Saturday, July 26, 2008

In the Confusion (I Just Lost My Mind)

I'm now utterly and completely confuzzled regarding the future of Torchwood, and specifically, the big question - the one that most fans of the 'Wood want to know the answer too: Mickey Smith and Martha Jones, are they or are they not joing team Torchwood from next season?!

You see [DOCTOR WHO FINALE SPOILERS!!] the conclusion of "Journey's End" would seem to indicate that the dynamic duo are returning to Cardiff with Captain Jack to join his motley crew - but Doctor Who and Torchwood have quite a reputation for disjointed crossovers. Just look at the cliffhanger for "End of Days", and how it came to be resolved months later in "Utopia". Oops!

This report seems to indicate that now Freema Agyeman has signed on to appear in Chris Chibnall and Richard Stokes' London adaptation of the Law & Order franchise she'll no longer be sought after by BBC chiefs to appear in 'Wood, or whatever. If you ask me, that story = bull. If indeed Martha was destined to join the Cardiff Rockerfellas, BBC Wales would have planned far ahead in advance to ensure that would happen, and wouldn't let ITV's silly police drama remake stand in their way!!

My personal opinion? BBC Wales flirted with the idea of having Martha and Mickey join the team, but with Noel Clarke's blooming film career and (to put it as politely as I can) Martha having become a little bland and devoid of any real character of late, those intentions have flown right out of the window. There's reports of two new characters joining the team - actors playing parts we haven't seen before. You know what I say to that? Good.

Torchwood needs fresh blood and new faces if it's to survive, and prove to audiences that it can stand apart from Doctor Who and play to its own strengths. After all I'm in no doubt that once Steven Moffat's era of 'Who begins, a fine line will be drawn between the spin-off and its parent show. After all, it is ultimately a callback to the Russell T Davies 'golden age' - and if Moffat is to succeed, like Torchwood, he'll need to look to the future, not to a dogged past.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, if the BBC was stupid enough to write for someone without bothering to sign them up with only a couple of months until filming, they have no-one to blame but themselves.

That said, this is the third major role Freema's had in the past three months, so she's pretty busy.

(And it's hardly the character's fault if they kept writing her into episodes, and then not actually doing anything with her)

Anonymous said...

Hear hear!
Agreed!

Anonymous said...

i agree she can only do what she is given and she was not given much. also she did not sign? seems strange maybe she did and BBC is upset she has taken a rival's job offer after TW has finished filming not really clear.
of course there was not any reason to kill off tosh and owen doing something supid can come back to bite you

Dru said...

Sooo true. The bit about needing new blood and trying to stand on it's own two feet.

Lets hope that's how it turns out. :d Though I don't think I would mind having the 5 ep series with just jack, Gwen & Ianto. lol.

Or some of the characters that have been on TW before but don't come from DW. Heh.

Anonymous said...

I have mixed feelings. I do love Dr.Who/Torchwood crossovers but I think Torchwood does need something fresh to keep it going. I vote for 2 new characters plus more crossovers with Who. I'd love to see Jo Grant (from the classic 70s Who) appear in Torchwood actually or some of the monsters from classic Who!

Dru said...

Same here!

That'd be brilliant. :D

Like how the Brigadier is apparently gonna show up SJA.

That's MIZZ Gypsy To You! said...

From what I understand, the 5 episode mini-series will focus on just the three remaining, and add new characters as part of the ongoing story. No one has said Martha and/or Mickey officially, and there has been a lot of official chatter about Freema doing other things, which leads me to believe Martha is going to remain with UNIT and at most be a sporadic guest star. I would like some closure on what becomes of Mickey now that he's back in this world, but him joining Torchwood Cardiff is only one possibility for this closure. (Although he'd be a great personality replacement for Owen IMNSHO.) So I think it's a good chance the replacement characters for Owen and Tosh will, indeed, be new characters developed just for Torchwood.

That said, I wish someone would find a way to incorporate Ace in a plotline. She and Jack would be ... oh, the mind boggles! Big guns and big explosives. Life just doesn't get any better, does it?

Dru said...

Oooh.

I do like them just introducing as the series goes bit. I don't want a forced oh, here are ya new tem mates ep.

We only get 5, lets not waste it on that. Heh.

And I've not seen much with Ace, but I like her. XD Totally her and Jack. lol.

nojarama said...

Although I'd like the crutch of having Mickey & Martha on TW, I agree new blood will be needed to keep TW fresh (and I like that only the 3 survivors are to be in this next miniseries- I refuse to call it Series 3, as it will only really be 5 episodes).

As for Dr. Who, I am just giddy with Moffat taking the lead ropes over from RTD. As grateful I am of RTD for creating a wonderful redux of the classic, Moffat is gonna do even more faulousness methinks. And I do believe it'll be time for a regeneration after the Xmas special/Miniseries 5 of Dr. Who...

Anonymous said...

I love the idea of classic Who companions in a fanboy sort of way - particularly Ace and Jo (married name Jones of course - I know, it's a common surname, but it's an easy way in)!

