American Version of Torchwood Headed to FOX

Fox has an order in for an Americanized version of the sci-fi mega-hit, Torchwood. But fear not: the original production team is hopping across The Pond to be involved, along with some of the original cast - and, if the pilot leads to an order, it is likely John Barrowman will star! Torchwood creator, Russell Davies, is even writing the script for the pilot! The only thing we do have to worry about is the Dollhouse situation, or what others call "Friday Night Timeslot."

Of course, the first two series were big hits for BBCA and the mini-series, Children of the Earth, broke all the network's records, so the interest is definitely there; unlike Dollhouse, Torchwood is already a bonafide hit in America. With the original production crew and possibly cast, Torchwood may prove to be another Office - one of the very few successful Americanized BBC shows.

The Americanized Torchwood will be set on a global scale, as compared to the original's localized efforts. The title is an anagram of Doctor Who, from which the show was spun-off.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Torchwood Marathon Today

BBCA has a Torchwood marathon today, showing the last five episodes that have aired. This is all leading up to the season finale next Saturday night.

If you haven't been watching Torchwood, I don't know why the hell not. It is consistently one of the most satisfying sci-fi shows on TV right now, doubly so now that they are starting to establish a real Torchwood-based mythos apart from Doctor Who.

Torchwood is a spin-off of the legendary Doctor Who series, that has incredibly little to do with the parent series, aside from the casual nod. The first several episodes were intensely dark and largely sexual in nature, then Torchwood turned its hand back to more traditional sci-fi roots and lost some of its edge. It is still an excellent series always worth watching and reportedly BBCA's highest-rated show ever.

Tonight's TV? Really?

Well, I obviously got my running-around done earlier. Still haven’t even begun to do everything else that needs tending to - like cleaning, cooking, showering... hell, I haven’t even put up all the groceries I spent all morning shopping for!

Okay, did I miss a meeting? Why are Bionic Woman and Chuck on tonight? G4 is showing reruns of Heroes starting in primetime, too. I’m going to catch the episode of Chuck and then the rerun of Torchwood later tonight - both reruns, actually... I guess I missed last week’s because I don’t recall what happened.

And I missed Supernatural the other night! Came home and sat down to watch it and everything, then woke up literally as it was going off! Then couldn’t sleep for most of the rest of the night... of all the shows to miss, of course I missed the very one I wait to watch!

Ah well, they showed reruns of them throughout most of the summer and there will definitely be at least a few reruns throughout the regular season, so hopefully I’ll catch it. That’s the best show on TV, for my money - anyone’s money really, as long as I’m spending it!

I’ll get a few press releases your way over the next few hours, but I know most people aren’t actively reading tonight, so I will try to get more of the site done than anything. Speaking of which, check out the new design for Weird Ink and let me know what you think!

Tonight's Geek TV!

Sci-Fi is re-airing the second season of the fantastic Eureka starting tonight and while I hate to suggest something else - especially since the second season was so good and Eureka is a great show - I was flipping around to see what all is coming on and I found that tonight's Nova (PBS) is about Samurai swords. It's all about the craftsmanship that goes into making them, as well as those interested in collecting them, etc. Sure, they may be playing on the popularity of Heroes, but it's an interesting topic either way, and most of us probably saw the whole season of Eureka. Of course, Sci-Fi's lead-in is Dead Like Me and nothing else better is on during the 6:00 hour - very little better is ever on, compared to Dead Like Me.

At 8:00 (CST) is the new Reaper over to the CW. I saw the pilot the other night and loved it! It's from Kevin Smith and the pilot was absolutely fantastic! It's silly in just the right way, even though the "best friend" character is your stereotypical Kevin Smith "hipster," and approaches the somewhat flimsy, ridiculous premise earnestly. Not to mention they didn't skimp on the SFX.

I have to give CW that much, in general: no matter the show, they do not eff-around when it comes to the special effects. Charmed went easy on them throughout much of the series, even though the early episodes had some really fantastic SFX work, but they obviously spent the brunt of their budget on getting big-name hotties to appear and that sustained them for nearly 10 years, so whatever's clever. But Smallville, Supernatural, Reaper - these shows pull out the stops when it comes to the special effects! Granted, they are not quite up to the level of anything over to the BBC (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Hex), but I'd submit that they rival most of the stuff we get from the Sci-Fi Channel.

