As Big As You Can Get

Firstly can I - just like Kurly did in his wonderful post below - welcome all new readers to torchwood.tv. I've been a little absent from these pages recently, due filming of a short film called "April 3rd", but with that over and done with now, I'm back full time - and it's time to catch up on everything that I've missed.

Welcome to the first Torchwood.tv Extraganza!

Last week's Doctor Who episode "Army of Ghost" rather famously featured Torchwood, up against two of The Doctor's greatest enemies - Daleks and Cybermen! The episode in question takes place in the London branch of Torchwood, which is (not literally of course!) a million miles away from what we can expect from the Cardiff branch this coming fall.

The episode's stars are not expected to appear in Torchwood the series...Which is a shame, because Tracy-Ann Oberman plays a bitch so well!

The ratings for "Army of Ghost" were 7.66 Million, so hopefully, a large chunk of this audience will feel motivated to watch Torchwood the series come this October. We have our fingers crossed!

Current rumours on the internet suggest a cameo appearence from John Barrowman in this week's season finale, "Doomsday", but it's a real small possibility - so don't go blaming me if he doesn't show up, and your hopes are dashed! Anyway, there's supposedly an advert for Torchwood at the end of Doctor Who, so keep your eyes peeled.

As Kurly has already pointed out, last weekend's Doctor Who Confidential was a Torchwood bonanza, featured behind the scenes clips and interviews, which included:

+ John Barrowman seeing The Hub set for the first time (it's located under the Millenium Fountain in Cardiff city centre fact fans!). Captain Jack has his own office in the series - which seems to be the biggest office of the lot!

+We saw Eve Myles rehearse and film a scene where she entered Torchwood for the first time, disguised as a pizza woman!

+The first cast readthrough was shown (and some lines of dialogue were uttered too!). One important thing happened during these scenes. My girlfriend fell in love with Burn Gorman as he introduced himself to his fellow cast and crew. She describes him as 'utterly digestable'! So Burn, if you're reading, take note: I'm dating a cannibalistic girl who's after YOU!

Snapshots from the Confidential episode can be found here (with thanks to our lovely friends at The Institute of course). Click on screencaps and scroll down a little until you've found the Doctor Who Confidential icon.

In other news, Doctor Who Adventures issue 7 again features a story by Torchwood writer Si Spencer. It's on sale until next week, and also features a preview of the "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday" two hander.

The latest issues of Dreamwatch Magazine and SFX Magazine also feature interviews with Torchwood writers. Whilst I haven't read the Dreamwatch interview myself (anybody who has, tell us about what is says in the tag board) I have had a read of the SFX one. It features a talk with lead writer Chris Chibnall, and makes for an interesting read. "We're all working to Russell's vision; his first script had such an instant, clear and brilliant vision of what Torchwood was," he says, "There's some great stuff - especially the bits with the...oh, wait I can't tell you that." Chris goes on to talk a little about his scripts, commenting how each one so far features takeaway food (Torchwood's Bad Wolf?!? lol). In episode two, Gwen has Chinese Crispy Duck, and then in the next script Ianto orders pepperoni feast pizza. Exciting stuff. Chris departs by saying, " It's mostly Cardiff. Helen Raynor's script has a great chase through the streets of Splott! We go beyond the city in a couple of episodes, but I'm not telling you where or why. You'll have to watch!"

Also in SFX is a column about other potential Doctor Who spin-offs, with comments from readers...including one by me! Jackharkness, in all his wisdom says "If anybody even dares suggest an Adric spin-off I think the universe will implode or something. The only thing worse would be seeing k9 sing 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' again!" Needless to say, in the comment immediately after, somebody does indeed suggest an Adric spin-off. Oh dear.

This week, the Doctor Who community learnt the identity of the newest Doctor Who companion. Freema Agyeman plays Martha Jones from the first episode of series three, although not in this year's Christmas Special. This quashes rumours of Gwen Cooper in the TARDIS seat- but interestingly, RTD is quoted as saying "We have something special planned (for the Christmas Special)". Captain Jack's return anybody?

Our friends at the Torchwood Institute have a report published from the 2006 London Film and Comic Con, which John Barrowman attended. Go John! marcella_riddle reports, “John Barrowman STOPS filming Torchwood in October. Then he has a 2 week break. After that he STARTS filming Doctor Who. He then has another break around Christmas to do the Panto in Cardiff. This would seem to indicate that Captain Jack does indeed travel with the Doctor for some amount of time. It also indicates that he ISN’T the full-time companion.
John doesn’t think Jack will kiss the Tenth Doctor - apparently those sorts of things are going to be kept strictly to Torchwood from now on. BUT he does think the new Doctor is funny and sexy. He also said Jack is pretty angry that the Doctor ditched him. He also said Captin Jack is NOT in Doomsday. The Captain Jack figure will be out in October. We do get to see Jack/John’s arse in Torchwood. Huzzah! John also said he’s gunna check out the fanfiction on the internet. Hide/display (whichever is appropriate) the smut NOW. John’s nephew appears in an episode of Torchwood. John himself wanted to be a Cyberman as an in-joke but it didn’t happen.”

There's a cool, extra long Russell T Davies interview here, written to celebrate the DVD launch of series one of Doctor Who in North America. Russell reveals that if things go to plan, Torchwood will probably launch in late October 2006.

Our friends at Behind the sofa have plans to review all episodes of Torchwood when it airs later this year. The site is a great web community for Doctor Who fans, and a great place to meet new friends, so check it out!

And that's about it for now - I think we've caught up with the Torchwood tide of information. Yay! Anyway, we've got some exciting stuff planned for Torchwood over the coming months, in the build up to Torchwood's launch. So, join us for the ride. It's going to be a blast.