Gwen Cooper-related stories
Posted Jul 26th 2009 12:03PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Online sources have been informed that
Torchwood has been
picked up for a fourth season. This is not surprising considering the excellent ratings received by the BBC for Season 3, despite relegating that season to a five-episode mini-series.
Spoilers follow. You have been warned.
The brilliant thing about the next season of
Torchwood is that the creators have a chance to start from scratch.
Ianto is dead. Jack is gone. Gwen is pregnant. Gwen could decide after the baby is born to start a new team. Or, Jack could come back. Or Ianto could return from the dead (it's happened on the show before).
The powers that be could even decide to start a new team from scratch, although I think something would be missing without at least Captain Jack around. Torchwood (the organization, not the show) has gone through many incarnations and survived much worse than the slaughter or dissolution of a particular set of members. Whatever is decided, I look forward to it.
Posted Aug 10th 2008 8:28AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Reality-Free
Despite having a shortened upcoming third season, episodes of
Torchwood continue to be made. This next one, however, will be
on the radio rather than television. The episode is called "Lost Souls" and was written by Joseph Lidster.
The episode takes place after the season two finale "Exit Wounds." It will star the surviving members of that slaughter played by the actors John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Gareth David-Lloyd. Freema Agyeman will also appear in the episode as former
Doctor Who companion Martha Jones.
I managed to get my hands on a few of the
Doctor Who audio adventures put out by
Big Finish Productions and have enjoyed them tremendously (particularly since they give me a chance to hear what Paul McGann would have been like as the Doctor had he continued in the role). With that in mind, I'm looking forward to what an audio adventure of
Torchwood has to offer.
The episode will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on September 10th.
Posted Apr 20th 2008 1:20PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Doctor Who, Torchwood, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S02E13) Well, despite some ups and downs throughout the season, to say that this second run went out with a bang, both literally and emotionally, would be an understatement. Definitely, this ranks as one of the best episodes of the series so far and so amazingly surpasses the first season finale in every way. Where that was a silly overblown giant monster romp, this one existed on a much more intimate level within the lives of our cast of characters.
The cast and crew spent all season really fleshing out this team for us and making us learn to love and care for each of them; all of it leading to this stunning finale. Now the events herein could really resonate. Now you might be asking why such a generic
Torchwood picture for such a key episode? I see it as a tribute. To what? Well, if you've seen the episode, maybe you know what. If not, what the hell are you doing here? Go watch it already.
Continue reading Torchwood: Exit Wounds (season finale)
Posted Apr 13th 2008 12:43PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S02E12) The penultimate episode of the second season delivers in a big way, both setting up the season finale as a major event with huge stakes for Captain Jack as well as delivering some great looks back at what brought each member of Torchwood to the team. Using the framing sequence of a massive explosion, we spend the majority of the episode in
Lost-like flashbacks.
What's so brilliant about the stories we get is that in most cases the back-stories are nothing like I would have expected for that character, and yet at the same time it so perfectly serves the personality and drives of each individual on the team. Suddenly, Tosh's meekness, Ianto's eagerness and Owen's boorishness make perfect sense in the context of their past experiences. Even Jack's cavalier behavior and obsessive dedication to Torchwood make sense considering his own history with it. What they've managed is to add more depth to our relationship with each of the individual Torchwood members just in time for all hell to break loose in the finale.
Continue reading Torchwood: Fragments
Posted Apr 6th 2008 1:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S02E11) "Always room for one more. We could have used you an hour ago for naked hide-and-seek." Jack to Gwen after she walked in on him and Ianto having an intimate moment
Well, it was a vast improvement over
last week's episode. And it actually revealed some significant information about the rift and its activities, but that's not to say the episode was without some logistical problems and "conveniences." As seems to be par for the course on
Torchwood, there was at least one ridiculously convenient coincidence that the emotional hook of the episode hinged on.
Speaking of that emotional hook, you know how you can tell this is a British television show? Because it didn't get all wrapped up in the end in a nice, easy bow. This is a mainstream show in the UK. How many mainstream shows in the US would allow the whole show to get wrapped up in misery and shame and leave us there?
Torchwood has always been the darker, more mature cousin of
Doctor Who, and this episode lived up to that title.
Continue reading Torchwood: Adrift
Posted Mar 30th 2008 1:36PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews
(S02E10) I guess everyone at Torchwood Creative was still exhausted from the Owen three-parter, because this episode was even more of a letdown than the previous one. While the notion of these "night travelers" somehow being able to step out of old film and into the real world is interesting enough, it seems a better fit for a show like
Supernatural than
Torchwood, which tries to explain everything away with the Cardiff rifts and space aliens.
It was cool to think of Jack exploiting his immortality by performing as "The Man Who Could Not Die" in a traveling freak show a hundred years ago or so. It would make perfect sense that he'd go into that line of work. But then we learned that he did so while investigating the "night travelers," but he wouldn't say for whom and why he was investigating. Another layer of the Captain Jack onion
almost peeled.
Continue reading Torchwood: From Out of the Rain
Posted Mar 16th 2008 5:38PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Torchwood, Episode Reviews
(S02E08) "You get to live forever. I get to die forever." -Owen comparing his situation to Jack's immortality.
This was a very different
Torchwood episode. There were no aliens to battle and no major action sequences. In fact, Team Torchwood was mostly inactive. Instead, we got to take an episode to look deep into the psyche and situation of Dr. Owen Harper. Everything from the music to the way the various scenes were shot lent itself perfectly to the melancholy and hopelessness of the character. Burn Gorman showed tremendous depth in his portrayal of Owen this installment, and it looks like we may finally be looking at some major growth for Owen. Not that he still doesn't have some very serious issues to deal with.
Continue reading Torchwood: A Day in the Death Of...
Posted Mar 9th 2008 8:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Torchwood, Episode Reviews
(S02E07) The death of Owen Harper trilogy continued. But does death mean the same thing in the world of
Torchwood as it does in our world? Do you really need to ask? Aside from an incredibly hokey introductory sequence in which Jack stormed into the above scene, struck a very theatrical pose and said "Nobody touches him until I return!" before abruptly disappearing again, this was a pretty solid episode. I do have to say that the point of Martha's continuing involvement is escaping me as she didn't really have anything to add to this installment.
Continue reading Torchwood: Dead Man Walking
Posted Feb 24th 2008 3:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Torchwood, Episode Reviews
(S02E05) If you're one of those people who believes what I tell you then I apologize. As was corrected in the comments last week, this episode was not the one that featured the start of Freema Ageyman's run on
Torchwood, reprising her
Doctor Who role of Martha Jones. That one is next week. Instead we got a fantastic one-off episode that not only got into the inner workings of the personalities that make up the Torchwood team, but that also showed us some of Jack's mysterious past.
Continue reading Torchwood: Adam
Posted Feb 9th 2008 10:00AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Torchwood, Episode Reviews
Did you really think Captain Jack wouldn't be back? Now in its second series/season in both the UK and the US, we're going to do things a little differently with our
Torchwood reviews this year. The fine folks on both sides of the pond finally got things squared away so that new episodes air much closer in the US to their initial UK airing. The third episode airs this Saturday, February 9, on BBC America, which is a little more than a week after the UK airing. To minimize any "spoilery" concerns, the episode reviews will follow the US airings.
But before we can get to that, we need to play a little bit of catch up, so look for an overview of the first two episodes of Series/Season Two after the jump. And about that image up there spoiling the first episode? Hey, that might just be a flashback sequence. That's right, I got you there.
Continue reading Torchwood: The season so far
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