Doctor Who Spin-off Series: TORCHWOOD
From Outpost Gallifrey:
Welcome to... Torchwood! TV Series News October 17, 2005 In a stunning announcement on Monday (including a BBC press release), BBC Television announced a new television series spun off from "Doctor Who" to be aired next year on BBC Three. Torchwood, a thirteen-part drama/sci-fi hybrid, will be executive produced by Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner -- the executive producers of Doctor Who currently -- and will star John Barrowman, who reprises his role as Captain Jack Harkness from the first Doctor Who series earlier this year. Said to have an "organic link" to Doctor Who, Davies says that "Torchwood is a British sci-fi paranoid thriller, a cop show with a sense of humour. It's dark, wild and sexy, it's the X Files meets This Life. It's a stand-alone series for adult audiences which will have its own unique identity. I have just begun working on the scripts with a team of writers and cannot wait to see the results." The series will be set in modern-day Cardiff and will segue from events seen in the Doctor Who Christmas special and second series next year; the upcoming Doctor Who episodes will feature stories involving Torchwood, "a renegade group of investigators" (and also an anagram of "Doctor Who," but that isn't a plot point) and though the new show will use these concepts, it will be independent and no stories will cross over between the two series. Says Stuart Murphy, Controller of BBC Three, "The renegades investigate human and alien crime, as well as alien technology that has fallen to Earth. Torchwood is sinister and psychological – Russell was really keen to play with your head – as well as being very British and modern and real. But at the centre of the drama are warm, human relationships and the overcoming of adversity. ... Torchwood is a massive coup for BBC Three, and a major commitment – it's the biggest drama we've ever had on the channel. It introduces a different tone into our drama, just as Russell's Casanova earlier this year brought warmth and humour. He's an absolute genius – you look at what he has done with Doctor Who - we said to him, 'What would you do with a post-watershed sci-fi?' Its subject and tone is a perfect fit for BBC Three." Says Barrowman of returning to the role, "I'm absolutely thrilled about Torchwood. It's going to be a dark, wild and sexy roller-coaster ride. Working again with Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and the BBC is like hooking up with family again. I can't wait to explore Captain Jack even more." "Torchwood" will be aimed at adults; says Davies, "Doctor Who has a completely different feel to this kind of thing. This is set in the same place every week. It's a different sort of fun to Doctor Who ... "It's an urban series, very much set on earth. It's a Welsh series that I'm very, very proud of." He said Cardiff would be used more often as a location than in Doctor Who, and that he hoped the series would provide work for Welsh actors and directors. "With Doctor Who we often had to pretend that bits of Cardiff were London, or Utah, or the planet Zog. Whereas this series is going to be 'honest-to-god Cardiff'. We will happily walk past the Millennium Centre and say "Look, there's the Millennium Centre. It's nice to be able to say this is the city, and this is how good it looks." Davies noted that the name Torchwood was used as a security measure during the production of Doctor Who to disguise preview tapes of the first episodes: "When we were making the first Doctor Who series, television pirates were desperate to get their hands on a tape. One of the people in the office had the idea of calling the tapes of episodes, as they went from Cardiff to London, Torchwood, instead of putting Doctor Who on it. I thought: 'That's clever!' I've had that taped away at the back of my head for a good six months, and now here it is as a show.'" Davies also spoke today about Torchwood to BBC Wales (audio link: here). PJ Hammond (creator of Sapphire and Steel) and Chris Chibnall (Born and Bred, Life on Mars) are both confirmed as writers for the series. There are rumors that director James Hawes may be involved, but nothing definite yet. Filming begins in January on the thirteen 45-minute episodes, with transmission expected for the autumn on BBC Three. Also covered at the official Doctor Who website (which included the tagline "Prepare for a new word order" until the show was announced), as well as BBC News, Yahoo!, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Register, Belfast Telegraph, Gay.com, Digital Spy, Contact Music, PinkNews, C21 Media, Syfyportal, Playbill, Canoe.ca, Macleans, CJAD, Scoopt; other press links coming soon. More on Torchwood TV Series News October 18, 2005 According to an appearance today by John Barrowman on the chat show "Loose Women" on ITV, a couple of interesting items were revealed about Torchwood... including the fact that it might be repeated on BBC One after its BBC Three run, and that "nobody will know how Jack gets back from the future" to present-day Cardiff (building on the fact that he's stranded at the end of the first Doctor Who series). Today's Daily Star ran a picture of a Dalek, with the caption: "Steamy: Even Daleks might hit trouble with the new hero" (though who knows if they'd ever appear in the show!) Additional press coverage today includes The Sun, The Mirror, ic Wales, The Western Mail, Dark Horizons, Brand Republic, Edmonton Sun, In The News, The Daily Record, Ananova, SciFi.com, Monsters and Critics, Sky Showbiz, Scoopt, Canada.com, as well as in web-only editions of the Daily Star, the Telegraph, Press Association and other news sources. (Thanks to Paul Hayes, Chuck Foster, Matt Dale, Peter Weaver) |
The Captain Jack show? Very cool. Now if they would just show most of America the new Doctor Who this would be even better news.
