Torchwood (series)
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- This article concerns the television series. For the organization, see Torchwood Institute. For the Cardiff branch of Torchwood, see Torchwood 3.
Torchwood is a Doctor Who television spin-off. An in-house BBC Wales production for digital television station BBC Three, it is the first television spin-off of Doctor Who since the unsuccessful pilot of K-9 and Company in 1981 and the first to be commissioned for a full 13-part series. It features the adventures of the Torchwood branch located in Cardiff, and is primarily set after the events of DW: Doomsday.
The spin-off series has not yet featured the Doctor himself, though the sound of the Doctor's TARDIS is heard in the final episode of season one. Likewise, the appearance of Martha Jones in the second series provides vital continuity between Doctor Who's third and fourth series. Conversely, Jack, as well as his team of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones featured in the last two episodes of the fourth series of Doctor Who.
Regular characters have included Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, and Owen Harper. Martha Jones and Suzie Costello have also been portrayed as part of the Torchwood team led by Harkness. Semi-regulars Rhys Williams and PC Andy Davidson are the only non-Torchwood members who have recurred across all series.
Overview
Origins
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In 2002, before the revival of Doctor Who, Russell T Davies began to develop an idea for a science-fiction/crime drama in the style of American fantasy drama series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel.
This idea, originally titled Excalibur, was abandoned until 2005, when BBC Three Controller Stuart Murphy invited Davies to develop a post-watershed science fiction series for the channel. During the production of the 2005 series of Doctor Who, the word Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who) had been used as a code name for the series while filming its first few episodes and on the rush tapes to ensure they were not intercepted.
Davies connected the word Torchwood to his earlier Excalibur idea and decided to make the series a Doctor Who spin-off. Subsequently, the word Torchwood was seeded in Doctor Who episodes and other media which aired in 2005 and 2006.
Premise
The series is set in Cardiff and follows the Welsh branch of a covert agency called the Torchwood Institute which investigates extraterrestrial incidents on Earth and scavenges alien technology for its own use. To paraphrase Torchwood Three's commander-in-chief, Jack Harkness, the organisation is separate from the government, outside the police, and beyond the United Nations. Their public perception is as merely a 'special ops' group. The events of the first series take place some time after the Doctor Who Doomsday series two finale, in which Torchwood's London headquarters was destroyed, and just before the series three finale.
The main writer alongside Davies is Chris Chibnall, creator of the BBC light drama show Born and Bred. Other writers include P.J. Hammond, Toby Whithouse, Doctor Who script editor Helen Raynor, Catherine Tregenna, and Doctor Who cast member Noel Clarke, who gained acclaim for his screenplay for the film Kidulthood.
In a 17th October 2005 announcement, Stuart Murphy described Torchwood as "sinister and psychological...As well as being very British and modern and real." Davies further described it as "a British sci-fi paranoid thriller, a cop show with a sense of humour. [...] Dark, wild and sexy, it's The X-Files meets This Life." Davies later denied ever making this comparison, instead describing the show as "alleyways, rain, the city".
As Torchwood is a post-watershed show — that is, after 9 p.m. — it has more mature content than Doctor Who. Davies told SFX: "We can be a bit more visceral, more violent, and more sexual, if we want to. Though bear in mind that it's very teenage to indulge yourself in blood and gore, and Torchwood is going to be smarter than that. But it’s the essential difference between BBC One at 7 pm, and BBC Three at, say, 9 pm. That says it all — instinctively, every viewer can see the huge difference there."
Davies also joked to a BBC Radio Wales interviewer that he was "not allowed" to refer to the programme as "Doctor Who for grown-ups". The first series includes content never before seen or heard in the Doctor Who franchise, including lovemaking scenes (in episodes such as "Day One" and "Out of Time"), same-sex kissing in a romantic/sexual context, and use of extreme profanity in several episodes.
Details
Torchwood is set in contemporary Cardiff, and features a group of "renegade" criminal investigators. Aside from investigating human and alien crime, they are also charged by the British government to covertly investigate alien technology without the knowledge of the United Nations. Confirmed writers include P.J. Hammond and Chris Chibnall.
In the announcement, BBC Three controller Stuart Murphy said "Torchwood is sinister and psychological... as well as being very British and modern and real." Davies himself has characterised the series concept as "a dark, clever, wild, sexy, British crime/sci-fi paranoid thriller cop show with a sense of humour — The X-Files meets This Life."
The series will star John Barrowman as Jack Harkness, one of the Ninth Doctor's companions from the 2005 season of Doctor Who. Although no crossovers with the parent series are planned, Barrowman reported on his website that the story of Torchwood would be "seeded" in the Christmas special and 2006 season of Doctor Who.
