Have just watched the recent series of Torchwood on iPlayer

This was the first time that the series has gripped me. Due to the way it ended it left some doubt as to whether or not there would be another series.

I hope that there will be.

Well the guy who writes it just resigned from the Beeb to go to the states.........

I'm left wondering about the promise of the tag line from the first season "the 21st century, that's when it all changes. And you've gotta be ready...."

Superb television. However, I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth from the lack of eps this season. There have been superb stories told on this show over the last 3 years and 5 eps is simply not enough!

Really shows why Jack and the Doctor are a great team at times, yet have enormous differences in their methods and outlooks. I'm not sure the Doctor could've handled that situation. He doesn't have the stomach for it.

Torchwood has certainly got an edginess that Dr Who doesn't have, which is interesting as its the same team who wrote and produced both.

Ohhh I'm not so sure about that.
The Doctor is a very single-minded, ruthless character, and without the human companions he almost constantly has with him he would be a very different charater.
He uses the companions as his moral compass. They keep him in check and play a much more important role than simply keeping him company.

Mark

Different target audiences.
Doctor Who was brought back with the idea of being less cult-like and more mainstream, I don't think Torchwood was ever intended to be mainstream.

Mark

He's very Batman in that sense, then

Totally agree

I completely agree with you Mark. However, I don't believe he would've taken the same path as Jack in the final ep. Jack barely even thought about it. He just took the tough choice. Fair play to him. Perhaps it is the companions, but either way, the Doctor would not have done that.

Much like Bale's Bat, at the end of the Dark Knight, Jack takes the path that nobody else can, for the greater good. Whilst the Doctor is faced with the same kind of decisions all the time, his single-mindedness usual results in a scenario not to dissimilar to Kirk cheating the Kobayashi Maru. Discuss.....

There was quite a few plots holes, but meh, I suppose.

BTW: Agggggggghhhhhh!!! How many times did theoretically top notch soldiers crowd to both ends of a corridor and aim down it at someone in the middle!? Worst tactical sense ever!!!

</rant>

theChipmunk

Not in this thread (8+p

Jack's probably the most amoral character on television at the moment. He knows above all else that whatever decisions he makes he'll have to live with the consequences. There's no getting away from that, and yet he still sacrifices the one to save the many, no matter what that one means to him.
I really don't think he would have decided nearly so quickly if the sacrifice was any other child.

Mark

When RTD and co were developing the series, they went back to the original production notes. The Doctor we have now is much closer to the original Hartnell character than later incarnations. Doctor #1 deliberately sabotaged the TARDIS to allow him to explore Skaro in a story which introduced the Daleks, putting him, and his companions in extreme danger to satisfy his curiosity. There is much to the Doctor which bubbling below, and certainly in the new series we have now, I get the feeling that he is attempting to atone for his deeds in the Time War, while at the same time keeping his desire for revenge just within reach.

He’s become a more complex character for the trimming back of baggage RTD did.

As for Torchwood, I’d love to see another series like this. I do think that the BBC has finally found out how to use it, and more importantly how to make a decent serialised story in the sci fi genre.

It actually makes me slightly angry too. Rewind to 1981, and at 8:30pm you would get an adaptation of The Day of the Triffids. What do you get in that time slot now? Pap. Every bloody day. There will be a new series of Triffids, but that I bet will be on at 9pm. The BBC really needs to drop its addiction to soaps and sensationalistic news. They changed the audience to expect that kind of nonsense, they can surely change it again.

The 1981 day of the Triffids has been on BBC 4 a lot recently. If it’s on again, do watch it. Remember that it was made on a small budget, and that was no obstacle to making a decent adaptation. The plat props were particularly effective at the time, and are damn creepy now.

Other than the Cardiff branch of Torchwood are there others scattered over the country/planet?

There was one i London at some stage ( that's where it was introduced into Dr Who )

IIRC its mentioned in the opening episode. Torchwood London was destroyed in the Dalek/Cyberman fight in the recent Dr Who story.. Torchwood Glasgow is apparently 'one mad old man'. They were Torchwood Cardiff. I dunno if Torchwood Belfast was ever mentioned...

Jon