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BBC Announces Adult Doctor Who Spin-Off
Dogtanian writes "The BBC has just announced a new 'Doctor Who' spin-off called 'Torchwood'. It is intended to be more adult in tone, and will follow a team investigating alien activities in modern-day Britain. Described as a cross between 'The X-Files' and 'This Life', it will feature Captain Jack, the bisexual time-travelling conman who featured in a number of recent Who episodes. The BBC are likely hoping that this spin-off will be more successful than 'K9 and Company'. The title is an anagram of a popular British sci-fi series, by the way."
Doctor Who in case you missed it.....
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
"BBC Announces Adult Doctor Who Spin-Off"
And here I was hoping for some quality sci-fi T&A, a la US Spice Channel. Serves me right for RTFA, back to Seven-of-Nine for my sci-fi kitten-killing adventures.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
"Elisabeth, come in here!"
"Doctor it's so dark in here, where are you?"
"Over here in the corner."
"I can't see.."
"I have a torch in my pocket. Come and get it. Yes.. a little to the left.. yes, there it is. That's a good girl."
*shriek* "That's your KNOB!!"
"No baby, that's my TORCHWOOD..heh heh heh."
Am I the only one who isn't totally sold on Russell Davies' ability as a science fiction writer? The interpersonal drama elements of the new Who were well done, but pretty much all the sci-fi was rubbish. At least two episodes ended with some kind of big beam from the sky hitting the Tardis as a way of resolving the plot. One episode had the Doctor developing some kind of force field so the Tardis wouldn't get hit by Dalek missiles (how can you get hit by a missile when your ship dematerializes to travel through both space AND time?). And when it came right down to it, the whole "Bad Wolf" plot thread was a huge letdown at the end and didn't really make any kind of sense at all. I'm hoping the second season is better, but I get the feeling that will depend on its relying more on independent writers rather than Mr. Davies himself. The two-parter with the gas mask zombies was the best one, and the direction I'd like to see them go. Try watching a bunch of Philip Hinchcliffe-era episodes starring Tom Baker and you'll see how the new series really sort of pales in comparison.
Breakfast served all day!
I think he might be trisexual. Indeed, someday they might run across an alien race where there are three sexes. And this fellow would most likely want to perform some sort of intercourse with each gender. Thus he would become a trisexual.
In any case, that is a pretty adult issue to deal with. I mean, society as a whole struggles today with the idea of homosexuality, let alone bisexuality. Toss trisexuality into the mix and we're in a different cricket field.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
What male needs a refractory period when you've got a TARDIS?
Strange to hear it compare to This Life. I hope it is though, that series was so cool!
...I thought we'd be watching Hot Rod Cow.
"OK, lay it on us, what's your idea?"
"well, there's this bisexual time-travelling conman...."
(awkward silence)
"...and that's it!"
"Brilliant! Here's a bag of moneys!"
will feature Captain Jack, the bisexual time-travelling conman
Just when you thought British TV couldn't get any worse...
I'ma gonna have to give up watching paint dry to see this enthralling bit of exicting english sci-fi.
Due to the irritating connotation it invoked, the old title 'Scorchwood' was dumped. Several people were asked about their feelings about the old series and the new spinoff, their responses were typically something like, 'Dr. What?'
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I thought the same thing when I read the headline. If everyone started going that way with SciFi, the Asgard and Replicators would provide some interesting adventures on SG-1.
So... BBC is going to do an "Adult" show called "Touchwood" with some bi-sexual Captain, his K9 and Company... ....
And this is somehow NOT one of the signs of the Apocalypse.
Very well then.
Jack: I'm measuring the Tardis for The Doctor for a block transfer computation. Would you give me a leg up, Mr. Humphries?
Mr Humpries: Why, YES, I'd be delighted!
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Not to mention the Douglas Adams episodes...
-l
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Great -- a time-traveling buggerer. Only from British minds could such a thing come into existence.
Am I the only one who thinks DDR?
The title is an anagram of a popular British sci-fi series, by the way.
Choowd Rot was one of my favourites!
thought the same thing when I read the headline. If everyone started going that way with SciFi, the Asgard and Replicators would provide some interesting adventures on SG-1.
Yes, I can see it now...the Assguard and the Penetrators on Shaggate-1
The new series was good, but plagued with ambivalence. On the one hand, the Doctor makes jokes and the soundtrack plays the occasional circus melodies. On the other, he's a dark, damaged bugger of a Timelord (who may or may not have designs on his impressionable young companion), there are scenes of torure, talk of prostitutes... I for one welcome our grown-up over— no, Timelords. Now let's get rid of the pretence that this is some children's show and make it something challenging and credible*.
