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More Torchwood stuff - The Twilight Streets 'review'

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:15:42 GMT

Some things I’ve learn from The Twilight Streets and some thoughts about the book. This can also serve as a summary of points for those who don’t want to read it but want to know the general points and how the fit into what’s shown on screen.

Especially those who ship Jack/Ianto & Owen/Tosh.

Warning: There is a whole lot of writing here, mostly quotes from the book. But it should serve its purpose to inform and educate on what you’ll miss if you don’t read the book!

This is more or less a summary of my favourite lines with some of my thoughts behind them. I read the book over the past two days, and I’m sure I’ve missed out some significant things, but these are the parts I found interesting. I tend to focus on human interaction rather than action or the big picture. Be warned.

The only thing you really need to know about the book before starting is that between the story happening, there is a storyline of the future running alongside the action that is happening in the book. This future storyline is what is going to happen is the Torchwood team to not defeat the ‘dark and light’ forces that are this stories ‘big bad’.

The Twilight Streets on Gwen’s home town
“Ooh, get the girl from Swansea and her posh English” [pg 167]
Gwen is from Swansea, as was suggested by her parents in Something Borrowed: “ Swansea’s not another planet.”

The Twilight Streets on Jack’s wartime conquests
“Jack’s heart raced slightly at seeing Greg. It always did. He was dark-haired, blue-eyed (oh God, such beautiful eyes), cheekbones you could rest a coffee mug on and a toothy smile that had greeted Jack on more than one occasion as the sun rose.
Greg was the only reason Jack did anything for Torchwood these days. And he was a damn good reason.” [pg 10-11]
- Jack was a Torchwood freelancer during his earlier days? That’s a really nice idea.
- Greg, oh Greg. 70-odd years later and Jack’s still shagging the tea-boy. Nothing changes. I do really like the idea of the only reason Jack does anything for Torchwood is because of Greg. And when he returns from the trip from the Doctor, he says that he ‘Came back for you… looking at Ianto. Of course, you can see it the other way, that Ianto is just another in a long line of lower Torchwood staff for Jack to get his teeth into.

The Twilight Streets on dating
“…you’re in a cheery mood tonight. Weren’t we going on a date at some point? No offices, no roofs, right?”[pg 44]
As with the first series of books, the relationship with Ianto and Jack is mirrored between the books and the programme. Where the first series had suggestive flirting to mirror the subtleties in the first series. The second series of books mirrors the more overt relationship between the two. And references to things that have happened in the series make me squee, a lot.

The Twilight Streets on Jack and Ianto’s feelings
“Jack stared at his friend. Confidante, Team Mate. Lover? Well..” [pg 44] “His love for Jack had brought him back…” [pg 199]
The great thing about books is that you can hear the characters inner thoughts. This is incredibly interesting, as with the programme you can’t (unless the writers are going to go all Greeks Bearing Gifts on us every week!). So Jack’s thoughts about Ianto, we know he cares about him, but he is erring over whether to refer to him as a lover. Yet Ianto is brought back from his ‘trance’ by his love for Jack. How you see this is up to you.

The Twilight Streets on Jack’s timeline
I cannot find the quote for this, but during the few days that Jack was on the rift in the TARDIS with Rose and The Doctor, he kept Torchwood under lock-down and didn’t allow himself or any of his team to go outside in case they were to see his earlier self.

The Twilight Streets on his own ego and retcon
“Idris gasped. “My God, for the first time I just realised, I could’ve had sex with you that night - that’s what you wanted. And if your pill had worked, I’d have never known”
“Oh I think no pill is strong enough to completely erase the memory of me in bed” Jack laughed.” [pg 83 & 346]
The Idris/Jack dynamic is so interesting there is obviously massive sexual appeal between them. Plus win! for Jack’s ego. Also, the idea that retcon only works on 800,000, seems a little risky to me. Especially as we’ve seen, sometimes they have to wipe out the memories of entire rooms of people.

