Doctor Who Season 2--10/06/06

[Felon]

But honestly, I never thought the guy would stoop so low as to use the second series of Doctor Who specifically as an advertising platform for his new show. I mean, I'm all for marketing, but he's beaten this thing to death.

What are you going on about? Torchwood is pivotal to the second season's story arc. Of course it's going to be mentioned a lot. It's part of an ongoing theme, not some unrelated tangent.

 

[Tonguez]

Um so whats the difference between the Torchwood references being sprinkled throughout season 2 and the Bad Wolf references in season 1?

Those references are a fun diversion (when they aren't being hammered)

 

[Brown Jenkin]

The only issue I have with Torchwood is where that fits with conitunity with the third doctor and UNIT (and occaisional other UNIT episodes).

 

[BlueBlackRed]

The only issue I have with Torchwood is where that fits with conitunity with the third doctor and UNIT (and occaisional other UNIT episodes).

And you can't forget how Torchwood never had any kind of appearance in any previous versions of the show.
But I'm willing to set it all aside for the sake of entertainment.

 

[Mark Hope]

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.

 

[StevenAC]

RTD announced his "marvelous" Torchwood concept very soon after he'd finished production on Series 1. The thought was that he wanted an "adult" spinoff of Doctor Who (of which Torchwood is an anagram of).

Your memory is mistaken. The first intimation anyone outside the BBC had of the series Torchwood was the announcement on October 17, 2005 -- that's four months after the end of transmission (not production) of Series 1. The impetus for the series did not come from RTD; the Controller of BBC3, Stuart Murphy, approached him about the possibility of making a "post-watershed sci-fi series" after the success of Casanova on BBC3 (transmitted in March 2005, just before Series One of Doctor Who), and the success of Who itself.

There was speculation in various forums about "Torchwood" from about mid-July, but that was based on the hints dropped by RTD in the July Doctor Who Magazine (#359) that Series Two would have a "bad wolf"-like recurring element, the name of which had already been heard in Series One and which was an anagram. This was quickly worked out by fans to be the "Torchwood" mentioned as one of the Weakest Link answers in Bad Wolf (episode 12 of Series One), but the announcement of a separate Torchwood series in October came as a surprise to everybody.

But honestly, I never thought the guy would stoop so low as to use the second series of Doctor Who specifically as an advertising platform for his new show. I mean, I'm all for marketing, but he's beaten this thing to death.

A totally unjustified smear against RTD (and also indirectly an attack on people like Julie Gardner, Phil Collinson, and Jane Tranter for assuming they would allow such a thing without a murmur of protest). The Torchwood thread in Series Two of Doctor Who is completely self-contained: introduced, developed and concluded within that series. It needs nothing external to the series to justify its existence.

Your statement is also shown to be nonsense by the way in which the promotion for Torchwood has been deliberately kept distinct from Doctor Who -- as far as I am aware, none of the ads and trailers which are now appearing for Torchwood make any reference whatever to Who. Torchwood will succeed or fail on its own merits. It's a different series, aimed at a different audience -- they don't want the children in the Who audience to be clamoring to watch Torchwood.

And when you say "long before the separate Torchwood series was developed", it's only true if "developed" = "filmed". As I said, the *thought* for RTD to do this can be traced all the way back to early Spring of 2005, though actual filming didn't commence until much later.

The development of the Torchwood series was done over the summer of 2005, after RTD was approached by BBC3 (probably around early June). By that time, as I said, the structure of Series Two of Doctor Who, including the involvement of the Torchwood Institute, had already long since been worked out.

The DWM Series Two Companion reprints some notes by RTD dating from just before the transmission of Series One, which document the plans for Series Two as they existed at that time (March 2005). All of the episodes, except for Tooth and Claw and Fear Her, are present and clearly recognisable even at this early stage (albeit in a different order to the way they ended up). In particular, the finale takes place at "the Torchwood Institute, based in a Cardiff skyscraper." RTD notes:

I already knew that Torchwood would house the climax, and that we'd build up to revealing the Institute, seeding in the word and the concept throughout the series. (Torchwood was first mentioned in Series One's Bad Wolf.) When Tooth and Claw suddenly sprang into existence, I grabbed it as a chance to show the Institute's foundation, and that was the last part of the puzzle to slot into place. Though Torchwood the series was still only a glimmer at this point -- the idea was created as a Doctor Who plot first.
...
And as soon as Torchwood the series existed, and was based in Wales, then I was able to move this out of Cardiff and into London.

As these notes hint, Tooth and Claw was not initially part of the Series Two lineup of episodes. It filled a vacancy created when one of the original episodes was moved out to become this year's Christmas special. And it wasn't originally going to be written by RTD, either; another writer's treatment of the idea didn't work out, and RTD ended up having to quickly produce this script himself. So much for having a spinoff-pimping master plan.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

There was speculation in various forums about "Torchwood" from about mid-July, but that was based on the hints dropped by RTD in the July Doctor Who Magazine (#359) that Series Two would have a "bad wolf"-like recurring element, the name of which had already been heard in Series One and which was an anagram. This was quickly worked out by fans to be the "Torchwood" mentioned as one of the Weakest Link answers in Bad Wolf (episode 12 of Series One), but the announcement of a separate Torchwood series in October came as a surprise to everybody.

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.

 

[Tonguez]

The only issue I have with Torchwood is where that fits with conitunity with the third doctor and UNIT (and occaisional other UNIT episodes).

Apparently Torchwood is an ultra-secret organisation of the New British Empire - it does not work with the UN because that would not be in the best interest of the Empire.

The last episode of season 2 also suggest that Torchwood has never appeared in older episodes specifically because they have deliberately remained hidden from the Doctor (who is afterall The officially declared enemy of the Empire) until 'now' (because the existence of Alien life has been confirmed)

 

[Cthulhudrew]

What Tonguez mentioned is my understanding of how/what Torchwood is/works as well. 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.

 

[Henry]

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.