August 26th, 2008 by Lisa McGarry. Tags: Torchwood
Filming for the third series of the smash hit drama Torchwood, created by Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies, has begun in Cardiff.
Due to transmit in 2009 on BBC One, the series – called Torchwood: Children Of Earth – sees the team embarking on a single action-packed adventure as they battle for the future of the human race against the fiercest force they have encountered.
The highly-motivated Torchwood team are John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper and Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones. Read more & comment »
Freema Agyeman will not be appearing in the third series of Torchwood as planned as she has accepted a role in a new ITV drama ‘Law and Order.
A source told The Sun: “This has really mucked things about. We’ve had to go back and re-edit loads of scripts because she’s not going to be in it.
“[ITV is] the Beeb’s bitter rival, so the fact she’s going over there to star in a big new project has not gone down well at all.”
I’ve just read that Torchwood has only been commissioned for five episodes for the next series. The normal run for a BBC drama like this is thirteen episodes, so this looks like a massively shortened series.
What the hell?
The last series of Torchwood was possibly the most consistently brilliant Sci-Fi programming I’ve seen in ages, with massive flights of fancy while telling some very touching and human stories. Read more & comment »
I managed to miss the last two episodes of Torchwood as part of the BBC’s plan to screw over anyone who likes their flagship Sci-Fi shows by moving the timeslots at random. But that’s a rant for another day, because thanks to the pretty darn good BBC iPlayer, I was able to watch both episodes back to back on my laptop.
The Doctor
Then there was the first episode of Doctor Who on Saturday night. Which was just awesome. Breathtakingly so. The timing of the early scenes, where Donna and The Doctor were feet apart at all times was brilliant. And of course, that completely silent conversation the two had through the windows of the office block was hilarious.
This Friday will see the final episode of what has been an amazing series of Doctor Who spinoff series, Torchwood.
As you will see in the clip below, Captain John (aka Spike from Buffy), returns, captures Captain Jack and leaves the rest of the team to try and save Cardiff from the Weevils.
A booby-trapped building explodes and knocks the team unconscious, as Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies’s award-winning drama continues.
As each team member’s life flashes before their eyes, viewers learn how each of them was recruited to Torchwood: Captain Jack was initiated into a shocked Victorian Torchwood in 1899; Toshiko went on a daring mission to trade alien technology for her mother’s life; Ianto wooed Jack with coffee and a flair for alien-catching; and Owen had a medical revelation that changed how he saw the world.
Friday 28 March
9.00-9.50pm BBC TWO
Tonight’s episode is a bit of a blur. Owen Harper is - to his misfortune - dead. Jack, in a complete reversal of policy from series one, hollers that they shouldn’t perform the autopsy just yet, then rushes out to retrieve the resurrection glove from amongst the freaky weevil people.
After an anticlimactic rescue of the glove, Jack returns to Torchwood and reanimates Owen. Awww. Except his primary reason is to find out the code for the alien morgue. No-one likes getting a call from work after hours, but raising you from the dead to find out a code? You’re taking the piss Jack, aren’t you?
Whoever made the decision to bring Martha Jones into the Torchwood storyline made the right move. We already know that she comes back to the good Doctor in the new series.
Not only do we get more information about Martha having become a member of UNIT, the military division featured heavily in the old series’ of Doctor Who, but we see that she’s less naive than she was when she travelled with David Tennant’s Doctor.
Miss Jones is still pretty straight-laced compared with her highly-sexed Torchwood colleagues, but she’s become much more confident since her last encounter with The Doctor. She handles Jack with more authority than you’d give her credit for. Maybe because she knows his fate as the Face of Boe?
Considering Martha was such a weak character during her first season in Doctor Who, the writers have done a brilliant job of resurrecting her. Let’s hope she keeps her new traits when she resurfaces in the next series of Doctor Who. And kudos to Freema Agyeman for evolving her character so deftly without losing Martha’s original spirit.
