setups and payoffs in backstory

[beccaelizabeth]

the more I think about 2-10 the less satisfied with it I am as a piece of writing. I've already mentioned the genre questions, but now I'm getting dissatisfied with the backstory we got. And what's up with that? Don't we want to know more about our guys? And, well, yes, but...

There's a kind of backstory bit that's a payoff. We've got a question, the backstory gives us an answer.

Why is Owen such a prickly hedgehog? Because (x). Why is he acting so different in 2-05? Because -(x). It's the piece of the equation we need to make the character add up. We can play with it now, add it in or take it out and see what happens to our people. See how we can fix it, or improve it, or whatever. Character payoff! Questions answered!

But then there's backstory that's all setup. We don't have a question. We were trundling along thinking we had sufficient answers in that respect. And then whoosh, new data! And we're left with a whole lot of questions, trying to make it all fit, and often lacking the (x) that would slot it together.

Or, worse, we're left with very few questions and no particular fit, some random data that does nothing to the whole picture, or only tells us things we already knew and almost doesn't count as backstory at all.

2-10? No payoff. All setup, at best. And it didn't have to be that way! So simply could the script have given us character gold, just by leaving out a line!



Jack working the freak show? Potential *gold dust* for how he reacted to his immortality, especially right after World War I. Say he came out of the war traumatised, maybe spent some time in what passed for psychiatric care, maybe tried to keep himself going. Saw himself as a freak. Not only that, but one who was only valuable for his one trick - being The Man Who Can't Die. He didn't exhibit learned skills or the kind of body pride that goes into tumblers or strong men. He wasn't even sitting there half naked like many of the others. He was all covered up, shooting himself in the head a lot. What does that say about his attitude to it all? Like I said, *gold dust*.

But then they went and undermined it by saying he was sent there undercover. Instead of a mass of psychological detail, we know only what we knew already - Jack works the x files.


oh heck, my car is here and I've only one shoe on. gotta dash! Have to finish later.

Comments

so now I'm at college I log on to continue the thought

[(Anonymous)]

So: Jack in a travelling show, exhibiting himself as a freak. Maybe he got out of the war thinking all he was good for was killing and dying, and decided to combine the two in one spectacular deed, repeatedly, for an audience. Displaying himself as different, as being basically his differences. And then film came along and he realised if he were to remain invisible to history - and the time agency, and paradox, and all that - he'd have to disappear, along with the shows the movies would edge out. character gold.

except for - he had none of those motivations initially, because he was just sent in undercover, it wasn't even his idea to join.

Now you can still get to all that, and him finding community among the freaks, and him slowly realising his other skills - paying attention to people, say - weren't as busted as he thought. But you have to get there while either ignoring or sidelining his 'plot' at the time, the particular adventure he was sent on. And given that he never stopped the Night Travellers back then, is fair enough ignoring his attempt. Though you've got to wonder what else was hiding out in the places people expected to see the bizarre. See the living fish man! Wonder at the beast from below!

ANYways... as backstory, the travelling show could be great - resolve some of our questions about Jack's emotional adjustment while setting up more. But it shoots itself in the foot... er, or the head, whatever... because it instead pushes all his motivations back to the known ones, giving us nothing knew aobut his emotions and setting up a whole lot of bugger all. The only question we're left with is why he's being mysterious about his employers when we know he was freelancing for Torchwood back then, and really, what are the odds we'll get payoff on that? Pretty low.

So it's not good, really.

And part of why it isn't good is that this is no longer the first season. And, yeah, we still need to set up questions - Jack is a mystery, and ever shall be, given that knowing even a century of stories is going to take longer than we're likely to have.

But I've watched Highlander and I know how you can give answers and make questions both at once, satisfy one aspect of pre-existing curiousity while adding in a new question. We got to know Duncan pretty well but he and his friends could still surprise us. His friends especially - Methos... he didn't just have longer history, he had such changes within it. And Jack has the potential to be Methos! Maybe he fell off the wagon a few times, did the Hero thing but got knocked down by the cost, spent time trying to be sleazy again like he remembered working before... There's room for that without making him not a hero. He's just a struggling redemption hero, like Angel or, well, all the Noir inspired guys. Right?

So, anyway, part of why it's no good is, it's season 2, and we have questions all set up already... and an ongoing lack of answers. We get some from the books that we aren't getting from the series. And we could have, this ep, had they but left out that one detail!

And what about Ianto?

[(Anonymous)]

Again, we get Ianto backstory... but it doesn't answer anything.

Contrast with 2-09. Yeah, it was mostly funny payoff, but doesn't it explain so much about him? Ianto looks good in a suit... his father was a master tailor. With one little detail we get an answer about part of his skill set and a partial answer about why he dresses that way. Early indoctrination in what is Proper, and a connection to his father. Who 'was', not is.

