Torchwood Radio Play 3/3 : The Dead Line (SPOILERS)

[talkingtothesky]

Right, it has taken me this long to get my thoughts about this one more or less straight in my head. I’ll try not to ramble on too much.

 

Things I liked about this play:

 

1) Stella Courtney – a nice contrast to Estelle, in that she knew about Jack’s immortality and Torchwood, rather than being kept in the dark all those years, thinking she had known Jack’s dad rather than him, etc. Plus I really liked her voice, very soothing. And personally, I find neuroscience fascinating, so I liked her speech about billions of different neurons firing like a thunderstorm, etc.

 

2)The way it was told, with the telephone call at the beginning and then going back to explain how it happened, it created a really effective opening, and I think I just have a thing for stories that tell you stuff out of sequence anyway, I’m weird like that.

 

3) The ticking noise on the phone line reminded me of the Clockwork Droids from DW The Girl in the Fireplace – really creepy.

 

4) Some Jack and Gwen interaction, but not shippy (the museum chic conversation – I love Gwen’s “Erm…of course, yeah…” regarding Jack’s fashion sense.)

 

5) Jack’s a seventies fan! LOL.

 

6) Gwen/Rhys interaction, and Gwen doing her bit (explaining a link at a time, police strategy, I LOVE Gwen being a cop), Rhys throwing up, because that’s really human and shows he’s not just stepping up immediately without any nerves whatsoever.

 

7) Clever way to show how dependent we are on mobiles. “It connects the whole country, the whole world!” Quite a creepy concept, and a nice setup for CoE, because that’s about how quickly civilization could collapse as well.

 

8) Rhys saying he’s paying Jack back for saving his life. I like that there’s a grudging respect growing between those two now.

 

9) Ianto’s speech was really touching. I don’t need to say anything more about that because everyone’s done it to death already. We got the shippy stuff we’ve been waiting for, finally. Very sweet, and well played GDL.

 

Things I didn’t like about this play:

 

1) “Maybe they’ll tell me the secret.” Jack. Is an idiot. WTF?

 

2) Ianto being too clingy. I was kinda disappointed in him for not going with Gwen and doing something practical to help. Or maybe that’s just because I prefer action!Ianto to weepy!Ianto.

 

3) I’m really, really sad that all the Jack/Gwen seems to have disappeared now. I know Jack/Ianto makes sense on so many levels, but I really just love this pairing to death and don’t want to see it disappear, they’ve spent too much time building it up for it to just vanish now. L I miss my Jack/Gwen fix! *cries*

 

4) That’s the second time now that Ianto’s just saved the day, seemingly out of nowhere. If that keeps up, it could get very boring, very quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Ianto; I just think he can sometimes be a little overrated in fandom and we don’t need canon to add to that.

 

Quotes:

 

1)     “Left on hold to his bank probably – I’ve found myself slipping under before now.” LOL. Ianto gets the best lines, again.

 

2)     “Believe me, we never give up on anything, so don’t you give up on Bob.” Hmm. Not sure how true that statement will be come CoE, though. (On the trailers, it says that TW falls on the second day. So much for not giving up.)

 

3)     “Hey, hang on, you rung me on the phone to tell me not to use the phone?” I heart Rhys. And this exchange was some really cool dialogue. If I could write snappy dialogue half as good as that, I’d be over the moon.

 

4)     “You should’ve seen me in my platforms and five-inch lapels, wahoo!” Now there’s an image.

 

5)     “This on the other hand-“ “Is a piece of paper.” Ianto, again. Stop being so awesome, damnit!

 

6)     “…And phones are apparently such a danger to life, limb and sanity, camping out in the Bay seemed like the best bet for finding you and asking you what the hell is going on!?” More Rhys love.

 

7)     “That’s you and me, Rhys. Team Torchwood.” “Does that mean I get a gun like yours?” Gwen/Rhys team FTW!

 

8)     “No-one in Torchwood ever lives to draw their pension, do they?” Now, this. This is what worries me. I’ve been trying to avoid S3 spoilers for the most part, but I’ve heard the rumour going round that Ianto’s going to get killed off this season, and suddenly this part of his speech sounds like a clever bit of foreshadowing. We’ve already had Frieda in Asylum tell Gwen she should have a kid, and we’ve also heard that Gwen gets the news that she’s pregnant in Ep 5 (okay, so I’ve heard more spoilers than I would have liked to! Sorry!), so that’s foreshadowing there. It’s not too much of a stretch to think they’re doing it here, too. I hope not, though.

