BBC to screen 'Dr Who for adults' as new spin-off show

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: October 16, 2005 11:11:51 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] BBC to screen 'Dr Who for adults' as new spin- 
off show
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com


[Note:  This may not mean very much to those of you who've never seen  
or heard of 'Doctor Who'.  However, its big news for those of us who  
are fans of the show and its new incarnation on the BBC.  I'm posting  
this for those on you on the list who have access to the BBC, or live  
in Canada (where the show also aired), or who have access to the  
Darknet (where it is also available).  DLH]

BBC to screen 'Dr Who for adults' as new spin-off show

By Ian Burrell, Media Editor

Published: 17 October 2005

<http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article320110.ece>

The BBC has commissioned the Doctor Who scriptwriter Russell T Davies  
to make an adult post-watershed spin-off of its mostfamous sci-fi show.

The new programme will be called Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who)  
and will follow a crack team investigating alien activities and crime  
in modern-day Britain.

It will feature in its starring role John Barrowman, who played  
Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and who will play the same  
character in Torchwood.

Like the latest version of Doctor Who, which the BBC successfully  
relaunched this year, Torchwood will be based in Cardiff. Davies, who  
has just begun writing Torchwood, said the new programme would be  
aimed at adult audiences and would "have its own, unique identity".  
He said: "Torchwood will be a dark, clever, wild, sexy, British crime/ 
sci-fi paranoid thriller cop show with a sense of humour - the X  
Files meets This Life," the latter a reference to the groundbreaking  
Nineties BBC drama about a group of young lawyers in Bristol.

Torchwood will be shown next summer on BBC3 in 13 episodes, each  
lasting 45 minutes. Alert viewers of the forthcoming Doctor Who  
Christmas special will hear a reference to the Torchwood unit and  
further mentions will be made in the new series in the spring.

Stuart Murphy, the controller of BBC3, described Davies as an  
"absolute genius" and described Torchwood as "a massive coup".

He said: "We had never done sci fi before and it is a genre which  
people treat in a certain way. You look at what he has done with Dr  
Who and we said to Russell what would you do with a post-watershed  
sci fi?"

Mr Murphy said he hoped that Davies would bring to the new series a  
similar quirky humour that the writer deployed in the period drama  
Casanova, which was also shown on BBC3 before moving to BBC1.

"Each episode of Torchwood will be a one-off story and will be funny  
in a way that Casanova brought humour to period drama," he said.

Captain Jack has been described as Doctor Who's "first openly gay  
companion" and a "hunky bisexual".

Davies told Doctor Who magazine earlier this year: "It wasn't me sort  
of dying to get a bisexual character on screen. Yes, I'm a gay  
writer, but I was thinking: Jack's from the 51st century so of course  
he's going to go out with men and women. To get hung up on it is  
almost too sad for words, frankly."

Torchwood will allow Davies to explore relationships a little  
further. Mr Murphy said of the new series: "The people have affairs  
with one another. There will be sex and swearing, I assume. I'm quite  
relaxed about that, it will be post-watershed and Russell can do it  
in a funny and sexy way."

Describing the idea behind the new show, the BBC controller said:  
"It's a renegade bunch of investigators who investigate real-life,  
normal crimes. They also look into alien happenings. They have been  
charged by the British government to find alien technology that has  
fallen to Earth and they need to do it without the FBI and UN knowing."

[snip]

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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