A couple of weeks removed from the American showing of Torchwood: Children of Earth, the mini-series that served as the Dr. Who spinoff's third season, I am still thinking about what a season four would look like. I've been a fan of the show since the first series, and I have liked the Torchwood team and admired the writing. But the ending of Children of Earth complicated things. At the end of season two, two major characters died, then COE killed off another. The immortal, normally untouchable Captain Jack Harkness had been compromised to the point where he had to leave the planet, and Gwen was pregnant and happily married. So what would a fourth season even look like?
I would hate to see Torchwood: Baby Boomer, with Gwen balancing the baby with fighting aliens, and all the clichés that come with the balancing-a-job-and-motherhood plots from movies and television past. But then, series creator and writer Russell T. Davies has done a fantastic job of avoiding the predictable, so I'd be willing to take that leap of faith to see what he comes up with. And Davies is already on record as saying that Captain Jack is "fundamental to Torchwood."I asked a couple of friends and fellow fans of Torchwood what they thought, and everyone seems to want the show to continue. Ken, a Boston comedian, says, "Captain Jack would be involved, obviously, but I think the dynamic would be far different. Gwen would take on more of the leadership role. I'd like to see some more Doctor Who characters be a part of the team."
That would be interesting; Captain Jack having to take orders from Gwen, not charging in everywhere recklessly just because he's immortal (although as reasons go, being immortal is a fairly good reason for doing anything). That would create a constant tension, where Gwen is always a mistake away from losing control of the team to Jack, and testing Jack's respect for Gwen to not overstep her.
Chris from Buffalo would like to see Torchwood come back, but with a change in mission, ditching the one-off episodes for a more continuous storyline. "With the time invested as a viewer and the death of long time characters," he says, "I'd like to see it mean something. Fighting off the random alien attack is fine, but I'd like to see the bigger issues they've touched on (corrupt government, the changes that Jack mentions are coming, etc)." Children of Earth proved that Davies could write a good continuous plotline for Torchwood, and it would be wonderful to see him bring that same nail-biting quality to a full season four.
Amber, an actress/playwright/burlesque performer from Boston, appreciates Davies' willingness to kill off main characters, taking nothing for granted. She'd like to see new characters that don't resemble Owen, Tosh, or Ianto, with a possible Dr. Who tie-in (maybe Mickey Smith on the team). She'd like to see Torchwood even further underground. "Torchwood should be more James Bond meets La Femme Nikita," she says, "while keeping with its awesome story arches."
I would guess the ratings for Children of Earth alone would be enough to bring it back, and there have already been a couple of reports out of Comic-Con that the BBC had agreed to it. Tim, another comedian from Boston, said COE was his first experience with Torchwood. He loved the storytelling and "gorgeous creepy atmosphere" for four and a half of the episodes (the exception being the ending, which he thought was devoid of tension, "In the last five minutes, Jack's like, 'Wait, what if I kill my grandson? Sweet."). I'm sure COE hooked a lot of new fans, and it certainly solidified my admiration of the show.
From a storytelling standpoint, the first few episodes of a new season would have to be devoted to how Captain Jack comes back, which will be tricky. Another world-threatening crisis drawing him back would be redundant. It's possible that Gwen could lose the baby and Rhys and that Jack would come back to save and comfort her, but that might be more death than fans can bear.
What might be more fun would be if Jack came back to help without being seen -- by the public or the team. He would be a fringe player, tilting the scales at just the right moment and then retreating, hiding his tracks. He has an undeniable attraction to Earth and especially Gwen, and it's understandable that he wouldn't want to be visible and face his long history. But could he resist keeping an eye on things from above?
However it turns out, I doubt that it will be anything I or most Torchwood fans could guess, which is what makes Torchwood so much fun in the first place.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-08-2009 @ 2:10PM
Adam Wright said...
Torchwood should definitely return for a 4th series. It should be set some years after the COE event, maybe 3. Rhys could babysit and Gwen could re-build Torchwood using certain contacts. Jack could return around episode 2 or 3 for reasons that happen to him when Tennant's Doctor dies.
A full 13 episode series should happen, but like some of you said, it needs a long lasting storyline throughout mixed with one-off adventures. That's how Torchwood is, many jobs.
Mickey Smith should return, bringing his computer skills with him (like he did in Doctor Who). In effect that was Toshes role. Martha Jones or the Lee Evans scientist from Dr Who's Planet of the Dead should be recruited as the medical officer. Oh, and lets not forget the fab Louis!
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8-08-2009 @ 2:11PM
Claire said...
I'd love to see it back. and even if Torchwood isn't come back the story can continue with Doctor Who and the Sarah Jane Adventures. I'd like to know what the Doctor was doing during this time and where Sarah Jane and her kids were.
Of course, they could always have Jack come back to Earth in the future. He could always find Gwen's grown-up kid or whoever and restart Torchwood.
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8-08-2009 @ 2:41PM
Edward said...