*Yes, I know this is fiction, but I think you catch my drift.
Adult. That's almost funny, because all it really means is possibly more graphic violence and a big step-up on sexual innuendo, both probably offered, in most situations, as a substitute for more creative, thoughtful writing.
...
So
Don't miss "Hex Filets"
It's a cross between The X-Files and Friends, and it will feature Jack from "Will and Grace" the homosexual madcap who, in this incarnation, stars as a Java programmer. Here's an excerpt:
Moldwad: Hey, Skilly, I'll bet you I can keep it up all night.
Skilly: I doubt it.
Enter Jack.
Jack: Hey, Moldwad -- WHOA! Decided to open up a SEX file, huh!?
* Run laugh track *
Yeah. I can't wait for either show. The anticipation is just, you know, unbearable.
Chr0m0Dr0m!C
Queer As Folk
You realize that was originally a British series... and as it happens, created by Mr. Davies...
Oh, wonderful. More homosexuals on the telly. Will they all be sipping fine wines and typing the great British novel on their Macintoshes? Or will they be leather-and-chain-wearing animals haunting the local "gay" bathhouse for lots of anonymous and unprotected sex?
If homosexuals are "just like the rest of us", how come they aren't?
yes, but can he get me high, and take me to my special island?
This sig is false.
What are you talking about? Captain Jack takes his shirt off in the first episode.
YM Continuity Director?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
"He's TRISEXUAL, man!"
"What's that?"
"He'll try anything - chickens, mud, you know."
To say that Captain Jack was one of the more memorable and funny characters of last season. The scene where the robots strip him naked and put him in front of a camera was great.
Jack: "Are you broadcasting live?"
(the robots agree)
Jack: "Ladies, are you in for a treat tonight!"
I have reservations, of course. The stories themselves have to be good and the writers have their work cut out for them to make him more than a one-trick pony (so to speak). Still, I'm a sucker for British television as well as sci-fi, so I'll at least give this one a watch.
I was reading this article just before this story was posted to Slashdot, and found it to be very informative (though one could say that it has too much information, thankyouverymuch).
Its going to be difficult for this show to reach its target audience, which I would assume is 19 - 35 males. Most would rather see more Lexx and Seven-of-Nine in their 'Adult' sci-fi, by my estimation.
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
Before "Lost", there were no sci-fi shows on major networks, and with Enterprise on the way out, people thought the genre was dead. Now, I count about six sci-fi shows on major networks, including Lost, Invasion, Threshold, Surface, Supernatural, Night Stalker, and maybe Medium and Ghost Whisperer qualify, for a total of eight, all relatively new. And then you have Sci Fi and USA holding their own with Dead Zone, Battlestar, Stargate, etc. I've never seen so much sci fi on TV, and I have to think it's due to Lost being so successful. -- My only complaint is that I liked most of these shows more the first time when they were X-Files episodes. :-) (Though I guess X-Files came from Night Stalker anyway.)
Tristan Yates
Bravo! reairs much British content, if I recall correctly. And it is only available on subscription services such as cable or satellite. And even then, it is often ridiculed as an "old person's channel" by most Americans under the age of 40.
Now, take a look at that list of shows again. Those do not deal with homosexuality in any real fashion. They portray a fairly typical stereotypical view of homosexuals and homosexuality. Men with a lisp, butch women, and all that. They're using homosexual characters as foils to enhance the heterosexual image of the non-gay characters, or otherwise treat the homosexual characters as living jokes.
This serious could explore bisexuality and homosexuality in a far more mature and intelligent way, unlike Will & Grace or those other such shows.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I enjoyed the Boomtown episode - mainly because they actually dragged the "Bad Wolf" thing out into the open for the first time. I've enjoyed every episode mainly for playing spot-the-reference.
However, that episode did annoy me slightly. Why the HELL would you name a nuclear power plant "Bad Wolf"? Why did none of the Welsh-speaking citizens wonder over this? The council would have a riot if bilingual signs suddenly started saying different things in different languages.
Also, I hope there are just as many stupid spinoff websites for the next series. Those were the best. My favourite would be UNIT, then Geocomtex's tech support page.
Everyone keep an eye on domain registrations by the beeb.
