Doctor Who Season 2--10/06/06

Morrus · Oct 10, 2006

Henry said:
Oh, Snap! John Barrowman ("Jack Harkness") is one of the leads in Torchwood! Hope I get to see this in the future, because I loved old "Captain Jack" in Who - he was just plain fun.

It's not just the actor, Henry - it's the same character.

Torchwood is to Doctor Who what Angel was to Buffy - same universe, crossover characters, darker and more "adult-themed".

Captain Jack's also back at some point in the next season of Doctor Who (the one that's still filming). I'm not clear on how it all crosses over, though - whether Torchwood is set before Captain Jack met the Doctor or after.

I do know that they've made a conscious decision not to use the Doctor in the first season of Torchwood, just so it can stand on its own merits.

StevenAC · Oct 10, 2006

Cthulhudrew said:
As I recall, the Torchwood bit in "Bad Wolf" was more of a reference to the fact that the production staff often used the Doctor Who anagram Torchwood for shoots and labels on film canisters in order to try and hide what sorts of things they were up to in terms of the then current season one of the show from press spoilers.

It was only after they came up with the concept of the Torchwood department (which, as you note, was after the season was already over) that they decided to actually use that name and have it be the "Bad Wolf" of the second season.

Sorry to keep banging on about this, but... no. What I said was that fan discussion about "Torchwood" only started around mid-July (2005), "after the season was already over." Its use as the linking element in Series Two had been worked out long before that.

In fact, the first meetings to discuss Series Two took place at the beginning of February 2005, a couple of weeks before the final two episodes of Series One even started filming. It was during those discussions that RTD decided to give the new series a "bad wolf"-like recurring element, and seized on the "Torchwood" anagram which, as you said, had been previously coined by someone in the production office for labelling film cans. So the Torchwood Institute came into being, and RTD was able to add a reference to it in the not-yet-filmed script for Bad Wolf ("The Great Cobalt Pyramid is built on the remains of which Old Earth Institute?").

Cthulhudrew said:
Frankly, I'm not entirely sure why they didn't just go with the established agency U.N.I.T. (which seems to have been pretty well killed off, at least a lot of their leaders were in Aliens of London), but I suppose time will tell whether Torchwood is substantially different or not.

By the end of the series, it will hopefully be apparent why UNIT could not have filled the role of Torchwood...

Ed_Laprade · Oct 10, 2006

You know, there's one thing that bothers me about the PM ordering Torchwood to shoot down the spaceship in the Christmas Special. Her reasoning for doing so is basically to show (the Doctor) that Earth is defended. Excuse me? London is protected. Maybe even other sites in England. But the entire Earth? Nope, no way, no how! Which is why I have severe problems with it being secret and seperate from UNIT. (Oh yeah, and whatever happened to all those alien gadgets that the Brigadier ended up with? He was the UNIT commander we saw the most, but he was still a Brithish subject and soldier.)

Prince Atom · Oct 11, 2006

Well, why can't Torchwood be separate from UNIT? UNIT is not a British institute, but part of the UN (at the time). The Brig was always going off to meetings in Geneva. I would presume that any alien gadget that was left over after the pyrotechnics was either in the possession of the UN or bought up by Henry van Statten (see Dalek)*.

And yes, London and Great Britain are probably impervious to attack. Apparently Torchwood is counting on the aliens to approach the Earth real slow so that they have time to rotate and bring their Death Star Laser to bear.

*Which is something else... apparently the private auctions the Metaltron was sold at kept it out of view of UNIT, who know a Daaa-lek when they see one.

TWK
They got Death Star!

WayneLigon · Oct 11, 2006

Great episode. I will say that those are the best werewolf effects I've ever seen in a TV series.

The 'we are not amused' running joke was quite funny.

Morrus · Oct 11, 2006

Re. Torchwood/UNIT - remember, this is a time travel show. The Doctor changes history all the time. They have the ultimate continuity get-out clause - the very nature of the show makes ocntinuity irrelevant.

I'm sure it will all be explained. Certainly UNIT has been mentioned, and was in The Christmas Invasion (that was a UNIT office the PM was in).

Also, note that The Doctor said that the planet was protected (by him). It's been 10 months since I saw The Christmas Invasion, but I don't recall the PM making that particular claim re. Torchwood. Certainly, the UK is protected - and I assume, from the trailer "we're above the UN") that Torchwood has an international juridiction, but let's not draw conculsions about something which, as yet, we know nothing about.

Kesh · Oct 12, 2006

Mark Hope said:
I am sure that there have been references to UNIT here and there in connection to Torchwood. UNIT came up in series one a few times and I thought that they featured in the Xmas episode. Torchwood has been specifically stated to be separate from the UN, though, so that keeps them away from UNIT. I seem to recall reading something about the producers wanting to keep the UN out of things for some reason.

Basically because the real United Nations got upset.

Following the broadcast of the 2005 series, in his regular column in Doctor Who Magazine #360 (August 2005), new series executive producer Russell T. Davies explained that the real life United Nations were no longer happy to be associated with the fictional organisation, and the UN's full name could not now be used. However, the "UNIT" and "UN" abbreviations can be used, as long as it is not explained what the letters stand for. It is unclear how this affects UNIT appearances in the various spin-off media.

Per WikiPedia

Brown Jenkin · Oct 12, 2006

Kesh said:
Basically because the real United Nations got upset.

Per WikiPedia

There will shortly be a new Secretary General of the UN so who knows if that position will remain the same.

Mark Hope · Oct 12, 2006

Kesh said:
Basically because the real United Nations got upset.

Yeah, so I recall hearing. Doesn't surprise me.

Brown Jenkin said:
There will shortly be a new Secretary General of the UN so who knows if that position will remain the same.

I would, however, be surprised beyond words if this matter came anywhere near the attention of the Secretary General of the UN.

Richards · Oct 13, 2006

Kesh said:
Basically because the real United Nations got upset

Well, if that isn't just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Doesn't the United Nations have better things to be worried about than whether or not they're being portrayed, on a science fiction TV show, as having a branch that protects humanity from alien incursions? Considering all of the real-life scandals that that organization produces, you'd think they be happy for "Doctor Who" casting them in a positive light.

Johnathan

Doctor Who Season 2--10/06/06

Morrus

Well, that was fun

StevenAC

Explorer

Ed_Laprade

Adventurer

Prince Atom

Explorer

WayneLigon

Adventurer

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Kesh

First Post

Brown Jenkin

First Post

Mark Hope

Adventurer

Richards

Legend

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