[IP] BBC to screen 'Dr Who for adults' as new spin-off show
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 16, 2005 11:11:51 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] BBC to screen 'Dr Who for adults' as new spin-
off show
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Note: This may not mean very much to those of you who've never seen
or heard of 'Doctor Who'. However, its big news for those of us who
are fans of the show and its new incarnation on the BBC. I'm posting
this for those on you on the list who have access to the BBC, or live
in Canada (where the show also aired), or who have access to the
Darknet (where it is also available). DLH]
BBC to screen 'Dr Who for adults' as new spin-off show
By Ian Burrell, Media Editor
Published: 17 October 2005
<http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article320110.ece>
The BBC has commissioned the Doctor Who scriptwriter Russell T Davies
to make an adult post-watershed spin-off of its mostfamous sci-fi show.
The new programme will be called Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who)
and will follow a crack team investigating alien activities and crime
in modern-day Britain.
It will feature in its starring role John Barrowman, who played
Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and who will play the same
character in Torchwood.
Like the latest version of Doctor Who, which the BBC successfully
relaunched this year, Torchwood will be based in Cardiff. Davies, who
has just begun writing Torchwood, said the new programme would be
aimed at adult audiences and would "have its own, unique identity".
He said: "Torchwood will be a dark, clever, wild, sexy, British crime/
sci-fi paranoid thriller cop show with a sense of humour - the X
Files meets This Life," the latter a reference to the groundbreaking
Nineties BBC drama about a group of young lawyers in Bristol.
Torchwood will be shown next summer on BBC3 in 13 episodes, each
lasting 45 minutes. Alert viewers of the forthcoming Doctor Who
Christmas special will hear a reference to the Torchwood unit and
further mentions will be made in the new series in the spring.
Stuart Murphy, the controller of BBC3, described Davies as an
"absolute genius" and described Torchwood as "a massive coup".
He said: "We had never done sci fi before and it is a genre which
people treat in a certain way. You look at what he has done with Dr
Who and we said to Russell what would you do with a post-watershed
sci fi?"
Mr Murphy said he hoped that Davies would bring to the new series a
similar quirky humour that the writer deployed in the period drama
Casanova, which was also shown on BBC3 before moving to BBC1.
"Each episode of Torchwood will be a one-off story and will be funny
in a way that Casanova brought humour to period drama," he said.
Captain Jack has been described as Doctor Who's "first openly gay
companion" and a "hunky bisexual".
Davies told Doctor Who magazine earlier this year: "It wasn't me sort
of dying to get a bisexual character on screen. Yes, I'm a gay
writer, but I was thinking: Jack's from the 51st century so of course
he's going to go out with men and women. To get hung up on it is
almost too sad for words, frankly."
Torchwood will allow Davies to explore relationships a little
further. Mr Murphy said of the new series: "The people have affairs
with one another. There will be sex and swearing, I assume. I'm quite
relaxed about that, it will be post-watershed and Russell can do it
in a funny and sexy way."
Describing the idea behind the new show, the BBC controller said:
"It's a renegade bunch of investigators who investigate real-life,
normal crimes. They also look into alien happenings. They have been
charged by the British government to find alien technology that has
fallen to Earth and they need to do it without the FBI and UN knowing."
[snip]
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/