The first of three "Doctor Who" spinoffs is set to hit the BBC airwaves next week. "Torchwood" is the strongest and most mature of them, taking elements from the new Doctor Who's first and second seasons and weaving an X-Files type show around them.
Torchwood tells the story of Captain Jack Harkness, time traveller incognito, returned from the Second World War (by way of the year 2001st century) after travelling with the Doctor in his first season. Stuck in 2006 Cardiff (a large port city to the West of London), Jack becomes involved with Torchwood, a shadowy group of government scientists and operatives dedicated to the investigation of alien and bizzare crimes, and also to the retrieval and use of the various bits of advanced alien technology that has come to Earth over the years. The Torchwood "Hub" facility sits beneath a monolith-like fountain in Cardiff, which was previously revealed on Doctor Who to be the site of a dimensional rift through which all sorts of nasties come to Earth.
In addition to Jack, the Torchwood team includes:
-Suzie Costello, the second in command.
-Gwen Cooper, former Cardiff police officer and potentially a key to the rift (the same actress played Gwyneth in the Doctor Who episode that introduced the rift).
-Toshiko "Tosh" Sato, computer scientist who helped investigate the Slitheen invasion in Doctor Who's first season.
-Owen Harper, the medic.
-Ianto Jones, the... Receptionist?
Basically, this show is for the grown ups. Doctor Who is a family show, but this one will have all the violence, gore, and sex that you can't have on a family program. Should be a fun watch, and I know the Doctor Who fans on this board will be watching it along with me.
Finally, here's the episode guide, with minor spoilers. Enjoy!
***
EPISODE 1: 'Everything Changes' by Russell T Davies When Torchwood arrives on the scene of a brutal murder, WPC Gwen Cooper's burning curiosity is challenged. Their attitude, their approach and their technology is at odds with everything she believes in. But investigating the investigators leads her into a dark, paranoid world she never imagined existed.
EPISODE 2: 'Day One' by Chris Chibnall An alien addicted to sex is let loose on Cardiff's nightlife. Torchwood must track down the creature's new host and in doing so, confront a violent new form of love in the 21st century.
EPISODE 3: 'Ghost Machine' by Helen Raynor Torchwood discovers a machine that allows them to view the ghosts that walk among us. Using it, prompts Owen to investigate an unsolved crime - one that could change all their futures.
EPISODE 4: 'The Trouble With Lisa' by Chris Chibnall There's a dark secret in the basement of the Hub. Even Jack is unaware of it, but Ianto knows. And he'll go to any lengths, sacrifice anything and anyone, to protect what's down there.
EPISODE 5: 'Small Worlds' by Peter J. Hammond Jasmine is a withdrawn but intelligent child whose new 'friends' exploit her suppressed anger, and while investigating this, Jack encounters elemental enemies from his past that are determined to harm those closest to him.
EPISODE 6: 'Countrycide' by Chris Chibnall Upon entering an apparently deserted village in the Brecon Becons, the Torchwood team is separated. Finding his people are the prey in a savage game of cat and mouse Jack faces a team of ruthless hunters far more skilled in surviving outside the confines of the city than he.
EPISODE 7: 'Greeks Bearing Gifts' by Toby Whithouse Tosh gains the ability to read the minds of those closest to her but as she becomes party to their darkest secrets, she realises not only is this is a powerful curse, but one impossible to break.
EPISODE 8: 'They Keep Killing' by Paul Tomalin & Dan McCulloch Using alien technology to interrogate the victims of a serial killer, Gwen learns that the common link is dangerously close to home. And the resurrection device has a deadly secret of its own.
EPISODE 9: 'Invisible Eugene' by Jacquetta May A hit-and-run victim, Eugene, was a bit of a nobody, and always convinced that aliens were coming to Earth, specifically to retrieve technology in his possession. Now Gwen finds herself drawn into his world and realises Eugene may still be helping her locate the 'aliens' - despite him being dead.
EPISODE 10: 'Combat' by Noel Clarke The team discovers a ring who are kidnapping Weevils - wild alien creatures that have come through the Rift and are hiding on Earth - which leads Owen down a dark path to confront the future of his own existence.
EPISODE 11: 'Out of Time' by Cath Tregenna A small passenger plane from the 1950's flies through the rift and lands in Cardiff 2006. Torchwood is drawn into strong personal relationships as they help the three temporal immigrants adapt to contemporary life.
EPISODE 12: 'Captain Jack Harkness' by Cath Tregenna Transported back to the Blitz, Jack and Tosh find themselves facing a dark secret from Jack's past, one he hoped and believed had been buried for good.
EPISODE 13: 'Apocalypse' by Chris Chibnall The Rift is violently fracturing further, and Jack realises that Torchwood is destined to be drawn into one vast battle that will leave nothing and no one at Torchwood unchanged...
***
Mark
PS - "Torchwood" is an anagram of "Doctor Who". The production offices on DW used the name "Torchwood" to disguise videotapes and such so people wouldn't steal them. It stuck, and now a clever production trick has it's own show.
posted
Oh, God. Not the "Introduction to the show by way of a new member of the team, usually female, who doesn't know a lot about what they do" routine. It's. . . so. . . fucking. . . old! Say what you like about CSI, at least when they did the same thing in their pilot, they then went and killed her off at the end.
posted
Yeah, most people in the US (myself included) aren't taught the distinction between England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. I only figured out the difference myself fairly recently. Before that I thought they were just different terms for the same thing.
And I had to go look up Cardiff and Plaid Cymru!
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WizArtist II
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posted
They all used to be part of an Empire right?
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posted
That's not true. We can tell the difference between the US and Canada, we just can't tell the difference between Americans and Canadians. Whereas even an American could tell the difference between the English and the Welsh. . . On second thoughts, make that "if anyone could somehow fail to tell the difference between an English accent and a Welsh accent, it'd be an American."
Here's what I'll do: I'll make a note of all the characters in this weekend's show who actually have Welsh accents, and I'll hold a quiz. Person who gets the most right wins a leek.
posted
I saw the feature about this in the Radio Times. Their base of opperations is quite cool, it's on the site of an old secret underground railway that linked Cardiff and London. Part of the set actually looks like an old tube station. No clue whether the show will be any good, though. Last week RT was bigging up Robin Hood in the same way, and that's been a let down so far.
posted
I only watched the first episode of RH, and didn't even pay attention to that. I just found myself thinking, what's the point? Is there anything else that can be done with the legend of Robin Hood? Robin of Sherwood did a pretty good job of looking at it from a modern perspective, and hasn't aged too badly for all that show is now 20 years old. . . All the new version seems to say is "Look! We got Keith Allen as the Sheriff - ooh, scary!"
posted
The second episode was a slight improvment, but the bloke in the lead is a bit wet, and anything with Keith Allen is automaticaly overrated.
As for Robin of Sherwood, was that the weird hippy version?
Oh, and Torchwood - I think that it will probably be a bit better than Robin Hood.
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-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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