According to Davies, the name originated during production of the new Doctor Who series, when television pirates were eager to get their hands on the tapes. Someone in the production office suggested that the tapes be labelled "Torchwood" instead of "Doctor Who" to disguise their contents as they were being sent to London. Davies thought that was a clever idea and remembered the name.
As it is scheduled to be shown post-watershed, that is, after 9:00 pm, it is also expected to have more mature content than the parent series. Davies joked to a BBC Radio Wales interviewer that he was "not allowed" to refer to the series as "Doctor Who for grown-ups." BBC Wales Head of Drama Julie Gardner will serve as executive producer alongside Davies. Torchwood is set to premiere in Autumn 2006 on BBC Three. The date of the premiere is Sunday 22nd October 2006.
Interviewed on ITV1's afternoon chat show Loose Women on 18th October 2005, Barrowman suggested that the series might be repeated on BBC One sometime after its initial BBC Three airing. He also stated that it will not be revealed in the series how Jack Harkness has arrived in the early 21st century.
After the BBC announced Torchwood, tabloid newspaper The Daily Star wrote that singer Charlotte Church would be appearing as a Satan-worshipping villain in the series. The accuracy of this claim is false.
Martha Jones joined the show in the middle of Series 2 during the episode "Reset". She has a three episode appearance. When she joined the show, she was a fully qualified doctor, but left at the end of A Day in the Death. She made a return when Torchwood helped her in Switzerland in the radio play Lost Souls.
The conclusion of Journey's End, in which Jack tells Martha that he's not sure about UNIT these days and that she should consider other options moments before Mickey catches up and walks off with them, suggests that Martha Jones and Mickey Smith will join Torchwood with Martha succeeding Owen Harper as Torchwood's medic, and Mickey taking over from Toshiko Sato as Torchwood's computer specialist. Neither appeared in Children of Earth; Mickey's whereabouts were unmentioned, while Martha was said to still be in UNIT but currently on her honeymoon.
Story arcs
Various lines of dialogue of Series 1 makes reference to "something in the darkness", which might refer to either Abaddon or possibly either Durac from the following season. Series 2 has the dual arcs of the return of Jack's brother Gray (foreshadowed in the episodes Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Adam) and the death and resurrection of Owen Harper.
The stories
Television
Novels
The BBC have released a series of novels based on the series.
Comics and short fiction
Torchwood Magazine has published comics by several different artists and writers, as well as short stories.
Audio
BBC Radio Dramas
Original audiobooks
Cross-continuity with the Doctor Who Universe
In Series 1, Everything Changes and Cyberwoman made direct reference to the cross-over of the Cybus Cybermen into our Earth in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday and the latter story to the Battle of Canary Wharf, while the presence of the Doctor's hand makes reference to his losing it in The Christmas Invasion. Graffiti seen in the Ritz in Captain Jack Harkness makes reference to the Bad Wolf meme and to "Harold Saxon", while Utopia follows directly on from the closing moments of the Torchwood Series 1 finale End of Days, in which both Jack Harkness and the audience hear the sound of the TARDIS.
Jack Harkness explains in the Doctor Who story The Sound of Drums that he had made Torchwood over in honour of the Doctor, while "Saxon" explains he has sent Torchwood 3 on a "wild goose chase" to the Himalayas.
In Series 2, Freema Agyeman reprised her role of Martha Jones, while in the episode Reset, with her choice of an alias making reference to Samantha Jones, a companion of the Eighth Doctor. UNIT, an organization closely associated with the Third Doctor in particular, appears in flashback in Fragments and Toshiko Sato makes mention of and explains her appearance in the Doctor Who episode Aliens of London, in which she first appeared.
The Doctor Who Series 4 episode Turn Left presents an alternate timeline, nicknamed Donna's World, where, by saving the Earth from a Sontaran invasion (an event shown in the usual timeline in The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky), Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones die and Jack Harkness leaves Earth for Sontar. (In this alternate timeline, as in the normal one, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper have already died.)
In The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, the surviving Torchwood team and the Hub appear. While Jack goes off to save the Doctor, Gwen and Ianto remain in the Hub to fight off a Dalek. Journey's End concludes with Jack offering Martha a job with Torchwood. He also possibly recruits Mickey Smith, first seen in Rose in Series 1 of Doctor Who.
Captain Jack holds a bolt gun in Random Shoes which was first seen in The Satan Pit.
In the episode Adam at the start, Jack Harkness and Adam Smith are seen holding Dalek tommy guns which were first seen in Evolution of the Daleks.
Although barely visible on screen, Jack is growing a TARDIS on his desk.
See also
- Torchwood Declassified, a documentary series in the vein of Doctor Who Confidential
