Friday, March 03, 2006

All about Eve, chalk and cheese

For the first and last time, Eve Myles will be playing the female lead on Torchwood, not Doctor Who! I am not sure why the tabloids find this information so hard to comprehend. Literally, the second the Gwen Cooper announcement was made the rags were claiming she would be replacing Billie Piper on the parent show. It's a bit difficult to trust journalism that doesn't even get the character's name correct, in both of these articles they refer to Eve's character as Gwen Davies! The Mirror, The Daily Record.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/MacGuffin3/evemyles250206.jpg

Who knows what the future holds, but as John Barrowman said on the Richard and Judy chat show in January, one of the difficulties they were having with Torchwood was in finding how far into adult territory Captain Jack could go and still be allowed to return to the family-friendly WHO for season 29. JB said (I'm paraphrasing here) that it looked like the Captain would be the biggest prude on the staff, and the others at the institute would be up to the majority of the mischief.

His statement could be interpreted to mean that Gwen will get a bit too naughty in the spinoff to ever be accepted by the BBC brass as a companion for the Doctor. Not to mention that from a programming standpoint, spinoffs generally only share one character with their parent show and try to differentiate themselves enough to add new audience members to the franchise.

To further remove her from WHO companion speculation, we also have the "chalk and cheese" quote that Myles made in response to comparisons between her character Gwen with Rose. Nope, Eve will be exclusively ours' on Torchwood and for the next several months the tabloids will just have to go back to guessing which Welsh pop star will replace Billie.

4 comments:

Anthony Garnon said...

Welsh pop star replacing Billie? Surely its time we returned to Charlotte Church speculation?!?

Kopic said...

I understand what you're saying regarding Eve, but we all know that RTD likes to recycle his favourite actors. Personally, I see no reason why there couldn't be more of a crossover. Angel shared many characters with Buffy and I think was just as successful. If Doctor Who and Torchwood shared both Jack and Gwen, then that gives RTD more flexibility to link both programs given the demands of the acting profession and finding availability slots in actor's schedules, etc.

Anyway, I would luuurve to see more of Eve........ ;-)

--Simon
Kopic's Doctor Who News Service

Anonymous said...

Eve is a fine actress and long may she be associated with Torchwood and whatever comes from that.
Best thing about Sunday nights on Beeb Three!

Anonymous said...

I'd just like to echo the comment that Eve Myles is doing a fantastic job in Torchwood and looks stunning in the series. Mouth-wateringly sexy with an RSC background is a devastating combination.

However, I do get the overall feeling that the further this series gets away from Dr Who, the better it gets. Alien technology: great! Half mutilated cyber-women: not so great. Past echoes of stressful events: great idea.

The skeleton staff of Torchwood Cardiff, looks very thin compared to the massive (and now destroyed) London Torchwood.

Captain Jack was a happy go lucky adventurer chasing skirt and trouser through the galaxy. Now he works 24/7 in a dingy room in one city.

I can't help wishing that Russell T. Davies had been brave enough to create another sci-fi series based around the great ideas of Torchwood, but without the Dr Who connection. Torchwood is going to be a massive hit, but it could have been twice that hit if he had managed to cut the chord.