(no subject)

[solitary_summer]

Day 30: Why You Love Torchwood

I'm two days late, I know. But I was busy being unenthusiastic about figure skating, and besides, this is the last question and somehow I keep thinking I have to post some kind of profound Why I Love Torchwood (capital letters and all) manifesto—which of course I don't, but that's the thing my brain does all the time. Putting pressure on me for no reason at all.

Actually, a lot of what I wrote in my first ever 'torchwood'-tagged entry (Feb. 2007, skip=100, and that's without this meme, because I tagged only the first post) is still true. Strikingly effective images, a pterodactyl, humour, big drama, plenty of utter heartbreak moments, hard moral decisions, and interestingly flawed, very human characters that I fell in love with immediately. There really isn't much to add to that, except, with CoE, 'epic scale tragedy'. Most importantly, it worked for me emotionally from the start. Why do these things happen? What does make one show click with you, while another, perhaps objectively better one, doesn't?

I like my shows to have a serious, borderline philosophic element, life and death, meaning of life, good and evil and the shades of grey in between, and for me Torchwood, especially with Jack and his immortality, always had this, although this is an approach that sometimes put me in a bit of an odd position in a fandom where at least half the fans didn't even take canon seriously. There are the obvious ways in which TW is indebted to Angel and Buffy, but I think on a less obvious level TW's premise has always been Buffy's, 'The hardest thing in this world is to live in it', from the end of S5.

TW has kept me thinking and writing for almost four years now, and it's the first and only show where I consider myself part of fandom, even if it's still mostly in a hovering-on-the-edges sort of way. So, not a polished manifesto, but in the end I think there's little I can say here that I haven't said better and more convincingly the meta posts I've written over all that time...


Day 01: Favourite Torchwood Member
Day 02: Least Favourite Torchwood Member
Day 03: Favourite Series
Day 04: Favourite Episode
Day 05: Least Favourite Episode
Day 06: Something You Liked That Most People Didn't
Day 07: Favourite Alien/Villain
Day 08: Favourite Minor Character
Day 09: A Scene That Made You Cry
Day 10: A Scene That Made You Smile
Day 11: A Scene That Made You Angry
Day 12: Favourite Quote
Day 13: Favourite Promo Picture
Day 14: Favourite Couple
Day 15: Favourite Couple Scene
Day 16: Favourite Piece of Music
Day 17: Something You’d Like To Re-write
Day 18: Character You Relate To The Most
Day 19: Favourite Outfit
Day 20: Favourite Gwen Moment
Day 21: Favourite Ianto Moment
Day 22: Favourite Jack Moment
Day 23: Favourite Owen Moment
Day 24: Favourite Toshiko Moment
Day 25: Shag/Cliff/Marry?
Day 26: A Torchwood Geek Moment You’ve Had
Day 27: Favourite Location Or Set
Day 28: Where You Think The Series Should Continue To
Day 29: Best Torchwood on Doctor Who Moment
Day 30: Why You Love Torchwood

Comments

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

Why do these things happen? What does make one show click with you, while another, perhaps objectively better one, doesn't?

It often seems to me that it's not people who choose stories, it's stories that choose people. Some stories catch you and won't let go.
(I wrote about this in a post The stories that catch you.)


I like my shows to have a serious, borderline philosophic element, life and death, meaning of life, good and evil and the shades of grey in between

Me too.


TW's premise has always been Buffy's, 'The hardest thing in this world is to live in it', from the end of S5.

Yes.

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

It often seems to me that it's not people who choose stories, it's stories that choose people. Some stories catch you and won't let go.

I loved that thought immediately when you first posted it, because it describes my own experience so perfectly.