Last night we went to see Cheri which I thought was uneven and minor and at it's best when it was amusing. Good performances, though. Then we had a nice dinner and headed home. Less of an exciting night than we had hoped (we'd had tickets for a party on a boat that got canceled) and I've been just exhausted lately as I recover from this cold, but it was still very nice.
TORCHWOOD HAS (we think) BEEN RENEWED FOR S4 (this is possibly confirmed; this is possibly unconfirmed (see comments). I think it's unconfirmed officially, I think I now have it from a source other than that article (which is unconfirmed) most of us first got it from, so kinda, sorta, maybe, but not quite? ANYWAY). This is scary if we move immediately forward in the timeline, as the show will have to be emotionally responsible in a way it hasn't always been in the past. Ianto and Stephen are both things that have to get acknowledged, probably more than a little, no matter how much Jack compartimentalizes stuff. And I hope the powers that be understand how even something very small and not explored, such as a moment of seeing Jack at Ianto's grave or something, would go a long way to appeasing folks all over the spectrum of reactions to Ianto's death. If S4 takes place further down the timeline -- even if it's still 2010 for the setting -- if it's 5 years or a 100 years later for Jack (an idea which makes a lot of sense to deal with the fact that Barrowman is aging), even if he's done processing those events in an immediate way... the audience is still going to need something there. So who knows what's going to happen. But I for one, who could really use seeing Jack allow himself a moment of grace, am glad it's happening.
From the department of funny, but not okay: I just caught myself in 3/4 profile in the bathroom mirror at work and my hair is all shaggy and grown out and curling right now and I was like "woah, I could totally cosplay Alice." And I could. And it would be eerie. But talk about things from the department of no way on earth. More incentive to get my hair cut before WriterCon. Christ, that was weird.
Am not enjoying the current fluxiness of Dragon*Con schedule, both in terms of where I am needed when and whether it will conflict with stuff I really want to see. And I need to set up some actual meetings this year. It's like everyone has 50% of their schedule and has been told that it's probably wrong -- so it's like trying to read tea leaves to figure out if it's a good schedule or a bad schedule.
I won't care if CoE doesn't get addressed in Who if we have vagueness about where we are in the timeline.
That said, clearly no one at BBC thinks much about dates, because no only is the timeline for Torchwood wonked beyond all (that's not including any timey-wimey, but just linearly when it's supposed to be happening), some idiot had a prop newspaper on Day 2 of CoE that dated the day as September 9th. Which means Ianto died on September 11th. And yes, days are just days, but I live in New York, and I'm waiting for fandom to get stupid about this, and I don't want that.
If there is vagueness, it'd be okay. But Jack is probably post-CoE in the next Who specials, so there are still questions.
Oh. They actually did it? O.o It's really very not cool of those people in prop department. Fnadom can get stupid over almost everything, and I sometimes feel a bit ashamed of them, really.
I honestly think the prop newspaper thing was just a random bit of sloppiness that no one thought about, and I'm not offended by it so much as I'm like *headdesk*. It's honestly, almost funny. But oi!
I can't help thinking that this is stretching matters to make things US-centric. In the UK Day 2, which begins with the remnants of the team dragging themselves bloodily out of the crater caused by a large explosion in a UK capital city, aired on 7 July 2009, the fourth anniversary of the London bombings. But obviously no-one would dream of considering that offensive, not when there might be a possible reference to September 11 for fans to get upset about.
Generally programs have some poor intern do searches on dates and names used int he program to make sure they aren't using names/dates with history etc that could be distracting. To me, this counts as distracting. But as I said above, I don't actually care, beyond my concern that someone in fandom is going to try to start some Internet campaign or other about "Remembering Ianto on 9/11!" or calling this fandom's 9/11 or something else that will make me have to yell.
I appreciate frustrations with the US always thinking everything is all about them, as it's often legitimate. But I'd also appreciate if you could understand that 9/11 happened where I live and that I spent weeks of my life smelling the burning towers and listening to the relatives who had lined up to provide DNA samples wail in the streets because I happened to live by the family center at the time. I appreciate this is not a topic I'm necessarily capable of being rational about, but I also think I'm ever so vaguely entitled.
