Rewatch: Ghost machine
Jan. 21st, 2007 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethLots of interesting. I especially like how this one looks in light of the last episode and the relationship lines that go through the season.
Like Gwen - her relationships get ever so much more interesting knowing they're leverage for end of the world stuff. Also Rhys really is the sweetest bloke. Got to love that.
There's Gwen/Rhys ghosts that cut to Owen being obsessive in his flat. Like he interrupts the happy. Foreshadowing for the win.
Owen the deeply creepy is quite firmly established by now. Yes, I know other people have other readings. But he's got this sex+violence thing going on, plus here the loose canon thing where he defies Jack. And turns out to be going off half cocked, lacking crucial information (which Tosh has), and making a bad situation worse.
Got to love consistency.
The comparison with Ed Morgan seems to me quite clearly drawn.
But I've gone on at length about that before.
Another thing that turns out to be a theme is suicide. The 'he would have found a way' bit. Ed-Owen comparison, Jack-John (there's two dead!John characters, yesno? Or am I getting the name wrong?). And the bit with not your fault *because* would have found a way, but Gwen calls it her fault anyway.
I think maybe she could have held the knife better. And been paying better attention to the crazy man. I think maybe as a police officer she should be better at that.
Crap under pressure - said in 1-02, shown consistently. I could actually live without that bit of consistent.
Here again we have that 'you've got all this alien stuff' asking him to do something. Less emotional freight, same dad-will-fix-it vibe.
... I don't want to think Jack and dad in the same sentence. I really don't.
... My dad taught me to shoot, and I can tell you, it weren't *anything* like that scene.
Jack and shooting and not being annoyed enough when she points the gun at him - hello to the moment you make sure she's adequately scared about that one! Not a funny!
Except to the immortal guy who is maybe just a tad blase about his personal safety.
I wonder about his reflexes. Protecting others, sure, quickness, but protecting self? Does he really feel in danger?
I watched that gun bit several times. Not because porn. I don't feel guns are sexy and it just makes me all kinds of uncomfortable them being snuggly about them. But to watch for character stuff. Gwen is definitely distracted by snuggly Jack, and Jack is definitely aware of her, but to a different degree. It reminded me of dance lessons. Which, okay, I've usually seen in the context of romance movies. But Jack was focused on what he was doing as well as who he was doing it with, whilst Gwen's eyes wandered and when he told her to focus she had to blink and bring herself back, so I think for her it was either/or.
... Maybe this is why it's a necessary part of Jack training people. He's just that sexy he has to make sure the staff are desensitized so they don't get distracted in the middle of a fight.
... I think I'm joking. Probably.
See this is what I thought when I saw the final episode - it pulls threads together all over the place, which makes the earlier episodes richer.
I'm also noticing that they did in fact get better both individually and as a group at that whole acting thing. Not that it ever sucked. But moments of clunk that I can think of concentrate in these early eps.
Also noticed: Visible breath in the gun tunnel. Jack talking about not sleeping sort of time. You can see white against the dark of his waistcoat when he breathes out.
And he's standing there with his sleeves rolled up. And a waistcoat on.
First two episodes we saw the earpiece coming off a lot, from Jack. This ep, no earpiece, using a regular mobile phone. 1-04 is the first appearance of the weirdly cyber looking silver ear thing. Which I think must be from practical reasons - tried the other thing, couldn't keep it on - but it works interesting ways with the episode.
Which I've watched a ton to get the transcript right.
But am still looking forward to seeing again.
Ianto has the jobs of driver (lets them out in front of the fountain), intelligence (brings to their attention data pulled from 999 calls, computer intercept (deletes Gwen's report), clean up that may well include dead bodies though we don't see that until later, and putting stuff in the safe. In fact Jack hands the Ghost Machine off to him without even checking. Ianto finishes his drink (definitely the alcohol kind) and goes to the safe. At this point Ianto has access to that safe, the one Owen has to hunt down the codes for later.
Do we reckon Ianto lost access? Or that he wasnt' cooperating with Owen?
He also does coffee and food. And pizza box level cleaning. And alcohol drink too.
All inconspicuous, all well timed, all right there when Jack wants to hand him something. Smooth.
Before 1-04 he gets quite a lot to do but no reason to pay attention to him doing it. Not least because he wasn't in the opening power walk shot of Team Torchwood from the first episode, the one in the rain. The group Gwen notices had Suzie, not Ianto. But then Ianto was the guy guarding the door, so, also noteable.
It would be nice if he had more after 1-04 as well.
I'm left wondering if the money and stuff think Tosh and Ianto are a different level of character than Jack and Owen and Gwen. I mean, they get one episode each, total. The others get every episode. It feels a bit like the writers have a main three and two support, even though they're technically present every time.
Unknown.
I think Ianto is main. Because I like him best.
I hope he gets to be the little twisty rubber band that drives the plot forward in season 2. Something complicated with him and Jack. And not just because I'm a Jack/Ianto shipper, just because they've done a lot with Gwen and Owen already and taken the thing with Rhys up to a nice exciting climax and I feel they could leave that to rumble on in the background and pick someone else to be the emotional key to the next season. And obviously Ianto has that angst and woe to work with.
I'm still not sure what Tosh has to work with. Wanting to connect with the aliens, seeing them in emotional ways... but she only ever had the one speech about that, and the unfortunate evil-insane-dead thing might possibly be a problem.
I wish they hadn't done that. An exiled alien girlfriend would be immensely more interesting.
