Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood - io9 Comments

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Mares2 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:29:08 PDT

If you've been putting off watching the dvd set of Sapphire and Steel, because you feel it won't have held up over time.. watch them, they're excellent. I live in the States, never was fortunate enough to see S&S when it originally aired, but when I purchased the dvd set last year I enjoyed each and every episode in the series.

I'm an old Doctor Who fan, actually dreaded the new Doctor Who series before I was able to watch them. Was pleasently surprised. That said, I loathe and detest Torchwood. The only portrayal of Captain Jack that I enjoy these days is when Jon Culshaw does a spoof on Dead Ringers. I wouldn't blame Hammond for any shortcomings.. lay that at Russell Davies door.

Mares2

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

ComicDork — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:32:56 PDT

This episode just sucked. Cheap looking, story made no sense, just so unwatchable.

>sigh< I want to like this show, but... ugh, it just isn't doing it. If I was Barrowman I'd want to leave too...

ComicDork

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

YoungWilliam — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:59:20 PDT

Basically, Clive Barker's "Son of Celluloid" meets Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

Kind of.
Sort of.
If you squint.

YoungWilliam

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

superdewa — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:55:31 PDT

Not a great plot or dialogue, but I liked the visuals. The circus bits and the old film were beautiful.

superdewa

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Doug Nelson — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:42:36 PDT

Worst Torchwood episode ever.

Jack: Where is everyone?
Tosh: They've suddently decided to act like friends and go see a movie. Incidentally, not only is the movie theater the beloved repository of Ianto's favorite childhood memories, but unbeknownst to them it's also the center of rift activity in that neighborhood.
(Jack looks alarmed, then speeds through Cardiff in the (admittedly badass) torchmobile with urgent music playing)
Jack: Hi gang, did you enjoy the movie?

Doug Nelson

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Daniel Rutter — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:05:59 PDT

At least this episode was obviously a ghost story from the very beginning; it wasn't all nanotech this and Internet that followed by the revelation that actually the shade of Henry the Fourth was responsible.

I'd much prefer another Scooby Doo episode where the freaky supernatural phenomena actually turn out to just be a bunch of nutty villagers who really like eating people, though.

Daniel Rutter

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:49:01 PDT

@eirenicon: I would say we have a love-hate relationship with Torchwood, actually. There's a lot about it that I really enjoy. I just wish it was all of it.

Charlie Jane Anders

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

JayEff — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:57:53 PDT

Well, a lot of the it doesn't make sense stuff was already pointed out. Okay, well, that's not true, but here are a few more inconsistencies ....

First, if Jack caught the flask with the last breath on camera as well, then why didn't that disappear too?

Second, did anyone else notice how the lifeless bodies in a garage just disappeared, but the one's in the hospital took one last gasp and died normally?

Third, what happened to the parents in the theater? We completely cut away from them. There's not even a Who-vean "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

JayEff

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

bonniegrrl — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:11:35 PDT

The Faries episode from Season 1 was amazing too. Finally showed them as really creepy otherworldly things and not little cutesy dolls with wings.

bonniegrrl

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

MarlboroTestMonkey7 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:25:41 PDT

Sapphire and Steel rules, ruled that is

MarlboroTestMonkey7

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

RhymePhile — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:25:07 PDT

As much as I enjoy Torchwood, I get distracted at times by the often-goofy scripts (this one especailly), but moreso by John Barrowman's acting for the stage while he's on a television show. Everything he does makes it seem like he's playing to the seats at the back of the theatre.

I wish one of the directors would be willing to step on some toes and tell him to play it smaller.

RhymePhile

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

eirenicon — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:58:39 PDT

As much as I get tired of io9's frequent ragging on Torchwood - which, admittedly, I mainly watch because it's sort-of Doctor Who and there's nothing else on - I couldn't agree more this week. This is the first episode I couldn't finish watching - it was just so bloody boring, and so obviously not science fiction. Even the Cyberwoman episode was better, and that one actually made me depressed.

eirenicon

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Plague — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:57:53 PDT

@Charlie Jane Anders:
No, you dictate your own transgressions.

