Doctor Who/Torchwood Rumors/News

Straight from The SyFy Portal:

According to “Dr. Phibes,” a source for British genre site Sci-Fi Pulse, both David Tennant and John Barrowman are set to leave their respective programs, along with a number of other cast members.

Tennant, who is about to premiere in the show’s fourth season on BBC later this spring, will apparently work through the 2009 specials leading up to the annual Christmas episode, where he will regenerate and be replaced by actor Robert Carlyle, who may be best known for his work in “The Full Monty.”

According to Sci-Fi Pulse, filming for the “Doctor Who” specials in 2009 is already under way, with a wrap planned for as early as the end of this month. While Carlyle is not signed to play the role as the 11th Doctor, Dr. Phibes says that the BBC is in negotiations to sign the actor.

For most Whovians, the Robert Carlyle rumor is an old one from 2006. He’s a decent actor and well respected… and the last time that type was cast we got Chris Eccleston who will probably never speak of his time as the Doctor for the rest of his life.

But wait! There’s more on Torchwood…

So far, only five episodes [of Torchwood] have been commissioned out of the standard 13, and gone are actors Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato) and Capt. Jack Harkness’ John Barrowman. In, however, is former “Doctor Who” companion Freema Agyeman, who will join the show full-time in Season 3. Eve Myles, who plays Gwen Cooper, is expected to return as well, and Barrowman is reported to be making guest appearances in the third season.

The show itself will lose some of its adult-themed content, and will be geared more toward “Doctor Who” style audiences.

While Barrowman has gotten progressively worse in the program, I’ll be sad to Burn Gorman go, by far the best thing about Torchwood for me. That said… I’ll have one less show to watch. Maybe he’ll appear in a better series. I can only hope.

Torchwood 2.1

‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’ by Chris Chibnall

When I heard how much more Chibnall was going to be involved in Torchwood with its second series, I was quite pleased. While Cyberwoman was quite dire and Countrycide only so-so, the first series finale was the only good Doctor Who-related TV that I saw when it aired on Christmas day.

How wrong I was to be pleased.

With the invention of this Nu-Doctor Who spin-off, some problems have been evident. Most notably is the behavior of Captain Jack. Let me begin by saying that Captain Jack has a lot in common with the robot dog K-9.

When K-9 first appeared, you either loved him or hated him. A wee robot dog that’s a walking computer.

Cute, eh?Whether you initially liked the idea or not, as the character became a mainstay of the program, you probably grew to despise him as much as incoming producer John Nathan Turner did. It was JNT who axed the robot dog forever, making many a fan happy and newscasters ask incoming Doctor Peter Davison if K-9 was coming back to the program (his former role of Tristam was a vet after all!).

But I’m drifting from Torchwood. Probably because classic Doctor Who is so much more interesting.

In his first appearance in the seminal series of Nu-Doctor Who, I quite liked Captain Jack. I found him inventive and well-acted by Jonathan Barrowman. As the series went on and the character became a mainstay of the series, he became less the shifty Captain Jack and more the silly Captain Cheap Laugh. In Torchwood, the character became more of a comic book character, devoid of much humor and an all around action man. I felt it was jarring and not consistent at all with his other two personas, but it worked well. This season, we have Captain Cheap Laugh again. So you see the K-9 parallel, right?

Apparently there was a decision made that the new series would be a complete and total send-up of the first. What with the fish-headed alien shocking an old lady, the ‘bloody Torchwood’ line after the super secret alien fighting Scooby Doo mobile squealed off in chase, the ‘Help me, Obi Wan!’ line… etc.

This… is a bad decision that is made that much worse when you this week’s guest villain, Captain John. Played in such a way that the late Jonathan Harris (Doctor Smith of Lost in Space fame) looks all butch, this character is possibly the most annoying thing to ever drop from a pen’s tip. Actor James Marsters does a decent enough job, it’s just the character that is less than a one note joke that never ends.

As soon as Captain John appeared on the screen, I called the next scene. A ‘fey-off’ was in the works against Captain Jack. But I had no idea that this would result in an actual stand-off ending in a prolonged make-out scene in front of digital flames… followed by fisticuffs to a Blur song I worked very hard to forget. The whole thing seemed like it was from an American program made five to ten years ago.

