Torchwood

Oh, Ianto. I miss you so much some days...
Torchwood began for me as a hint, a whisper, that Russel Davies was going to do an "adult" version of Doctor Who. In fact, Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who. hmmm, clever, Russel. Then we heard that there might be a whiff of gay in there (and the crowd goes wild *L*).  There were hints of Torchwood in series 2 of Doctor Who right from the start, and then it became a huge thing at the end, with the Daleks vs the Cybermen and Yvonne and Martha's twin *L* and they seemed to be awful. Granted Queen Victoria did set them up basically to fight the Doctor, so....

but then, Oh, but then!

We got this weird show that was sexy and violent and the lead was Captain Jack! Back from the dead and apparently not only immortal but omnisexual! And it was scary and funny, and the cast were all fantastic, yes, even Eve Miles, even if Gwen was way too whiny most of the time. Series one gave us flirting between Captain Jack and Ianto Jones, the office boy with the sekrit cyberwoman in the basement! And the second last episode gave us a love story between Captain Jack and....Captain Jack!!! Boy on boy like it weren't no thang!! Of course, Jack came back for Ianto.

Twice in fact. In series two Jack and Ianto fell in love (not to mention playing all that naked hide n seek!). They became an actual couple and grieved together over Grey, the death of Tosh, Owen's sacrifice. It was all gorgeous and painful and so brilliant to see them just being together. They weren't "the gay couple" they were just a couple. Well, sort of.

Series three. The beginning of the end....
When Russel Davies killed Ianto Jones, he killed the heart of the series. Whatever he might say about drama and needing the angst and don't forget his bullshit snark about 9 fangirls who were pissed. We were all pissed, Russel. We weren't watching it for your crap plots, we were in it for Jack and Ianto. And you took that away from us. And then actually had the gall to believe that we would watch Miracle Day, which was so awful and painful that it made a mockery of everything that had come before! Thank god for Barrowman, Owen, Price and Miles, or it wouldn't have gotten any viewers at all. (Finally, Gwen got better, at least in the first half--she kinda fell into that "I love Jack" camp at the end)

So, to sum up: buy series one and two on dvd and enjoy flawed boys and girls finding friendship, love and adventure in Cardiff. Watch the first three episodes of Children of Earth and watch the death of Ianto on youtube if you must (but have the tissues handy) and skip Miracle Day--even John Shiban couldn't save that piece of crap.

And remember, the 21st century is when everything changes....