"BBC Announces Adult Doctor Who Spin-Off" I have to admit I sat there after a double-take wondering "What exactly did this adult doctor spin off? Something like a British WebMD? Why is he an adult doctor? Then I finally read the description, and decided it didn't actually help as much as I thought it would.
And for those who missed it, Canada will get Region 1 NTSC DVDs of the first series of Doctor Who on February 14th. So for those unlucky enough not to have seen it yet, here's your chance.
Ahem, make that 2006....
If Rose was able to destroy the Daleks by simply having a long look at the TARDIS core, then why did the entire Gallifreyian species die out in the Dalek conflict? Were none of them able to do the same? Why was the Doctor able to survive the exposure?
If the captured Dalek destroyed itself because of the contamination from Rose, then why did the God Dalek consent to use humans as raw material?
Why did Rose choose the words "Bad Wolf?" Why were they significant? Was there any useful meaning?
Why would the Autons, the Rift, the Slovenes, the gas creatures, and Rose's home all be in Cardiff? I'd never heard of this place before; the coincidence strains credulity.
More attention seems to have been paid to continuity in the old series. It needs better plots.
This is what you get when you let a Public beaurocracy do anything. They get it half right.
Bisexual is good. Man is bad. Who wants to look at an ugly man? Men are ugly. If it were up to a private organisation, it would feature a beautiful bisexual woman. Women are beautiful. Men are ugly.
Damn beaurocrats.
What's more, being a Brit, I have to pay for it by law :-(
If I want to watch the bisexual women on the commercial channel, I have to pay even more.
Damned government beaurocracy.
Stick Men
Russell T. Davies is the guy behind the new Doctor Who, and also Torchwood. Here is an interview with him from BBC Wales about the new series: Why Torchwood?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
The jelly babies agenda was particularly insidious.. not to mention that whole scarf thing tom baker had going on.. downright subversive!
Well, the actor does anyway :)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I like sci-fi as much as the next geek but could someone please explain to me what there is to like about Doctor Who? Even when I was a kid and a fervent imagination could (partially) make up for the utterly terrible special effects and boring / unconvincing drivel that passed for a story I didn't find it interesting / compelling / etc /etc.
In fact I can only think of one kid that actually liked it and just about everyone in the school avoided him. So come on - convince me that there is something to like about Dr Who.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
He was just from a time where people dont have mental hangups about sex - like you do.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Yep, that's all I have to say.
Intelligent Design: because MATH is HARD.
"I'm bigger on the inside than I am on the outside. Rrrowrr."
I wish we had more role models like that on television today.
I felt that the old Doctor Who programmes were very variable and I was never a huge fan. However, the latest series was stupendous in my opinion, with some quite excellent writing - "The Empty Child I" and "Boom Town" were particular favourites.
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
That's what the Internet is for.
Oh, wait, you said quality... Never mind.
I dread to think what those "hot" colours would do to a NTSC television though - apparently they were not even PAL-legal when broadcast over here. I guess they would be toned down for the DVD.
I'm not convinced about the US episode of Queer as Folk I've seen (making someone who did you wrong suck on a gun - why is everything in the USA always about guns?) compared to the original, but it's a bit expensive for me to look at the DVDs.
Russell T. Davies is the guy who made the Doctor a needy, jealous, and largely impotent protagonist.
What truly bothers me is that The Doctor is a 900 year old 'superior being' who has been reduced to lusting after an emotionally immature 19 year old human.
I think the name of the show was PROBE or something similar, it was a spinoff from John Pertwee's Doctor. It was the British 1970's X-Files. :P
just = (My)Opinion.toCents();
How does having a bisexual character constitute an "agenda" or "uncomfortable sexual baggage"?
It feels like an agenda if the inclusion is gratuitous: having little or nothing to do with the plot. It's one thing to put references to gay sex in Coupling or Sex in the City, but rather a different thing to put it into a science fiction show. And it's a matter of degree: having a character known to be gay is one thing, having them drool over other characters all the time is another.
Isn't that just sort of a fairly realistic inclusion of the fact that actual people are sometimes gay or bisexual? In much the same way that people are sometimes female, or tall, or left-handed, and thus characters in stories sometimes also have these traits?
Again, it's an issue of dramatic appropriateness. Writers should know that it doesn't help a story to reference behaviors that make much or most of their audience uncomfortable for no other reason than "inclusiveness." (Like it or not, being female or tall or left-handed or straight doesn't make anyone uncomfortable.)
