Post Mortem Ante Meridian
Officer 565 is down, but not out. Like the famous bunny, he just keeps going and going and… sigh. Everything character based with Owen has now been neutered so why are we still suffering him? Does Burn have an unbreakable contract or something? His dramatic death has been completely undercut, so now his death status is just going to be a “fixture” of Torchwood that will be referenced occasionally… yep, he’s become the pterodactyl.
This raises the question of why? What’s the point? Why is he still around? The arc only has real impact if there is lasting influence, and his death and Martha being around now has no impact. If Owen had died and stayed dead, that would have been something, but no. If Martha had been killed, that would have meant something (extreme outrage from the fans for one…), but she was sidelined.
Has this whole three parter been as relevant as Random Shoes? Plotwise, no, as this arc was actually about the Torchwood team. But character-wise, it appears so. Stuff happened, but let’s move on and never talk about it again. Torchwood series two has built up some great character development, and I was really liking it, but now it’s just gone to crud. Hopefully the back five will pick up again.
But, hey, Richard Briers! Yay! Let us speak no more about Paradise Towers, as seeing him in this made for the one bright point in the otherwise doom-laded script (Joseph Lidster does seem incapable of writing anything else), and he gives a lovely performance that actually makes you like the character despite the sparse three minutes he’s on screen. I’d ask for more of him, but that might be a bit tricky (although we have now proved that death doesn’t stop anyone from staying the series…). But he is so wonderful he made it into the Declassified and we hear him talk about the part… go Richard Briers! (And the Declassified also features the Owen vs Cardiff Bay scene cut to a new soundtrack that’s just begging to be fleshed out into a YouTube video.)
Ugh. The arc is over, for all it doesn’t matter. Let us move on and try to forget about this period in our lives…
JE
March 8th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Hmm, I think you hit the nail on the head last review Mr J. Owen has become Thomas Covenant. That whole bit where it is carefully explained to him that he can’t feel or fix any damage is vintage halfhand stuff…
And they got me thinking that before the perminant dressing and dodgy digits.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Why hasn’t Owen started to decompose yet? If he’s not eating or drinking, what’s he using for energy?
March 10th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
As for the decomposition – Owen, your best friends wouldn’t tell you…
Energy – some exotic form of Rift energy, failing that he is running on coverting the power of Tosh’s unrequited love… aww.
Owen does have the best line ever in Torchwood though. From the audiobook “everybody says hello”:
Torchwood – outside the government, beyond the police, and up it’s own a**e
April 1st, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Hey, it wasn’t too bad. Martha was a complete waste – apart from having her in the episode 6, she was pointless in 7 & 8. Oh well, I guess it gets difficult when there are 6 main characters to juggle versus the Doctor and one companion. Not the best episode but I stop short of saying it was complete crap.