Chief Technical Officer
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The Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood is set for its US debut September 8 on BBC America.
The concept involves a team of people that investigate—and, to some extent clean up after—alien activity on Earth. Though it's got a consistent cast, there's a bit of an anthology feeling to the individual episodes, with a sense that you can't imagine where each episode will take you next. For me, it's kind of like bringing the classic Twilight Zone into the televison standards of the 21st century. It's creative, and adult, and, I think, one of the best series on TV in the last couple of years.
I recommend it highly, whether or not you're a Doctor Who fan. The Doctor Who references are, with only a couple of exceptions, fairly understated—Torchwood stands well on it's own.
And it has Captian Jack! ;-)
*gag*
Sorry Captain Jack fans.:P
Yeah ... who was it on these boards who said it's like a guy with charisma 8 playing a character with charisma 18? I love that line. My non-RPG playing friends don't quite get it though.
Only a total b!~#* would say a thing like tha... oh wait...
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Yeah ... who was it on these boards who said it's like a guy with charisma 8 playing a character with charisma 18? I love that line. My non-RPG playing friends don't quite get it though.Only a total b*@%# would say a thing like tha... oh wait...
Hah! I thought that was you, but wasn't sure...
Well, here in Australia, Torchwood has been relegated to a half past midnight timeslot after about six weeks on air. Sad ... (despite Cptn J). Hope it does better in the US.
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I was not a huge fan of Captain Jack in the first series of Doctor Who, but I really like him in Torchwood. And I really, really like Eve Myles as Gwen.
(And if you've ever seen him on the chat shows, John Barrowman is actually a really, really entertaining guy.)
Funny - I actually found him fairly charismatic in Doctor Who, but far less so in Torchwood (so far at any rate). But I really like Gwen too.
I'm interested to know, is the actor who plays Jack (I assume the afore mentioned John Barrowman) really American, or is he a Brit doing an American accent? Sometimes the accent sounds a bit forced / jarring, but perhaps that is just in contrast to all the British and Welsh accents in the show.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I actually found him fairly charismatic in Doctor Who, but far less so in Torchwood (so far at any rate).
My problem in Who is that he was *too* over-the-top sometimes.
I'm interested to know, is the actor who plays Jack (I assume the afore mentioned John Barrowman) really American, or is he a Brit doing an American accent?
According to his bio, he was born in Scotland and lived there for 8 years (he can pull out a Glaswegian accent as well) before moving to the US for 14 years, but he's spent much of the last 17 years around London. So I guess that makes all of his accents simultaneously authentic and phony?
It was a little too much sex and teen-angsty for me, though I do like John Barrowman as Capt. Jack (especially in the last three episodes of Doctor Who Season 3, even if the last episode was musical numbers and cgi oddness).
I'm prudish and puritanical that way I suppose.
Honestly, I'm glad they found a better (side) outlet for it, so they don't have to screw up Doctor Who. In general, the storylines are quite good (I especially liked how they managed to work in the Cottingley Fairies), and the characters have real depth, but the whole thing smacks of, "let's see what we can get away with."
I did like the other (single episode) spinoff, though it was more for a younger audience, "The Sarah Jane Adventures."
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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My favorite Captain Jack line ever, after appearing naked on a killer-robot-hosted surgical reality show:
"Ladies, your ratings just went UP!"
I heart Captain Jack Harkness.
Gwen is great. The ugly monkey guy who miraculously sleeps with all of the hot women is also pretty entertaining to watch.
Martha Jones is a regular in Series 2, at least for a few episodes.
Torchwood is not always great, but it is Worth Watching.
--Erik
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I enjoyed the Sarah Jane show as much as all but about three episodes of the mainline Doctor Who revival, so I'm really looking forward to that. Given the K9 connection (pathetically reduced due to retarded rights issues involving an even more retarded freelance computer animated dog in space show from K9's creator), the sonic lipstick, and the photograph of the Brigadier in Sarah Jane's house, I think there's a good chance the show could become very referential to the main Doctor Who show's original continuity, which is an idea I really like. There's no reason why Sarah Jane wouldn't be able to have adventures with past earth-bound companions, many of whom will have also aged appropriately since their earlier appearances.
Just off the top of my head, the show could easily provide cameos from the likes of Ian and Barbara (is she still alive?), Tegan, the Brigadier, Liz Shaw (which would be brilliant), Ace (!), and probably about a dozen others. That would be really sweet, in my book.
On the other hand, even if the show doesn't make a single additional Doctor Who reference, Liz Sladen is an absolute joy to watch (and an easy shoo-in for GMILF status), the sassy black girl is actually kind of funny, and I had a ball watching it.
More, please!
The Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood is set for its US debut September 8 on BBC America.
Hey, that's today! I'll have to scan the cablebox guide to record it; still got a lot of catching up with this season's Doctor Who...and Heroes is coming back in a couple of weeks (WOO HOO!!!)...man, so much TV, so little TV-watching time.
Thanks for the heads up, Vic!
- Chris Shadowens (who's got a Dalek Hunter on CoV's Freedom server)
I haven't seen Torchwood yet, but Doctor Who is my favorite TV show ever. I have most of the episodes for Doctors 1-5 on tape (by the way, William Hartnell and Peter Davidson are my two favorite Doctors). I'm looking forward to Torchwood.
I just saw the Torchwood pilot a little while ago, and it was very cool. I will definitely keep watching this.
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I still havnt seen the last episode of DR WHO so I just got to see the Master's Wife Grooving on the UNIT flying Carrier to some cool Master music while "Biggy M" disintergrates the US President. She is very "60's cage dancer" Frankly if TORCHWOOD is up against UNIT, then it should be a real down and dirty fight...Now I get to watch Dr Who Kick it and that last Dalek is still out there...somewhere.
The level of sex and gore in Torchwood surprised me. The first couple of episodes were pretty tame and then BAM! Cannibals and sex aliens everywhere.
Yeah I'm against that too. What's the point? Exchange your adult demographic for child viewers? I know I buy more boxes of DVDs than my 10 year old cousin does.
They already have Dr Who for the family demographic, they could just have Capt. Jack do cameos. But what do I know, I'm not a TV producer...