Doctor Who Club of Australia

[Beatly]

The BBC consider Doctor Who to be their flagship show. It's the show that has revitalised BBC television, and the Saturday night TV schedule, and has pushed the rival ITV into developing its own drama series. ITV is producing not one but two sci-fi-ish series, and the BBC is resurrecting Robin Hood in a new 13-part series to cover the Doctor Who slot when that series is off air. All we need is two more 13-part series and we'll have the whole year covered with quality drama instead of the "reality" rubbish we've had for the last five years or so.

When I was a sprat, it wasn't considered cool to like Doctor Who, and it remained so for years - right up until mid-2005, in fact. Now we have shops happily putting up Doctor Who window displays, people (adults!) talking unabashedly about the show, newspapers treating it as a popular cultural thing rather than something to snigger at, and the shops that have always flown the diamond logo getting more business. There is a national shortage of the RC Daleks (dammit, I haven't got one yet!), and the sonic screwdrivers are going the same way. The Web Planet DVD was in the top 40 DVDs in my local Woolworths, which up until then hadn't stocked a single Doctor Who product apart from the new series DVDs.

Torchwood is a good thing, even if it turns out to be a bad thing, because of what Greg said in the previous post, and because of what I said above.

Incidentally, if you don't hear from me tomorrow evening then I'll be shoving my head in the oven having missed the Doctor Who slot on Children In Need.

[Theta Sigma]

While we are waiting for Torchwood, why not in the meantime check out Threshold which seems to have a similar theme:
http://doctorwhoaustralia.org/board/viewtopic.php?p=5589#5589

[Dougy]

I watched it last night. It was pretty darn good and as it looks as if Battlestar Galacitca won't be picked up this year ( ) this might just do for my sci-fi needs outside of WHO.

[Theta Sigma]

From Outpost Gallifrey:
"January 17, 2006
Outpost Gallifrey has learned that filming of the first series of Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff series starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, has been delayed until the summer, likely June or July. The series was originally scheduled to go into production this month, but has been delayed several times. We're also told that James Hawes, scheduled to be a producer on the new series, has had to bow out due to the change of schedule. More details as we get them."

[Theta Sigma]

From Outpost Gallifrey:
"February 1, 2006
The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine confirms that James Hawes will no longer be the producer for the spin-off series, with Russell T Davies saying that a replacement has been appointed and will be announced when the ink is dry on the contract. Davies comments: "Knowing sci-fi fans as I do, again, I'd say, keep calm -- this is perfectly normal in the build up to production, it happens on every other drama in the world -- it's only on sci-fi drama that these things get seen as dramatic events!" Work has begun, it says, with pre-production "a few weeks off". Storylines were agreed for the entire series on Wednesday 4 January, followed by two days of meetings with all the series writers, including PJ Hammond; the magazine says that "these writers will not be announced yet -- they're busy writing, not chatting, so you'll have to wait!" Helen Raynor and Brian Minchin will be script-editing the series; designer Matt Savage has moved from Doctor Who to Torchwood and has already started work; and preliminary auditions have also been held."

[kangamac]

[Theta Sigma]

http://www.torchwoodtv.blogspot.com./
"First things first, this breaking news item was originally posted on www.bbc.co.uk/news but the item mysteriously vanished after a couple of hours or so (Torchwood operatives are obviously wanting to keep this one secret for a while!), but alas, we Woodies cannot be silenced. This move though does question the honesty of the following story, but I believe it to be the truth, so without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let me present Gwen, at long long last...Eve Myles!"

[Theta Sigma]

The official press release:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/02/24/29846.shtml

[Theta Sigma]

In the Doctor Who DVD boxset in the special feature The Adventures of Captain Jack, John Barrowman was interviewed about playing Jack and I assumed this was recorded before the announcement of Torchwood as it ended with him saying this:
"I would love if Captain Jack had his own series. I think that would be, for me personally, that would be awesome, that would be cool. But whether or not...it would have to be... It would have to be another kind of time dimension in parallel or what would be kind of cool. 'Cause then you could do all these, kind of specials where they meet, boom! And then they go off again. I'd love that. Yeah, I could see Captain Jack with his own... Yeah, I could see Captain Jack with his own TV show! Hell, yeah!"

[Theta Sigma]

Torchwood to debut in October says Russell T Davies as Outpost Gallifrey reports:
"In an interview for the US Sci-Fi Channel's Sci Fi Wire, executive producer Russell T Davies singled out both a start date for production on the spinoff series Torchwood as well as a likely date for transmission. "We start filming in May, and we should be on in this country [England] in October," Davies tells Ian Spelling. "So we'll have two shows running simultaneously, which will be fun." Says the article, "Davies, who will oversee Torchwood while maintaining his Doctor Who responsibilities during the filming of that show's second season, described Torchwood as a 13-part science fiction series for adults. (Torchwood is an anagram for Doctor Who.) 'Doctor Who airs in this country at 7 o'clock at night, so it gets the whole family watching,' Davies said. 'Torchwood is Earth-based. It takes one of the actors who was very popular from the first [season] of Doctor Who, who is called Captain Jack Harkness [John Barrowman]. He was in five episodes and was hugely successful as a companion to the Doctor [Christopher Eccleston].' Davies added: 'He's a bisexual con man. Hooray! We need more bisexual con men on our television screens, I think, don't you think? Bisexual con men from the 53rd century, what could be better? He was so enormously successful that we've created a spinoff for him.'""

[Theta Sigma]

CBC becomes co-production partner:
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=4&article=29877

[Theta Sigma]

Torchwood Filming Next Week:
From Outpost Gallifrey-
"According to a brief comment by John Barrowman today's installment of ITV's "This Morning," which Barrowman has been filling in as guest host all week, Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff series he and Eve Myles will star in for the autumn, begins filming "next week". There is currently no official word from the production, but this is indication that the series will film during the off-time for Doctor Who (which starts filming its third series in July). Barrowman also noted that the series would be "more adult, more saucy and I drive around in a big vehicle," and he commented that his character would soon be an action figure: "Yes I am going to be an action figure! I proofed it last night and it should be on the shelves soon." (Thanks to Chuck Foster, Stuart Jackson)"

[Theta Sigma]

Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori have been cast in the series:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/04_april/24/torchwood.shtml

[Theta Sigma]

Latest progress as reported by Outpost Gallifrey:
"DWM also has a brief update on progress in the making of the Torchwood spinoff series. According to the issue, the readthrough for episodes one and two took place on Wednesday 26 April before location filming began on Monday 1 May. Colin Teague will direct Block Two, comprising episodes by Toby Whithouse and Helen Raynor, the latter titled The Ghost Machine."

[Theta Sigma]

The BBC owns the site http://www.torchwood.org.uk/ which simply says "ACCESS DENIED".

[Theta Sigma]

Found out from Wikipedia that Torchwood is set to premiere on BBC 3 on October 22.

[Theta Sigma]

The SFX team has had a look at the first episode and they loved it:
http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=first_reactions_to_torchwood

[meglos]

I am really looking forward to seeing this now after reading those reviews

[Sulp Niar]

I'm confused about the timing of Torchwood - is it set before or after he meets the Doctor? If it's set after, why? Think about it: those two years of memory he lost, that could have been when he was at Torchwood. I hope they make some effort to deliver on the promise of this memory lapse.

[Theta Sigma]

Torchwood gets a second season:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/12_december/12/torchwood.shtml