Plague

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Jim (The Canuck One) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:53:50 PDT

And poor Ianto has to make a big show of dashing around trying to catch the breaths back in the bottle.

In truth he was catching the bottle to prevent more air-fish...er... breath-fish from escaping.

That said, the episode was garbage. (I was reminded of DrWho's "Love and Monsters" which suffered because the principles were busy with OTHER episodes. Sadly, all the Torchwood-ites were present and couldn't save the piece of crap.)

Although, there were a couple of good shots that revealed David-Lloyd's rather nice butt. There! It has one (a couple?) redeeming quality.

Jim (The Canuck One)

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

aspiringexpatriate — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:40:21 PDT

"But somehow, Hammond seems to have decided Torchwood is a fantasy show. And not just any fantasy show, but an extremely campy one."

Well. It is.

And CCTV cameras capture onto digital CCDs most likely, and if the 'people' were fused with the film, then the digital wouldn't work?

The most annoying bit was the end where it was like 'oh, they'll bee back' when everyone who watches it is like 'um... we don't want them back unless you have them do something actually interesting.'

aspiringexpatriate

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

bob_d — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:51:06 PDT

"they both felt as though Hammond wrote them for something else and then slapped the names of the Torchwood characters onto them."
That's been the problem with most of the Torchwood scripts, especially the first season. Under the label of "sci-fi" it IS a (campy) fantasy show- it's full of all this magic and fairies, etc. that aren't given any rational explanations. When I read that Davies originally conceived of the show as a sort of UK "Buffy", well before the Doctor Who revival, the scripts made a lot more sense. He simply replaced "demon" and "magic" with "alien" in the scripts to remold it as a Doctor Who spin-off; it doesn't actually make any sense narratively, but at least we can understand how the scripts ended up that way. So in this episode, why did only the one camera work to trap the ghosts? Because it was a magic camera. The show works a lot better if you do a mental find-and-replace.

bob_d

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:40:02 PDT

@Plague: What do you mean about rules of our own making? That sounds very sinister... How have we transgressed our own dictates?

Charlie Jane Anders

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Justin K. Rivers — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:38:54 PDT

Sapphire and Steel made sense. And it wasn't padded out - it was a slowly built drama. Even though it was certainly bizarre and ethereal, the show always made an intense commitment to it's own internal logic. Whether you like it's slow pacing or not is a matter of taste, not a failing of the show.

Justin K. Rivers

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

CaptRavis — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:24:29 PDT

Capt Jack made a reference of some sort to the baddies being made of filmstock which justified the old-timey camera and not the CCTV. And it was a crap episode. It had three good ideals, the "film monster" , the "last breath" , and "Carnival Jack" but they should have one picked one and made it work. And yes, it very much seemed like it was a story for something else that was wedged into a Torchwood script binder.

CaptRavis

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Plague — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:43:54 PDT

I really wish IO9 would adhere to US broadcast times instead of being all BOINGBOING with it.

But since they can't adhere to rules of their own making, why am i even bothering to bitch?

Plague

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Rus — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:38:59 PDT

Sapphire and Steel was one of those shows where, if it started to make any kind of sense for two whole minutes in a row, you knew something had gone terribly wrong.

Rus

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

Angryrider — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:36:24 PDT

@PantherShade: The Internet Channel man, the Internet Channel.
Just a little longer for Doctor Who! woot!

If you've got to make a story about the circus, how could one forget to include the Master? Sigh...

Angryrider

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

PantherShade — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:29:39 PDT

Really, on what channel is Torchwood available in the US on Wednesday night? o.O

That's not a doubting question; I want to watch it too. :\

PantherShade

Endless Circus Of Pain, On Torchwood

nutmeag — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:13:45 PDT

I must say that this ep made me laugh (for its campiness) more than any other recently. This show seems to get more and more random as time goes on . . .

nutmeag