Torchwood and the Idiot Plot
Aug. 21st, 2011 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susanreadsThe Torchwood crew have always had periods of less-than-competence. Torchwood is not ready. If this is Earth's last line of defence, we're dooooomed.
In this series, various protagonists have behaved in variously silly ways, not always with as good an excuse as being new to undercover and not trained for this. There's also things that needed an explanation that they didn't get: whether the bad guys are using infiltration, mind control, or blackmail, how did they get at ALL governments? Rex's theory about the reason for the camps is superficially plausible, but is at odds with the original problem: if you want to get rid of surplus populations, you don't start by creating a whole new one, and the "miracle" is a hell of a sledgehammer as an excuse for martial law; the US Govt. (possibly the only one Rex is thinking of) could find one a lot more easily.
But now it's not just the people that are being idiots. Dr Patel says something to give Gwen an excuse for a rant ... which reveals that the whole conspiracy about the Modules does.not.work. If Dr Patel knows, all the medical personnel know, in all the camps. The NHS is over-stretched; they have not selected only the already-compromised and people with vulnerable relatives who can be threatened with re-classification. There's been no apparent attempt to close down the internet (Torchwood expects to use it to Tell Everyone); even if the British camps are in places without mobile phone coverage, the staff still get to go home at the end of a shift, don't they? They do in San Pedro, until that nasty little man pulls his stunt. So: this is going to be all over the internet five minutes after someone connects to an anonymous proxy. It doesn't take Torchwood to do it.
Then Gwen blows the place up, with no apparent means or opportunity (and aren't there people in there?); Rex makes the same mistake as Vera with even less excuse ... there'd better be some payoff at the end of this that isn't just more explosions.
In this series, various protagonists have behaved in variously silly ways, not always with as good an excuse as being new to undercover and not trained for this. There's also things that needed an explanation that they didn't get: whether the bad guys are using infiltration, mind control, or blackmail, how did they get at ALL governments? Rex's theory about the reason for the camps is superficially plausible, but is at odds with the original problem: if you want to get rid of surplus populations, you don't start by creating a whole new one, and the "miracle" is a hell of a sledgehammer as an excuse for martial law; the US Govt. (possibly the only one Rex is thinking of) could find one a lot more easily.
But now it's not just the people that are being idiots. Dr Patel says something to give Gwen an excuse for a rant ... which reveals that the whole conspiracy about the Modules does.not.work. If Dr Patel knows, all the medical personnel know, in all the camps. The NHS is over-stretched; they have not selected only the already-compromised and people with vulnerable relatives who can be threatened with re-classification. There's been no apparent attempt to close down the internet (Torchwood expects to use it to Tell Everyone); even if the British camps are in places without mobile phone coverage, the staff still get to go home at the end of a shift, don't they? They do in San Pedro, until that nasty little man pulls his stunt. So: this is going to be all over the internet five minutes after someone connects to an anonymous proxy. It doesn't take Torchwood to do it.
Then Gwen blows the place up, with no apparent means or opportunity (and aren't there people in there?); Rex makes the same mistake as Vera with even less excuse ... there'd better be some payoff at the end of this that isn't just more explosions.
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Date: 2011-08-22 09:41 am (UTC)