Torchwood and Chimps

Unlike my previous review, this week's Torchwood: Miracle Day was flawless. Although Jack is definitively not back (yet), Gwen is. This woman can save my universe anytime (as long as she is in leather, that is!). The verbal barbs, sexual innuendo, and dark humor were wonderful - Torchwood at its best. As for my criticisms of last week's episode, they would not have existed if they simply combined this and last week's episode together as a two hour premiere, as one explained the other (why did Jack look so bad? He was supposed to as his immune system is doing double time fighting off diseases, likely ones that his body knows nothing of from his days as a mortal. If you were in his shoes, you'd look bad too!).

I look forward to next week . . .

On a quick note: some folk from the Torchwood Forum I follow found my review last week objectionable and rude. I can't say I blame them nor that I care. Really! Russell Davies, Torchwood's creator, hardly gives a rats behind what I think and I doubt he will ever read what I wrote. Even if he did, in his business you'd better have thick skin or good drugs to survive and I would think he has one or the other by now. More importantly though, I don't see why others feel the need to defend him, as if the man couldn't defend himself? Even if the whole show collapsed, I'm sure it won't break him, in spirit nor finances, considering he already has several successful series under his belt. Trust me fans, my tiny column ain't hurting him (or the rest of the crew) as much as it is irritating you.
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I listened to this morning's broadcast of NPR's Weekend Edition and experienced a “driveway moment” with a story called, "'Project Nim' Traces Chimp's Human Life". This documentary is the sad story of the law of unintended stupidity where the kindly human scientist takes a chimp out of his home, has it raised amongst humans (the scientist’s graduate students), teaches it sign language in hopes of proving that chimps can learn to use language in the same way humans do, only to eventually doom the animal to live in a lonely life with other chimps he could not relate to. I use the words "unintended stupidity" quite deliberately, my dear readers. What was that scientist thinking? I remember as a kid watching shows like Wild Kingdom which featured the chimp documented in this story and other wild life (usually dolphins) for whom a gaggle of scientists were trying to human. I remember even then asking my father at the time, "Did the animals ask to be made human?" Later, as I watched the horrors accompanying the end of the Vietnam War, I wonder, "Why would the animals want to be human anyway?" If those animals could really "think like us" then likely they would agree with the words of the old blues standard, "The Monkey Speaks Its Mind":
The monkey speaks his mind

And three monkeys sat in a coconut tree
Discussing things as they are said to be
Said one to other now listen, you two
"There's a certain rumour that just can't be true
That man descended from our noble race
Why, the very idea is a big disgrace, yea"
No monkey ever deserted his wife
Starved her baby and ruined her life

Yea, the monkey speaks his mind

And you've never known a mother monk
To leave her babies with others to bunk
And passed them on from one to another
'Til they scarcely knew which was their mother
Yea, the monkey speak his mind

And another thing you will never see

A monkey build a fence around a coconut tree
And let all the coconuts go to waste
Forbidding other monkeys to come and taste
Why, if I put a fence around this tree
Starvation would force you to steal from me

Yea, the monkey speaks his mind

Here's another thing a monkey won't do
Go out on a night and get all in a stew
Or use a gun or a club or a knife
And take another monkey's life
Yes, man descended, the worthless bum
But, brothers, from us he did not come

Yea, the monkey speaks his mind
Yea, now the monkey speaks his mind

By the way, the experiments ended with evidence that the chimp did not learn to communicate like humans. I would imagine this is true for all of these experiments - the creatures remained who they were - chimps, dolphins, etc - but now without the capacity to socialize (let alone survive) with their own kind. 'Cuz keep in mind folks, once the cameras are gone and the animal is too big and too wild to manage anymore, it's tossed back into the wild or some preserve like a some 45 year old former supermodel wondering for the rest of its days "what the fuck happened?"

I'm reminded of a d'var Torah, a commentary on this week's Torah portion Pinhas (Numbers 25:10 to 30:1). Rabbi Artson says, "People, animals, and scenery too often enter our worldview in terms of the function they can perform for us, rather than as 'others' with feelings and problems and dreams, as living creatures, or as magnificent natural treasures. Most of the time, we look but we really don't see." (see "The Bedside Torah: Wisdom, Visions, and Dreams" by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, p. 272). Shame on those scientists for not treasuring that chimp for being a chimp and shame on us for thinking that somehow we are superior to a chimps.