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Cool. I liked Captain Jack. I'm sure I'll have to find a way to watch it like I did with Who.
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So hopefully he will at least make an appearance on Doctor Who.
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Stunning news indeed.
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And probably a good idea. I loved Season 1 of New Who, and I loved the Captain Jack character, but I wasn't sure he was a great fit with the Doctor/Companion story... In a show aimed for adults they can do more with his whole bisexual-rogue angle.
I just hope that Davies doesn't spread himself too thin and wreck things, as several other genre TV creators have done... |
Sounds good. Let's hope this makes it stateside (not to mention the new Doctor Who).
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Holy crap, this is surprising. I found Captain Jack immensely irritating and was hoping to never see him again, but I do kind of like the idea of this spinoff, especially if it'll be airing in the fall--it'll give us something while Doctor Who is between seasons.
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What didnt you like about Captain Jack?
Already ordered my R2 copies of Series 1. |
Originally Posted by riley_dude
Already ordered my R2 copies of Series 1.
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I am glad to see we will get more of Capt Jack, especially since
Spoiler:
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That's good news, I've seen online downloads of Doctor Who and Captain Jack really grew on me as a character.
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Some more news about the series here:
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21571 It says that there are rumors of a special appearance in Episode twelve of an old foe but they wont say who. And word is that in addition to picking up the second season of the new series in Canada, BBC Video is planning to release series one on DVD in Canada on February 14, 2006 -- presumably, a box set of the entire season. Nothing about a US release, but obviously, picking up the Canadian set will be no problem for anyone who has mastered the art of Internet shopping. |
Cool, I hope the CBC in Canada picks this show up like they have with Doctor Who... very cool.
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Originally Posted by Chew
The individual disc releases or the boxset? If the boxset, where and what price? I can't seem to find cheaper than $75. That's a lot of coin for 13 episodes. :eek:
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Originally Posted by riley_dude
On Amazon UK it works out to about 50.00. Still better than I paid for the Star Trek sets.
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Don't forget....the Canadian R1 release comes out in February.
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Good news on the Canada release, I'll wait for that.
But, I would really like to know how anyone got $50 from Amazon.uk. That was the one I was talking about for $75. |
Originally Posted by Chew
Good news on the Canada release, I'll wait for that.
But, I would really like to know how anyone got $50 from Amazon.uk. That was the one I was talking about for $75. |
Torchwood premiered last night with two back-to-back episodes. I considered creating a new thread but I realized that BBC 3 shows don't usually generate much discussion around here.-wink-
"Everything Changes" Spoiler:
"Day One" Spoiler:
(Episode descriptions are from tv.com) |
Looking forward to watching this :up:
Also, for those interested: there is also a companion Declassified series for this just like for the good Doctor. There were two episodes last night for that as well. |
I liked it. It's kind of CSI crossed with the X-Files with a little Men in Black thrown in. :)
I'm not usually a big fan of crime drama type shows, but there's enough witty dialogue and great lines they I found myself reeled in fairly quickly. I'll definately be following this one. Just hope the ratings were good. |
I definitely like the show so far.
Speculation after seeing the first 2 eps. Spoiler:
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I watched both episodes and loved them. As a long time Doctor Who fan, it's great to see something set in the "Who-iverse" without the Doctor and it being darker and more adult, yet a part of the same show. I'm going to let a couple friends borrow the first two episodes without telling them it's a Doctor Who spin off and see what they think.
It's kind of CSI crossed with the X-Files with a little Men in Black thrown in. |
I guess when RTD actually has to write a show "meant" for adults, he can be pretty good. Because when he writes for "children" on Who, it's nothing but fart jokes.
I have only watched the pilot ep so far, so this may of been answered in the second episode: I certainly hope we find out how Captain Jack got from where we left him to being head of the agency. Plenty of cool references to Who in the show too, like that perception thing where the Tardis landed. :up: |
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