It was nice to see Burn Gorman as Owen again. I know many fans hate the character, but I find him to be the most interesting one of the gang and also the most useful. While Toshiko Jones is a walking talking Star Trek program (it was funny on Red Dwarf, it’s just sad when it’s played straight) is a waste of space and Gwen is back to her first season ‘oooh I love Jack’ despite all of the development she went through in season one, at least Owen is interesting. Also, can someone tell me when Ianto became the class clown?

Based on my enjoyment of the semi-sophisticated episodes and characters, I had mediocre hopes for the second season. It appears that I should have placed the ‘bar’ lower. Much lower.

The first season, while flawed and trashy, was consistently interesting to watch most of the time. Episodes such as Small Worlds, Combat and Out of Time as not only good Torchwood episodes, but decent science fiction as well (something the new Doctor Who has only achieved in a few stories). More importantly, the first season was about building the characters and the world that they live in. From this outing, I gather we are supposed to forget about that entirely and just laugh at every raised eyebrow, innuendo or Ianto joke.

What a waste.

Torchwood Season 2

Beginning this week in the UK and Jan 26th in the US is the second season of Torchwood.

Last year the first season gathered the highest viewing figures ever seen on BBC America (admittedly not a really big deal given that a majority of the channel’s programing consists of home repair shows), which has resulted in the first near-simulcasting of a BBC sci-fi program since the 20th anniversary Doctor Who special The Five Doctors.

By far, a much better quality show in my opinion compared to the new Doctor Who, Torchwood consists mainly of rain-slicked streets and ‘beautiful people’ striking poses and facing off against strange aliens. This season looks like it will be taking the drama up a notch as well as introduce new characters including the too-charming for his own good James Marsters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame.

Ofcourse an added surprise is the addition of Martha Jones from season three of Doctor Who. 

Torchwood breaks records on BBC America

The figures are in and the September 8th premiere of the Doctor Who spinoff series Torchwood on BBC America brought 496 thousand viewers, breaking the station’s viewing records.

Not only did it get a good viewing figure, but the critics are also quite pleased with the Cardiff-based paranormal program.

The Hollywood Reporter said Torchwood is “a crackling good, brilliantly conceived sci-fi series that targets actual grownups.”

TV Guide described it as “a cheeky and often startlingly adult spin-off” and Variety said it has “the fixings of a thinking-man’s sci-fi series that doesn’t take itself too seriously.”

The Kansas City Star says the program is “one of the best serial dramas to arrive on American television in 2007″ and The Philadelphia Inquirer describes it as “by turns super-slick, raw, bizarre, hilarious, spooky, scary and sublimely sexy”.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The Seattle Post Intelligencer and The San Jose Mercury News all have very positive things to say about the quirky sci-fi program.

Thanks to Gallifreyone.com for the news.

I have great hopes that the series will prove very successful, perhaps more so than the new Doctor Who.

If you are a Comcast cable subscriber, you can access the episodes via the Direct TV option.

Trailer

Torchwood co-starring Spike?

The BBC recently announced that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel star James Marsters (Spike) will be joining the Torchwood crew for the premiere episode of Season Two. The series enjoyed record high viewing figures on BBC3 last year and will be making the big move to BBC2 in 2008.

The entire crew of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Gwen (Eve Myles), Owen (Burn Gorman), Tosh (Naoko Mori) and Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) will be returning to combat alien menaces but are joined by Freema Agyeman, Martha Jones from Doctor Who Season 3. Freema will be reprising her role as she assists Captain Jack and his team in some of the wildest adventures that are (if the first season is anything to go by) more adult in nature than its sister program Doctor Who.

The writers of the thirteen part season have been announced (there are some very welcome names in there!) and the list includes Chris Chibnall , Catherine Tregenna, Helen Raynor, James Moran, Joseph Lidster, Peter J Hammond (creator of Sapphire and Steel), JC Wilsher and Matt Jones.Torchwood Season Two begins early 2008.

BBC America will be screening Torchwood Season One shortly.