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Russell T Davies talks Torchwood - Radio Times, October 2006 |
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It may be a Doctor Who spin-off, but Torchwood is very much its own beast. Series creator Russell T Davies talks to Nick Griffiths.
The genesis of the show
Jack's back. But he's changed - he's
angrier. The last we saw of Captain
Jack Harkness, at the tail end of the
rejuvenated Doctor Who series one, he'd
been exterminated by Daleks, brought back to life and then
abandoned by the Doctor to fend for himself.
What does a sexy-beast Time Agent
from the 51st century, understandably miffed at
being dumped, do next? Easy: he joins Torchwood.
"I first had the idea for the series while I was
working on [BBC serial] Casanova, before Doctor Who was even
mentioned," says creator Russell T Davies. "I'd
been watching shows like Buffy and Angel, and
said to Julie Gardner [the executive producer on
Casanova, Doctor Who and Torchwood] , 'Why
don't we make a series like that?'"
Charismatic crime-fighters in a sinister world
When the show was first
announced, Davies was
widely quoted describing it
as "a dark, clever, wild, sexy,
British crime/sci-fi paranoid
thriller cop show with a
sense of humour - The
X-Files meets This Life".
Now he denies referencing
those two cult hits, perhaps
keen to portray Torchwood
as its own beast. Instead, he talks of "alleyways,
rain, the city". Think bleak.
The Torchwood team is based in Cardiff outside
the city's very real Millennium Centre in the entirely
fictional underground Hub.
There are six in the team, each a specialist in their
own field. Captain Jack (John Barrowman) is their leader, and two of the other
actors have also appeared in Doctor Who: Eve
Myles, who played Victorian maid Gwyneth
in The Unquiet Dead; and Naoko Mori continues
to play the role of Dr Toshiko Sato, last seen
examining a pig in a spacesuit in Aliens of London.
They're a glamorous bunch. Or, as
Myles puts it, "It's a very sexy world."
Their objective? Nothing less than keeping the
world safe from alien threat. There's technology,
both real and other-worldly, there are souped-up
cars, ostentatious guns, aliens such as the scary-faced
Weevils (whom Davies describes as "the sewer rats
of Torchwood") and fairies at the bottom of the
garden who aren't as cute as you might think.
Post-watershed shenanigans
Though there are Doctor Who artefacts in the
Hub and the show returns the references, this is a
very different series. For a start, it goes out at 9pm.
If younger Who fans beg parents to let them watch,
says Davies, "I think they just have to be honest
with them. And kids are so savvy about television;
they know what a post-watershed programme is."
Torchwood may not be for children - but it's right
up [actor] Burn Gorman's street. "It's not every day you get
to do an alien autopsy in the morning, get snogged
by a gorgeous girl before lunch, and then be
transported to another dimension in time for tea,"
he notes. "That's my kind of job!"
**
Now take a look at our full Torchwood guide.
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