Not to knock Sci-Fi; they have some great SFX work - as well they should, mind you - but but those of the CW are generally just as good. Further, many of Sci-Fi's shows and movies use lesser talent so they can focus their budget on the SFX, where CW tends to divide their money more evenly between talent and SFX, and you can tell it. Either way you slice it, BBC beats everyone, hands-down.

Those damn Brits!

Torchwood Tonight, News

I'll try to get some more of these press releases out in a while. Right now, I am trying to work on the site and at least get some of the cornerstone pages up so you aren't seeing quite so many naked directories and 404s. You know, webdesign is an awful lot of fun, but it really is a lot of work if you are trying to do it well. Luckily, I have some great programs to work with, but they come with their own headaches.

I took Art for years, but even though I'm fairly decent at sequential art and illustration, I'm nowhere near as good at plain old design as I should be. I guess I'm not bad, but you know... I'm not really good, either. Of course, the more I do it, the better I get, so I keep plugging on.

Don't forget Torchwood tonight on BBCA. Torchwood absolutely rocks, if you haven't seen it yet. I may start gushing over it soon - depends on how tonight's episode is, but I'm sure it will be fantastic - they all have been so far! You definitely have to check it out tonight, starting at 7:00 PM CST through 9:00 (the new episode last).

So check out The Weirding Monday to see how much I got going (you're more than welcome to surf on over all weekend, but I guarantee there won't be much more up right now) and then I'll try to get to those press releases before Monday.

Torchwood - A Review

Tonight was the BBCA premiere of the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, to which I have been looking forward for quite some time. The lead actor is supposedly either bisexual or gay in real life (there really is a difference, even though no one outside of bisexuals mind to make it), and I could care less, but it is apparently one of the show's selling-points and definitely a hot topic across the Blogosphere, so I felt I should mention it.

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS]

Captain Jack Harkness is the man in charge of a top-secret agency known as Torchwood. Both the organization and the Captain have appeared on Dr. Who several times and BBCA replayed those episodes today, leading up to the debut of Torchwood. In Doctor Who, Torchwood was sketchily made-out to be some sort of governmental agency, but in the premiere, it was made clear that Torchwood exists outside of all legal circles and levels; it exists on its own, in and of itself, somehow.

Torchwood is not exactly like an X-Files branch (regardless of its governmental affiliation or autonomy), even though that is as close a similar concept as you can really get. They basically hunt aliens - specifically aliens, not the paranormal, Supernatural, or anything else - but they also handle alien technology and apparently design their own. Further, Harkness himself is apparently not completely human, but it is not clear as to whether he is alien or was once human or what. In Doctor Who, he was supposed to have been "from the future," but that is still as nebulous, since the Doctor is a Timelord...

At any rate, the series is well-shot and downright brilliant. The lighting is sharp and crisp, yet dark and moody - a slick dark future in modern-day times - and the sets are urban and somewhat futuristic, but not overly so. It has a sort of timelessness that lends itself to the suspension of disbelief you need to accept the concepts in play. And the concepts in play are nothing short of sheer brilliance.

Torchwood doesn't rely on unexplained alien races and technologies, nor Star Trek-type, nonsensical hyper-explanations; it seamlessly blends the fantastic, the futuristic, and the downright simple to affect a Dark Conspiracy, tabloid reality where you aren't exactly sure what's what, but you believe it could happen just the way you're seeing it. You really never stop to consider what is happening; it catches you and whips you up and you willingly go along for the ride.

The acting, writing, dialogue, and direction are top-notch and the special effects are next to nothing. I'm not sure, but they may have used the same cats that did Hex and Hex' special effects (there were much more of them in the first season) were absolutely staggering.

If the debut is any indication, Torchwood is one hell of a show and so completely worthy of a Saturday night timeslot.

By the way, what happened to Jekyll?