 

9)     “Thank you for seeing us, Mr. Tyler.” LOL. LoM and/or Rose reference FTW.

 

10)  “Now stop messing us about and tell us what we wanna know, yeah?” Rhys doing his cop routine. Hilarious. :D

 

This one was better than the first two, by miles. Not just because of the shippy stuff, though I’m sure that’ll be a major factor in a lot of people’s decisions. I did comment on the reaction post saying that it was better even than Lost Souls, and I think in terms of how well the plot had been thought through, it was. But Lost Souls had lots of Gwen/Ianto and “Mr and Mrs. Ambassador for Wales” and I think I might just have to award Lost Souls and The Dead Line joint first place because I loved Lost Souls too much. Having said that, I haven’t listened to Lost Souls since September (though I desperately want to), so I could be wrong.

 

Comments

[sadera992.livejournal.com]

i have to strongly disagree with your gwack views. I'm SOOOOO glad there wasn't any, and i really hope there is no more. EVER.

ianto is awesome with his awesome lines :)

i hadn't really read much about CoE, but now you made me cry with fear of losing ianto! NOO!

(lom icon, teehee)

[talkingtothesky]

That's okay, you're entitled to your opinion. :)

Well, there were rumours that he was gonna get killed off in S2 (and he kinda was, until RTD changed his mind and gave that storyline to Owen instead), so it could just be a reoccurring nonsense. Let's hope so, eh?

I wish I still had my LoM icons, lol. I need more icon spaces. :P

[sadera992.livejournal.com]

lol! yea, i have that trouble... damn only 15 spaces!

and yea, lets hope so!

[shadings.livejournal.com]

You are awesome and make really fantastic points! :D I totally forgot that bit where JACK'S A COMPLETE MORON. Dude. I was like, SERIOUSLY, JACK, DON'T DO IT. YOU'VE LIVED TWO THOUSAND YEARS, OKAY, YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THIS. But no! He clearly doesn't! Ack.

Stella was great. (: Although really, this gets me wondering more and more about Jack's past lovers. Why tell Stella but not Estelle? I get the vibe that Estelle was more important to him than Stella... It's a little weird.

I don't have much of a problem with Ianto saving the day. Well... there are only three Torchwood members left now. One of them has to, and Ianto was so overshadowed in S1 (and even a bit in S2) that this makes up for it. I'd probably start to get annoyed if this continues though.

I think I like this a slight bit more than Lost Souls, but I don't know. Lost Souls was a bit more fun to listen to... :|

[talkingtothesky]

JACK'S A COMPLETE MORON Well, exactly. I couldn't believe he'd just done that. 'Hello, I'm Jack Harkness' - wth, Jack, you can't reason with it, it's an electrical signal! It's not going to quake at the mention of your name and then spill all its secrets to you!

Jack met Estelle during wartime, didn't he? So maybe he wasn't working so closely for TW at that point. Or maybe he loved her so much he just didn't want her damaged by that world. Or perhaps Stella was just cleverer, lol. IDK.

[cryssiemarsters.livejournal.com]

You make good points, and I agree with you in many.

I still don't like Ianto's clinginess, and you're right about Ianto saving the day being boring, so I hope he doesn't turn all superhero in S3.
oooh, I liked the DW references too!! :) the clocks and Mr Tyler LOL

Though the major Jantoness in the 3rd radio play and the previews of S3, and many fans wishing Gwen and her connection to Jack to hell, I DO HOPE THAT JACK/GWEN IS NOT OVER. While there was hardly any signs of a possible J/I ship in S1, there were lots of J/G there, which just can't vanish so easily.

As for Ianto in S3, even if he is killed off, I'm sure he will be brought back in S4 - if there's any - as he has too much fans out there. I'm not among them so I could easily deal with his death (ooooh how many hostile looks I have just earned with this comment, uh-ohh! :D ).

On the serious side, your point with the phones is just freaking frightening. If you think about it, we're surrounded with machines run on electricity, technology that connects us with each other (email, phone networks, TV networks) and we're depending on every day (hospitals, security stuff, transport etc), so even the bare thought of all these easily becoming a target of those on the dark side and then used against us... omg, that's more than frightening! Seemingly we can't live without electricity, so anyone messing with that field... *gulps*

[talkingtothesky]

I DO HOPE THAT JACK/GWEN IS NOT OVER So do I, so do I! *hugs*

See, this is what TW does best. It's a fun scifi romp with added sex and innuendo, but it also does serious social commentary. Not sure how we're supposed to make ourselves less vulnerable to that sort of attack, though...