Calufrax

Story: Acting
Author: manyshadesoflove
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,391
Author's Summary: Torchwood may like to think it's a secret organisation, but there are people out there who know what they're about. Though there's got to be a reason so few do.
Characters/Pairings: Ianto Jones/Jack Harkness, Other Character(s)
Warnings: None, although the use of Retcon in interpersonal relationships is not to be condoned.

Recced because: I really like Torchwood, you know? As I may have mentioned during previous reccing runs, there was a time when I was a little leery of identifying myself as a Torchwood fan, because...well, it was a bit dodgy, wasn't it? As the years have passed, however, I've managed to be true to myself and own up to it, even embrace it. And I'm not even talking the classy stuff like Children of Earth. I liked Miracle Day. Yeah, you read right. Especially the plane episode. And as for "classic" TW, i.e. S1-2, well, I can't hold my hands up and claim every single episode is a work of genius...or even that good, in a lot of cases, but my fondness for the thing as a whole only increases as time goes by and it recedes into history, because I think at this point I would be very, very surprised if we ever got another telly series. That's a sad thought, isn't it?

So oldschool TW fics like this one, with mentions of Ianto and Tosh and the gang (even Owen!) appeal to my sense of nostalgia for the "classic" era. And this is a very likeable fic with an excellent narrative voice describing Team Torchwood and their activities from a wry informed outsider's p.o.v. It's also got a good handle on one of the central aspects of the "classic" TW setting, one which the show itself used to poke fun at with increasing regularity as time went on, namely the absurdity of trying to keep an organisation like theirs, with the situations it dealt with and the less-than-subtle people it employed, secret in a city of 300,000-odd people. Especially when the secret organisation's name was written on the side of their SUV...

And the way this fic deals with that issue makes a lot of sense and remains true to the spirit of the series, because of course while Torchwood's half-hearted attempts at secrecy were patently absurd, and the source of some good jokes, if the organisation wasn't secret that was a big part of the setting fatally undermined. They had to keep it up somehow, and this fic suggests how. And no, it goes beyond the liberal use of memory-erasing drugs. The way this fic suggests that the team managed their business also fits Torchwood Three's ethos as an organisation; they were always too cool for school, or certainly had a good go at trying to be.

In addition, this is a very strongly-written fic. As well as the wry viewpoint and voice mentioned above, it's also witty, funny and affectionate and just a little bit saucy too. Oh, and if you can identify which New Who episode the character revealed as the narrator of this fic appeared in, and know of his meta-connection to Ianto, then you're doing well. A super-fan, probably. ;)

By the way, this isn't the last Torchwood fic I'll be reccing over these two weeks. Not by a long shot.


( An Appetiser )