The Twilight Streets on jealousy
At this point in the story, in order to enable Torchwood to save the day someone must absorb the darkness that is inside Tosh and Owen to be able to free them. Idris takes this role
““There’s a flaw,” Ianto said. “Idris knows our plan too. If the dark can read Bilis’s mind, it could certainly read a weaker one like Idris’s.” He glanced at Idris, “No offence,” he said without sincerity”
“Equally untruthfully, Idris replied, “None taken.”
Jack looked at the young men, “Boys, don’t squabble over Uncle Jack, it’s not very becoming.”” [pg 234-235]
Awwww at Ianto getting all protective of Jack. The tension between Jack and Idris is obvious and Ianto is staking his claim here. Very cute.

The Twilight Streets on whether Ianto likes Abba
“[Gwen] was gratified to learn when they were at uni that [Rhys] wasn’t a great fan of Abba, since men at uni who were Abba fans tended not to be interested in Gwen. Or women generally. “Do you like Abba?” she found herself asking Ianto. As non sequiturs went, it was a good one.
He looked at her, “Is this going to lead to a ‘Jack’ conversation?”
“No”
“Fine. Then I admire the Anderson/Ulvaeus writing partnership as craftsmen and songsmiths. I believe ‘One Of Us’ may be the best song ever written about relationship break-ups ever, and I have a soft spot foe the fusion of witty-lyrical content and poptastic dancability of ‘Voulez-Vous’ but let me make this absolutely clear: I bloody loathe ‘Dancing Queen’ alright?”
Gwen stopped waking and just looked at him.
“What?”
“You’ve had this conversation before, haven’t you?”
“Might have.” ….
“Who?” she started walking again. “Come on, I might die tonight never knowing”
“Me mam”
“Awww. When she found out about Jack?
“When I was fourteen.”
Gwen stopped again. “I dunno which scares me more - that your mam worked you out ten years before you did…”
Ianto stopped suddenly, “She didn’t ‘work me out,’ Gwen. No one has. And I they ever do, I’ll let you know.”
Gwen smiled, nudged his arm, ‘Oh come on, smile. Lisa, Jack… being bisexual is hardly a crime. Best of both worlds, isn’t it?”” [pg 125-126]
I love this exchange, despite the fact that it could have been copied and pasted out of some sub-par fanfiction. The reason I love it is that it’s canon! (at least book canon) and listening to Abba makes you gay. Duh! There’s more to it, but I don’t want to get in trouble for copying whole sections from the book, I’m not too sure about copyrite laws. So I’m leaving it at that length. It’s a lovely exchange, even if Ianto does get pissed off by the end of it.
Oh! And Ianto’s 24! (14+10) That’s nice.

The Twilight Streets on Jack and Ianto’s bedroom antics
““How bloody primitive is this,” Jack muttered, “A hundred years of alien tech, and it looks like Ianto’s jump-starting the SUV.”
“Oh, the SUV never needs jump-starting,” Ianto retorted.
Jack grinned, “I have an image in my head of you with jump leads and a pole. I was saying SUV to save Gwen’s blushes.”” [pg 240]
Jump leads and a pole, another thing to add to the list of items Jack and Ianto use in bedroom activities… stopwatch, tape measures, hockey sticks, jump leads and a pole…

The Twilight Streets on the alternate future
““Owen sat there, a smile on his face that he didn’t feel. And looked at Toshiko.
And instinctively though of the box in his flat, in the empty, deactivated fridge that no-one ever opened. A box with a ring in it.” [pg 178]
“She’d walked across the Hub from the water tower and straight up to Owen, pulling him to her and kissing him, hard. “Is that proof enough, Owen?” she’d said as she eased away from him, “I’ve always said it’s you, your heart, your should I want”” [pg 193]
Arhhhhh! Why, oh why does this have to be an alternate future that they’ll end up never having? I want Tosh/ Owen like this. Right now please. I do love the little nods to past episodes though, the fact that Owen is still dead (although Anakin Skywalker style metal hand ftw!).

friends shaking hands, saying: "how do you do?"

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More Torchwood stuff - The Twilight Streets 'review'