Archive for October, 2006

Torchwood: not one for the kids


If you haven’t seen any of the trailers for the new BBC3 series Torchwood, which premieres Sunday night, now’s your chance if you read on. It’s the first-ever spin-off series from Doctor Who but it isn’t one for kids. It will be adults hiding behind the sofa this time.

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Unlike Doctor Who, Torchwood will feature decidedly adult themes – as one example, the second episode is about a sex-obsessed alien committing a series of grisly murders – and the content is firmly fixed at a post-watershed audience. The series is set in modern-day Cardiff, where an earlier Doctor Who episode, Boom Town, established that a rift in space and time exists that draws alien visitors to the city. An obvious but not unwelcome repurposing of the Hellmouth idea from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the rift provides the central hook upon which all manner of sci-fi and horror storylines can be hung.

Torchwood is a decidedly British take on the territories first explored in US dramas Kolchak the Night-Stalker and The X-Files . Whether it succeeds or falls flat on its face remains to be seen, but early indicators are encouraging and exciting.

Read the full article.

Saturday, October 21st, 2006