Monday, August 8, 2011

Torchwood : Miracle Day

Hi All,
As you may have noticed I'm a bit of a Torchwood fan (Yes, I'm still hoping that someone will give me a life size Captain Jack). The latest series is Miracle Day, and I'm five episodes into the story.



I have to say that the latest development in the story is quite disturbing. Aside from the fact that so far there have been no aliens (perhaps due to the series shifting to the US)...They have chosen to turn the whole world into a Nazi Death Camp. I feel quite sick as I contemplate where they hope to take the story. Certainly the storyline of experimenting on humans or aliens has been covered in the past, and the parallels have been drawn between Joseph Mengele and other scientific experimenters. But do we actually need to take things one step further into the horrors of our past? To actually put people into a gas chamber and just incinerate them. Surely this is taking things a step too far? The Second World War and the atrocities that were perpetrated then, are not so distant in the memories of the survivors and their children.  What they are trying to say could surely be extrapolated from a less explicit storyline.


Part of what I have found appealing about Torchwood, and Dr Who, is the exploration of our humanity and ability to respectfully apply those rights to beings that are foreign to us. I realise that part of that is facing the times that we have acted inhumanely towards each other...the act of holding a mirror up to see ourselves in a clearer light. My point is that in the past we have been given enough food for thought without having to make direct references.


Certainly I've read enough Sci-Fi, to have covered most of the post-apocalyptic terrors...and each time it has made me more concious about how I treat the people I come into contact with, and more determined to support equal rights for all. I'm not convinced that being force fed issues, leads to that self realisation. I would have thought that it is in our personal interpretations of the storyline, and the application of what we have discovered about ourselves, that works to make the world a better place.


I could turn off and not watch Torchwood, and thus put an end to my pain. I would miss the characters I've come to know and love. There is always the promise of knowing the outcome to try and keep me tuned in; I also know that eventually right will win, and the power of the people will turn against the corporation perpetrating the evil, thus theoretically my world balance ought to have been restored. It's all part of the formula...make us believe that we are capable of the worst, give us an option to do right, and then reassure us that the world will be a better place afterwards...oh and don't forget the scapegoat, without one we might actually have to live with the knowledge that it was our fault after all.

I will continue to watch, just because I'm a sucker. I just wont like what I'm viewing...but hey I watch some of the trashiest horrors made on abysmal low budgets. I will continue to miss the strong characters, the moving music, and the more thoughtful story lines that the original Torchwood had. Hopefully things will improve, the only other alternative is that they die.


My raised ire will over the insensitivity of the storyline will eventually dissipate, and I hope that not too many are offended by it in the mean time. I may of course feel the need reiterate my concern over the dumbing down and force feeding of historical atrocities at a later date.

Kate 

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