JohnBarrowman-related stories
Posted Aug 3rd 2009 8:57PM by Hemal Jhaveri
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
If you're a regular viewer of the BBC sci-fi series
Torchwood, you're more than aware of the recent dust up between fans and writers over a major character death in this past season's finale. Angry fans immediately ran to message boards to express their displeasure with the direction the show has taken, but now, that angry fan reaction seems to have taken a sudden and serious turn for the worse.
Before we get too far into this, I'm putting a spoiler warning on this post, even though the episode in question has already aired in the U.S. For anyone still saving it on their DVR, beware. It's a biggie.
Continue reading Angry Torchwood fans threaten writers with bodily harm
Posted Jul 27th 2009 9:33AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Doctor Who, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
A
Torchwood panel headlined by Russell T. Davies and John Barrowman was the last big event of Comic-Con International this year. While it didn't pack any huge revelations, it did come with good news for fans. The show will return for a full season in 2010.
The BBC decided to make the show's third season, "Children of Earth," into a week-long miniseries event. It was a huge ratings success in the U.K. and fared well on BBC American in the U.S. So, the Beeb is giving it a longer run.
Continue reading Torchwood approved for full fourth season - Comic-Con Report
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 Jul 22nd 2009 1:56AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Doctor Who, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
Gwen is a badass. And that Ianto sure is one clever boy. With Captain Jack busy growing back his body parts, Torchwood's non-super-powered players took center stage in
Children of Earth's fast and furious second hour.
Day two started out with a rush of action movie awesomeness as Gwen blasted her way out of a scary situation. I don't remember the danger ever feeling so immediate and real in
Torchwood. The opening minutes were edge-of-your-seat tense, and the swift pace rarely let up.
Continue reading Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Two (U.S.)
Posted Jul 20th 2009 9:01PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Like I mentioned earlier today on
SciFi Squad,
Torchwood: Children of Earth finally makes its U.S. premiere tonight with a gripping first hour on BBC America. We'll be covering the five-part miniseries through Friday with news and daily episode reviews.
Torchwood's own Captain Jack Harkness, John Barrowman, talked to
Pop Candy's Whitney Matheson recently. The interview is a good read with Barrowman talking about the show, his career, his love of sci-fi (he's a
Space: 1999 fan!) and his thoughts on the new Doctor Who, Matt Smith. Here are some highlights:
When asked which
Torchwood agent is the best kisser, Barrowman responded: "It depends how you're looking at it, because Jack kisses them in different ways. Jack will kiss Ianto very passionately ... He would kiss Gwen on the cheek, but with a little bit of trepidation, because there's almost a sensuality there that he doesn't want to go to. And with Toshiko, it's more of a kind of a playful, pecky kiss. So I'd still have to say Ianto's the best kisser."
Continue reading Torchwood's John Barrowman on the Jack-Ianto relationship, the new Doctor
Posted Jul 15th 2009 7:04PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Doctor Who, Reality-Free, British TV
Following its smash hit run on BBC1 in the U.K.,
Torchwood: "Children of Earth" is heralding its U.S. arrival next week by presenting the first seven minutes of the first episode, "Day One."
The week-long, five episode mini-series has already generated enough spoilers here at
TV Squad and around the web, so we'll take care to avoid repeat performances here. For now, stateside viewers can visit
BBC America's video page to watch the first seven minutes of the third season's first show in which Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) dies of Ptomaine poisoning.
The first 20 minutes of the same episode were already available on the BBC America On Demand channel included with some cable services.
Continue reading BBC America serves up first seven minutes of new Torchwood
Posted Jul 10th 2009 1:00PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Doctor Who, Ratings, Reality-Free, British TV
Premiering to an audience of almost 6 million viewers and holding fairly steady all week long, the BBC's "event programming" of
Torchwood: "Children of Earth" looks like a success.
Series star
John Barrowman griped last week about the BBC producing only a five-episode series for
Torchwood's third season. But, the week-long mini-series turned the 2009 appearance of the
Doctor Who spinoff into a TV phenomena desperately awaited by its fans.
Torchwood's move to BBC One
more than doubled the show's season two ratings, and there's no telling how high those numbers could go for tonight's mini-series finale.
Continue reading Torchwood burning up the UK weekly ratings
Posted Jul 1st 2009 10:05AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Doctor Who, Celebrities, Reality-Free, British TV
With the premiere of
Torchwood: Children of Earth closing in at BBC America, John Barrowman is picking an unusual time to kick BBC executives in the pants.
The leading man and variety host told the British papers that he feels like the
BBC is punishing him and Torchwood by cutting the show down to a week-long, five-episode mini-series run.
Barrowman's timing is odd, as there were no reports of dissatisfaction before, during or after filming on the short run. Meanwhile, there's plenty of positive publicity buzzing around the new season, and there was no desperate need to get people interested via a complaint.
Continue reading Barrowman blasts BBC for Torchwood miniseries
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 5:05PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Doctor Who, Reality-Free
BBC Video will be releasing some new DVDs in North America come July that includes
Torchwood: Children of Earth and
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead. I immediately took note of the fact that nobody mentioned releasing the last
Doctor Who Christmas special which was broadcast in England in December 2008,
The Next Doctor.
Way back in 1996, the BBC co-produced a
Doctor Who television movie with Fox in the United States which starred Paul McGann as the Doctor. Since then, the rights regarding reproduction or broadcast of that movie in North America has been somewhat convoluted at best. In the last Christmas special, a clip of Paul McGann from that TV movie was shown, and I cannot help but wonder if that clip is holding up release of the video.
Of course, it could simply be a case of the BBC waiting until Christmas or any one of a dozen other reasons. But I have a suspicious mind and I cannot help but think that it was a mistake for the BBC to ever co-produce
Doctor Who with an American company if it is such a hindrance to the American release of their own DVDs.
Posted May 25th 2009 11:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Doctor Who, Celebrities, Reality-Free
John Barrowman isn't just Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood. He also is a variety show host for a BBC series called Tonight's The Night which allows contestants to live out their performance dreams. Using his association with the former, he actually gave a contestant on the latter the chance to live out his dream of appearing on Doctor Who.
It's a cute scene which obviously doesn't fit into any sort of show continuity (or as much continuity as Doctor Who can have). David Tennant himself makes a special appearance in the episode and steals the show. Watching Tennant's brief cameo in this show, I'm even more convinced that Matt Smith has big shoes to fill when he eventually takes over the role.
On the other hand, if your dream is to appear on an episode of Doctor Who, why would you allow your face to be covered by a blue mask? Watch the video after the jump.
Continue reading Captain Jack stars in a very special Doctor Who episode
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 Jun 3rd 2008 12:23PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Reality-Free
TV Guide reports some good news and bad news for fans of the BBC series Torchwood.
The good: the series has been renewed and John Barrowman will be back to play the role of Captain Jack Harkness.
The bad: so far, the BBC has only authorized five episodes for next year so it may play more like a mini-series than a full season.
Continue reading Good news and bad news for Torchwood
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
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