Date: 2007-10-07 22:02 Subject: Most romantic episode of any TV series... ever! Security: Public Tags: babylon 5, beauty and the beast, enterprise, essays, highlander, starman, torchwood

A forum I'm on recently had a thread about romantic scenes, films, episodes and so on. I thought quite a lot about this and came up with my own personal list of romantic scenes. These are a few of them:

Beauty and the Beast (the TV series) was incredibly romantic, what with the reading of poetry, classical music, rose motif, etc. I think the most romantic scene is when Catherine realises Vincent is what she wants from life and comes RUNNING into the park to meet him, and she's running so fast that when they collide she almost knocks him right over. The music just swells right up to that point. I was disappointed that there was no kiss, though. And of course, when he gives her the book of Shakespeare sonnets and as she opens it you hear Vincent's voice reading Sonnet XXIX: "When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes..." Ah! I turn into a puddle of goo. I have the CD and I STILL listen to it 20 years later.

Highlander (the movie), when the song "Who Wants To Live Forever" plays, and you see Connor has stayed with Heather (his wife) even though she got old and he didn't. And when she dies he leaves his MacLeod sword behind and walks off. Boy did I cry it was so beautiful!

Starman (the movie), when the alien gives Jenny the sphere at the end and she asks what to do with it, and he says, "The baby will know." Awww...

Buffy, in the episode "Angel", when she finds out he's a vampire, and they decide they can't be together, and she kisses him while the song "I'll Remember You" by Sophie Zelmani is playing. And the cross she's wearing burns itself into his chest. Now that is true love!

Babylon 5. The scene in "Confessions and Lamentations", when Delenn leaves to help the Markabs and says to Sheridan, "Don't look away, Captain. All life is transitory... a dream. We all come together in the same place at the end of time. If I don't see you again here, I will see you in a little while, in the place where no shadows fall."

Enterprise. The shower scene in "Damage" when T'Pol and Trip are all over each other. It's a dream but I still think it's beautiful and romantic... Also the last scene in "Terra Prime" when they are holding hands and thinking of their baby.

The movie Tim with Mel Gibson and Piper Laurie, when he gets upset and yells that he likes her but he thinks she likes his dad, and then she hugs him and he kisses her... so sweet. I adore unusual love stories.

The prom dance scene in the first season finale of Queer as Folk, set to "Save the Last Dance for Me". They must have had to practice that choreography for weeks! But it came out stunning.

In Superman II when he and Lois are in the Fortress of Solitude and they're holding hands and he says, "For the first time in my life, everything's clear." WELL! I turned into a puddle of goo when I was 12 and I still turn into goo now. What a beautiful scene!!

The scene in The Terminator when Kyle Reese is telling Sarah Connor that he volunteered to come back to save her, and that he had a picture of her given to him by her son, and how she looked sad in it. He says, "I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have." My heart wanted to leap right out of my chest! And then he aplogises and she kind of jumps him! Go, Sarah!! And of course at the end we find out that the photo he had is the one in which she was thinking about him!!

But none of these is a patch on...

Torchwood.

I'm talking, of course, about the dance/kissing scene in "Captain Jack Harkness". I was really overwhelmed by how beautiful and emotional that scene was.

But that episode in general just exudes romance. The writers and producers said they wanted a romantic, soft 1940s and they got it in spades. At first, when I was watching the episode, I honestly thought I was going nuts and reading a subplot into the episode (i.e. the two Jacks having the hots for each other) that was not there, since as a slash writer I tend to do that anyway. But the intensity just built and built, and you could feel how sad immortal Jack was that this was original Jack's last night alive, and there wasn't anything he could do about it except try to "make tonight the best night of (his) life".

And the part where original Jack takes immortal Jack by the hand and leads him to the dance floor? Pure love! Pure romance! Poor guy! You can just see the pain and longing in original Jack as they dance... He probably knew it was not a good idea to do that in front of all those people, but he had the courage to do it anyway. No wonder he was such a hero. I did originally wonder if maybe that wasn't why he ended up dying - that some homophobe on his squad did something - but no one else connected with the show ever mentioned it, so I'd like to think that's not what happened, but that just as immortal Jack said, he died saving his men from the enemy.

I love how the writers and actors didn't treat the scene - in fact the whole concept - as anything weird or new or different; it just was. It was, as Matt Rippy said in the DVD extras, just a beautiful little romance. And it really was. In fact, after the dance when they were about to kiss and the rift opened, I yelled, "NOOOOO!" I thought they were going to cheat us out of the kiss. And when it finally happened, I was so happy! I love that scene. The song, the incidental music - everything about it is just perfect.