Didn't they say that Sarah Jones was on her honeymoon?
They could bring in Donna Noble.
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8-08-2009 @ 4:10PM
Leroy said...
I think too many things are being taken for granted about the baby. What if it's not human? What if Jack and Gwen did it and then got retconned?
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8-09-2009 @ 1:05PM
LadyS said...
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Gwack and the Redshirts? Not for me, thanks.
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8-08-2009 @ 11:05PM
Cathy said...
I'd like to see Season Four once Jack has found the Doctor and been healed.
What I'd really like to see, but probably won't, is:
1) the Hub restored
2) flashbacks with Ianto- showing the development of his and Jack's relationship
3) Lois
4) Mickey
5) Gwen being more like she was on CoE (ie- less annoying than she was in the previous seasons)
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8-09-2009 @ 11:53AM
angel said...
I think we should end Torchwood now. RTD has basically taken everything and broken it into a million pieces, the hub is gone, the SUV is gone, most of the main characters are gone. WTF??? I think it's best if it just ends there, out with a bang and not a whimper.
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8-09-2009 @ 1:40AM
Cassandra said...
You can buy and download all of COE on ITunes so who cares when the US shows it on TV?
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8-09-2009 @ 3:45AM
RobynM said...
I don't see Jack coming back as particularly tricky. It'd pretty much be like his return from when he went chasing after The Doctor - just showing up one day with a "Hi, I'm back - miss me?" air about him.
Rhys and Gwen's baby - that'd be slightly more difficult to work around, although it's patently obvious that Rhys is going to be an incredibly devoted father.
Come to think of it, something to do with the baby could be the catalyst for Jack coming back.
There's a lot that could be picked up and run with -
What's Lois going to do now?
Is Johnson's change of heart going to stick with her?
How is Alice going to cope? Are there any other Descendants of Torchwood floating about?
Will PC Andy still have a job after siding with the people over the military? If not, will he come looking to Gwen for help?
What was let loose when The Hub was blown up?
How did the explosion affect the Rift?
Etc.
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8-09-2009 @ 3:43PM
Patrick said...
I'd prefer that the series end after the 3rd season. It seems like an acceptable ending to the series, and to be honest I'm really not particularly interested in seeing how the Torchwood writers and producers will pick up the pieces of Children of Earth. At the worst, I fear that they will simply ignore any potential character development for the surviving Torchwood crew that would logically result for Children of Earth, which seems disrespectful to the viewers and to the characters themselves. The new mantra of the Torchwood team (writers and producers) that 'people die young in Torchwood' as an explanation for eliminating over half of the main cast in the span of a few episodes rings false with me as well. If it is only possible to create suspense and drama through death, then I feel that there is a problem in the Torchwood writing and producing staff. I've realized that I should invest no more interest in Torchwood than I would the latest slasher flick to appear in the cinemas. And I can't stand slasher flicks, so for me Torchwood has ended, even if the BBC greenlights a fourth season.
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8-09-2009 @ 4:08PM
rbygivens said...
A fourth season of Torchwood? The way it was left at the end of CoE? No, thank you.
Have no desire to watch the adventures of Gwen, super mom. Don't like her character, never have, and now that she has risen way beyond her abilities and is appartenly as immortal as Jack, her Torchwood is not my Torchwood.
Have no desire for Jack to return after appearing in a no mention of CoE DW episode. Talk about cheapening Ianto's death. If, as the writers say, that Jack needed Ianto to die in order to kill the grandson, than Jack's devastationshould linger...and linger...and linger. To watch a flirty Jack after the man whom the writers tell us he loved had to die for the plot would be sickening.
Torchwood is broken, the Torchwood that I watched and loved. Any Torchwood that attempts to brush aside, forget or wink away, will not be Torchwood either. And I will not be watching that Torchwood.
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8-09-2009 @ 4:13PM
mamabeast said...
No season 4 with out Ianto Jones!!!!!!!! the only character that ever showed growth of any kind and they killed him.
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8-09-2009 @ 4:20PM
GitSol said...
I think Patrick and rbygivens have said it all...even if there's a fourth series I won't be tuning in - I honestly don't see how the show can be salvaged with what is left. Also, I do not want to watch 'Gwenwood'.
I feel that as much as it has been chanted 'people die young in Torchwood', to kill off Ianto so soon after Tosh and Owen's demise was a very poor decision and smacks of 'surprise death = tension, angst and RATINGS' and has left the long-term fans of the show with very little of the show we have watched and supported since the beginning.
Jack is broken, Torchwood is broken and the end of Children of Earth left me terribly depressed with none of that hope that has usually been a part of the show. Enough is enough.
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8-09-2009 @ 4:21PM
jovialien said...
I honestly don't know what I would want from a fourth series because they went to so much effort to rip away everything that was Torchwood in COE. There is nothing left to hope to see for me - they have no base. They have no staff. There is no rift manipulator so no rift stories any more. There isn't even Myfanwy or the archives or the cryogenics. Jack is gone. Gwen is pregnant - and I totally agree, please god no babies/children stories. Remember Connor in Angel? Or the Mummy Returns? Kids can really ruin things and make writers get trapped in a corner.