Think of it this way: a much higher percentage of people don't wash their hands after using the toilet than practice gay sex, so why not reference that every episode? Or how about evangelical Christians? There are more of those around than gays, so why not a character who's always talking about Jesus? Because it would cause much of your audience to squirm, without adding anything to the story (unless that was the story, and who wants science fiction about hygiene or evangelicals?).
By the way, I'm not saying any of this out of homophobia: my best friend of 31 years was gay and died of AIDS.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Whether it is the new Who or the new spin-off, I would argue that if it can't manage either the tension of The Zero Imperative, the surrealness of Summoned By Shadows or the darkness of The Terror Game, then the BBC has no business producing it. For chrissakes, those were FAN FLICKS! The special effects rarely went much beyond cutting up cornflake packets. But it seems to me that they packed a hell of a lot more punch than the BBC is willing to put into their sci-fi.
Sci-fi isn't about skin - though some might have trouble believing it. It gets its power from the Universe it is set in, and if the Universe isn't worth a damn, then neither is the show. (At least as sci-fi. It might make it as a soap opera, or a comedy.)
The BBC is capable of producing science fiction that would have even the tired and jaded audiences of today shivering in terror behind the sofa. If they chose. They're more than capable of producing a drama of sufficient power and depth that the fans are cheering on the hero(s) every step of the way. If they chose.
The same is true of any other TV station. So why do none of them choose? Why is nausiating dross the ONLY diet on television these days?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
It was modded Insightful just a second ago.
I a job I started recently one of my new workmates walked up to introduce himself with "Hi, I'm Gay"....
I don't walk up to complete strangers and say "Hi, I'm Straight "...
I don't mind gay people but I would rather address them by name, and refer to them by name.
I'm afraid you're arguing against your own conclusions. For one thing, in the long term, sex, esp. gay sex seems to be ever increasingly practised openly. It seems likely to me that sexuality will play a more important role in the future, especially with drugs such as Viagra, and the treatment and cure of AIDS. Therefore sex is the perfect subject for science fiction!! Plus, why do you think this isn't a "Sex in the City," with a science fiction setting? There has also been science fiction about Evangelicalism in fact, it just hasn't reached television (yet) What exactly do you think Science Fiction is? Some might say its thinly disguised adolescent, war-themed homo-eroticism, in which case you might have a valid point. Otherwise, I don't understand you're view at all.
Nothing like a good olde-fashioned demagogue and hatemongerer to get people back on the path to morality. Father Coughlin, where are you?
Why would the Autons, the Rift, the Slovenes, the gas creatures, and Rose's home all be in Cardiff? I'd never heard of this place before; the coincidence strains credulity.
The Autons in invaded *London* as did the Slithenes. Rose grew up in *London*. The gas creatures created the Rift which is why Margaret Slithene later went to Cardiff.
Not exactly the "coincidence" you're straining for.
Back when Space, the Imagination Station (the local SF channel) came online, they had a promotional commercial which featured music from several shows, including that of Dr Who*. I don't think that they've ever broadcast a single Dr Who episode, old or new. Nobody is broadcasting any Dr Who in my neighbourhood, and I feel ripped off.
* They also had music from Lost in Space, but somehow I don't feel quite so ripped off that they haven't aired any episodes from that show.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Possibly it was hard for you to see past it. I found him to be an interesting character with plenty of depth, e.g. the whole issue of his bravery/cowardice, his past, etc. Making him bisexual was bold and unusual, just like giving the Doctor a northern accent.
Dr Who doesn't need fans who live solely in the past, matey. Get out. See the world. There are people exactly like Captain Jack in it. (In fact there are more like Jack than there are like Leela, who you nostalgic "no-sexuality!" pillocks seem to have conveniently forgotten)
Or fifty.
Repeated deus ex machina makes me gack. Parting of Ways could have been sooooo cool, but no, Russel had to lamify it.
I am a science fantasy fan
Think about it: For a change, here's a guy who, after convincing his girlfriend to try a threesome, would drag home another guy. What a refreshing change that'd be!
Lemon curry?
Here I was hoping Billie Piper would show a bit more skin!
Now that sounds like a show worth watching!
