Torchwood audio: House of the Dead

[beccaelizabeth]

You know what's not helpful? Having developed a tendency to giggle whenever Ianto says 'Lisa'. *facepalm*


Lots of spoilers:
I think I wasn't in the mood for this. Not for audios, where people talk very slowly and don't interrupt in time and don't seem to say the obvious things but stop at 'you're in danger'. Not for ghost stories, I thought, where obvious things happen to obvious people and you can count it off by numbers, wife, brother, child, father, yada.
... and then Ianto realised what had been obvious from the start, and suddenly I was listening very hard.

"You knew who you'd find if you came to the House of the Dead", and so did we.

See, I thought I was done with them, I thought I wasn't into the story, I thought there wasn't much left to say.

Then I realised the first half hour was just faffing around so that last ten minutes could happen.
And it had my full attention.

Syriath? I couldn't take syriathly at all. But forget her.
Blow up the stones to close the rift? Yes, very helpful, never could have happened before, makes perfect sense, I'm sure. *yawn*

Ten minutes of Jack and Ianto saying everything for once?
*hugs it very tight*

See usually it takes fanfic to do this.
Now we have the voices to go with it.

Ianto Jones, saving the world
*drink*


Jack though?
needs so many hugs
... and some counselling. quite a lot of that actually. it might be nice to go a whole year without attempting suicide.

also, "six months ago you died in my arms" means just before Jack gave up on Earth he tried this.
and he didn't leave the rift sitting around open, which is nice.

"did I get a funeral" / "I don't know, I wasn't there" :-(

Jack expecting it to only be an image of Ianto and thinking that was still worth dying for?
"Ianto, all the people I've lost, don't you understand, the only one I wanted to see was you"
"I lose everyone, but I don't forget any of you"
*hugs Jack*

"Jack, I didn't think the last thing I'd ever say to you would be this: Ju... just go away, please. This is horrible." :-( :-(

"I had to see you again. You have no idea what it felt like coming back to life and knowing the world was empty, because you'd gone." :-( !

"I didn't ask to come back"
"Neither did I"

!


*hugs them hugs them hugs them*

Stupid Jack, all hurting, Ianto won't let you.
Ianto still looking after him even when he's dead. And missing memories. I mean, even a copy of Ianto, to be enough Ianto, has to include the bits that would do this.

"Just for once, let someone else deal with it"
... yeah, you'd think he'd earned it.
and also, :-( !

"screw it, worth a try!"
for Ianto, he does that
... Earth would be so screwed

"Come on Ianto, be brave"
"Always"

... he does get some good send offs

*hugs them A LOT*

also, the actually saying it? kind of proves how much they usually are saying it. I mean, it's just fitting in between the saving the world bits, the "right then, best get a move on", and that's where it always fit.

... I'm still making sad face cause, Ianto! *hugs*


So I was all blah blah, yada yada, blah blah, thought I would be bored...
and then I pretty much quoted all the last bit.

So I'd say the ending worked. Really quite a lot.



... unfortunately, now there is no more. This was why I was saving them up and rationing them. All done now.

*hugs Ianto*

So for themes from these three audios we have: a lot of very unsubtle stuff about how Jack wants to be dead, and how the dead want to be dead, and really trying to cheat death always turns out badly for everyone.
It's cheerleader stuff for death.
bugger that.


The thing is, if Jack hadn't been doing a very elaborate suicide, and had in fact only wanted to get the job done, he could have put the damn bomb on a timer and walked out with Ianto.
Being too enamoured of death blinds you to the alternatives, and that costs you everything.

... if we're very very lucky that was an intentional message.

Comments

[kickair8p]

Last I heard, a human's "natural" lifespan is somewhere around forty. I'm almost fifty, so I've been "cheating death" for a few years now. Nothing too nasty so far. My Mom's been doing it for a couple decades longer, and she's fine too. Are there issues with longer lifespans that people who die younger don't have to face? Yep, and they're gonna get worse the longer our lifespans get. Are any of these problems worse than death? A couple. Somehow, I'm not seeing them as a deterrent.

There's a difference between cautionary tales that help us think through potential snafus ahead of time and sour grapes. I'm not even decrying sour grapes, if it helps us deal with our inevitable mortality. But when the message "don't try, it always turns out horrible" blinds us to alternatives, as you mentioned above? That ticks me off.

Anyway, I'm not hitting these till I can get transcripts. Thanks for the heads-up. And on the *hugs Ianto* front: Angel Ianto

~

[beccaelizabeth]

*nods a lot*
there's nothing that great about 'natural'. cheat hard.

thinking through possible problems, establishing community mores and norms, running a cost benefit calculation on the future... I don't see how these Torchwood stories are particularly useful for any of that. But they've been having a discussion around life, death, and suicide for a while now, and I'm not keen on them voting for death. On the plus side they're not voting for suicide, mostly.

[charie-caphine.livejournal.com]

>>>to get the job done, he could have put the damn bomb on a timer and walked out with Ianto

Guessing there wasn't a timer. Otherwise, why'd Ianto himself not try to get out of the House instead of staying behind to detonate the petals? (Oh yeah, magic rocks & petals - this truly is Torchwood!)

Anyway, the reason for this comment is, could you please tell me about the anecdote about Ianto saying 'Lisa'? I've heard this mentioned by various fans, but I just don't know who to ask to explain for muggles (aka late arrivals into the fandom). Please? =)

[beccaelizabeth]

there wasn't a timer because Jack wanted to blow himself up. If he'd been trying to get the job done there could have been a timer.

The 'Lisa' thing... I think it's just one of those repetition makes it funny thing. At conventions GDL mentioned it was a funny on set, and kept on semi randomly saying 'Lisa?' and cracking the other guests up. And saying it pretty much the exact way as on the audio.
Something like that. I haven't thought about it for a while, I've just still got the giggle response.

[fide-et-spe.livejournal.com]

Was going to respond to this review, just to agree and say I think it's really sweet how much love you have for the play. I enjoyed the whole thing, but I agree, some of the OC stuff felt a bit of a waste of time, when it was just really a build up to the Jack/Ianto ending.

Then I saw this question. In fact I saw this "Lisa" joke on a recording someone posted from a convention. The other actors used to tease GDL on set by saying "Lisa" in a plaintive voice, and he would look around all pouty and sad. I think the convention featured a little demonstration of it.

[charie-caphine.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks, okay then. A con story largely lost to the history, I suppose.

But even without knowing the story, I also kind of snorted at 'Lisa' in HotD, in a 'STELLA!!!', or more appropriately even, 'Cathy! Cathy!' sort of way. =)

[beccaelizabeth]

Sorry, I can't help.
I have previously decided against doing transcripts of audios because some are available as paper books too, so I was leaving it to the BBC. And I know some people bought the books instead of audios, and vice versa, when I don't know anyone that prefers the transcripts to actually watching the TV shows, so I didn't want to provide competition.
Mostly though, I haven't watched Torchwood for a while, and I haven't done transcripts for longer.
Plus I have college.
So I couldn't beta for you.

[firenzesun.livejournal.com]

It's okay! Thank you for answering though! :)