Dead Man Walking

TARDIS Coordinates: February 20, 2008

What would you do if you woke up dead?

There’s a line in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” where some of the superheroes are speculating on the nature of Thor’s hammer, and what sort of science is actually controlling who can pick it up. Iron Man couldn’t budge it; Captain America shifted it slightly, which unnerved Thor a bit; Stark points out that “if you put it on an elevator, elevator goes up; doesn’t mean the elevator’s worthy.”

It’s interesting watching them explore the physics of the hammer in a non-narrative sense, like asking why Clark Kent doesn’t just punch through the bottom of the crashing airplane. Logically, if he were applying all his force to the spot where his hands are, he’d just rip through the fuselage rather than support the entire superstructure.

Owen Harper is dead, killed by a bullet to the chest, because five guys with guns trained on the bad guy didn’t shoot first. (Watch the scene in “Reset” and tell me how contrived you think it is.) Unfortunately, Jack, being a prick, finds another Risen Mitten and rousts him again, ostensibly to get the codes to the morgue, though probably just because misery loves company.Doesn’t work quite the way he intended, though. Once up, Owen doesn’t go back down, even though he has no pulse, does not breathe (so how can he talk?), and all biological processes have stopped. His body is numb because his central nervous system doesn’t work, so he feels no pain. At the same time, nothing heals, so he’s fragile.

All right, fanboys and Internet forum critics; there’s your superpowers. Go.

Something brought Owen back, or at least is using him for a bridge between one world and the next; in a previous incursion, this creature was called “Death,” though stepping back a bit and seeing him in the context of other Torchwood monsters-of-the-week indicates that he’s pretty much just another in a long line of extradimensional uglies conceived and handled no more or less spectacularly than all the rest. Which is actually good; I like the idea of science bringing mythology down to size, or science fiction bringing fantasy to heel. I read an essay about “Ghostbusters” that indicated that the movie was more or less about science studying and classifying what we consider “paranormal,” about the good guys defeating the bad guys with research and physics instead of magic and superstition.

The Doctor once said that life is just nature’s way of keeping meat fresh; in that context, one can wonder whether Owen could rightly be classified as alive or not. The processes that keep his body alive are no longer functioning, but something is certainly keeping his meat fresh, and his mind is still functioning. Granted, dying probably sucked, and his overall frailty is probably no picnic – give him a hundred years and he’ll be a mass of scars and metal plates – but he’s still around to deal with the implications of who and what he is and what it means.

Viewers take note, as well – Martha Jones has been in two episodes of Torchwood so far, and has been a victim in both of them. This bodes not well, Maybe she should quit while she’s ahead. Or while she still has a head.