Speaking as someone who's seen the series, new and old... we don't even need to bring homosexuality or bisexuality or whatever into this... /
But surely that should be "whomosexuality"?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
I know now what I'm missing with the new Doctor Who program on the BBC. I'm not twice as glad that I'm missing it, but I sure miss the original series when there were clever script writers/editors like Robert Holmes and Douglas Adams, great leads like Tom Baker/Patrick Troughton, and heterosexual producers like Phillip Hinchcliffe and Barry Letts. Those days are gone now, it seems. Damn shame, but it's not just TV this days. It's our culture. The occasional gay/transexual/bi/goat-loving tv character never hurt anybody, but I never wanted to watch a so-called science fiction program where the characters are obsessed with (bi/homo/tri)sexuality in every episode.
They discontinued Dr. Who until enough people complained and then finally put it back on the air. Now it's like they've discovered their belly buttons and want to go overboard. The proposed Torchwood sounds lame to me.
Charles Angelich
It meant I was avoided by you. saves a lot of trouble that...
seriously though, why bother? I am quite fond of the shows, old and new, and find it very difficult at times to explain why I think it is a great program. the best explanation I ever read was given by Harlan Ellison in the foreword of a Dr. Who novel I had way back when. Much of what he admired was the fact that unlike other SciFi characters, the Doctor was ruthless. He had morals and ethics, and really felt them, and they were the cause of his actions rather than the excuse. How many other 'hero' characters stood trial for genocide?
But really, you are entitled not to like it. We won't hold it against you.
I just wish they would sell it on iTMS... Hear that BBC? sell the shows on iTMS and lower the British license fee! you'll make everyone there happier for it, and a number of people here as well.
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
Not being very "with it", as it were, I had to read through a few comments before I was convinced this wasn't a joke.
Come in barrels my friend. Everyone knows that.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I'm sorry, you did catch that this show was being made by the BBC, right? As in the British Broadcasting Corporation? As in, that great big island thousands of miles away from America? How exactly does a show being produced in Britain for a British audience reflect a flaw in the moral fiber of America?
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
One of the problems of having multiple companions (for Example the 5 th Doctor having Tegan, Nyssa and Adric) was that the writers had to either omit them for an episode or make the story more complex just to get the companions involved. Imagine having to work out where each of the assistants are in a story that should really be focusing on 1 person.
;-)
Looking back at the 5th Doctors era you'll find that the TARDIS crew were usually broken up into 2 groups of 2 never all out on their own.
Quite frankly I think having 2 companions is enough, for example the 8th Doctor with Anji and Fitz, or even re-use the concept of Compassion where they all travel inside one of the companions
--
For those unaware, Compassion was the companion who was a living TARDIS (Type 102 to be exact) that the Doctor and Fitz travelled in for about 4-5 stories.
England, where crossdressers are hilarious (see Family Guy), has now decided on a Doctor Who spinoff that features a bisexual. Don't worry BBC. I won't be getting the torrent of that show.
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
If your referring to the scene where he kissed The Doctor, Captain Jack (Can't think of the actor's true name at the moment) explains in the show "Doctor Who Confidential" That he hoped no one would look at it that way. It was an emotional reaction...to say "goodbye" to someone he more/less now looked on as a sort of "Big Brother". He kissed him in this context... like one would kiss a brother goodbye. I can't remember which episode of Doctor Who confidential this was, I believe it was one of the last ones aired when the season was comming to an end.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/18/apontv.sa turdays.dead.ap/index.html
Funny; this seems like exactly the type of thing
Americans need to have available for Saturday evening
viewing.
;)
I actually doubt that. From a more adult Doctor Who series, I'd expect more frightening little kids in gasmasks and alien refugees reanimating Victorian corpses, and fewer farting Slitheen.
Apparently they had to tone down the horror in The Empty Child in order to avoid... well, basically traumatising an entire generation. What the original was like I don't know, but it must have been something like the evil offspring of Ringu and The Exorcist, if it was worse than what actually went on air...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
How do those of us in the states watch the new Dr. Who?
That said, I don't know what the latest research says on the subject. I know that 20-30 years ago, they were still saying that the general trend was towards promiscuity rather than long-term monogamous relationships, but that may have been a passing trend, propaganda, or inadequate research. For that matter, I've a pet theory that human psychology as a whole tends to be heavily influenced by what people are told psychology should be. Multiple Personalities on the television? People will start developing it. A concrete example would be the roles of of the two hemispheres of the brain. Early research postulated that the right side of the brain controlled input from the left eye and vice versa. They have experiments proving this. Now, they say that the right-side of the brain covers the left visual field of both eyes. They have experiments proving that. Makes a person wonder now, doesn't it? The act of observing affects the target of observation.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.