And then in 2-10 we get a bit more of the same - nostalgic connection to his father. But... was anyone wondering what Ianto did with his saturdays as a kid? Were we dying to know about his relation to old movies? Well we got a bit more 'more of the same' - which makes it good characterisation, but bad payoff. We know Ianto is a bit retro, expressed interest in old pictures, goes to books for his data, and now we add to that the thing where he'd quite happily planned to spend his evening watching silent movies. And indeed invited his friends so they could be happy too. Well, presumably. I mean he invited Owen and Gwen... planning to get them bored would be... interesting. Especially 'bored in the dark sitting next to each other when she's just back from honeymoon after insisting there's no secrets in that marriage'.

Hey, do you think Gwen was wondering if Owen was going to tell Rhys about the affair when he pulled Rhys aside? Owen had a plot related reason with the showing Rhys how to save her, but Gwen didn't know that. Hmm.

So, anyway - the Ianto backstory is a bit more satisfying simply because we knew so little about him, and it does fit so well. Every bit we get fills him out more. So that's good.

But we had a question. The way Ianto says "I know it" about the long term care place the old man was in in 1-10... what was that about? Ianto has pride in knowing, but it wasn't a proud way of saying. So what do we get in 2-10? The same damn thing. He knows the psych hospital, the long term care place the elderly woman was in. But we *still* don't know why he says it that way. Hints? Clues? ANYthing?

... well he says it cause the actor thinks its a good way to say it, but that's not a useful answer to us.

So... we get a story full of backstory, but we don't get any questions answered that we already had, and we get several set up that we didn't have before. Setup, but no payoff. And it feels just a teensy bit empty.

Ianto bunny

[(Anonymous)]

Ianto as time slipped - not far enough his parents died, not right away - they were just old and he was left as their carer.

Or, just, older or iller parents. psych problems. health problems. either way, he wasn't very old before they stopped looking after him more than he was looking after them. fills in some of that Ianto-as-carer vibe we got from 1-04 and 'Jack needs me'.

It is good though that his story goes back beyond Torchwood Tower now. In 2-05 it seemed like everything that defined him started at Torchwood One, and that is just a little odd.

Night travellers as psychic vampires ala Adam

[(Anonymous)]

connect it to 2-05 Adam and their apparent *need* for an audience - they weren't collecting breaths, they were collecting people to watch them. They could climb out of the screen and into people's thoughts - just like Adam could.

- beccaelizabeth at college therefore logged out.
)I said in someone elses LJ... can't remember who(

[louiex.livejournal.com]

All in all I thought it was a decent episode, liked it better than Small Worlds surely. I liked the badguys, thought it was an interesting twist but felt like there were so many things skipped over that could have been expanded on like you said here. Not to go 'ooooh make the vaguely Ianto centered episode a double' but perhaps it needed that as they had so many opportunities to make this BETTER.

As you said, Jack's back story and how he was at the traveling show. Shooting himself in the head everyday for people's enjoyment? Even a happy not messed up man would get a bit tweeked on that depending on how many times a day he'd die/how long he was with the circus. Lots of fun there! Then there's the fact that he was actually -shockingly- honest about what he did with Ianto, not his usual exposition tool Gwen (compare this chat with Estelle's back story in Small Worlds). Is this just because he happens to be alone with Ianto, is this because of Ianto's closeness to the case, or is it because we're actually believing there's a reciprocating relationship here? :D

It bugs me to no end that we're still up in the air about Jack's side of the J/I relationship. From what they've shown us, what pitiful little considering its the main character's relationship, Ianto is either initiating/being the one saying like Jack is the reason for his getting up everyday. While yes, they were in 'work-mode' in 2x10 for the most part, I do think that we can thank GDL for the subtle little things that had any sort of bit of familiarity/intimacy to them even just in the vague body language. But that's a rant for another day... :D

'They touched you' is what Christine said to Ianto, how? Just when they walked by and he spotted their shadows? From him going to the theater every week as a boy with his dad? For being one of the few actually watching so intently he saw things? Photographic memory could be fun to play with here considering all the film plot cues (oh bunnies bunnies). *makes grabby hands for more* There was a lot of potential for this episode to be beyond spectacular but I think they dropped a lot of threads/points for what, sake of time? Its a pity. Also, wasn't this the episode JB spoke of where Ianto is upset and Jack comforts him with sex? Why does it feel like their relationship is existing on the cutting room floor?

[(Anonymous)]

if they cut for time, they did it badly - so much of this was telling Torchwood what the audience already knew it felt really slow and repetetive.

It's only speculation that this was the two minute kiss.
But there's how many episodes left it could be in?
So we pout and sulk and demand DVD extras.

yeah, this one just didn't feel very well crafted. great bunny, crap details.