I like Mickey and Martha, and would be more than happy to see them drift in and out through the series, but I accept it might start to make the Hub look like a retirement home for former companions...

Anonymous said...

sorry do not know Ace, but why should it be anyone from DW agree with the retirement home comment

Dru said...

Anonymous: Click-y!

:D

Seventh Doctor Companion. :)

Anonymous said...

Jo Jones nee Grant! O my god, I hadn't realised.

So if she'd been on the sub-wave in 'The Stolen Earth' that would have been Harriet, Ianto, Martha, Franchine and Jo Jones all on one call! Some of these guys have got to be related.

I suspect Ianto is Jo and Clifford's son. Jo's husband was welsh wasn't he, so its possible they lived in Wales? oooooh I'm loving all this continuity!!!

Anonymous said...

Hold on... in one of the posts on this site it says that pre-production on S3 began June 15th. When does L&O:L begin filming?? It's very possible she could be in both, since S3 will only be 5 episodes...

Kyle said...

2 new characters instead of two rehashed characters from another show??

Can I get an "AMEN!!!!"

Debbie said...

Kyle, I'll give you an "amen" :-)

I like Martha, actually, but agree that she has not been given much to do. And I never warmed up to Mickey much, although he has grown up quite a bit over the years.

That said, new characters gradually introduced over the course of the mini-series sounds like the better approach to me.

Anonymous said...

" Just look at the cliffhanger for "End of Days", and how it came to be resolved months later in "Utopia". Oops!"

Huh??? It made sense to me. Jack leaves, takes the hand... finds the Doctor in Cardif. It took a couple of months, but I just assume the events of TS1 overlap DW3 until they meet.

Anonymous said...

At the end of TW1, Jack appears to vanish from the Hub in the evening to the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising - at the end of DW3, he's running through the streets during the day to catch up with it.

The end of DW3 and beginning of TW2 don't match up terribly well either...

Dru said...

I just had it in my head that he was super quick to grab the hand and had a backpack hidden away somewhere there and used the lift thingy. XD

Yes, my head could never explain the wind and stuff but it tried. lol.

That was a not very well done. XD It was a bit WTF?

Anonymous said...

I was bored of martha in her 2 part TW storyline...where are they going to take her character if she does join? i don't find her interesting enough... she doesn't have any weaknesses really, and not much personality.
and as for mickey... the guy who kissed a gun?! they can't be serious. how is he supposed to do tosh's job? unless ianto takes over and mickey makes the coffee...
very much in agreement, we need totally new members.

Anonymous said...

I do NOT want to see Martha in Torchwood full time.
Freema can not act, how on earth did she get the part of Martha? Martha Jones is so dull aswell.
Mickey I don't mind so much, but he just is a bit too... Sarah Jane Adventures-ey? And Noel is a busy bee.
New characters please!

pat hobson said...

I just feel like I've been dumped by my spouse--- why oh why are they calling a 5 hour story arc a season? It doesn't matter to me whether it's shown over 5 nights in one week, or 5 weeks, or 5 months. 5 hours do not a season make. It's not even a mini-series. This is not an innovation I can appreciate.

Anonymous said...

Just to let you all know that your beloved know-it-all bbcinsider has been offered a fab job with another film company and has decided that enough bullcrap from this company was enough.
He has said that he's enjoyed spilling the beans on the stupid mindless BBC drama unit and hopes that someone else remains gutless enough to carry it all on. That said, it won't be me, I'm just passing on his message. Do you know how many eyes are on me at the moment??? To be caught on this website is most certainly the end of anyone's career and I wonder, although he denies it, whether he was asked to leave cos of it or did he decide to go himself. He denies being given the big push and will be enjoying himself in his new venture - lucky sod!! But just so's you know, the BBC haven't confirmed or denied all those stories you're printing. Not all of us are fans of Freema and won't be sorry to see her go. The thought of her on TW was upchucking some of us!! With the departure of the top team to Law and Order, will the next series be just as good? BTW Watch out for Rhys OK???
BTW again - the BBC has started to advertise the Runners positions for Series 3 but unfortunaly, it's open only to internal candidates. Seems they broke last series' ones and they don't want to come back. They start filming middle of August until middle November.

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Anonymous said...

I like Martha but when she was put in TW she got like one decent episode where she actually did something. In the other 2 she was just like background scenery. It's about time they introduced some new people instead of digging people up. Since marthas appearance was so disappointing in series 2 then I'm glad the BBC have decided to find new recruits for TW!

Anonymous said...

btw this years comic com meeting with some of the cast is now on youtube!

Anonymous said...

Wow, on the Sun website is says Freema quit doing Torchwood series 3 and the scripts had to be re-written!
Naughty Freema leaving Torchwood and BBC for ITV!!!
I hated Martha anyway.

Anonymous said...

Just shows how fickle some actors are or just shows you how horrible the BBC are to work for! They gave Freema nothing but grief and even slimmed down their own staff.. Some of the crew have vowed never to return to them!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah - but the Sun still insists we can thank their 'save the Daleks' campaign for having them in the new series. You get more reliable information scrawled on the bathroom wall of my local fish and chip restaurant.

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