Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

BBC Announces Adult Doctor Who Spin-Off

Posted by Zonk on from the who-isn't-for-adults? dept.

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."

15 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. First "Bad Wolf" post by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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!
    1. Re:First "Bad Wolf" post by PCM2 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I just watched "Pyramids on Mars" and "Talons of...". These had a great atmosphere and were fun to watch. But you ain't gonna convince me that these were science fiction. There was very little science fiction content, just a bunch of horror/science fiction cliches thrown together.
      Ouch. Harsh, but I guess I can't really argue with you there, if your definition of science fiction requires actual "science." (Except for Talons, maybe ... that little homonculous with the brain of pig sounded particularly nasty.)

      Is Quatermass not sci-fi, then? Because that's what a lot of the Tom Baker and Pertwee era Whos seemed to be modeling themselves after. There were some rockets in the Quatermass stories, granted, and some theorizing, but not a lot of science, really.

      Anyway, what's interesting is that I seem to remember early interviews in which Davies was quoted as saying he thought Doctor Who worked best as a horror show. Can't find them now, though.

      On the other hand, the Empty Child/Doctor Dances had great science fiction content. And I thought Long Game and Unquiet Dead also had some good science fiction content.
      "Empty Child/Doctor Dances" was clearly my favorite. "Long Game" had some good content, but again it was one of two out of a total of just thirteen episodes in which the plot was resolved by yet another cheap sci-fi plot device -- blowing up the big, unintelligible blob-monster at the end. (Historically, the Doctor hasn't really confronted all that many blob-monsters in the past.) "Unquiet Dead," similarly, had a glowing alien energy-being at the end. I mean, come on -- compare that to, say, "Seeds of Doom" or "Robot," where the stakes were raised as the plot progressed. By comparison, a stationary monster in a cellar (or top floor, whatever) just isn't that dramatic.

      To me, that's one of the natural necessities of action or suspense drama: raising the stakes. But Russell seems so enamored of his characters that he never bothers to do it. There's something wrong at the beginning of the episode but we know that, by the end, the Doctor will figure it out and right it. You seldom get the impression that the Doctor or Rose are in any kind of danger, with the possible exception of the cliffhanger episodes ("Empty Child," again, being the most effective). But the cliffhangers get resolved in the first minute of the next episode in such a lame way that if they keep it up, nobody's going to pay attention to those either. I mean, come on -- "Haha, doesn't work on me after all, I'm an alien"? Fine then, time for me to head to the refrigerator to make a snack...

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
  2. End this ambivalence! by ettlz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  3. Re:The Anagram is.... by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There aren't enough Y's in Scrabble to spell out "What do you get if you multiply six by nine" either.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  4. Re:Queer as Folk by MudButt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You realize that was originally a British series... and as it happens, created by Mr. Davies...

    Sure, but my point is that it airs without issue in the U.S.

  5. Re:The Anagram is.... by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I didn't give a damn whether Captain Jack was bi, my problem was that he was like a fifth wheel, or to repeat another cliche, proof positive that three's a crowd. I don't mind having the odd repeat character, but Dr. Who has always been about the Doctor and his assistant. The Doctor and Rose are great, but Captain Jack was just sort of annoying.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  6. I'm secure enough in my manliness . . . by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:I'm secure enough in my manliness . . . by glowworm · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Those robots were a take-off of Trinnie and Suzanah's "What Not to Wear". Where they freaquently dress fat women in their horrible 1980 clothes in a room full of mirrors!

      --
      Orationem pulchram non habens, scribo ista linea in lingua Latina
  7. Hardly realistic portrayals of homosexuals. by CyricZ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.
  8. Re:The Anagram is.... by jangobongo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The "agenda" may belong to Russell Davies who admits, "Yes, I'm a gay writer," and goes on to say, "...to get hung up on it [the fact that Jack's bisexual] is almost too sad for words, frankly."

    The problem is that people are going to get hung up on that very fact. I predict that this spin-off wouldn't do well here in the U.S.

    --

    Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
  9. Re:The Anagram is.... by Nyder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "It's even more glaring given that Doctor Who has historically been a show so foreign to sex that fandom has long speculated that the main character's species reproduces asexually."

    Really? when the female timelords can regenerate their looks at anytime? I would think that they would be having lots of sex.

    Personnally, i thought a good show would be about the son/daughter of Dr Who & Romana, with a K9 unit, searching the cosmos for his lost father. And of course, in the dr's old unreliable tardis that takes him/her everywhere but where they need to go.

    of course, the Rani & the Master would of had some offsprings so we can have some enemys (school chum rivals or something).

    But now, I guess Gallifry is no more (like that matters to a timelord, space & time, in all) so school is no more.

    dang, i still haven't watched those new dr who eps i downloaded. watched the first 4 or 5, just haven't taken the time yet for the others.

    --
    Be seeing you...
  10. Ummmm, Leela anybody? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    You could forget, sometimes, that Tom Baker had curly hair. By contrast, the way Captain Jack was written, it was pretty hard to forget, even for a moment, that he was continuously randy for anything vaguely warm and moving.

    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)

  11. Re:The Anagram is.... by ianpm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, I probably would. Dr Who should be sexless. Its not about that, nor should it be. The Sci-Fi is supposed to be the core of the show. Not who is getting laid with who (no pun, really, no pun intended).

    The bisexual thing doesn't bother me at all in fact. But it does irritate me slightly that Russel T Davis is using the show to "enlighten" everyone that being gay or bisexual is fine. Of course its bloody fine, but I don't care about it in my sci-fi. Well, not in Dr Who anyway.

    I have Lexa Doig for my sci-fi sex interest ;)

  12. Re:Government Beaurocracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Bisexual is good. Man is bad. Who wants to look at an ugly man? Men are ugly.

    Clearly your opinion does not constitute everyone else's. Men are not ugly. (Well, not all of them anyway :-p )

    There are four reasons television was invented: (a) Buffy the musical episode, (b) the BBC "Perfect Day" video, (c) the first epsiode of Queer as Folk, (d) "The Parting of the Ways" episode of Dr Who. Russell T Davies was responsible for two out of four of those. His being commissioned to make more television can only be a good thing.

    Oh, just for the 'informative' mod points, http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/ is talking about Torchwood.
  13. Re:Plot problems. Questionable writing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Also, because the money's coming from BBC Wales, there are probably regional political issues as well (although of the items mentioned, only the Rift was in Cardiff, and the gas creatures were there as a direct consequence of that).