Slashdot Mirror
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!
"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...
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.
The title is an anagram of a popular British sci-fi series, by the way.
Choowd Rot was one of my favourites!
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.
Queer As Folk
You realize that was originally a British series... and as it happens, created by Mr. Davies...
yes, but can he get me high, and take me to my special island?
This sig is false.
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
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.
"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.
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
That sounds like the start to a bad joke, with the punch-line "because they've just been to Swansea".
"I'm bigger on the inside than I am on the outside. Rrrowrr."
He didn't.
Ok, I know he kind of did. Remember, the exposure he got was second-hand.
That's impossible to determine from what we saw. We know that the name of the corporation on the ship where the Dalek's invaded was called "Bad Wolf" but without knowing more information on the origination of the predestination paradox, we can't be certain if this is the cause of or a result of the "Bad Wolf."
You mean aside from the cost of production?
Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;
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?
It's clearly established that the results of unlimited time activity, let alone interacting directly with the vortex, can led to results that are dangerous, and at best, unpredictable. Rose gambled that she could look into the vortex because she believed she had left herself clues, which indicated at least temporary lucid survival. Absent such clues, the Gallifreyians wouldn't access the vortex in a premeditated fashion, because the results could be disasterous.
why did the God Dalek consent to use humans as raw material?
The Dalek Emperor gave a lengthy rant about how only one cell in a zillion was deemed fit to be used, unlike the captured Dalek, who had no choice but to mainline Rose, but even then it's not for nothing that the Dalek Emperor was n-u-t-s -- casting himself as a God was the only to resolve the cognitive dissonance of using non-Dalek material.
Why would the Autons, the Rift, the Slovenes, the gas creatures, and Rose's home all be in Cardiff?
Because they aren't? Most of the present-day terrestrial action -- apart from the Rift follow-up with the last Slovene -- takes place in London, not Cardiff. Rose's home, and the store she worked in, were in London. (Hints: establishing shots of famous London landmarks, the Millenium Eye used a plot device, alien saucer crashing into Big Ben, accents, etc)
More attention seems to have been paid to continuity in the old series.
Actually, apart from inside multi-episode arcs, the old show was famous for making continuity bobbles and tripping itself up, hence the huge problems that arose when fans tried to write a history of the Daleks, for example.
"Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." -- The Brigadier, Dr. Who
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)
Superior being? Try desperate, lonely refugee.
For eight lifetimes, the Doctor was the superior being. Sure, he slummed it in the rickety old TARDIS, and occasionally picked up human companions whose sole purpose was to provide someone to whom the Doctor could demonstrate his superior knowledge, experience and general leetness, and occasionally to get captured by monsters and need to be rescued. However, he never had to do that. Though he loved playing the rogue Time Lord, he could always go home, face whatever music there might be, and rejoin his own people on Gallifrey. He never needed those companions and always, as you say, played the Superior Being.
However, at some point in the recent past (at least, in the recent past from the Doctor's perspective) there was a Time War. You might have heard of it. In that Time War, Gallifrey was destroyed and the Time Lords were exterminated. The Doctor now has nowhere to go. There's no homeworld. He has no people of his own, he has no roots and no background. Suddenly he's lost. He and the TARDIS are all that's left of the most powerful civilisation that ever was. Not so superior now, are we, Doctor? Not surprising, then, that he's suddenly more personally interested in his human companions. Even a Time Lord needs somebody.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.