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So after struggling through the first season of “Torchwood”–this would be Russell T. Davies’s Doctor Who spinoff, featuring Captain Jack Harkness and his team of alien-hunting special ops–I approached episode one of series 2, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” with a wary and world-weary eye. Then, as Jack and Hart strode toward each other across the floor of that very long, narrow bar, I said to myself: “Yeah, yeah. First, they kiss; then they beat the shit out of each other.”
Et voila.
And then a funny thing happened. I disapprove of violence in general and violence in the context of sexual/romantic relationship in particular. And yet, as the blows rained down, I found myself perking up and saying, “That’s EXACTLY what this show needed! Enemies slash!”
I am, as I believe I have mentioned, old. Back when I started writing slash in the 1990s, none of us ever believed we had a shot at seeing an actual m/m pairing actually become canon on a major network TV show. Of course this was partly because I was at the time in the Star Trek fandom, and everyone involved in producing Next Generation and Deep Space Nine seemed to have taken some kind of blood oath in which they swore that they would never suggest that the utopian future contained identifiably gay human beings. But my point is: Torchwood, whatever else might be wrong with it, was not afraid to go there. In fact, Torchwood, being I suppose basically RTD’s Doctor Who fanfic, appears quite willing to realize slash–oh, call them tropes, not cliches–right before our very eyes. And behind the cut tag, I will ask myself the question: Well, do I like slash better when it’s produced for me, or would I really just as soon roll my own?
A word, first, about some of the peculiarities of my position: I’m a lesbian who has spent a fair amount of time writing m/m slash. My not really being attracted to men no doubt influences my feelings on the subject of slash becoming canon. You see, when you write your own m/m slash, if you’re a lesbian, it’s not hard to sort of forget that the people in your OTP are men. At least, it’s not hard if, like me, you check out of the sex scenes before anyone’s equipment has to be mentioned. (I’ve tried not doing that. I can’t. I take you as far as I can go, my readers; I can do no more.) When you are actually watching two men go at it on screen, it’s harder to avoid thinking, “This would be way hotter if they were both women.”
Nevertheless, that initial coming-together in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” generates its own kind of energy, and moved me to ponder the enduring appeal of enemies slash, and the slippage between sex and violence that gives it its peculiar charge. We would all deplore any real-life relationship in which neither partner could trust the other, in which at least one partner is probably at least partially a psychopath, and in which intimacy might turn into abuse at any moment. And yet we do love it in fiction. In general, I suppose, the appeal for women might simply be the fantasy of pure reciprocity–they’re both men, they can *both* punch each other, just as they can both penetrate each other or be penetrated–or the fantasy of sex without trust, something which for many reasons is very difficult and dangerous for women in real life. In “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” specifically, both Jack and Hart look as if they are enjoying beating each other up just as much as they enjoyed the making out; and one finds it hard to condemn them for it. Which reminds me of how I was struck, over and over again, while rewatching the original _Star Trek_ by the way the writers repeatedly failed to differentiate between the urge for violence and the urge for sex. It was as if, for the men writing this show, fucking and fighting were fused into one big libidinal urge. That’s certainly what’s happening in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” and perhaps that’s always what’s happening in enemies slash.
At any rate, introducing an antagonist/lover for Jack does appear (so far) to have been the shot in the arm that Torchwood needed. When Jack was introduced on Doctor Who in “The Empty Child,” he was a dashing, irresponsible, smooth-talking rogue who cheerfully threatened to shag anything that moved and was quite at peace with his own narcissistic self-absorption. I found him annoying, but he also brought zest and energy to a seriously dark and scary plot, and he and Nine played off each other well. When he returned at the end of series 1 and acquired his immortality, I found I had become quite attached to him; and I was always glad to see him show up again on Doctor Who. But Jack on series 1 of Torchwood isn’t mainly about zest and energy. In fact, a lot of Series 1 is about how sad and lonely it is to be Jack Harkness. I remember hearing Torchwood described as more “grown-up” than Doctor Who. From series 1 it seems like the most grown-up thing about that show is not so much the sex but how much work just sucks the joy out of everyone’s life. Giving Jack a sparring partner brings back the snap, crackle, and pop that originally defined his character, and so far, series 2 has been a lot more interesting to watch, giant space whale and all.
But of course the real question this raises for me is: Let’s say that one day Steven Moffat decides to be bold, and he makes Johnlock canon. Will I think that’s awesome? Or will I be disappointed that my OTP has at last ‘gone straight?’
My perspective on this is no doubt colored by several weeks of watching the X-Files fandom blast Chris Carter for his handling of the Mulder/Scully romance. I have participated in some of this myself, because…well…he really did a crappy job with it. He himself didn’t really like the idea of them as lovers, despite the fact that they were obviously in love, and when he grudgingly made it canon, he basically sucked most of the joy out of it. We’ve no reason to believe Moffat would follow his model to that extent; but it is nevertheless true that once something becomes canon, we lose some of our own control over it. For instance, if Harry Watson ever actually appears on screen in canon–well, for one thing I’ll be amazed, but for another, she will all but certainly be completely different from my own Harry. I will of course be personally disappointed; but more to the point, from that point on, everyone who writes Harry has to write her based on the canon character. And if Johnlock becomes canon, then Moffat and Gatiss get to determine the shape of that relationship. We will of course go on adding, embellishing, and undermining; but it will always (even when we deliberately deviate from it) be with the canon template in mind.
On the other hand, we could watch John and Sherlock actually be in love and make out on the telly.
Would it be worth the trade? For me, I really don’t know. I think I might like my home cooking better than whatever they serve up. But for people who are genuinely attracted to the actors, then probably yes. At any rate, so far the most interesting thing about Torchwood is that it proves that it can be done. Slash can in fact become canon. And for a show where I actually have no headcanons and have never written my own slash, I have to say it does make things more interesting.