Death By "Torchwood": Captain Jack, Ianto Jones, And The Rise Of The Queer Superhero

Yes!

This is why I am angry at COE. You explain it very well. To me, I enjoy what the writers have said at Comic Con 2008 and others interviews before COE. Yes, I going to see new progression of Jack & Ianto. When I watch day 1, I see there is something wrong and when Gwen talk with Lois, I know they going to kill Ianto and I was pissed off. I believe in season 1-2 Ianto was special to Jack. Finally COE show to me Ianto was just a toy for Harkness.

You explain my displeasure very well so thank you so much!

You're quite correct here F'losrix, and it underlines the problem.

It seems to me in a lot of the arguments here that a lot of the viewpoints interpreting the positive angle are focused primarily hypothetical aspects of Jack and Ianto's relationship that never actually happened onscreen.

This is the Canon verus Slash problem. Especially in the age of internet fanfic it's very easy to allow your imagination to build on the story that is actually shown onscreen and add embellishments that weren't really there. This is made worse by the fact that LGBT audiences are so starved for good characters and relationships on television that we may often forgive poor or mediocre depictions because we're so used to having to use our imaginations in a way that viewers rarely have to with straight characters and relationships.

But on the actual show a lot of Jack and Ianto's relationship is manifest only in dialogue, if it's there at all. Jack only falls in "love" with the real Captain Jack (who he literally knew would die the next day) or Ianto (to whom he could never actually say the words or even articulate his feelings). Jack's reminiscenses about other men are mostly tongue-in-cheek commentaries on his sexual adventures, usually intended to tease Gwen.

Was this progress? Not really. Ianto died tragically, just like gay characters were supposed to in old time media. Jack was never more of a caricature of a lusty bisexual playboy who is a largely incompetent "hero" who causes as much misery as he solves and who is so cold-heartedly pragmatic that he can kill his own grandson.

Hardly a role model of a person or a relationship. And thus, literally no progress at all.

I'll be surprised if RTD goes back to this. My impression is that he developed some kind of pathological hatred of Jack and/or Torchwood and just wanted to trash the whole thing in a ratings stunt. That frees him up to pursue other projects, and possibly use whatever street cred he gained to try and get gigs writing movies or something.

...which became all-too apparent over the course of Torchwood's run was his utter ineptitude in human resources matters. As I remember one blogger humourously complaining in a rant about Gwen - that's what HR consultants are for Jack!

I mean think about it. Owen, Tosh and Gwen all worked in useful fields (physician, engineer, police officer) but had no real experience in paranormal matters. Jack made them his core field team.

Ianto, alone of all of them, had prior experience working for Torchwood One and demonstrated that he was fairly handy around weevils and extinct prehistoric reptiles. So what does Jack assign him to? Coffee duty!

That Ianto was probably the most talented person out of the bunch was the true irony. After all, he not only managed to smuggle a huge cyber-conversion unit plus one woman in a cyber-bikini into the Hub, but he was also able to keep both functional right under everyone's noses for an unclear length of time, as well as bring in a foreign medical consultant (with admittedly unpleasant results). It truly impressed me the way this blue collar son of Wales was seemingly possessed of an intellect and skills to match, or exceed, everyone else in the Hub.

My impression was that Jack was opting for the same random recruitment policy that the Doctor practices. Of course, the Doctor's not running a government agency, is one of the most intelligent beings in the universe (and thus doesn't need much in the way of help) and is more or less keeping his companions as pets. Jack, however, is supposed to be running a global security franchise and (one would think) ought to have been putting a little more thought into staffing. Random recruitment based on looks is hardly sensible, especially when the human resource pool is running dangerously low.

Staffing issues abound at Torchwood Three. Yvonne over at Torchwood One had literally hundreds of employees in her enormous bosom. Jack, on the other hand, was so lazy when it came to staffing matters that he had a giant base that, at it's worst point, was staffed by a mere three people including himself! I have to wonder why the Queen never noticed the precipitous drop in the number of Torchwood paychecks she was signing.

Even cheesy, low-budget, 1960's Star Trek had a ship full of red shirts to at least perform the basic day-to-day operations (and die in every episode so that the main cast could live). But Jack believes in heavy workloads and multi-tasking. Hence his only doctor and computer technician also ran around chasing weevils with cans of mace. His only Torchwood veteran ran the coffee kiosk and handed out tourist brochures in the front office whose purpose beyond serving as a place for them to receive their takeout orders was never quite clear. Obviously this was a strictly amateur operation compared to other similar organizations.

Nowhere was this disparity more evident than in the respective cases of Dr Martha Jones MD of UNIT and Dr Owen Harper MD of Torchwood Three. When investigating the scene of suspected alien activity Dr Jones is assisted by a battalion of UNIT troops. In contrast, Dr Harper is reduced to personally chasing chavs through the back alleyways to shake them down for possible alien technology.

Presumably Jack, known for his sloth and general disinterest in administration, simply didn't want to be bothered with things like placement interviews and personnel reviews. This contributed the generally poor state of staffing at Torchwood Three. Heck, had the 456 not invaded he was just about to hire a doctor who was actually spy based (as near as I could tell) on the fellow's good looks.

Assuming the Queen is now senile enough to keep Gwen in charge, perhaps she'll rectify this matter, most likely by mass-hiring from the ranks of the Cardiff constabulary. She certainly has demonstrated a talent for giving them orders.

as the contents of this blog thread, it is hilarious!  Thanx for the link!

Aime-mois moins, mais aime-moi longtemps