overused tropes. characters acting completely out of character as this was they only way they could advance the storyline. I could go on and on.
I am enrolled in a screenwriting program, and frankly, if I showed up in class with something that had that many stereotypes, cliches, structural problems and plot holes you could drive a bus through, I would be sent home with a flea in my ear, told not to be so lazy in my thinking and writing, and to do it again.
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On the Charlie Brooker show (a satirical telly review show in Britain for those who aren't from here) they laughed a lot at the fact that Jack keeps telling them they need Torchwood, finally gets in, then in the next scene he is surrounded by body bags. They were saying how Torchwood is clearly rubbish.
I still can't get over them going into that room without a plan, and shooting at the glass, it was just embarrassing.
All shows have plotholes, and you can get away with lots of them, but given this was a plot lifted from another show, with a few other ideas thrown in from films, especially Contact, you would think they would have had some time to get it right. If so dead set on killing Ianto, well make it meaningful and believable.
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