Torchwood: Miracle Day - All About Ianto?

One of the first things a writer (or a keen reader) realizes is that everything is autobiographical. Some writers wear this fact proudly; others like to hide it under layers and layers of distancing tricks; but the fact remains: a careful reader can always pick up the fictional threads that lead back to the writer's reality.

Digging through my favorite writers' heads is one of my favorite pastimes. As such, Russel T Davies has a wonderfully big one to roam around in. Brash, outspoken, confrontational, Davies wears his convictions on his sleeve, unapologetic about his radicalism. People (like myself) whose politics are in line with his might see him as an activist, a champion who screams the things too many people are afraid to whisper. Others wish he'd just shut the hell up.

Death By Torchwood, And The Rise Of The Queer Superhero

Few deaths have been more shocking to gay television viewers than that of Ianto Jones in this summer’s Torchwood: Children Of Earth. His death during the fourth night of the BBC miniseries created a huge backlash, none of which surprised me more than claims that Ianto’s demise was an expression of the show’s homophobia.

Created by Russel T Davies, an openly gay writer famous for the complex and empowering Queer As Folk (UK), and starring John Barrowman, who might just be the most boisterously “out” star in the industry, Torchwood has been a bastion of queer pride since its debut in 2006. It evokes a world where homophobia is so non-existent that labels “gay,” “straight,” and “bi” have become irrelevant.

So how does the death of one of TV’s few prominent queer characters involved in a same-sex relationship fit into the show’s socially progressive vision? To my mind, Ianto’s death, rather than being homophobic, serves as a marker on the continuing road to true gay empowerment – a road that has frequently been two steps forward and one step back.

Gay and lesbian characters on screen have gone through a long and difficult journey from invisibility and vilification to understanding and acceptance. This journey is by no means over: queer people all over the world are still fighting for the most basic forms of cultural recognition. But while queer visibility in the media is on the rise in the Europe and North America, the nature of this visibility – and its effects on queer viewers – are not always positive.

"The Death of Ianto Jones: The Point of Pointlessness" - the Space Channel

Did Torchwood creator Russel T. Davies make a mistake in expecting a certain level of maturity from his audience? After reading post after post full of verbal abuse (and sometimes even threats of bodily harm) in the wake of the tragic events of Torchwood: Children Of Earth, I had to chime in.

My brief rebuttal was picked up by the blog at the Space channel which carries the BBC hit Torchwood in Canada.

The death of Ianto Jones in the 4th episode of Children of Earth seems to have sent a few shippers off the deep end. And even to the uninitiated, the death might seem like a plothole: these people are professionals, this is what they do, so how can they not have a plan? But if you've followed Torchwood from the beginning, this should come as no surprise.

Read the rest at Space channel's blog.

Added on September 7th, 2009: Referring to Ianto Jones' contentious death during the September 4th Torchwood panel at DragonCon, Gareth David-Lloyd, the actor behind Ianto, said, "I thought it should be as unremarkable, as pointless as possible..."