My city was blown up by the IRA in 1996, fortunately without loss of life but with enormous pain and disruption nonetheless, so I do have sympathy with where you're coming from here (having said that, I've had somewhat frustrating on-line conversations - post 2001 - with New Yorkers who have boasted about their support for the IRA, which have left me going, "Only connect, fuckwit, only connect.")
Oi.... yeah. New York is a strange beast anyhow, in terms of our politics and our cluefulness (or, as evidenced by your example, lack there of). One of the things that's so strange is the degree to which there's still this collective injury from what happened here, but so many people moved away after (and then so many more moved in because things got cheaper or they finally saw NYC as American or whatever) that we have the collective injury, but not the collecting healing or awareness. It's very fucked.
Anyway, returning to the original topic, I'm not 100% sure that both the 7/7 day for the showing of Day 2 and dating of Ianto's death are necessarily the product of BBC carelessness as opposed to some misguided notion of thematic relevance. I'm normally a cock-up not conspiracy theorist, but they've played silly buggers before with screening dates; for example, Small Worlds went out on 12 November, the day after Remembrance Day, and has an opening scene with scattered khaki-clad dead soldiers in khaki strewn with what we later learn are rose petals but which certainly looked like poppies at first glance, and that certainly gave me a mental "ouch" moment at the time.
9/11 happened to everyone, just not as much, so the U.S. can be absolved of thinking that it's al about them in this instance, although I really don't see how it could NOT be about them. File under insensitive sloppiness. However, trying to make 9/11 about something other than 9/11 is just-just-just-ARRRRRRRHG!
a prop newspaper on Day 2 of CoE that dated the day as September 9th
Where do we see that? The copy of The Times that Ianto picks up is clearly dated "Wednesday September 2009"; the exact date is unspecified. While it's true that one of the Wednesdays in September this year is the 9th, there are four others. Later, Clem looks at the Daily Voice, which has no date that I can see. Did I miss something?
Agreed. I've got screenshots of both prop newspapers, the Times and Daily Mirror, shown in day 2 and day 3 andboth are dated "Wednesday September 2009" despite appearing on consecutive days. Longer explanation about timing posted in comments to the next post, but as a theory to date Ianto's death it doesn't work at all (you can't see the date on Johnnie's racing newspaper, either).
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Date: 2009-07-26 03:59 pm (UTC)That said, clearly no one at BBC thinks much about dates, because no only is the timeline for Torchwood wonked beyond all (that's not including any timey-wimey, but just linearly when it's supposed to be happening), some idiot had a prop newspaper on Day 2 of CoE that dated the day as September 9th. Which means Ianto died on September 11th. And yes, days are just days, but I live in New York, and I'm waiting for fandom to get stupid about this, and I don't want that.
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Date: 2009-07-26 04:20 pm (UTC)Oh. They actually did it? O.o It's really very not cool of those people in prop department.
Fnadom can get stupid over almost everything, and I sometimes feel a bit ashamed of them, really.
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Date: 2009-07-26 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 06:34 pm (UTC)I appreciate frustrations with the US always thinking everything is all about them, as it's often legitimate. But I'd also appreciate if you could understand that 9/11 happened where I live and that I spent weeks of my life smelling the burning towers and listening to the relatives who had lined up to provide DNA samples wail in the streets because I happened to live by the family center at the time. I appreciate this is not a topic I'm necessarily capable of being rational about, but I also think I'm ever so vaguely entitled.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 01:28 am (UTC)File under insensitive sloppiness.
However, trying to make 9/11 about something other than 9/11 is just-just-just-ARRRRRRRHG!
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Date: 2009-07-26 06:06 pm (UTC)Oh Christ, I'm glad I never put that together. I did notice during day 2 that we were near 9/11 but forgot about it shortly thereafter.
:(
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Date: 2009-07-26 10:07 pm (UTC)Where do we see that? The copy of The Times that Ianto picks up is clearly dated "Wednesday September 2009"; the exact date is unspecified. While it's true that one of the Wednesdays in September this year is the 9th, there are four others. Later, Clem looks at the Daily Voice, which has no date that I can see. Did I miss something?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 08:05 pm (UTC)