If they bring it back, to be perfectly honest I would actually rather see a Torchwood without Gwen. Or Jack. In fact, I would prefer them to "find" the lost Torchwood Four again (or explore "the strange man" at Torchwood Two). A whole new team, who have been lost for years returning to the bleak, depressing and hopeless world that RTD left us with at the end of COE and trying to make sense of it all.
But however it comes back I don't think I will be watching. I like to invest in characters, to believe in them and their world. We have now been beaten over the head with the fact that Everybody Will Die so what is the point in my watching characters who may as well be red shirts? Even Spooks (a show which COE positively felt like an audition piece for) occasionally let it's staff go off into the sunset/hiding - and that was a show that let it's characters get blown up, exiled, their heads boiled in oil and shot on a regular basis. It's all about leaving some hope in it. And that's what COE lacked for me so whatever season four is I doubt I will be watching it.
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8-09-2009 @ 4:35PM
k_haldane said...
If you list the iconic elements of Torchwood, there is nothing left to make a Season 4 out of. First, 80% of the team members are gone (leaving only the juniormost of them all), but also the Hub is gone, the alien tech is gone, the Rift is gone, the Weevils are gone, the morgue is gone, the archives are gone, the SUV is gone, the invisible life is gone...
You can call it Season 4, but you can't call it Torchwood.
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8-09-2009 @ 9:11PM
rachel said...
I do not think Torchwood should return for a fourth series. Considering that 60% of the original cast is now dead, the Hub has been destroyed, the government that was supposed to be supporting Torchwood has been shown to be corrupt, I just don't know how it could be the show that I've enjoyed for the past two seasons.
I will admit to being a huge Ianto Jones fan, and his death was hard for me. But more than that, the main cast has been decimated, and they were a big reason as to why I watched.
If Torchwood does return for a fourth series, I will not watch it. It will not be the program that I have found to be enjoyable.
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8-09-2009 @ 5:16PM
KB13 said...
It seems that the whole point of COE was to break Jack and punish him for his immortality so if he suddenly jumps out from behind the door, happily singing "Let me entertain you...", I will be highly annoyed.
There are very few things that would convince me to watch TW 4. Gwen in charge? Maybe I should check that Supernatural show out.
Ianto comes through the Rift from Rose's alternate universe? I'm making the popcorn and staking out a front row seat.
My Torchwood is gone. I watched for the characters and their relationships. Even at the end of Exit Wounds, there was hope. There's nothing left for me now.
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8-09-2009 @ 5:43PM
hysterical.woman.381 said...
Last time I posted a comment on this site, it was swallowed by the internet and never came back. Wish me luck this time.
I have to say, in CoE, the part they wrote for Gwen was brilliant. So brilliant, in fact, it wasn't very recognizeable as Gwen from s1 and s2. Weird as it may sound, I felt this little sense of almost parental pride to see how much the character had grown up and matured in CoE. I actually liked her for a change, but not enough to watch further seasons just for Gwen.
I am quite pleased for Eve Myles that her character is developing more depth, maturity, and interest, but I also think she needs to enjoy it while it lasts, because I don't think it will be long. Everything that made me watch Torchwood is gone, and the few things I liked about CoE, the new, grown-up Gwen and the seriously amazing Cush Jumbo as Lois Habiba being chief among them, aren't enough to bring me back.
I have a hunch the viewers who flocked to CoE won't be sticking around in great numbers for repeated seasons either. The killing off, emotional destruction, and dismantling the personal history of all the characters you like for 'drama' gets old after a while and will drive many of the new fans away. Long-standing fans have already given up on the series for the same reasons.
Unless the writers fix what that broke in the beginning of s4, I am afraid Eve and anyone else involved in this new thing they are calling Torchwood will soon be out of a job.
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8-09-2009 @ 6:34PM
JB said...
I would love to see a Torchwood season 4 because I never expected CoE to be so devastating but honestly I can't see how they could make one that I would like to watch. It wouldn't be Torchwood to me and that is probably the worst thing about season three, they killed the show for me, literally, and if they make a season four, there would have to be certain things (or people) returned so that I could reconcile the new show with the show that I fell in love with during seasons one and two, otherwise, it's too unrecognizable.
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8-10-2009 @ 12:47AM
Jax said...
I was so so so excited when I heard RTD say that he would be willing to do season 4, and 5 and 6 and so on. Then CoE happened. Now I honestly couldn't care if season 4 ever gets made.
I was a fan from the beginning and I have always loved Captain Jack from his first moments on DW. CoE made me hate him and killed off the only other character still left that I was interested in watching. As many others on this thread have pointed out, everything that made Torchwood Torchwood have gone and unless that changes, I won't be watching season 4. Sorry Russell, you are the weakest link. Goodbye!
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