Big Finish's Series 2 Debuts!

Blimey, that was quick.

Only a month on from the conclusion of their first run of Torchwood stories, Big Finish have today released part one of their second. 

The Victorian Age features Captain Jack, and Queen Victoria - the founder of Torchwood, as well you might remember from the Doctor Who episode 'Tooth & Claw':

I'm hearing that we'll be getting an announcement soon enough about full cast audio plays (which may suggest a new TV series isn't on the cards) - so watch this space! In the meantime, head over to Big Finish to buy this latest release.

The Final Four

Everybody has noted that Jack and Gwen will make a good pair on the WHO spinoff. However, so far we only have half of the picture. If we are to take RTD at his word, there will be four leads in Torchwood. He mentioned it in an interview with SFX a few months back and in an article about Barrowman published today at EclipseMagazine.com a quartet is referred to again. It's a great article, with JB hinting that right from episode one of Torchwood there will be some fascinating revelations about his character and the missing two years.

Source:http://www.stakesandstones.co.uk

With full production (hopefully) less than a month off now, we should be getting some more casting news sooner rather than later. The preliminary publicity photo shoot featured only JB and Eve which means the remaining two "leads" will probably be minor players at the Institute.

My guess is we will soon get the announcement that a geeky scientist type and a saucy transvestite will be filling out the staff. Either that or the other spinoff rumour floating around might actually be referring to Torchwood. Yep, the last two missing members of the team are Sarah Jane and K9!

Report from the Seattle branch of Torchwood

Ok sure, there is plenty more that we can analyze regarding Torchwood following The Christmas Invasion episode. If you haven't seen it yet, you are excused from class for today.

It was suprising that Torchwood is clearly not just a half dozen or so guys and gals in Cardiff. As we saw in the latest episode of Doctor Who, they are a big organized operation. They manage to construct a super kill-o-zap ray in the middle of London for one thing. Ok, it's a bit like the Death Star in Star Wars as some fans have observed.

Source: The Christmas Invasion screen capture

If you listen to the commentary track available at the WHO official site, when RTD is asked about what Captain Jack's role will be in the show, he says Jack will be leader of the Cardiff branch of Torchwood only. So most probably the group we saw last night following the PM's orders is the London branch. Does it seem like Torchwood is just UNIT with a few more secrets?

Prime Minister Harriet Jones doesn't look like she will be around long enough to be on Torchwood as the rumours had it. The plotline that she both wasn't supposed to know about Torchwood, and also commands them seems a bit murky. Well, should be fun wading through all these new goodies for a few months anyway.

Barcelona

If you haven't seen the Doctor Who Children In Need mini-episode yet, what are you waiting for? It is online here, go and watch it for crying out loud! Then donate and then come back here and we can talk. Wouldn't it be nice if the BBC could stream Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes all season? It would save us here in the USA and elsewhere from having to find the show using other means. (Here we are almost a year later after the show's original release and still not one word about a broadcast or a DVD release in the States, so sorry but I don't feel at all guilty about finding subversive ways to get Doctor Who. Don't worry BBC, whenever you finally get around to actually releasing the DVDs here, maybe five years time? I will go out and buy a copy)

Source:http://www.gallifreyone.com

So the squirt of information we got last night about Captain Jack is that he is busy rebuilding the Earth following the Dalek attack in Parting of the Ways. That in itself isn't really huge news but the fact that it was the Doctor who gave this information is. This would mean that four minutes after he ditched Jack on Satellite 5 the Doctor knows the Captain is alive and well.

It had previously looked like the Ninth Doctor took off without Jack because he thought he was dead. So either he did some sort of scan for life signs during the opening credit sequence while we weren't watching, he had some sixth sense tell him this, or after kissing Rose he just didn't want any other competition for her affections in the Tardis.

This bridge between seasons 27 and 28 was supposedly filmed after The Christmas Invasion which means it was probably filmed in the last month or so since Torchwood was greenlit. So it is probably not accidental that in between belches during some sort of post-regeneration sickness the Doctor would be casually rattling off information about Jack.

So there are two theories that come to my mind. One: that this is a clue that Torchwood will be set before Captain Jack ever runs across the Doctor and Rose. Because when they leave him on Satellite 5 he obviously has an important job to undertake which has nothing to do with solving crime in modern-day Cardiff. And two: since the Doctor is well aware of what Captain Jack is up to and where he is, he can quite easily pop off to check up on him and say hello (maybe a quick snog) at some point during Season 28 and give him a lift on to Cardiff.

Ok I got the ball rolling, discuss amongst yourselves.

UPDATE: Bowing to public pressure perhaps, the BBC has decided to release the season 27 boxset in the USA as well. You can pre-order from Amazon and it will be shipped on Valentines day 2006.

It's about time

A question that has come up is, how Captain Jack manages to get from Satellite 5 , where we last saw him in Doctor Who, to modern-day Cardiff which is the setting for Torchwood? By asking this question, you are already making a rather large assumption, that the action in Torchwood will all be taking place after Jack Harkness has met the Ninth Doctor.


Source:http://www.stakesandstones.co.uk
Russell T. Davies has already stated there will be no crossovers with WHO on the show and hasn't made any specific references to where the show will fall in a Doctor Who timeline. We already know Captain Jack was a former time agent and had no trouble jumping forward and backward through time before he met the Doctor.

The show may even be set during those missing two years of Jack's memory. That would of course conveniently answer the question of why he never spoke fondly of Gwen or Torchwood during season 27 of WHO.

Time to invest in a dalek-proof sofa

The only things that ever managed to get behind the sofa at my house were the remote control, coins and keys. When watching Doctor Who as a youngster I can't remember ever taking the effort to move the end tables, slide the sofa away from the wall, and then somehow squeeze in behind it whenever something scary popped up. Must be a British thing.


Source:http://wikipedia.org/
So there is actually a wee bit of news to go with this post. This interview today in The Sunday Mail with Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat is primarily about how season 28 will be even more terrifying than the last. But Moffat also takes credit for Captain Jack in the article. Moffat wrote the two-part story that introduced Jack Harkness last year and he said Russell T. Davies had nothing to do with creating the character. The Scottish Moffat is slated to write a few episodes for season 28 of Doctor Who but there has been no announcement yet that he is on board for Torchwood.

Steven's quote from the article about John Barrowman's character sums up the Torchwood spirit nicely, "There's something very believable and right about a James Bond character who will literally shag anything . . . if a Dalek's got a short enough skirt!"