So, I'm Learning About Doctor Who and THIS Happens...

I've somehow managed to go my entire life without really knowing much about Doctor Who. I saw a single episode a while back and it made no impression. But people I love and respect love and respect the show, so I thought I would give it a try.

Everyone said start with the reboot, the Eccleston stuff, and go from there. And the first three episodes or so were so cheesy and uninteresting that I almost gave up right there. It just didn't seem for me.

Needless to say, I stuck with it, now I'm hooked. I really like Eccleston, I like Tennant but not QUITE as much yet (I know, blasphemy). I'm enjoying the storytelling and I love the companions, can't wait to get to more Catherine Tate (I'm mid-series three).

So I'm addicted, I love it, I want to write a Doctor Who story. And I am interested in the spin-offs. Torchwood is the only one on Netflix at this time, and so I watched the first episode, and it's moving along okay, although it really doesn't seem to have a real dramatic engine at this stage.

Then right in the middle, with all the positive stuff Doctor Who has had about race and gender and sexuality (not perfect, obviously, but some good stuff in there), one of the characters, ostensibly one of the good guys, is involved in a long sequence that's supposed to be hilarious, about a spray that is essentially a rape spray, a super-roofie.

He goes to a bar, tries to talk to a woman, she wants nothing to do with him. He says he's got to work in the morning and doesn't have time to waste talking to her or charming her, so he sprays this stuff on his face that turns her into a sex maniac, for him exclusively. Ha ha, hilarious, fuck you, Torchwood.

Then they go outside and her boyfriend shows up, and she tells him she's going to have sex with this idiot, so it's not just rape, it also will destroy her relationship, and it's all played for laughs. The boyfriend is about to pound the guy into oblivion, so the guy sprays another spray on his face, and the boyfriend now wants to fuck him, too. Ha ha, titter titter, giggle, it's even more hilarious now because it's a guy, ha ha. Hee hee, he's going to rape the guy now, too. So FUNNY!

DOUBLE fuck you, Torchwood.

I don't get it, I was loving the Doctor Who stuff, which seemed to at least be trying to be non-exclusionary. I would expect this from a lot of shows, but not one in the Who-verse.

Am I missing anything here?  Does this ever get explained or redeemed? Because otherwise, I don't think this show is for me.