(no subject)

[camwyn]

Saw the second episode of Torchwood last night.

I like the character I will refer to as Weaselboy. I can believe in him as a person. Gwen, on the other hand, is rather insulting as audience proxy; if they don't start letting her be a cop and using those abilities soon, she's gonna turn out to be the Ma-Ti to the rest of the team. Heart, the most singularly useless element.

"You've forgotten what it means to be human" only ever seems to get spoken by the least intelligent character on any given television program, have you noticed that? It's like the accusation of the anti-intellectual against the people who use their brains. Not that it's not called for sometimes, especially in the real world, but how come it's never anybody who displays actual smarts who says it?

Comments

[surexit.livejournal.com]

You are my braintwin, I will say, based on these brief observations. *grins*

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Agree with you. Gwen is supposed to be smart, and I expected her to be more involved in solving the problem using her more ordinary skills. I was a bit disappointed that she mostly stood there going 'huh?'

And I thought it would be nice if the whole 'lure out the alien and trap it in the thingy' had been her idea, and she knew Jack was going to pull out that thingy.

I love Owen.

[parke-matru.livejournal.com]

Mai-Ti had the mind control ring. So, totally apt analogy -- good ability, but it's not really used by the writers.

And I think that "You've forgotten what it means to be human" isn't said by the smarter characters because . . . well, frankly, I look at humanity and sometimes feel that I'd be better off not associating with the standards the species has set.

[mm_madb]

My theory has been that the writers attempt to use "You've forgotten what it means to be human" and other, similar, phrases as a hook. They realize that somewhere along the line they lost that character's connection with the more intellectual audience, and think that if they toss a piece of emotional wisdom out that the character will seem to have a lot more relevance; you can't dismiss them as "stupid" because they're the character who is supposed to connect with the species as a whole.

...I'm not entirely certain that I made sense, there. Hi, 8am!

[bodldops.livejournal.com]

I think she's oddly like Jo Grant. I actually had to go look up the name of the guy she married (who is Welsh) to make sure she's not their daughter or something. Same ability to hold a job where you're supposedly intelligent while saying the daftest things.

Weaselboy rules all. Except maybe for the kid that drives them all around.

"... And he looks good in a suit."
"Careful sir." *smirk* "That's harrassment."

[mm_madb]

The computer here at work can't handle AIM. No Java installed, alas. However, I do have e-mail (TwinTailKitsune (at) gmail.com) and (obviously) LJ.

[quintus.livejournal.com]

I'll be interested to see if Gwen smartens up a little in upcoming episodes. In fairness, I would imagine that a fair chunk of her less than sharpness could be laid at the door of a huuuuge dose of "Out of context problems". She's a fairly bright person (but still only a uniform copper, albeit one with prospects) but it's her first day in a secondment where she's dealing with aliens, monsters in the cellar and close proximity to Captain Jack Harkness (Now, there's many a woman and more than a few men who might find their IQ dropping a few points being in the same room as that chap).

"You've forgotten what it means to be human" can be lame, but it's pretty similar to the sort of thing my old Etherite used to say to other Magi when he thought they were too wrapped up in their work to appreciate human consequences.