ANYways, that's all fairly useless speculation, since I'm not writing for Torchwood (woe!...er, except for the having to do things on deadline and stuff)
I'll go watch the next one.
Like Gwen - her relationships get ever so much more interesting knowing they're leverage for end of the world stuff. Also Rhys really is the sweetest bloke. Got to love that.
There's Gwen/Rhys ghosts that cut to Owen being obsessive in his flat. Like he interrupts the happy. Foreshadowing for the win.
Owen the deeply creepy is quite firmly established by now. Yes, I know other people have other readings. But he's got this sex+violence thing going on, plus here the loose canon thing where he defies Jack. And turns out to be going off half cocked, lacking crucial information (which Tosh has), and making a bad situation worse.
Got to love consistency.
The comparison with Ed Morgan seems to me quite clearly drawn.
But I've gone on at length about that before.
Another thing that turns out to be a theme is suicide. The 'he would have found a way' bit. Ed-Owen comparison, Jack-John (there's two dead!John characters, yesno? Or am I getting the name wrong?). And the bit with not your fault *because* would have found a way, but Gwen calls it her fault anyway.
I think maybe she could have held the knife better. And been paying better attention to the crazy man. I think maybe as a police officer she should be better at that.
Crap under pressure - said in 1-02, shown consistently. I could actually live without that bit of consistent.
Here again we have that 'you've got all this alien stuff' asking him to do something. Less emotional freight, same dad-will-fix-it vibe.
... I don't want to think Jack and dad in the same sentence. I really don't.
... My dad taught me to shoot, and I can tell you, it weren't *anything* like that scene.
Jack and shooting and not being annoyed enough when she points the gun at him - hello to the moment you make sure she's adequately scared about that one! Not a funny!
Except to the immortal guy who is maybe just a tad blase about his personal safety.
I wonder about his reflexes. Protecting others, sure, quickness, but protecting self? Does he really feel in danger?
I watched that gun bit several times. Not because porn. I don't feel guns are sexy and it just makes me all kinds of uncomfortable them being snuggly about them. But to watch for character stuff. Gwen is definitely distracted by snuggly Jack, and Jack is definitely aware of her, but to a different degree. It reminded me of dance lessons. Which, okay, I've usually seen in the context of romance movies. But Jack was focused on what he was doing as well as who he was doing it with, whilst Gwen's eyes wandered and when he told her to focus she had to blink and bring herself back, so I think for her it was either/or.
... Maybe this is why it's a necessary part of Jack training people. He's just that sexy he has to make sure the staff are desensitized so they don't get distracted in the middle of a fight.
... I think I'm joking. Probably.
See this is what I thought when I saw the final episode - it pulls threads together all over the place, which makes the earlier episodes richer.
I'm also noticing that they did in fact get better both individually and as a group at that whole acting thing. Not that it ever sucked. But moments of clunk that I can think of concentrate in these early eps.
Also noticed: Visible breath in the gun tunnel. Jack talking about not sleeping sort of time. You can see white against the dark of his waistcoat when he breathes out.
And he's standing there with his sleeves rolled up. And a waistcoat on.
First two episodes we saw the earpiece coming off a lot, from Jack. This ep, no earpiece, using a regular mobile phone. 1-04 is the first appearance of the weirdly cyber looking silver ear thing. Which I think must be from practical reasons - tried the other thing, couldn't keep it on - but it works interesting ways with the episode.
Which I've watched a ton to get the transcript right.
But am still looking forward to seeing again.
Ianto has the jobs of driver (lets them out in front of the fountain), intelligence (brings to their attention data pulled from 999 calls, computer intercept (deletes Gwen's report), clean up that may well include dead bodies though we don't see that until later, and putting stuff in the safe. In fact Jack hands the Ghost Machine off to him without even checking. Ianto finishes his drink (definitely the alcohol kind) and goes to the safe. At this point Ianto has access to that safe, the one Owen has to hunt down the codes for later.
Do we reckon Ianto lost access? Or that he wasnt' cooperating with Owen?
He also does coffee and food. And pizza box level cleaning. And alcohol drink too.
All inconspicuous, all well timed, all right there when Jack wants to hand him something. Smooth.
Before 1-04 he gets quite a lot to do but no reason to pay attention to him doing it. Not least because he wasn't in the opening power walk shot of Team Torchwood from the first episode, the one in the rain. The group Gwen notices had Suzie, not Ianto. But then Ianto was the guy guarding the door, so, also noteable.
It would be nice if he had more after 1-04 as well.
I'm left wondering if the money and stuff think Tosh and Ianto are a different level of character than Jack and Owen and Gwen. I mean, they get one episode each, total. The others get every episode. It feels a bit like the writers have a main three and two support, even though they're technically present every time.
Unknown.
I think Ianto is main. Because I like him best.
I hope he gets to be the little twisty rubber band that drives the plot forward in season 2. Something complicated with him and Jack. And not just because I'm a Jack/Ianto shipper, just because they've done a lot with Gwen and Owen already and taken the thing with Rhys up to a nice exciting climax and I feel they could leave that to rumble on in the background and pick someone else to be the emotional key to the next season. And obviously Ianto has that angst and woe to work with.
I'm still not sure what Tosh has to work with. Wanting to connect with the aliens, seeing them in emotional ways... but she only ever had the one speech about that, and the unfortunate evil-insane-dead thing might possibly be a problem.
I wish they hadn't done that. An exiled alien girlfriend would be immensely more interesting.
ANYways, that's all fairly useless speculation, since I'm not writing for Torchwood (woe!...er, except for the having to do things on deadline and stuff)
I'll go watch the next one.